How to have the best day ever in NYC

It involves Sonny Angel, vintage hoodies, and onigiri ⊹🍙٭𖦹✮

There are lots of things I love about London, but I fear nothing hits quite like a perfect day out in New York City. I know it probably sounds as though I’m sipping a cosmopolitan, cigarette-in-hand as I type this, but there’s really no better place to stroll down the street, arm in arm with one of your best friends, sucking down iced beverages, your feet slightly blistered from uncomfortable (but perfect!) shoe choices, while catching up on gossip. Like, that scenario should be a food group it’s so nourishing. In New York, it always feels like there’s always an incredible restaurant just a stone's throw away, an art bookstore to slip into to escape the heat, or a beauty haven to accidentally blow your savings at (I forgot how dangerous having a local Sephora is). Heaven!

I lived in New York for about six years, and truthfully, I miss it often. But luckily, I have been going back a lot more recently for work, and it’s been interesting to see which of my old tried-and-true spots I find myself rushing back to whenever I’m in town.

Last time I was in New York City, I was with one of my best friends Sierra and I shared the list of activities I wanted to do during my visit. She then proposed we have “the best day ever”, which meant we would try and make our way to every place on the list in the space of one afternoon. It ended up being so fun—just one of those perfect, early summer New York days where you accidentally walk 20k steps and roll around from one place to another—that I daydream about it often, especially on gloomy, wet London afternoons such as today.

So I thought I would share with you guys what we did on that day. This list isn’t the most geographically cohesive: we started in midtown (don’t knock it if you love K-beauty!) and then made our way to the East Village. But you don’t need to do this all in one day, or you could simply hop on the N or R downtown at Herald Square and get off at 8th street, and it would be a far shorter stroll to the East Village.

This day has everything: onigiri, Bella Hadid perfumes, matchas, bulk sheet masks, foot rubs and Sonny Angels. What else could you need?

Kettl Tea

We started the day with my favorite place to get Matcha in the city, which is this famous, hole-in-the-wall, window at the Bowery Market on the corner of Bowery and Great Jones. I’m sure most of you New Yorkers here already know all about it, but for those of you who don’t, this is where you can get a really perfect, rich, foamy, velvety iced matcha latte.

Teso Life Midtown

Sierra couldn’t believe I’d never gone to the giant Teso Life location in midtown, which she claimed dwarfed all of their downtown locations, so this felt like a great place to start. If you’ve never been, Teso Life is a Japanese department store chain that offers all kinds of products from cleaning supplies, to sweet treats, to beauty must-haves, and stationary. But their beauty section, particularly at this location, is major. They sell tons of popular Japanese and Korean makeup, like Etude House and Canmake, so if you’re in the market for a jelly liptint or pearlescent, glittery eyeshadow, this is fabulous place to get it. And their skincare is just as good, offering some of my tried-and-true holy grails like Hadalabo’s jumbo sized (and affordable!) hyaluronic acid lotion, Cosrx’s BHA exfoliator, and Beauty of Joseon’s lightweight and creamy sunscreen. But my favorite part was probably their enormous aisle of sheet masks, which they offer in bulk packs or single sheets. I almost fell to my knees in this section, but because the prices were so right, and their selection was so good.

H Mart Food Court