By Our Bedsides, Vol. 1 – Olivia Gündüz-Willemin

As The Attic opens its Lifestyle window, we the Editors would like to mark the occasion by offering a glimpse into our everyday lives. By Our Bedsides is a new evening series in which we share the books, beauty products, and whatever else it may be that we're winding down with at the moment. In this edition, Olivia takes us through her current reads and her cold weather routine.

What do my evenings look like now that temperatures have dropped?

Cold weather means that the first part of my evening routine is dedicated to my skin. Rory shared some tips for autumn skincare in her last Beauty post, but my biggest struggle is to keep my hands and face moisturized. For my face, I turn to Kiehl's Ultra Facial Overnight Moisturizing Mask twice a week and, nightly, to Avene's Cold Cream Lip Cream. For my hands, I religiously use Kiehl's Ultimate Strength Hand Salve. All three are miracle products in my eyes.

If I'm not curled up watching something with my partner (most recently: American Vandal and a failed attempt at Alias Grace), then the rest of the evening most likely consists of leisure reading. Reading something that I don't need to think about critically helps me to wind down and remind myself of why I've chosen to spend most days agonizing over literary theory. Right now, I'm zooming through George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, after resisting it for several months. (I didn't think I'd like it!) Next up are Ali Smith's Autumn and Alice Hoffman's The Rules of Magic. I'm a year late with Autumn, and I've never read any of Hoffman's books, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to autumn – so atmospheric reads and witchcraft seem like the only way to go.

Add to this a nice candle – my eternal favorite, even in the evenings, is La Boulangerie's Espresso candle – and a nice glass of lemon water, and my night is set.