Bria's Everyday Stuff

Originally published July 3, 2025 on Svbtle.

Building off Taurean's post, (which is inspired by this video by Maurice Moves) here's a look at the stuff I use on an everyday basis. It's been really interesting to write this and see how different a lot of my go-to items are from Taurean's despite the fact that we live together and spend a good chunk of the day with each other. So, to get started:

1. iPhone 14 Pro In Deep Purple, with a big crack on the screen. Of course, it's the first thing I pick up in the morning.
2. Glasses I have the Blakeley in Peacock Green from Warby Parker. I had to get these after I broke my old pair in half, and I'm in love with this color.
3. Reflect app I use this pretty much everyday. As I climb out of bed, I open this app to start writing down each item I use.
4. Nolaskinsentials Clarifying Cleansing Foam This cleanser kicks off my morning skincare routine, and it's Black-owned. I follow up with 5. The Ordinary's Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 serum (which I bought by accident while rushing, and am using anyway because I'm chaotic), and then their 6. Natural Moisturizing Factors + Beta Glucan moisturizer.
5. Toothbrush Oral-B iO Deep Clean Rechargeable Toothbrush. Taurean made me upgrade to this when he saw how hard I was brushing my damn teeth. It lights up red when you're applying too much pressure.
6. Spray bottle I spray my hair with water from my Tangle Teezer spray bottle. I just took out my medium knotless braids, so my hair needs a lot of love and gentleness.
7. OGX Moroccan Argan Oil I'm winging it after having my hair in braids for a while.
8. TGIN Rose Water leave-in conditioner Okay, one more hair product. I'm just trying stuff at this point, because my ends are still thirsty. I use a tiny drop before I cut myself off; I'll spend more time on my hair later in the day.
9. The Last Line Tulip Jewelry Box in Green This is one of the most Bria-coded things on the list. It's a perfect little jewelry box with a Black ballerina in a pink tutu, and it winds up and plays the famous theme from Swan Lake. It was a Christmas gift from my parents in 2023, and I'm still as obsessed with it now as I was then. Now for the jewelry:
10. My engagement ring I'm obsessed with it, too, for all the extremely obvious sentimental reasons, but also because I personally find it dope. It's an oval cut, D color, 2.34 carat, internally flawless lab diamond set in a dainty platinum band, for my fellow ring nerds. My wedding band would be right beside it, but it's currently in for repairs at Brilliant Earth.
11. Fire opal stud earrings I typically wear some Big Ass Earrings, so much so that when I'm wearing studs I often try to put another pair in, only stopping when I feel the studs in my earlobes. That happened today. The earrings in my earlobes are a pair of fire opals. I only paid $20 for them from a vendor in Monument Valley on my bachelorette trip in 2022. They've been super durable, and opals are my birthstone. Whenever I wear them I picture the reddish brown landscape next to my fiery blue opals.
12. Gold chain with gold locket This is a sentimental one, too, and also a Christmas gift from my parents in 2020 (mom and dad really don't miss at Christmas). The gold chain was actually my Grandma's (she passed when I was eleven). And the locket was new: it's shaped like a heart and includes a photo of me and Taurean on the beach at the North Sea in Holland.
13. Zoloft Miss Sertraline has been my ride or die since 2013. We link up as soon as I get downstairs for the morning.
14. Water bottle Waterdrop bottle in Harbor Blue stainless steel. It was mandatory that I get a lid with a handle (ask anyone who spends any time around me how often I drop my water bottle). I'm not gonna lie, the material does show scratches. But that's better than my last water bottle, which I dropped so many times that it was dented to the point of no longer sitting flat on any surface. I can still hear it rattling around noisily in my car cup holder if I close my eyes.
15. Coffee travel mug Speaking of beverage vessels, I use the Fellow Carter Move mug from Spirit Tea for my coffee. It actually was given to me with a ceremonial matcha kit from Taurean a few Christmases ago, but I use it about 80% for coffee and 20% for tea.
16. Nespresso machine I use the Nespresso Vertuo Next (a wedding gift!), with the proprietary coffee pods. The pod I'm using today is for an espresso shot, not a full cup of coffee, but I've decided I'm okay with Doing It Wrong and so I literally just pour hot water on top of the espresso from Taurean's 19. Stagg EKG electric kettle so that I can have enough liquid in my mug for a full cup of coffee. I do technically know how to do better, but it's 8:40 am and I'm on autopilot.
17. Repetto booties A nice little bougie one: I notice my feet are cold walking from the kitchen to my desk, so I put on my Repetto ballet booties in petal pink. Taurean ordered them all the way from France for my 30th birthday, and they're perfect for warming up in the ballet studio but they're also so warm and comfortable that I wear them around the house. I really need to clean them; the light pink color picks up everything, especially when I'm dragging them across the floor in class.
18. Standing desk and chair I use the Jarvis standing desk in bamboo/white. I got it in 2019, thankfully before the need for one became urgent right around March of 2020. In the last year, I've switched from a pretty-but-uncomfortable West Elm dusty rose desk chair to this visually-uninteresting but ergonomic 22. Dexley chair from Staples. I call it an upgrade even though the West Elm chair was much pricier, because it's overall better for my back and posture.
19. Lip balm I keep lip balms all over the house, in my car, and in my ballet bag. The one at my desk today is a Vacation Arizona collab in a green tea flavor that I got as a fun novelty.
20. Cookware (begrudgingly) Eventually I get my ass up from my desk and use the Misen frying pan and a 25. Williams Sonoma fish spatula to haphazardly fry an egg. I used to be heavy on the dollar store/Marshall's stuff and just pretended I did not see the Prop 65 warnings, but I've been nudged toward better quality. I put a piece of Bolani bread in the 26. Tovala, a smart oven that saves me time and money. I also got this at just the right time, maybe later 2019 or early 2020, the tail end of my time living off free tech company food and Uber Eats.
21. Plate I pop my unique little Bolani and egg sandwich on one of these West Elm constellation plates and eat at my desk while I work (bad habit, but I can be lackadaisical about breakfast).
22. Keyboard I'm skipping over work-issued hardware and software, because it's not stuff that I chose. But one thing that I do use at work of my own choosing is my mechanical keyboard. It's set in a TKC CandyBar with 29. Infinikey Pastel Rainbow keycaps.
23. Figma I am including Figma, since I'd use it even if I wasn't required to. I even use it to make visual maps of my career progress and where I want to grow.
24. iOS Photos I spend a decent amount of time on the native Photos app. It's one of the main ways I relive moments, or honestly just remember which outfit I wore recently. Just today alone, I used the Photos app to recall what day my college graduation was, find the street my parents got married on in 1992 (I'm a big fan of re-tagging location and date for scans of physical prints), and remember which ballet class I wore my pink gingham leotard to last week.
25. Bluesky I use Bluesky mainly to eff around; there are enough places to be serious on the internet. Today I posted a thread with 12 posts reacting to the Disney Channel Original Movie Gotta Kick It Up from 2002.
26. Instagram I would use it a smidge less, but ballet is too visual an art form for me to only get my fix from more text-heavy social media sites. Also, I'm vain.
27. YNAB An actual responsible app. YNAB stands for You Need A Budget, and it's a piece of software that has actually really helped me manage my perennial anxiety about money (more on that later) even in the worst of times. I do have the mobile app, but I mostly use it on desktop, because I have that millennial trait where certain tasks (booking plane tickets, paying the mortgage, etc.) feel like they call for a full computer and not a phone.
28. Oura ring I didn't write this one down in the jewelry section because it is the only piece of jewelry I sleep in, so I woke up with it on. I shattered my Apple Watch maybe 3 months ago and thanks to the Oura ring, I barely miss it. I really just want to track my period, sleep, dance, and any symptoms. This thing and its 36. companion app came in clutch when I got sick on a work trip right before a Swan Lake performance, and is part of why I rested hard enough to be ready to go on stage days later.
29. iPad Pro I'm a little embarrassed that I have to look up the specs for this. Since Taurean so generously let me have it when he got his latest souped-up MacBook Pro, I feel like I should at least know what's cool about it: a third generation 12.9 inch iPad Pro, on the developer beta of iPadOS 26. I use it more consistently than my actual personal MacBook, which is cute but slow.
30. LinkedIn Now, before you clown me, LinkedIn released games while I was job searching in 2024, a time when I actually did desperately need to be on that godforsaken app everyday if I wanted to keep a roof over my head. And now I open the app every day because I'm lowkey really good at some of their little logic puzzles. Sigh.
31. NYT Games I do need to stop supporting the New York Times, but I'm in this little competition with myself when it comes to the Monday crosswords especially.
32. Mail I've gone back to using the native iOS Mail app. I used to hate it, and now I don't remember why. I'm mostly just glad to be off HEY email because the Basecamp bros are busy being awful people when they're supposed to be running a company.
33. Finance apps originally intended for people richer than me I check E*Trade and 42. Schwab far too often for someone who is not rolling in dough, because the little fluctuations all mentally translate to real life things for me at my current financial juncture. A little tiny market move feels like "maybe I can get this carpet professionally reupholstered. Or whatever it is you do with carpets." I know it's not actually super healthy to be checking these so obsessively, though. Matter of fact, if I don't stop the spiral, I also check 43. Vanguard, 44. Fidelity, and God help me, 45. Merrill Lynch to make sure my 401k money is still there. And this is exactly why I need YNAB, so I can just relax.
34. Wallet Speaking of money, I keep my license and credit card in a black Michael Kors wallet from 2018 — the leather is peeling, the logo is fading to illegibility.
35. Lex.page A writing app that I use when I'm really writing something long-form (and I wish that was more often). It's got a couple of drafts of things that I am just sitting on.
36. Headphones I have my downstairs headphones, the first generation AirPods Pro for sitting at my desk. And my upstairs headphones, 49. the green AirPods Max for sleeping, relaxing in bed, and airplane rides. The Pros were technically a hand me down, and they give me more Bluetooth grief than the Max's. But the Max's can be a lil sassy, too when I'm ready for bed. Speaking of:
37. YouTube I don't know how I wasn't paying for Youtube Premium all these years. I've only recently upgraded in the last year, and I listen to ASMR (Kaitlynn ASMR is literally so relaxing), coffee shop sounds, chill lo-fi beats to study to, the café music from the video game Persona 5 just to work, read, write, or close my eyes and relax. It might be the bulk of my phone's screen time.
38. Apple Music If you know me you know I'm not opening that other app, because I can hold a grudge. I find that Apple Music from my phone feels better at shuffling songs and finding similar artists than when it's integrated into my car's media center. Ugh, speaking of the car.
39. Car It's a Tesla Model Y. Yes, I know. The actual devil.
40. Ballet shoes One of the main places that the aforementioned Satanmobile takes me is to ballet class. I have a lot of gear for ballet, but let's start with the most essential: the ballet flats. I wear Mariia True Bare Stretch Canvas flats in the color number 4. They're a match for the 54. Mariia True Bare convertible tights in the same color, and I am a big proponent of a nice continuous line as a Black dancer in a light pink world. When I'm not wearing the Mariia flats, I'm wearing the 55. Blendz Dancewear canvas flats in Tenacious Tan, which are from a Black-owned brand but are a shade too light for me at this time of year.
41. Pointe shoes A month ago I got fitted in Bloch Eurostretch pointe shoes, and pancaked them with foundation since they don't come in my shade. Up until then, I'd only ever worn 57. Bloch European Balance, which thankfully, came as part of their Tonal range in Shade B27, which was a great match for my skin. The Eurostretch are still not very broken in, but they are flattering on my foot and I can fully get over the left toe box a lot better. For ouch-prevention accessories, I use the 58. Bunheads Ouch Pouch Jr. toe pads and 59. Pillows for Pointes gel toe separators.
42. At-home ballet recovery and preparation Ballet is hard on the lower body, especially the feet. I use a training softball: this Rawlings Incredi-Ball to roll my feet out before and after pointe class (my teacher said to get a lacrosse ball, but I kept forgetting to look for one while I was in a white neighborhood). I also use 61. a little tiny foam ball like this one that I got from my local gym, which mostly just feels nice. I have a 62. Gaynor Minden flexibility band that I use to stretch and strengthen my arabesques and developpés, and 63. a standard Theraband that I actually just borrow from Taurean because my old one wasn't offering enough resistance. I keep a 64. Yes 4 All balance board under my desk all the time, and often use it while I'm working or even gaming or reading. I've got a couple of foam rollers: 65. a denser one that used to vibrate but doesn't work anymore, from Italic. I still use it even without the vibration function, but I'm salty about it. I also use a softer, long 66. foam roller from Dick's Sporting Goods for additional pointe exercises and when I just need gentle muscle relief before bed (I keep it by my nightstand). I use a 67. Theragun Mini on my calves when they need the love. And of course, my 68. home ballet barre, which I just grabbed from Amazon when I was new to ballet. At the time, there was no widespread vaccine availability yet, so all my dancing was in my living room for a few months.
43. Ballet bag For all the stuff that I actually bring to the studio — pointe shoes, flat shoes, warmup layers, deodorant, etc., I use the Gaynor Minden Studio Bag in Champagne Rose, which is itself an incredibly Bria-coded color name. It's really roomy, and I still fill it to the brim.
44. eReader More rose gold from me: I use the Kindle Oasis in Champagne Gold (a birthday gift from about 5 years ago from Taurean). It's in great condition, not beat to hell like my college Kindles got when I was reading non-stop. I'm currently reading The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
45. Gaming PC Taurean and I got into PC gaming around 2019. I've gone through some pretty intense gaming phases, including the obvious cozy games: Stardew Valley and Littlewood (which I'll never shut up about), good ol' Minecraft on peaceful mode. But I also had a huge Skyrim phase, plus Final Fantasy XIV, and co-op Baldur's Gate 3. At the moment, I'm playing 72. Schedule 1, which is not wholesome at all but surprisingly relaxing. I also have played 73. Fields of Mistria in early access recently, and there's a new major update in the next week or two, so I'm definitely logging some hours on this one soon.
46. More gaming Speaking of entertainment, my Nintendo Switch has been laying idle on my desk for a minute, but writing this post makes me want to check in on 75. Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which was the last game I played heavily on it. And since we're talking games, I may as well admit I open 76. Pokémon GO at least 2 or 3 times a week.
47. Notebooks I'll just include the one I've used most recently, since I have a different physical notebook for every little thing. Right now, the Midori A5 is a special one for me: I'm using it as a narrative collage journal with ephemera like movie tickets, park maps, clothing tags — anything I can make into a story about my day.
48. Fragrances I've been trying to treat fragrances less like a "going-out" thing and more like an everyday luxury, so if I'm feeling it, I'll apply it even on a day when I'm just sitting at my desk. I was really feeling myself Friday, so I sprayed some of my teeny tiny two milliliter sample of Creed Virgin Island Water, and Saturday, I used 79. a fragrance from The Essential called N° 4, a dupe of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille.
49. More jewelry The day after I started writing this, I got my custom Yumiko leotard in the mail and was really excited to wear it. So I put on a bunch of jewelry to take pics in it. First, my Monica Vinader pear diamond necklace, because it's dainty enough to not look out of place with a leotard. Taurean got me this necklace for our second wedding anniversary. A pair of 81. pearl drop earrings, a gift from my little sister. After class, I put on a 82. gold and pearl anklet that Taurean got me this past Christmas, from a Black-owned brand, ByChari.
50. Makeup Because I wore a pretty leotard Saturday, it's also the first day I wore makeup in at least 3 or 4 days. I wore the Becca Backlight primer (which I'm just now learning is discontinued, and the company is out of business). I also used 84. Sephora brand Best Skin Ever concealer, 85. NYX clear brow gel, 86. NYX brow tint pen, 87. tartelette XL mascara, 88. Clinique chubby stick blush, and 89. a Sephora cream lipstick that's drying out and needs replacing.
51. Literal.club I use this to track my books for the year. I'm behind on my reading goal, but I finish a book Friday night and log it. It was pretty heavy, so I end my night with…
52. Disney Plus I pull up the Disney Plus app to watch something kind of dumb and mindless after a heavy read. I'm on episode 5 of Dance Moms, which I never watched while it aired. These white ladies yapping at each other is basically background noise to me. So while I watch it, I play
53. Cast n Chill Forgot this one in the video game section. It's a fishing simulator with relaxing pixel art where you just row along a river, catch fish, upgrade your rod. That's it.
54. Film camera Sunday rounds out the week, and I take a day trip to a cute museum. It's bright and sunny out, so I bring my Nikon FM10.
55. Ring cleaner One more thing I often do before bed or in the morning is clean my engagement ring. I use the Juli ring cleaning brush with 95. their cleaning tonic to keep my diamond sparkly.