• actually study! study the things you love, the things you like, the things you know nothing about — the pursuit of knowledge lasts a lifetime, and there is so much to learn
• visit your professor’s office hours! it always helps to make yourself known to your teachers (i’ve been given grade bumps and had great conversations with my university lecturers)
• avoid and check yourself for the pretension that can often accompany academia — it hurts no one to be kind and mindful
• delve into the realm of philosophy (for starters: metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics) it will broaden your mind
• stay late at your university library studying (if you can do so safely, preferably with a friend). university campuses feel magical in the evening

• wear darker, muted colours
• plaid coats, pants, or skirts
• button-up shirts (Peter Pan collars are a bonus)
• turtlenecks
• tie your hair with a bow
• accessorise! a vintage watch adds sophistication to any outfit. try wearing it with a ring or three
• practice good posture — standing tall creates an air of elegance, confidence, and if paired with the right amount of nonchalance, mystery

films

• dead poets society
• cracks
• the dreamers
• thoroughbreds
• breathless (à bout de souffle)
• cléo from 5 to 7 (cléo de 5 à 7)
• handsome devil

tv shows

• gilmore girls
• chilling adventures of sabrina
• black mirror
• the good place
• the politician

books

• the secret history
• the picture of dorian gray
• the goldfinch
• the line of beauty
• persuasion
• the collected poems of oscar wilde 
• ovid’s metamorphoses

music

• listen to classical music as you sleep/read/study
• you can check out this dark academia playlist for inspiration

• make yourself tea in pretty teacups (you can find plenty in secondhand stores!)
• light candles in your bedroom, and read by candlelight 
• dry flowers for your room/desk
• explore secondhand bookstores for old, pretty editions of novels you may or may not have heard of
• give handwritten letters to your lovers/friends/yourself
• wake up before the sun rises to watch dawn break
• brood during a thunderstorm, and write extravagant, flowery poetry on parchment
• join a secret society
• exist in the real, with your books and art, and your turtlenecks and plaid coats, as a mystery. social media can give too much of you away
• host an unceasing bacchanal for you and your pals

Sit at my grave with wine and a minstrel in a trance, so your smell will raise me from the dead.

HAFEZ

My lover’s sadness lit a fire in my heart that burned my chest, there was a fire in his house that burned the nest.

HAFEZ

O the day turned night, what a shame, a gazelle of kindness a lion became, my partner and lover grew tired of my words and prayers too.

RUMI

Our apologies

I love using Pacifica’s Sea & C line, it smells so nice and makes my face feel soft :) a lot of the stuff the brand sells has a nice sea vibe to it and it’s super nice. Every night I use the Sea foam face wash, Sea & C Love serum, and the Sea & C brightening mist. (I especially love the brightening mist, it smells so nice and doesn’t have many ingredients and makes my face look all shiny and dewey all day. :) ) I also use NIVEA lip balm with spf in the mornings because I spend a lot of time outside/ in the water, as well as a moisturizer by ESTĒE LAUDER with spf, and the brightening mist. Once or twice a week I use a face scrub with sea kelp in it to get everything out of my pores :)

I have short shaggy blue hair and the color always makes me feel so happy, I always color my hair blue or green or purple in the summer. I wash it every other night with Not Your Mother’s Blue Sea Kale & Pure Coconut Water shampoo and conditioner. Occasionally I use the Not Your Mother’s sea salt spray, and Mermaid Dust dry shampoo by OGX. That’s really all I personally do for my hair, I let it air dry while I sleep and when I wake up it has lots of volume and curl to it (I have thick wavy hair btw.)

For my body I sometimes use a body butter by Pacifica called Indian Coconut Nectar, it smells super good and I like to put it on my legs so they’re nice and smooth like a fish tail. For body wash I use one by Pacifica that smells like coconut (with a pretty blue loofa.) I like to exfoliate my legs with the Mermaid Scrub by Hallu, and I use Aqua Reef deodorant from Old Spice. To finish off I use Coconut Body Glow by Kopari so my skin is sparkly and glowy all day. :)

Personally, I don’t typically wear makeup. I do have a couple things I like to use every now and then though! I have a small blush compact called Beach Cheeks by Tarte that looks like a little seashell. I also have a highlighter called Moonlight Pearls by Elf that I apply to my cheekbones while wearing a cut up fishnet stocking over my head so they form scales. I also use cute little mermaid brushes I got from Five Below.

I drink lots and lots of water of course!! Always stay hydrated, especially all you mermaids and sirens out there. :) My room is pretty nautical themed, I keep a little mermaid in my wallet as a good luck charm and a piece of pretty sea glass in place of a worry stone. I eat lots of seafood and even went pescatarian for a while (sorry fishy friends!) I swim all the time, I’m lucky enough to live in a town with two rivers, a big lake, a water park, (as well as a pool in my backyard,) and when I really really miss the ocean, I only live three hours away from the beach so it isn’t too difficult to get there. I have lots of little stuffed ocean creatures on my bed and listen to water sounds when I go to bed.

That’s all I have for you at the moment! If you have any questions or want to request more info, feel free to ask! Let me know if you need a link to any specific product(s) I talked about! Thank you for reading!! ✨🧜‍♀️🐠