It Girl: Ruby Temple

Ruby Temple is Drinking Matcha, Curating Her Life Based on her Nail Polish, and Looking for Angels 

Always, always, always I am thinking of angels. I see them everywhere, especially in the summer when I’m visiting home in Los Angeles. My friend Dani gifted me a teeny golden Angel pin on my birthday last year, now something I can’t live without. Usually, I pin it on my sweaters right by my heart, but recently I’ve been drawn towards wearing it on the waistband of my shorts since it’s been so hot out. I’d like to think that when I wear the pin, the Angels present themselves to me in skies and sidewalks and cups of tea. 

Recently I’ve been seeing life in bright yellows and oranges: farmers market citrus, the monarchs in migration, my favorite tube top that I wear at the start of every summer, and the color of my nails, Forever Marigold. It’s a bright, traffic-sign-adjacent yellow that perfectly complements the sparkly turquoise Feel Bluetiful on my toes. In January, I became determined to grow my natural nails out, and now they’re *finally* long and strong enough to be proud of. Since then I’ve been choosing my nail colors with intention-- with an emphasis on the polish name and using that phrase (sometimes cheeky, always kitschy) to set the tone I will carry with me for the foreseeable future. Ending my last month in New York with a pale lavender Thistle Heart, I was in desperate need for some positivity. 

Forever Marigold is fitting; I have been cherishing the beautiful L.A. days by sunbathing, an act of relaxation that I haven’t committed to in years. Rituals of any kind bring me peace, but sunbathing feels like an entire art practice in itself. Pressing flowers in old textbooks. Collecting ephemera for my journal. Whisking matcha in the mornings. Cooking dinner with my mother on Sundays. The natural repetition of daily life is slow here, and it is healing me. 

These Dolce & Gabbana flats felt very Forever Marigold (literally and spiritually), so when I saw them online for only 40 bucks, I knew I had to have them for this summer. My friend Olivia told me they were “so me”. The last full day we spent together, Olivia and I went to Kijitora in Brooklyn and drank our strawberry matchas outside- I have been recreating my own to deal with our 2,500-mile separation. I almost equally miss the homemade hummus and Secret Garden juice from East Village Organic. Luckily my favorite matcha spot in NYC, Kettl, just opened a new location in Los Feliz, which bridges the distance a bit.   

I like to take my journal and colored pencils with me everywhere, so recently I have been loving ultra-big bags. I have been using this See by Chloe Black Cabas Tote, which I have already managed to lug through muddy trails, TSA, countless sleepovers, and every bar in Silverlake. It’s so big that I even keep a smaller purse inside for when I need to travel light. I’ve been really into All Saints lately, and I just bought this shoulder bag to add to my oversized purse collection. I am trying to be more fabulous; my friend Ella kindly passed on a pair of black stilettos to me and I don’t ever want to take them off. I look a little too fancy sometimes. Maybe that’s the best part! 

I cannot stop noticing the angels. I am obsessed with my dreams, which won’t stop coming true. I am obsessed with trying to do the splits. I am obsessed with the jacaranda flowers falling in the street. I am obsessed with driving my junky old car that doesn’t lock through the valley. I am obsessed with wearing heels to the market and slides to the club. I am obsessed with algae and lichen and lily pads and shiny rainbow oil bubbles in the road. This will be the brightest summer yet.

See my Pinterest Board here <3