Full Coverage Friday: Beauty Isn't Perfect

I'm back, bitches!

Hi!!!!!

After 30 days of mental health treatment, I’m back and better than ever—and appreciate your patience as I took this much-needed time to heal. I’ve been blown away by the response to Monday’s post about my time in rehab, and to all the new friends and followers it brought to this community, I am *so* happy you’re here. Every Friday, you’ll get a free newsletter into your inbox (… usually in the morning, but I just got back from rehab, so

Though I’ve spent 2+ decades in therapy, this was the first time I’ve ever had the luxury of putting my life on pause to focus wholly on myself—and boy oh boy, was it a luxury. Every day consisted of a highly regimented schedule complete with 1-1 and group therapy sessions, workout classes, and some of the best healthy food I’ve ever eaten, and the structure and stillness (during which I did a LOT of arts and crafts) felt like a dream come true after spending the last few years sprinting through life as a big ol’ ball of stress.

Please enjoy this dream catcher, which took me approximately 25 hours to make and though it isn’t perfect, it is one of my favorite things I own.

For an entire month, I logged off and slowed down in a way I’ve never allowed myself to do—because, as it turns out, productivity has always been my favorite form of escapism (… in addition to alcohol and marijuana). I used that time to turn inward and try to understand why I am the way I am (surprise: it’s trauma!), and learned to “sit with my feelings” instead of avoiding them or pushing them down.

As an ambitious New Yorker who’s made hustle culture a core part of her personality, the concept of just chilling out initially felt impossible (… I cried every night for the first week and a half). But eventually—and with the help of hundreds of hours of therapy and mindfulness—I started to find joy in simply being instead of doing.

Me, sitting with my feelings in the sun—which is basically just tanning (and I’m an expert at that).

A *big* part of this transformation came from untangling my perfectionism, which is the theme for this week’s Laugh Line’s content.

It isn’t lost on me that I entered rehab as a beauty editor—someone who’s spent her career writing about quick fixes and confidence-in-a-bottle solutions—and left realizing that no product could ever do the heavy lifting of true healing. But here’s the thing: while beauty couldn’t save me, it did help me feel like myself when everything else felt hard. And that’s what I’ve always loved about it—not as a mask to hide behind, but as a tool to help us move through the world feeling a little softer, a little stronger, and a little more like us.

This month was the first time I really understood the difference.

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Weekly reads

✨ My Big Realization About Perfectionism – Why no amount of beauty products, productivity hacks, or perfectly curated Instagram grids could save me—and what actually did.

✨ Bethenny Frankel on the Power of Putting Yourself First – Believe it or not, the best mental health advice I received while I was in treatment came from my all-time favorite housewife—and it’s stuck with me ever since.

✨ Shay Mitchell’s Manageable—Not Perfect—Beauty Routine – How she finds joy and beauty in the chaos, and why her multi-tasking self-care rituals might just save your sanity too.

✨ The Products That Brought Me Joy in Rehab – From the cozy roll-on fragrance I carried everywhere to the skincare essentials that made me feel human again, these little luxuries brought me comfort when I needed it most.

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I’ve been home for two weeks, and admittedly, the transition has been a whole lot harder than I anticipated. I’m learning to fit the new, healed version of myself into my old life, and now, I don’t have my usual crutches to help get me through the tough stuff.

But these days, I’m armed with a whole new set of tools—and an entirely new perspective—that remind me healing isn’t about never feeling anxious or overwhelmed again. It’s about knowing how to sit with those feelings without letting them run the show—reaching for a grounding breath before a glass of wine, a journal before a to-do list, and calling a friend instead of bottling everything up.

Whether you’re on your own healing journey, struggling to slow down and untangle your perfectionism, or just need a reminder that it’s okay to be instead of do, I hope this week’s stories offer a little softness and relief.

Thank you for being here—and for letting me be a little less perfect, and a lot more real. And one last reminder, care of another art therapy project of mine:

… I think I’ll stick to writing.

With love (and slightly softer edges),
Zoë