Into the Fridge 😌
Courtney Brunson on eating sardines and coloring on her iPad
Courtney Brunson 😌
Courtney is a beauty product developer and consultant, specializing in skincare and fragrance. She’s also the founder of Eleasium, a bespoke perfume brand. After 10 years in NYC, she now lives in a cozy Paris neighborhood with her boyfriend and adorable puppy named Olive. She (and her fridge) are a dream.
What is your fridge philosophy?
My fridge should be stocked enough to have options, but with an amount of food I’ll realistically eat within the week. If my fridge is overcrowded or smelly, I’ll scream!
Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.
Sparkling water, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese (often multiple types), butter, Icelandic skyr yogurt and kalamata olives.
Most importantly, fruit and veggies! Fresh, seasonal and locally-sourced produce is much more affordable in Europe than the US.
Top 5 condiments, go.
Normandy butter with crunchy salt
Chunky, sun-dried tomato pesto
Honey - I’m currently making my way through a jar of Miel de Lavande from Provence
Thin, high-quality olive oil (the thin texture is important)
Samurai sauce
Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples:
My pantry is home to a variety of sardine tins in different flavors, 10 million jars of seasoning and lots of baking supplies.
On Sundays I bake a treat like sweet potato brownies or a loaf – this week was blueberry lemon – using less sugar than the recipe calls for.
I also love to snack on clementines and radishes. My favorite alternative to chips is radishes sprinkled with sea salt and dipped in mayonnaise à la moutarde.
A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:
For breakfast, overnight oats. I prep almond milk soaked oats, mashed banana and a scoop of skyr yogurt on top. A sprinkle of cinnamon makes the mixture look less like baby food.
For dinner, my boyfriend’s veggie soup recipe has been a staple:
3 potatoes
3 leeks
2 onions
1 turnip
1 large carrot
1 garlic clove
3 beef bouillon cubes
Butter
Everything is boiled in a Le Creuset pot, blended smooth with an electric hand-mixer and served with a baguette. It’s such a savory, cozy meal.
Each week we try recipes from Marie Claire Cuisine et Vins magazine - they’re super reliable. A recent favorite is Tuscany Chicken with parmesan cream sauce, spinach and sundried tomatoes.
Let’s go a little deeper…
What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?
“I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much” - Jemima Kirke’s advice to unconfident young women
What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits?
Spending time with Olive, my three-year-old Cavapoo. If you work from home, having a dog changes your life! Dogs thrive on routine and bring you outdoors to play and relax. Nurturing and taking care of something other than myself brings me back to Earth.
Entering my 30s I’ve realized how much lifestyle impacts my mental health. When I first moved to Paris in 2022, I was drinking wine almost every night, constantly going out and had no consistent sleep cycle. I was dopamine-loading, which made me feel exhausted and unfocused. French culture embraces leisure and pleasure, so finding balance took time (I’m naturally hedonistic).
Over the past year I’ve rebalanced my routine in a way that feels more replenishing for my body and mind. I’m prioritizing home life, respecting my circadian rhythm, and being more gentle with myself – less UberEats, less drinking, less gardening (👀), no smoking, more home-cooked meals. Anxiety still comes and goes, but my mood is steady, and I haven’t felt depressed in a long time.
And your physical?
I could spend hours on my skincare, body care and haircare. My routines are daily, long and involve a lot of products (you won’t find claims of effortless beauty here) but I find each process meditative and relaxing. The only professional treatments I outsource are waxing and getting braids – everything else is at home. Regularly testing new formulas for work adds more time to my morning and evening rituals.
For fitness, I’m on a ClassPass kick right now! I love Tower Pilates at Reformation, and yoga at either Ashtanga or Riise. Last year I pretended to like running, but it’s not for me. Strength training while laying down is perfect. I have a long history with Pilates - I’m certified to teach mat and briefly worked as a receptionist at New York Pilates in college. That was my favorite job ever.
What do you think is the most underrated part of wellness?
Peace and quiet.
And overrated?
Supplements.
Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move:
Essentials for curing a hangover or post-travel-scaries:
Rillette (sardine or pork)
Cheese (Neufchatel or Mimolette)
Pastries (Pain au Raisin or Tarte au Sucre)
Baguette de campagne (it’s crunchier than a regular baguette)
Lemon water
Sending friends long voice notes
If I’m simply grumpy, I will:
Avoid my phone but color on my iPad
Look for birds in the tree outside my bedroom window
Go on a little walk for treats or matcha
Spend an hour in the bathroom doing every beauty treatment I can think of
In every icky scenario I have to go outside, breathe fresh air, and walk Olive.
Give us your ride or die wellness products:
My Sonicare toothbrush - actually, my whole dental hygiene routine. I love brushing, flossing, tongue scraping, mouth wash, everything. The only step missing is a water flosser thanks to limited counter space, but I want one. I’m the stereotypical American obsessed with shiny, white teeth.
Natural Cycles for birth control
NuFace three times per week
French pharmacy peppermint oil capsules, which scare off UTIs better than cranberry
Encapsulated charcoal, necessary for all the risky eating I do in French restaurants (read: weird animal parts)
One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself:
Wearing perfume! I wear a fragrance every day, even if I’m bed-ridden. Smelling my wrists randomly throughout the day or being hugged and told I smell nice makes me happy.
Whose taste inspires you?!
My favorite musicians inspire me with their overall creative vision and style: Beyoncé, Clairo, Steve Lacy, Marvin Gaye & Faye Webster
Every supermodel in the 1995 “Catwalk” documentary
Courtney Rafuse, my perfumer for Eleasium is so cool in mind, spirit and style
Devon Carlson - I watch every vlog on YouTube
Joan from Girlfriends
Big thank you to Courtney for sharing a taste of her life with us. She makes life look effortlessly cool, and I’m forever indebted to her for creating some of my favorite beauty products on the market. Find her fragrances + accessories at Eleasium and follow her on Instagram. Find her fridge favorites and more here.
Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.
No but that ROBE!
Wait I'm obsessed and now I need to move to Paris