If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hair spray and the electric toothbrush. We asked the singer Miguel — the founder of clothing brand S1C who recently partnered with electronics brand Modern Fidelity — about the planner, deodorant, and pens he can’t live without.
Bad breath is a pet peeve of mine. I floss multiple times a day. I prefer floss picks to regular floss because of the convenience. There’s no subtle way to use regular floss — you have to pull out the floss, wrap it around your fingers, and basically put your hands in your mouth. It’s a two-handed activity, and I just can’t get into that. Picks are much easier. These are the ones I always tend to pick up.
I hate when I pick up a pen and it doesn’t work. These rarely ever give me a problem. They’re very reliable pens. They glide. They’re super-easy. I don’t have to put too much pressure on one to get a nice, consistent line of ink. They feel great in the hand. I don’t like pens with caps; I’ll lose the cap and then the pen dries out. I can’t stand that, so the clicker is better for me.
I wanted a deodorant without aluminum, and finding the right one was a journey. Some deodorants are such a trip because after a few weeks or months, they completely stop working. It took some time to find it, but Native has been incredible. First and foremost, after using it for about a year now, it still works. But it also smells great and doesn’t have anything in it that I don’t want in or on my body.
I remember things better when I write them down — it requires more focus than typing something on my phone. My assistant put me on to this planner a while back. It’s leather-bound, so it looks nice, and it has this elastic that holds it together with a pen inside, so I never forget a pen. I love the way that it’s organized: It has your general planner stuff, but it also includes dope mindfulness prompts to stay sharp, and it has lined and unlined inserts in the back. I use those to doodle designs for my clothing line and write down ideas I have. I used to buy three different notebooks to do everything I need, but this lets me do it all in one.
My stylist at the very beginning of my career, Leo Velasquez, who has since passed away, put me on to Retrosuperfuture sunglasses. This was around 2010 or even earlier. Kanye had just dropped Graduation, and more and more artists were embracing a futuristic aesthetic. Retrosuperfuture was a part of that. I mean, the name says it all. I wear the Issimo shape the most. They have a ’90s look but are a little more streamlined — wide with a flat top but not too big.
I appreciate the SPF, but I use this because of how long it lasts. Sometimes you put lip balm on and then you have to keep reapplying throughout the day. I put this on once, and it lasts for hours. I also like the consistency: It’s light and buttery instead of greasy. My wife likes my lips nice and soft, so I use this for her. She actually is the one who put me on to it. She has great taste.
Something about the title drew me in. It’s simple but actionable. This book helped me understand how to converge all of the elements of being a good boss while sticking to my creative vision. One of the first chapters is about imagining your own funeral — that has stayed with me. If you imagine your friends, family, and colleagues reading your eulogy, what would you want them to say about you? As morbid as it sounds, it really made me look at my end goal. With so much going on, we don’t always think of the bigger picture. It can be easy to lose sight of what we want to accomplish for ourselves as human beings, and this book gave me the perspective I needed.
When I first saw a Modern Fidelity speaker, I thought, I want this in my house. Not only are they beautiful, but the brand focuses on sustainable manufacturing. It’s a high-quality speaker that doesn’t come at the expense of any ecosystem. I’m collaborating with it on a new speaker that will be released soon. I was inspired by a robot landing on Mars, and how the robot had this system of airbags to protect it from any sort of thrashing that might happen during a crash landing. I wanted to create something that was ready for anyone’s daily riot, whether it’s a wild night or just the common, everyday peace of being at home.
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