Mollie's Feel-Good Feed: Wimbledon FOMO and chilled-out tunes

It's tennis time! (Sort of)

Welcome to Mollie’s Feel-Good Feed, a place where each week Mollie King shares her round-up of the things bringing her joy in these strange and uncertain times. Check back each week for uplifting music, self care tips and, hopefully, a smile being put on your face.

Good morning, Friday! It’s come around so quickly this week – I can’t believe we’re in July already!

I hope the last few days have treated you well and given you reasons to smile. Let’s dive into this week’s Feel-Good Feed…

Singles

Have you ever wondered who superstars like Ariana Grande write their hits with? Writing sessions can vary hugely; sometimes they are as small and intimate as just the artist and a producer, or, at the other end of the scale, the process can be as much as a week-long writing camp with groups of writers in different rooms, all trying to fit the same brief.

Ariana Grande often collaborates with one of her best friends, Victoria Monet, with whom she wrote Thank You, Next and teamed up with vocally on her song Monopoly. Monet is now releasing music herself and, if you’re an Ariana Grande fan like I am, I think you will agree this song has all the same joys. It’s the perfect mix of commercial pop with a hint of Solange and Janet Jackson. Enjoy Victoria Monet, Khalid and SG Lewis on Experience – I’ve found myself blasting this one out in the mornings all week while getting ready to face the day!

From Fort William, Scotland, let me introduce you to Keir Gibson next. It feels a bit like the solo, male singer-songwriter lane is very congested at the moment, with Lewis Capaldi clearly leading the way. But Gibson manages to really stand out with his new single Circles.

I love his tone and feel like this one is calling out to be played on a film soundtrack or episandy ode of Love Island (when the recouping hasn’t worked out well – you know the ones I mean).

TV shows

This week it’s been pouring with rain at the height of British summertime, which normally means one thing… Wimbledon time! But with the tournament being cancelled this year, the BBC are instead re-airing classic Wimbledon finals of years gone by.

This weekend we can also indulge in the amazing career of Andy Murray with BBC One’s two-parter, Andy Murray’s Greatest Hits. This of course means the added bonus of getting hair envy from his beautiful wife, Kim Sears, in the family seats.

So pop the bubbly and dish up the strawberries; Clare Balding and Sue Barker are ready to remind us of those nail-biting matches that went down in history. I wonder how many of Nadal’s superstitions we’ll spot this time around!

Self care

As I’ve got older I’ve realised more and more the importance of a good SPF. We’re all often told to wear sun cream now and a lot of the popular go-to make-up products like foundation do tend to have sun protection in them. The problem is that this isn’t necessarily the best form of protection and the factor is often very low.

I’ve got sun spots on my face from where I perhaps haven’t taken sun protection as seriously as I should have, and was told last year that really we should all be wearing SPF every day – even when it’s not blazingly sunny!

I find that a lot of sun creams can be incredibly greasy and bring me out in spots, and even though in the long term this is a small side effect worth putting up with, I’ve searched far and wide to find one that agrees with my combination skin. If you haven’t heard of PCA Skin’s Weightless Protection I would make a note of it, as I find it absorbs easily into my skin and doesn't leave me shiny all over like the Strictly glitter ball.

PCA Skincare Weightless Protection SPF 45, £39.50, Dermacare Direct

Buy now

Fitness

Most of us haven’t had the July weather we’ve been looking forward to just yet, but let’s not let that stop us from trying to achieve our best healthy selves. Being stuck indoors more, I’ve been turning to toning and strengthening workouts rather than cardio.

I love the fact that exercise classes have become more accessible over lockdown. A lot of them can be done at home in our living room – perhaps after moving the coffee table or clearing away any breakables! Before lockdown I had fallen in love with reformer Pilates, but recently I was introduced to LB Pilates, which can be carried out anywhere you’ve got enough space to lay flat.

Hosted by Louise Buttler, I’ve been tuning into these Instagram Lives and learning new exercises that can be done whenever I have a spare 20-30 minutes. Although this week that may be a little harder with both Federer and Nadal on my screen...

Thanks so much for reading this week’s Mollie’s Feel-Good Feed – check back on Marie Claire every Friday for more of my feel-good recommendations. Take care and stay safe.