If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked The Life of Chuck star Karen Gillan about the French hand and nail cream, all-in-one stroller and signature scent she can’t live without.
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These are my pride and joy. I can’t leave the house without these because my favorite thing to do on the planet is have a coffee, put my headphones in, gaze out of a window while I’m driving in a car. I’m not driving, because then I couldn’t gaze out the window. (Someone else is driving, and I’m listening to music in these things.) It’s truly my favorite feeling in the world. What have I been listening to lately? Let’s have a look at the last thing. “Hypnotize,” the Notorious B.I.G.
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It’s such a beautiful scent. When I first smelled it, I completely fell in love with it and I was like, That needs to be what I smell like all the time.
Should I tell you this story? Yeah, okay. In my apartment, there’s a cheeky little mouse chewing through the floorboards that I found recently. I heard the chewing, and then I looked down, and I saw the little hole, and I was like, ‘That’s a mouse hole if I’ve ever seen one.’ Anyway, this was perfect for putting over the top of the hole so the mouse couldn’t get through. So it has multiple uses.
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I always need to be carrying a notepad and pen, because I might get one of my little ideas that I need to put on paper. Those ideas are mainly film-scene ideas or title ideas. I just love writing everything down and I like to always have that on hand. I like the speckle-y black-and-white notepads because they remind me of notepads in American films that I saw growing up. I don’t think we had those back in Scotland, but they just look so vintage and movie-ish.
[Editor’s note: Karen didn’t specify a particular notebook, but you can’t go wrong with a classic, affordable, college-ruled composition notebook.]
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The Doona has saved my life. I had a little girl six months ago, and I was pushing her around in other strollers. And then I got the Doona, and I just haven’t looked back since. It’s so handy — it immediately turns into a car seat. You don’t need to take the baby out to put the baby in a car. And then you can take her out of the car, do one thing, and then all the legs come out, and you’ve got a stroller. It’s genuinely one of the best inventions I have come across so far. I want to thank you, Doona, for helping all of us mothers out there.
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This play gym makes me so happy because I can see how happy it makes my baby girl. She goes into this play gym with the polka-dot world and she just lies there for such a long time. I don’t know what she’s doing, whether she’s making up stories in her head or what, but she just loves these polka dots more than anything, and you’ve never seen a happier baby in your entire life. She’s making all kinds of noises. She doesn’t want to interact with me when she’s in there, because she’s like, “Mum, give me my space.” She loves it. Whatever research has gone into this is second to none. It really works for babies.
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Whenever I’m not actually acting in a scene, the rest of my job consists of being on this. Writing — writing screenplays, writing ideas for screenplays out of the notebook, and answering emails. This is a necessity for me.
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I had to go on such a hunt to find a foundation that was actually pale enough for me because I’m a Scottish pale person that’s like a vampire and stays out of the sun, and I finally found this one. Truly, out of all the brands, I think this was the only one that made one light enough. It goes on really nicely and gives you a good amount of coverage. Whenever I’m recording things, it looks really good on camera. This is my favorite makeup product right now.
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This is lovely and luxurious. I don’t use it every single day, because I try to limit the amount of products I put on myself, but I do every so often, when my hands get dry or I just feel like treating myself. It smells great.
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The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
