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thursday, february 4, 2021 TORONTO STAR
Astrology Spotlight: Can a birth chart
reading help you live your best life? page 7
Go your own way
If you don’t know her yet, you’re going to want to remember her name.
Canadian cool-girl Charlotte Cardin is a true artist: raw, unfettered and wildly
talented. Now, with her much-awaited album about to launch, she’s set
to take over the music world. Portrait of a rising star page 4
by katherine lalancette | photography by william Arcand
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THE KIT | 3
THE KIT X FILORGA
Clockwise from top:
Marilyn Monroe on
the set of The Misfits
Make this
in 1960; Sharon
Stone at the 1998
Academy Awards;
Audrey Hepburn in
1964; Meghan Markle your best
in 2017; Carolyn
Bessette Kennedy
in 1999. skin year yet
Science meets luxury
in this French brand
Greatest fits
Liz Guber ponders the impossible aspiration of a pristine white button-down Asking if French beauty brands
make some of the world’s most
luxurious skincare is like asking
Last month, Canadian fashion brand Dynamite announced a and reality is great. Fantasy: I am Audrey Hepburn on a bicycle if you need grapes to make
collaboration with Vancouver-based, Kazakh-Canadian artist and in Rome. Reality: I am not Audrey, I never learned to ride wine. Oui, but of course! In the
muralist Ola Volo. To my surprise, the result was not stamped with a bike and my shirt bears a salad dressing stain. case of Filorga, however, luxury
Volo’s signature folkloric drawings. Instead, the hero piece was a A white button-down is inherently aspirational because it is synonymous with science,
simple button-down shirt: Oversized, menswear-y and—this is the is impossible to keep pristine. Over time, the inside neckline expertise and serious results.
key—crisp. Essentially, it’s exactly the kind of shirt you imagine an takes on a shadowy hue; after a few washes, the collar starts to
artist wearing. Her sleeves pushed up to the elbows, one eyebrow collapse. Threads poke up, the illusion shatters. Unlike jeans or Filorga Laboratories was
raised in focus, an unfinished masterpiece before her. The shirt leather jackets, the shirt does not get better with time. founded by a doctor in Paris
is polished, yet shrugged off. It is insouciance cut from cotton. Still, it’s a new year and I am not above superficial reinvention. in the late 1970s. His specialty:
Though I’m far from a loft-dwelling artiste, the dream of I got the Ola top. It’s weightless, the material faintly translucent. Revitalizing skin using
becoming a white shirt person lives within me. Its allure doesn’t I love how it makes me feel—capable and put-together, yet teeny, tiny injections (think:
end with bohemians. Recall Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in a white approachable. I’ll layer it over a turtleneck to keep a protective microneedling) of his
menswear shirt tucked into a sleek black skirt. Or Sharon Stone barrier between it and my skin. Maintaining it will serve as a signature solution into the
and Carolina Herrera, with their collars perkily popped. Elegant! reminder to do the same for the rest of my closet. I’ll just wear face and décolleté area.
As is often the case with fashion, the gap between fantasy a bib to eat salad.
To make this treatment more
accessible, Filorga took the 50+
active ingredients used in
the injections and formulated
FIND YOUR PERFECT WHITE SHIRT
a complex exclusive to the
brand called NCEF (New
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is able to reach the same
The Boxy one the Classic one the Dressy one the Fancy one depth that injectables do.
Everlane shirt, $82, gap shirt, $53, Pink Tartan shirt, Cos shirt, $113, The result: Firmer, smoother
everlane.com gapcanada.ca $298, pinktartan.ca cossstores.com skin in as little time as a week.
We know this because Filorga’s
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independent (read: unbiased)
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To reap the full benefits
Jojoba and rosehip oils wrap Delectably creamy, this Take the shine of a gloss,
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softer they get. wash of colour. nourishment. Multi-Correction Face Cream.
Merit Beauty Shade Slick L’Occitane Delicious Tinted Fenty Beauty Pro Kiss’r Luscious
This luxe-feeling moisturizing
Tinted Lip Oil in Pink Beet, $31, Balm in Miss Grenadine, $29, Lip Balm in Pinch Me, $24, treatment is part of the NCEF
meritbeauty.ca loccitane.com sephora.ca
Reverse line, which contains
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Apply morning and night—
Blurring the line it leaves a matte finish,
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and lipstick, tinted to ingredients like shea butter,
It boasts a lovely dewy finish treatments leave lips The plush applicator glides over hyaluronic acid, collagen
and comes in seven shades lips, topping them with shine,
you can build from soft, scrumptious and colour and a cocktail
and vitamins A, H and E.
sheer to bold. subtly stained of botanical oils.
If your anti-aging
Rare Beauty With Gratitude Clarins Intense Lip Comfort
Dewy Lip Balm in Compliment, Oil in Intense Burgundy,
routine usually includes
$21, sephora.ca
by Katherine Lalancette $28, clarins.ca medi-cosmetic treatments
like fillers or neuromodulators,
you’re in luck. Filorga products
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as a complement to those
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injectables don’t replace
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Sweet as sugar (a fantastic Mega moisture meets A buttery balm that not only
humectant BTW), this balm pigment that’s not quite hydrates but also sloughs
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photography: getty images (shirt collage)
Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Tarte Cosmetics Sugar Rush
Poppy, $32, sephora.ca in Mightiest Maraschino, $24, Best Bud Lip Butter Balm, $15,
clinique.ca tartecosmetics.com
Executive Editor Associate Operations Director, Collab Specialist Publisher,
Rani Sheen Art Director Digital Media Madeline Saracini Toronto Star
Oana Cazan Kelly Matthews Jordan Bitove FILORGA NCEF-REVERSE SUPREME
Editor-in-Chief Beauty Director Collab Project MULTI-CORRECTION FACE CREAM, $123,
Laura deCarufel Katherine Lalancette Associate Direct advertising Manager (c) 2021, The Kit, Torstar Senior Vice- CA.FILORGA.COM
inquiries to: Lara Buchar a division of Toronto Star President Editorial
Creative Director Managing Editor Art Director Newspapers Limited. Wayne Parrish
Collab Director
Brittany Eccles Eden Boileau Poonam Chauhan
Evie Begy, Editor,
Style Editor Publisher, The Kit eb@thekit.ca Toronto Star
Liz Guber Giorgina Bigioni Irene Gentle The Kit created this content;
Filorga funded and approved it.
4 | THE KIT THE KIT | 5
“Being able to speak your mind
as a woman in this industry is
a process, and it’s something
that I’m still learning to do”
do, but I’m getting more and more comfortable doing it.”
Exhibit A: her much-awaited first full-length album set to come out in
the spring. Though there was pressure to ride the wave of her previous
successes, the EPs “Big Boy” and “Main Girl” respectively released in
2016 and 2017, Cardin was adamant about taking her time. “Having
toured a lot with only a few songs, I realized how important it was to
love the songs that you’re performing,” she says. “You have to actually
believe in the stuff you release because you don’t want to be stuck with
things that you don’t fully support. That’s why I really took the time to
create an album that I love.”
Cardin has come to be known for her smoky vocals and jazz-tinged
melodies; songs about broken boys you try to fix but who end up
breaking you, too. Though she insists this upcoming offering is still very
much her, she describes it as a bit different, citing influences from pop,
trap and indie music. Thematically, it explores her enduring “obsession
with feelings,” as she puts it. “Everything is so quick and superficial
these days. I wanted to do an album that was like, ‘How can we just
stop everything and feel?’”
A lot of those feelings pertain to love, as does much of her repertoire,
but some of the new material suggests something of a role reversal.
“Are you still passive aggressive?” she coos in “Passive Aggressive,”
before coolly warning: “Don’t hate on me, you brought this on yourself.”
She is no longer the scorned casualty of those aforementioned broken
boys, but instead a heartbreaker in her own right. The kind you root for
because you know that jerk 100 per cent deserved it. As she sings it, “I
love myself too much to waste good years on bad love.”
So where did this newfound confidence come from? “I think it defi-
nitely comes from more experience,” she says. “I feel more like myself
than I ever have. I’m 26 now and I don’t really care anymore about a
lot of things that used to really matter to me.” You can feel it in every-
thing she’s doing these days. No longer is Cardin hiding behind a mic
and keyboard. She’s owning the spotlight, wielding electric guitars and
dancing to the beat—her own, that is.
facing page: Chanel sweater,
price upon request, Chanel
Coco Crush bangles, rings and
ear cuffs (worn throughout),
price upon request, Chanel
boutiques. pants and bra top,
Cardin’s own
this page, from top: Chanel
button-down, price upon
request, Chanel boutiques.
pants, t-shirt, sneakers,
Cardin’s own
Chanel tank, price upon
request, Chanel boutiques
Chanel Mini-bag (worn around
arm), price upon request,
Chanel boutiques. hoodie,
Cardin’s own
Beauty note: Cardin wears
Chanel’s Fleurs de Printemps
Blush and Highlighter Duo, Les
4 Ombres eyeshadow in Blurry
Blue, Le Volume mascara in
Metal Terracotta, Rouge Allure
Laque liquid lip colour in Still
and Le Vernis nail colour in
Blanc White, chanel.com
Makeup and hair: Julie Cusson,
makeup artist for Chanel.
Photo assistant: Aljosa Alijagic
Loud and clear
Poised for mega stardom, Montreal singer-songwriter Charlotte Cardin is calling her own shots
by katherine lalancette | photography by william Arcand
It’s a clear winter day in Montreal, but Charlotte Cardin is “on a cloud.” of The Voice, a show built around the premise of judging contestants
Two years in the making, “Daddy,” the second single off her hotly antic- solely on their vocal chops, not their image. But it wasn’t long before
ipated album, just dropped and she’s reeling with excitement. The track looks became part of the media chatter. Here she was, a Jane Birkin
is a bit of a departure for the chanteuse. Less soul, more indie-rock, dead ringer with a voice like Amy Winehouse—“the full package.” But
it’s all cheeky lyrics and a drum beat that inspires immediate head the thing with being labelled a “full package” is that it turns you into a
bopping. “I’m so proud of it because no sacrifice was made,” she says. product, something to be neatly marketed and sold. That can get old
“It was just fully me.” pretty quick for an artist.
Being fully herself seems more top of mind than ever for the “I got used to being told what stories I should be telling with my
26-year-old. Today, for instance, she is styling herself for her Kit cover image and how people wanted to see me, but I don’t want to do that
shoot. A Chanel ambassador (the only Canadian to hold that coveted anymore,” she says. “There’s a lot of trying to get me to be a little more
title), she arrives on set lugging a garment bag teeming with CC- sexualized, to be more this, more that, to be more girly, and that’s
emblazoned pieces as well as old favourites from her own closet: an something that I’m still working against sometimes.”
oversized hoodie, a T-shirt she stole from her dad. She points to the music video for “Daddy” as a turning point in that
With grass-stained Vans on her feet and stacks of Chanel matelassé department. It features a hoodie-clad Cardin strumming a guitar atop
rings on her dainty pianist fingers, Cardin steps in front of the camera, Cinéma L’Amour, an X-rated movie theatre and infamous Montreal
completely at ease. It’s not surprising, considering the Montreal native landmark. Reclaiming the male gaze, she reclines in one of the red
was only 15 when she started modelling. It was never a serious ambition vinyl seats, popcorn in hand, as she playfully sings about “dancing
of hers, she says, but rather a way to earn some money while working with [her] sex symbol.”
on her music. As a model, she had no say in the way she looked, getting “It’s obviously a hypersexualized space and the whole idea was to
dressed up and made up like a doll. As an artist, she’s fought hard to gain control back over that sexuality that I’ve been led toward as a
maintain control over her image. female artist,” she says. “Being able to speak your mind as a woman in
Ironically, she got her break as a singer at 18 on the Quebec version this industry is a process, and it’s something that I’m still learning to
6 | THE KIT
I had my first
orgasm at 38
One woman’s story of discovering
she could fulfill her own sexual
needs later in life
As told to Sarah Laing
If you listen to pop culture, masturbation is locked up pretty tight in our home. When I allowed me to fulfill my sexual needs. At times,
something most of us discovered around the was a younger teen, there was one brave I think of my younger self—this person who
same time we bought our first sparkly lip balm soul at Sunday School who attempted to entered adulthood so blindly in so many ways—
(Bonne Bell or bust) and were initiated to teach us about masturbation, but when the and wish I could tell her to just relax. I’d tell her
that “I must, I must, I must increase my bust” parents found out, some swift consequences to shed the moral cape tossed on her shoulders
chest-enhancement exercise in Are You There were doled out to that volunteer teacher. A by her parents and just be curious, allow herself
God? It’s Me, Margaret. few years later, I found myself married at 19, to explore and learn as she goes along.
But that isn’t necessarily the rule. Because mainly because I felt so guilty about having I don’t think my story is that uncommon.
it’s still shrouded in taboo, many women (and sex outside of marriage that I married the first In my age group, we tend to keep our sexual
men!) grew up feeling like touching them- guy I was intimate with, even though he’d been experiences or questions private, but I have
selves was a dirty thing, a thing to be shy physically violent with me. heard from other women who, like me, have
about...or just a thing they didn’t know enough Something that helped to lead me to that been in sexual relationships but aren’t sure if
about to want to explore. For Marjorie*, who moment in the shower they’ve ever actually
is 59 now and lives in B.C., it was a compli- was the book Succu- orgasmed.
cated combination of all of the above. This is lent Wild Woman by After my divorce, I
her story. SARK. On the back was consciously single
cover, there’s a line
that reads, “This book
“I remember for 18 years. I was so
busy raising my kids—
One day after my divorce, I found myself in
is my glowing invita-
tion to you—to live a thinking, ‘Oh, this and myself, in a way—
that I didn’t want to be
the shower, exploring my body, and I had my
first orgasm. I was 38. I’d been married for
rich, succulent life.”
She talks about sexu- is what all the fuss distracted by a rela-
tionship that was just
is about’”
10 years, I’d had kids! I remember feeling so ality, love, romance, another hat to wear. At
many things in that moment: surprised, over- fear and creativity, the encouragement of
whelmed, powerful. I remember thinking, among other things. my children, I did begin
“Oh, this is what all the fuss is about.” I also Reading that little dating again at 46. It
felt frustrated. Like, how could I not have book a bit every day was a real learning
known my body was capable of this? More unlocked something curve, but I had a great
than anything, I felt sexually alive for the first in me. It gave me permission and encourage- time. I’ve been in three committed relationships
time in my life. ment to explore things in my body and life and even got married a second time. Now, at 59,
Growing up, the only education I had that I hadn’t up to that point. And for me, that I’m happily single once more. I no longer feel
around sex or sexuality was a book about included masturbating. this nagging need to be with someone, and I’m
the birds and the bees that my mom gave me My life after that first orgasm has been capable of fulfilling my sexual needs myself.
when I was around 10. She said I could ask profoundly different. It’s freed me to ques- It’s obviously different from a person-to-person
her any questions I had, but I don’t remember tion, to count on myself, and to be curious encounter, but I’m content.
asking any, because I felt like that topic was about myself and life itself. And, obviously, it’s *Name has been changed
PLAY WITH FIRE
Five artful candles to help
Eternal flame
you warm up your decor
Beautiful and sometimes a little weird,
these scupltural candles are almost
too nice to burn
by Liz Guber
Piera Bochner Roman-
esco candle, $95,
We loved candles before the pandemic, but a year spent simons.ca
mostly inside our homes has turned an interest into an
outright obsession. We gift candles, meditate with them
and curate them as part of our decor. I used to say that Areaware’s trendsetting and
ceramic pottery or plants were the “new” candles. Turns delightful Goober candle is due
out, the new candles are just more candles—specifically back in stock in March (areaware.
sculptural candles. com and other retailers).
While the glass-encased, complexly scented bougies from the
Instagram-approved likes of Boy Smells and P.F. Candle Co
will always be popular, current candle trends favour curvy
and shaped wands, pillars and blobs. On Etsy, searches for in on itself and looks like a glowing orb.” Unlike standard
Yui Brooklyn candle,
abstract and geometric candles are up 86 per cent. Some are poured candles, or even long tapered wands, these types of from $19, etsy.com
symmetrically carved, others look as if they came straight shaped candles aren’t designed for the most efficient use of
from a Seussian fever dream. wax, taking on unexpected new shapes as they flame out.
The trend started with the Totem candles by Areaware, Christie Pinese owns Rose City Goods, a homeware and
the New-York-based design company that partners with arti- lifestyle shop on Toronto’s Dundas West. The pandemic
sans to manufacture thoughtful objects like puzzles (another made her re-evaluate the types of products she was carrying
hot pandemic-era seller), tableware and ceramics. “We were and inspired her to launch her own decor line, Sunshine
really drawn to the pillar candles that Grain was making,” Daydream. “Candles are a big part of it,” she tells me while
says Elisabeth Roeleveld, Areaware’s sales and marketing taking a break from making pottery at home.” It’s something
director. “They were hand-turning them on a lathe in their that adds an element of design to your space for a really inex-
studio. We were immediately attracted to them and decided pensive price.” Compared to art prints, ceramic pottery or Lex Pott Twist
to collaborate with Grain to make more.” other statement decor, playful candles offer the most design candle, $54,
urbanoutfitters.com
The Totem candles come in a variety of colours, from bang for the buck. “People are figuring out ways to make
warm vintage-y green to amber, and they resemble turned their spaces look cool and feel cozy,” says Pinese. Plus, when
wooden table legs. They look best in a grouping of three, our homes function as offices, gyms and classrooms, setting
though Roeleveld has seen people buy as many as a dozen a candle atop your dining table can help delineate work
for their Thanksgiving arrangements. “Having a staggered time from downtime and combine a sense of ritual with
look of small, medium and large looks really nice. People aesthetic pleasure.
really like to play with colour and height.” The candles are Pinese has big plans for her candle line. She’s learning to
so popular, that they’re almost sold out, with more due back make custom silicone moulds based on vintage sculptures
into stock in March. she sourced last year. “We want to create unique, retro-in-
Then there’s the Goober candle, made in collaboration spired candles that stand out from the crowd,” says Pinese,
Hannah x Namesake
with Brooklyn’s Talbot & Yoon. It’s the Totem candle’s though she’s hesitant to reveal any specifics, perhaps fearing candle, $85, byth-
enamesake.com
aesthetic antipode—squat and cheeky instead of tall and getting knocked off.
refined—but no less popular. “It really evokes an emotional With interest in candles showing no signs of slowing
photography: Pexels (orgasm collage)
response because it references the body,” says Roeleveld, down, Areaware’s Roeleveld tells me that the company is
adding that the candles were at one point flagged by Insta- expanding its candle universe. For Spring 2021, they’ve part-
gram’s algorithm for being inappropriate. “Which I think is nered with Ellen Van Dusen of womenswear and homeware
hilarious,” she adds. label Dusen Dusen on a line of cheery, tall candles as well as
The Goober candle comes in a range of desaturated coloured glass candleholders by furniture designer Steven
cosmetic shades like pale green and lavender. Like other wax Bukowski. “We’re looking at a whole candle suite, from
creations of its kind, I find it almost too pretty to burn. But candleholders to match strikers.” Because of course you’ll
when I put this concern to Roeleveld, she encourages me to need a design-forward match striker with which to light your
light the match. “Burn them! They take on another sculptural periwinkle-hued Goober. As far as beautiful candles are Areaware totem
candle, from $15, area-
life when they’re being burned. The Goober candle turns concerned, it would seem we’re only at the tip of the wick. ware.com
THE KIT | 7
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Lucky charms
Ring in the Year of the Ox with the loveliest, most luxurious limited
editions, from a standout trench to the perfect red lipstick
by Renée Tse
1. The iconic brown Advanced Night Repair bottle 5. Canadian outerwear brand Canada Goose has lucky charms and a prominent emblem in many
gets the Lunar New Year treatment with a limit- teamed up with Chinese designer (and Next in of her designs.
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Estée Lauder Limited Edition Advanced Night Repair tation of the iconic parka, in plum blossom pink.
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Angel Chen for Canada Goose parka, $1,595,
9. Add a touch of timeless sophistication to your
canadagoose.com look with this beautiful silk twill scarf. It features a
2. Turn heads wherever you go while wrapped in red floral motif and gold trim, symbolizing harmony
this statement-making red trench coat from Max 6. In time for Lunar New Year, Sulwhasoo releases and prosperity.
Mara’s LNY capsule collection, which draws on the its star product, First Care Activating Serum, in a Dior Scarf, $1,150, Dior boutiques
brand’s roots in opera and theatre. limited-edition red bottle—plus it’s a preview of a
Max Mara Trench Coat, $1,990, maxmara.com new and improved formula with boosted regen- 10. A moment of appreciation for this pink gold
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the essentials—from lucky trinkets and red enve- sephora.ca
the Lunar New Year in style.
lopes to hand sanitizer and red lipstick.
7. This adorable belt bag, adorned with chrysanthe- Bulgari Necklace, $6,150, Bulgari Boutique at Holt
Michael Michael Kors Bag, $448, michaelkors.ca Renfrew
mums and peonies, will not only be a lively addition
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4. Spritz on the juicy, floral notes of Jo Malone much easier (hooray, free hands!). 11. While it’s not auspicious to give a watch for
London’s special-edition English Pear and Freesia Lunar New Year (or any day for that matter),
Fendi bag, $990, fendi.com
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Jo Malone London English Pear and Freesia ed-edition Rouge Allure Velvet lipstick is topped diamonds, it makes for a stunning lucky talisman.
cologne, $96 (30 mL), Jomalone.ca
with the head of a lion—one of Gabrielle Chanel’s Chopard Watch, $20,700, chopard.com
Baby, you’re a star
Why a birth chart reading might be exactly what you need to help you unlock your true self
by Katherine lalancette
It’s like Joan Didion wrote: “We tell ourselves with like, ‘Come into my purple velvet room and I’m drained, the way most therapy sessions have left
stories in order to live.” As humans, we have a going to tell your future.’ And that’s really not at all me feeling, I was exhilarated. (Not surprising as my
fundamental impulse to explain away the unex- what we do.” Leo sun is hiding in my eighth house, so although I
plainable, quell the existential angst by sticking a I got a first-hand look at what she does when love attention—as an ex once remarked, “Why can’t
nice, neat narrative on the disorder. It’s why we turn Boridy read my birth chart recently. All I had to do you wear normal clothes?”—I’m not super keen on
to religion (“It’s God’s plan”) or therapy (“It’s your was give her my birthday, time and place of birth and divulging anything personal.)
mother”) or, increasingly, astrology (“It’s Mercury a few days later, a trippy wheel landed in my inbox “People feel really seen by it,” says Boridy,
in retrograde”). along with a recording of Boridy walking me through summing up exactly how I felt. “A birth chart is
Stephanie Boridy is familiar with the feeling. As the far reaches of the sky on that August afternoon a map of who you are and why you are the way
an astrologer, people come to her for answers all when I was born. you are.”
the time. “We all want to know what our purpose I’ll cut to the chase: It was a revelation. I expected A few days after my reading, I went for a walk
is, why we’re here on this ball in the solar system.” to be tickled, the way any Leo like me would be with a friend who left her job as a successful lawyer
It’s those same questions that got her at the end of 2019. Like Boridy, she’d done
interested in astrology. At 35, after years of all the “good on paper” stuff but was feeling
doing “what was good on paper,” she had unfulfilled. Her plan was to spend 2020
a burnout. She quit her job in fashion and travelling and searching for her purpose.
began searching for clues that might point Instead, she spent months in lockdown
her in the right direction. alone in her apartment. Now, a year later,
The answer, ultimately, came from she was feeling like she was running out of
above: in the precise arrangement of the time to “figure it all out.”
planets at the time of her birth. “I started to “You should get your birth chart read,” I
read my chart and was like, ‘Wait, I have a offered. Cue the eye roll. “No, I’m serious!”
stellium in Scorpio in my 10th house, which It’s not that I think everything about our life
makes me extremely intuitive.’” (A stellium, is predetermined by the planets, I explained.
if you didn’t know, is a cluster of planets.) Rather there’s something about listening to
She’d been noticing “littles nudges” someone tell you about you, or about what
telling her she was meant to teach people. your chart supposedly says about you, that
She did the “sensible” thing and applied for makes you reflect on your life in a radically
a master’s in education, but still, it didn’t different way. “The feedback I get the most
feel right. “Discovering that part of my chart is ‘Having this reading gave me permission
confirmed that I should follow my intuition.” to be myself,’” says Boridy.
Eventually, it became clear: She wanted Rarely do we examine our choices
to become a coach, an astrological one. “My without factoring in outside expectations:
husband was like, ‘Are you actually crazy?’ What should we do? What will garner the
[laughs]. He’s an engineer, so he was like, approval of those around us? A birth chart
‘You just got accepted to your master’s. lets you look at things from an entirely
You’re going to have a pension!’” After giving inward perspective. It’s “how does this play
it some thought, he came around. “He said, ‘I into who you are at the core?” A core that
think you might be onto something. People is determined by something way beyond
really need help and they want to do more you—the freaking galaxy!—which only
mindfulness stuff.’” further exonerates you from all responsi-
Do we ever. In 2019, the top 10 astrology bility. I think that’s why I found the experi-
apps in the U.S. grew their revenues by 64.7 ence so liberating. It wasn’t that it gave me
per cent. The New York Times even ran a all the answers or that I ever expected it to,
piece on how venture capitalists are now it’s that it gave me license to look for them
investing their millions in starry start-ups—think: from hearing someone talk about them for an hour, within myself and only myself. (But you know, Leo
horoscope services and virtual readings. but it was way more than that. Journeying through sun here, so me, me, me.)
Boridy’s operation is far more homegrown. She the houses and planets, I had breakthrough after “If someone asks me, ‘Why should I get my chart
photography: pexels
and her friend Athina Kadas founded Star Sisters breakthrough, in ways I’ve never encountered in a read?’ I tell them it can just affirm what you already
out of Montreal, which offers birth chart and tarot shrink’s office. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have to know inside of you about your truth,” says Boridy.
readings as well as curated crystal kits. do any of the talking. No revealing of past painful “It’s the story of you.” We tell ourselves stories in
If you’re rolling your eyes, Boridy doesn’t blame stuff, no expectation on me at all. I just listened and order to live and right now, I’m sticking to one that’s
you. “For so long, what we do has been associated processed, and instead of coming out of it completely full of stars and magic and possibilities.
TOGETHER Celebrating
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