Lifestyle Desires — Australian living

Hannah Murray photographed for The Guardian

The soft-focus language that nearly swallowed Hannah Murray

Hannah Murray’s wellness cult memoir traces how healing language, shame and certainty can blur into control long before anyone calls it danger.

Jordan Atkinson· 6 min read

A chilled glass of horchata with cinnamon sticks, echoing the cold creamy café drink at the centre of the story

food-drink

Horchata slips into the café script

A tired woman sits beside a mirror, capturing the foggy and overcommitted mood that perimenopause marketing often targets.

wellbeing

What the perimenopause boom is selling women who are already exhausted

Sleep setting with natural textures, used as hero art for a feature about wool mattresses and thermal comfort.

wellbeing

A wool mattress and the sleep story it sells

Earth-toned knitwear on a boutique rack, the polished basics aesthetic that helped Everlane sell conscience as style.

The sale that makes Everlane feel like a warning

Everlane sale to Shein confirms what shoppers feared: sustainable fashion’s moral language could not outrun debt, discounting and speed.

Worn Blundstone boots, scuffed and mud-caked, the leather holding the shape of the foot that broke them in.

Blundstone spent 150 years perfecting the work boot. Now it wants you to wear a sandal.

Designer clothes and bags hanging on a boutique rack, suggesting an archive wardrobe assembled for rental

When fashion history turns up in a garment bag

Resort 2027 looks by Gary Bigeni, Nicol & Ford and Iordanes Spyridon Gogos in Vogue Australia's Fashion Week size report

Who Australian Fashion Week still imagines into the room

A striped summer shirt with relaxed khaki trousers against a brick wall.

Seersucker is making linen feel slightly uptight

Cozy small-space interior with natural light and wooden details

Open plan is not the answer: what three designers who live tiny taught me

Three Melbourne design professionals who live in tiny homes share counterintuitive advice: open-plan is not the answer, budget is a design driver, and homes will never be perfect.

Contemporary gallery with diverse sculptural chairs at Melbourne Design Week's 100 Chairs exhibition

What a room reveals when every chair is trying a little harder than comfort

How to style textile art at home without flattening the room

Brass bar cart styled in a living room for evening drinks

The martini trolley is back, and not ironically

Travel documents and planning materials before a trip

The 2026 travel paperwork to check before you book

Travel toiletries and beauty essentials spread out before packing.

What the bathroom floor knows before a trip

Woman meditating alone on a beach at sunrise

Why grief travel is making wellness tell the truth

Aerial view of overwater villas in the Maldives, the polished fantasy Australians have long filed under too-hard.

The Maldives just moved closer to Melbourne

Why Puglia keeps seducing travellers chasing a slower summer

A small timber cabin at dusk in a rural paddock

Why the dream weekend now fits in a tiny cabin

A phone showing a dating app beside a cup of tea, the quiet domestic side of modern courtship.

The dating app wants to play therapist now

AI dating apps are ditching the swipe and asking for more intimacy, more data and more trust than many burnt-out singles seem ready to give.

A woman looking out over the city from a high window

What a mortgage does to the men you date

A woman standing with house keys in front of a home

What a mortgage reveals on a date

A couple sitting together on a first date, illustrating the emotional politics of paying the bill

The first-date bill keeps auditioning everyone

When the first holiday starts to grade you

The soft-focus language that nearly swallowed Hannah Murray

Hannah Murray’s wellness cult memoir traces how healing language, shame and certainty can blur into control long before anyone calls it danger.

Family on a sofa watching television together, the shared-viewing ritual at the centre of the Bluey minisode debate.

Bluey was never meant to feel like content slurry

Why Kylie is finally letting the family in

Delta Goodrem Puts on Incredible Performance at Eurovision

Why Delta Goodrem's Eurovision run felt bigger than nostalgia

Horchata slips into the café script

A warmly lit Italian restaurant table set for dinner in Melbourne.

Melbourne's new Italian rooms want you to stay

Exterior of a Guzman y Gomez restaurant, used as the hero image for coverage of the chain's US exit.

Guzman y Gomez could conquer Australia. America was another story.

Steam cooking myths Matt Stone wishes home cooks would drop

Chef Matt Stone speaking about steam cooking in a kitchen setting

Steam isn't the problem. Our kitchen folklore is.

Baskets of heirloom tomatoes at a farmers' market stall

The tomato that makes summer taste real

Queen Victoria Market with Melbourne skyline

What Queen Vic's food rescue says about the city Melbourne wants to be

Queen Victoria Market's food rescue program redirects 800 tonnes of surplus produce to hungry Melburnians — nearly half of whom faced food insecurity in 2025.

Sydney housing choices are now lifestyle negotiations

The Sydney dream, revised for an actual life

a cow running away from a girl riding a horse on red dirt with dust

At campdraft school, the reins are changing hands

The narrator with her Maa at a traditional Nepalese puja ceremony

What a sari can say before you do

Long-exposure rocky coastal waves at Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast

Bicheno keeps making the welcoming-towns list. I think I know why

What the perimenopause boom is selling women who are already exhausted

Perimenopause supplements and hormone fixes promise clarity, but much of the boom sells tired women certainty where evidence and access stay uneven.

A wool mattress and the sleep story it sells

A therapist listening during a counselling session, reflecting the intimate scale of mental health care behind the global numbers.

A giant mental-health number shrinks in the waiting room

A person reviews blood test results, highlighting questions around vitamin B12 and brain health.

When a normal B12 result stops feeling simple

Beauty products arranged in warm light to illustrate the Marc Jacobs Beauty relaunch feature.

The lipstick drawer remembers Marc Jacobs Beauty

Close-up of a man applying makeup with a brush

The strange vanity of looking untouched

Peptide lip liner and glossy lips close-up

What peptide lip liners are fixing that old lip pencils never could

Hands tipping white capsules onto a pink background, echoing the beauty-supplement promise of an easy hair-growth fix.

The hair-growth aisle loves a false choice

Australian beauty is done buying the dream

Woman drying her hair by a window during a winter morning routine

Winter hair routine mistakes that make dryness feel inevitable

A worker at a desk in a workplace setting.

What disclosing a disability at work costs, and what it shouldn't

Disability disclosure at work still asks employees to price in stigma, even when Australian law says accommodations are the employer's job.

Payroll and superannuation paperwork on a desk

The super rise you notice late, and the payday shift behind it

What the Saturday auction sounded like after investors stepped back

Tax documents and coins on a green desk symbolizing financial planning and savings

The budget just rewrote the super rulebook. Three changes I'd actually pay attention to

Aerial view of suburban rooftops in Collaroy, NSW, with colourful tiled roofs and pockets of green

The Lifestyle Desires brief

Style, food, travel and wellbeing — weekly in your inbox.

The soft-focus language that nearly swallowed Hannah Murray

Horchata slips into the café script

What the perimenopause boom is selling women who are already exhausted

A wool mattress and the sleep story it sells

The sale that makes Everlane feel like a warning

Blundstone spent 150 years perfecting the work boot. Now it wants you to wear a sandal.

When fashion history turns up in a garment bag

Who Australian Fashion Week still imagines into the room

Seersucker is making linen feel slightly uptight

Open plan is not the answer: what three designers who live tiny taught me

What a room reveals when every chair is trying a little harder than comfort

How to style textile art at home without flattening the room

The martini trolley is back, and not ironically

The 2026 travel paperwork to check before you book

What the bathroom floor knows before a trip

Why grief travel is making wellness tell the truth

The Maldives just moved closer to Melbourne

Why Puglia keeps seducing travellers chasing a slower summer

Why the dream weekend now fits in a tiny cabin

The dating app wants to play therapist now

What a mortgage does to the men you date

What a mortgage reveals on a date

The first-date bill keeps auditioning everyone

When the first holiday starts to grade you

The soft-focus language that nearly swallowed Hannah Murray

Bluey was never meant to feel like content slurry

Why Kylie is finally letting the family in

Why Delta Goodrem's Eurovision run felt bigger than nostalgia

Horchata slips into the café script

Melbourne's new Italian rooms want you to stay

Guzman y Gomez could conquer Australia. America was another story.

Steam cooking myths Matt Stone wishes home cooks would drop

Steam isn't the problem. Our kitchen folklore is.

The tomato that makes summer taste real

What Queen Vic's food rescue says about the city Melbourne wants to be

The Sydney dream, revised for an actual life

At campdraft school, the reins are changing hands

What a sari can say before you do

Bicheno keeps making the welcoming-towns list. I think I know why

What the perimenopause boom is selling women who are already exhausted

A wool mattress and the sleep story it sells

A giant mental-health number shrinks in the waiting room

When a normal B12 result stops feeling simple

The lipstick drawer remembers Marc Jacobs Beauty

The strange vanity of looking untouched

What peptide lip liners are fixing that old lip pencils never could

The hair-growth aisle loves a false choice

Australian beauty is done buying the dream

Winter hair routine mistakes that make dryness feel inevitable

What disclosing a disability at work costs, and what it shouldn't

The super rise you notice late, and the payday shift behind it

What the Saturday auction sounded like after investors stepped back

The budget just rewrote the super rulebook. Three changes I'd actually pay attention to

What Birthright gets right about my parents' house

The soft-focus language that nearly swallowed Hannah Murray

Horchata slips into the café script

What the perimenopause boom is selling women who are already exhausted

A wool mattress and the sleep story it sells

Melbourne's new Italian rooms want you to stay

What peptide lip liners are fixing that old lip pencils never could

The strange vanity of looking untouched

A giant mental-health number shrinks in the waiting room

The hair-growth aisle loves a false choice

The Lifestyle Desires brief