My everyday jewelry as an extreme accessory minimalist

I have been meaning to talk about my favorite dainty, simple jewelry for some time now. Having a capsule wardrobe is all about limiting closet choices to your favorites and wearing them again and again, but up until a few years ago I mostly had jewelry I thought was so-so, jewelry I hadn’t picked, and jewelry I hadn’t worn in forever. So today I’m discussing how I cleaned out my collection, learned to pick what I want, and how I manage jewelry minimalism these days! Plus, some mini-reviews of jewelry from brands you might have seen floating around online, including GLDN, Monica Vinader, and Mejuri.

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I don’t know about you, but 2009-2013 for me were the years of the statement necklace. I have chunky J. Crew jewelry (please tell me you had one that was a bunch of crystal flowers??), Forever 21 impulse buys (whyyyy all the owl pendants) and the infamous Madewell arrow pendant (ok I still own that one). But the truth was, I didn’t reach for my jewelry that often and it mostly gathered dust.

There was plenty of jewelry I wanted to have, but most of it was incredibly simple, and, for some reason, I never bothered to buy it. I have no idea why some closet categories fall into this trap for me: I’ll buy myself pretty much any striped shirt I want, but a $50 necklace? Nooo.

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The way I shifted this mindset was that I basically started asking for jewelry as gifts, mostly from Trevor, but also from my parents. I embraced that I was extremely picky and started sending them hints for reasonably priced necklaces and earrings (because my mom, as wonderful as she is, has picked out some truly random jewelry for me over the years).

This is an approach I’ve been using for 3-ish years now and I now have a collection of everyday small jewelry that goes with everything. Here are some of my favorite pieces and why I love them.

GLDN: I have 4 necklaces from GLDN now, because they’re reasonably priced, dainty, and hold up well to everyday wear. I have had 0 problems with any of them and I’m not particularly nice to my jewelry–I do wipe it off with a soft cloth mayyybe once every 3 months (and I take it off before showers or exercise). I’ve loved this chain or this one, plus this pendant. That’s what I wear most days!

Mejuri: Every influencer ever influenced me to try Mejuri and I asked for these small hoops for Christmas last year. I thought they would be a bit more of a huggie style and tbh I haven’t been wowed by them. They don’t have a hinge so you just have to stretch the earring back to get the post in place, which is sooo difficult I don’t even bother doing that these days. Now that I’m writing this I’m realizing I should just part with this pair.

Monica Vinader: I just received two pairs of Monica Vinader earrings to try out and I love them BOTH. The first pair, and winner of my heart, are these rose gold huggies. I think these are my new everyday upgrade because they’re lightweight and feel very secure, plus rose gold is my jam, I don’t care what Gen Z has to say about it.

I also tried these link earrings. They’re a very subtle statement, but bigger for everyday wear. Plus, they match my chain necklace so they make me feel like a fancy lady. I do have a discount code for 20% off with this company if you’d like to try anything out using code US20RAFINSIDER-A752

Madewell: Ok, Madewell isn’t a small company but many of my favorite earrings come from them! I’m on my second pair of these studs. They hold up for a few years but my first pair did lose a stone at one point, so maybe it’s time I invest in a bit higher quality pair like this? But they’re nice if you worry about expensive jewelry.

That’s my collection so far! Do you have any cherished everyday jewelry items? I would love to hear!

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