celebrity shopping

What Lauv Can’t Live Without

Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photo: Clare Gillen

If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hair spray and the electric toothbrush. We asked musician Lauv — whose newest song,All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love),” came out today — about the calming app he uses to focus, the coffee that kicked his energy-drink habit, and the “genius” floss he can’t live without.

I got into bamboo toothbrushes for the first time while I was staying at a hotel a couple of years ago. There was something about the vibe of it — I think mainly the material — that hooked me. The bamboo has a nice, natural feel to it. The only toothbrushes I’ve used in the past were the plastic ones that my dentist gave me in goodie bags at the end of my cleanings, so this is definitely an upgrade. I also like how soft the bristles are and that my teeth feel really clean after using it. Plus, it’s better for the environment.

I discovered Cocofloss about six months ago. It’s hard to make floss look like a fun thing to do, but they did it with how they packaged everything in bright colors and with different flavors. It’s a pretty genius idea. I love their whole look. I’ve used their orange, which was weird, so I usually stick with mint. The trick to flossing is having the right technique, and luckily, I have great technique.

This replaces me cracking open a super-strong energy drink in the morning — I was going crazy with those for a while. Now, I drink La Colombe every morning and sometimes a couple times a day. (I’m actually drinking one right now.) I like most of their flavors, but I typically buy the black unsweetened ones. It has undertones that are a bit chocolate-y. All I add is my own oat milk to make a good ol’ cold-brew-oat-milk latte. I’m not a coffee snob or anything, but La Colombe is a couple levels up from Starbucks — no shade to them.

From $13

I think I discovered this on TikTok, but it’s become a big staple in the past six to eight months. I do a lot of YouTube meditations and sometimes guide myself, but Mesmerize is dope because it gives you these gorgeous visualizers that literally mesmerize you. They remind me of those old iTunes trippy visualizer videos. The visuals are paired with different audios — background ambient music or guided spoken meditations. I use it for both, sometimes to look at and have background music or I’ll actually do an “Overcoming Anxiety” meditation. I also close my eyes when I meditate, but this reminds me that there’s a way to visually stimulate yourself that actually soothes you instead of making you more scattered. It sounds weird, but after five or ten minutes of doing this, it’s almost like the [field] of my vision shrinks into focus. I feel a lot calmer.

I have two teacup Pomeranians — Billy and Harry. My two little guys are very cute. Billy’s been on tour with me before, but I got Harry during COVID, so we’ll have to see how he does. Traveling with them can be challenging, so I like to have something as cozy as possible for them. There are so many dog carriers out there, but this one’s great because it has a lot of padding and opens to fold out. It’s convenient so my dogs can lay out. Both Billy and Harry have their own, and it’s nice knowing that they’re comfortable.

These are the most comfortable shoes ever. I wear them everywhere. I’ve had upwards of 50 pairs in all sorts of different versions or I’ve even painted them myself. I painted a pair blue when I was touring around my first project, I met you when I was 18. The blue matched my artwork and everything involving that project. I think I became obsessed with Air Forces back in 2017 or 2018. For a while it was the only shoe I’d wear. Still to this day, I wear them at least 50 percent of the time. I tend to wear straight leg pants, and the way the pants fall onto these is really nice. They’re stylistically versatile. I dress them up and down, and they last a long time.

This is an interesting poetry book that I keep in my studio along with other random books. A friend of mine actually wrote it, but I didn’t get a copy until years after it came out, and it’s become a staple. It’s a mixture between little thoughts and more deep poetry, but it’s all beautifully written. It’s a great source of entertainment on those late nights when I’m hanging out with friends and we just read through parts of it. I love the poem “You Stole My Snacks But I’m Okay With It” because like the book in general, it’s funny but at the same time, romantic and inspiring.

I have a couple of these in my studio now. My favorite one’s blue with a gorgeous pearl texture. So many of my songs have this guitar on them. I bring it on tour, too, because it sounds amazing live. And I like that it’s really light — that way I can jump around on stage because I definitely like to go crazy on stage.

As someone who produces a lot of my own music, this is an amazing, tiny thing to travel with while still being super-powerful. I bring it along with me if I’m going to make music with someone and don’t want to lug around a bunch of equipment. It’s easy to travel with, but I also use it in the studio. I love all the features it has. One random one that I’ve enjoyed is that you can tap into the FM radio around you, record it into the synth, and chop it up to make a beat or synth sound out of it. I started using this synth as I was finishing my latest album, and I used it to add in a couple of weird sounds. It was last minute, as we were finishing the album. I was like, Wait, this needs one more thing. And that thing was this synth.

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What Lauv Can’t Live Without