Salty & Unbothered is the Mermaid Dayz collection for the face she makes before anyone has asked her anything. There is no octopus with a list here, no suitor with flowers, no plate to guard. Just her, a rock or a dock, a pair of sunglasses, and an expression that has already decided how today is going to go.
The face
Start with the look itself. Side-Eye Siren rests her chin on her hand with a crab in the water below and the expression of someone waiting for a better offer. Salty On Purpose perches on a black rock with a pink cocktail and the words written small beneath the waterline, so nobody mistakes it for an accident. Salty Not Sorry holds a martini and says hard pass in script. Find Another Rock is stretched out full length with a crab at the base, because this one is taken. Literally Chilled answers a crab's tiny you need to chill sign with the fact that she is, literally. Resting Beach Face Mask takes the phrase at its word: a green face mask, cucumber slices over the eyes, a cocktail balanced in one hand and a crab keeping watch. Saltwater Side Eye is the one where a dolphin splashes her float and the little pink umbrella does not move.
The ocean did her hair
The ocean does her hair and she does not argue. Bad Hair, Good Pour takes a windblown blonde to a buoy with a martini and calls it even. Salty Volume Diva has a hot pink tail, a mane full of seaweed and the correction that it is called ocean volume. Took All Tide leans on the dock post while a crab suggests it looks bad, which she takes as proof of the effort, and Zero Care Siren closes the subject from the edge of the dock: sea hair, zero care.
Just the words
Some designs skip the mermaid entirely and let a tail do the talking. Salty & Unbothered curls a coral tail through teal lettering. Salty Siren Energy reads too salty to care, Salty Siren Warning says not to test the waters with a tiny red crab at the bottom, and Zero Flukes Given is currently not caring, in purple. Resting Beach Face is the words, a pink tail and a pair of sunglasses, and nothing else needed saying.
For the woman with no notes
This is for the woman whose calm is not a phase and whose side-eye has ended arguments she was not part of. She is not upset. She is at the beach, and this is her face. She will find the one that says what she has been saying all along, pick a second for the friend who says it louder, and go back to the rock. The dolphin can keep splashing. The umbrella stays where it is.
Written by Mari Bennett. Thanks for reading.