Stockholm Shopping: What to Buy When in Stockholm

When I left for Stockholm I brought with me the idea of leaving some time for shopping around the city even though I told myself I wouldn’t be a good girl and wouldn’t spend all my earnings. Thus, between a museum and a boat tour, I squeezed in some nordic shops and this is my little but precious booty.

BEAUTY:

After some demanding weeks in the office I couldn’t avoid a visit at The Body Shop for THE precious Tea Tree Oil, one of the best weapons against all the skin flaws that usually come around as soon as you relax and move away from the everyday stress.  This, you guys, is a miracle oil that helps preventing any imperfections and acts against the results of squeezed spots thanks to the tea tree oil’s antibacterial properties. Very important as well, it doesn’t leave any dark halo on the skin after the spot has gone, which I found out happens with other brands’ oils. So this had to be mine again!

After I finished mine half way through the week (merciless dry Swedish weather), I also got a repair hair conditioner for coloured hair, the Rainforest Radiance Conditioner by The Body Shop. Light and with a delicate fragrance, it requires some additional help with other products before the styling but I do like it as it won’t add too much weight on the hair.

Given the strong and unusual (so they say!) wind that hit the city while we were visiting, my hair required some additional care, so at KIKS (the main Stockholm’s beauty store, like Boots in the UK and Sephora in Italy) I got Aussie’s Miracle Recharge Moisture. I must say that Aussie has always been a safe haven for me since the Mancunian days. And this product just confirmed it again with its lovely clean fragrance and the ability to moisturise my hair without making the scalp greasy. I’m still using it after Stockholm and my trip to the mountains and I’m still loving it even in the hot weather of Venice. It might not be enough for this autumn, but for now I’m very happy with it.

And then you know, nail varnish pots are small and can be easily stored in a suitcase. I had to bring home two nail polishes and I chose these two by KIKS in the colour Frozen and Merlot. I’ve only managed to try Frozen and I love the colour for summer even though you definitely need to apply two thick layers in order to have a nice consistent light blue. This makes the application somehow difficult as it’s quite easy to end up with the varnish too dense to avoid stripes in the product. All in all, I wouldn’t award it with an A, but it lasts many days, so I’ll try Merlot for the final verdict.

DESIGN:

On the furniture & home design matter, I have to admit I could have taken everything home with me. I visited the great classics such as H&M Home (it’s Swedish after all!) and Zara Home as well as concept stores such as Designtorget, Illums Bolighus and Design House Stockholm (lower ground floor of NK shopping centre – Stockholm city centre). Stockholm anyway hosts a number of design and furniture stores as well as a specific design museum, the Moderna Museet, so if you plan to visit the city I definitely recommend reserving some time to enjoy the Nordic design and culture.  From H&M Home I got a cute wooden box painted in white which we’ll use as a fruit holder + a Cotton Flower candle whose perfume gets me crazy… Once again a fresh and clean essence, who would have thought!?

CREATIVITY:

Between Fotografiska and Moderna Museet, I let some room for creativity and I bought “Once Upon a Time I Was…” by Lavinia Bakker, a cute little book that the reader needs to complete with experiences, thoughts and ideas him/herself. I’ve always liked this kind of books that leave space for self-expression, like the ones by Keri Smith, as they will force me to think out of the box and escape the everyday routine if you want! On the same level, at Moderna Museet I discovered the Washout Fabric Pens by Eatsleepdoodle, a nice idea to make dinners enjoyable for kids. As these are 100% washable markers for cotton fabrics, I thought why not give it a go for events with friends and happyhours at home? Particularly during the holidays, so that we could personalise the table with a Christmas tree or nice messages and make the moment even nicer. I will have though to try and use these markers on a tiny fabric piece before doodle oll over a nice tablecloth as in the beginning this product actually came with its specific tablecloth but I didn’t like its notepad-like square pattern. I will let you know how it goes!

FOOD:

Finally, for the foodie-section, we got nuts and hit many restaurants (read more on my tips and tricks on where you can eat in Stockholm) but we didn’t take much at home except for Wasa Sandwiches, crackers filled with Cheese & Chives, Cheese & Tomatoes & Basil, Cheese, and Yoghurt which got our hears. We could have brought Surströmming too (a typical dish made of long-fermented anchovies), but I heard horrible stories about their smell and I gave up!