Lips as red as blood

Konnichiwa!

Lately my blog has become popular in Japan, which I think is amazing! I love Japan, but it makes me think... Lindsey - is it you?

I am feeling poorly, with an infection and fever, but it's only a cold, so it'll be over soon. I was lucky to escape colds all spring, so it's only fair that summer brings one. I hope you are all doing well though!

I rarely write about makeup even though I love makeup! I especially love lipstick, and mostly red lipstick. Well let me tell you something exciting - I think I've found the best red lipstick out there!

It's from Bésame Cosmetics, and the colour is 1920 Bésame Red. It is a blueish bright red that is a replica on a true colour from 1920. It's very pigmented but still feels creamy on the lips - I love the texture! I can't believe I've gone so long without this magnificent lipstick.

Another thing that I really love about this lipstick is that it leaves a lovely stain on the lips after wearing it. It makes me think that it would look lovely to tint the lips with.

For people in Sweden and probably the rest of Europe, it's unfortunately not possible to order cosmetics from Bésame's own page (really, needs to be fixed imo), but I managed to get the lipstick from Beauty Bay.

This is not a sponsored post, I just really like this lipstick and wanted to share that with you!

Do you have any favourite lipsticks? Any favourite red lipsticks? I'm always looking for different shades of red lipstick. I just love the Snow White look it gives.

Much love,

Midnight Sun

This past Friday was Midsummer's Eve, which we celebrate in a serious way here in Sweden. I wrote about our Midsummer festivities last year in the post Long summer days and berry cakes.

One thing that is essential for Midsommar (as we call it) is strawberries. The prices of Swedish strawberries doubles around the time of Midsummer. No one cares. Strawberries are a must.

This outfit has the same colour scheme of strawberries, with the red and green.
This dress is my first and, so far, only dress from Bernie Dexter. It also happened to be the very first dress that I bought from ModCloth (back when ModCloth sold Bernie Dexter), and it's the dress that introduced me to vintage style. For all of those reasons this dress is one of my favourites.

If you've been following me on Instagram (@curlsncakes) for a long time you might've seen this dress on me previously. It was the dress I was wearing in my first post on Instagram! So this dress means a lot to me.

My sister and I photographed this dress in the evening at around eight or nine pm, but as you can see the sun was still high in the sky. I love summer in northern Sweden. It's bright day and night. The white nights are one of my favourite times of the year.

Hat: Collectif (here)

Dress: Bernie Dexter via ModCloth (old)

Petticoat: ModCloth (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

I hope you all are having a splendid Summer so far!
Much love,

Baking Subscription Box - Bakboxen June 2016

Hello all!
Hope you are doing well.
Today I want to introduce you to my brand new YouTube channel that you can find here.

I was gifted a subscription box called Bakboxen (=The Bake Box) by my sweet sister, and I made a video with her of the unboxing of the box. Bakboxen contains secret recipes, ingredients and tools to bake something that is revealed upon the unboxing of the box.

If you live in Sweden you can subscribe to the box here. And I've seen that this concept of a baking subscription box exists in other places as well, so if this is something you're interested in I would suggest you google it.

If you want to spoil the surprise of what's in the June box then watch the video below:

I hope you enjoyed my first ever video.
Have you ever subscribed to a box? What was it and how did you like it?

Down below are some photos of the contents of Bakboxen of June (so don't look if you don't want to know).

I wish you all an amazing weekend! And to my lovely fellow-Swedes, Glad Midsommar!
Much love,

Waves

Hello all you wonderful people!
Hope you are doing well. I've had a rough week, with a lot of anxiety, and a low mood. Things haven't been as good as I've wanted them to be. Anxiety comes to me at certain times, it just hits me like a big freight train that comes out of nowhere. It is very hard to deal with it, and because of my comorbidity with OCD my anxiety makes my compulsions worse, which makes it feel like I take a step back in my recovery.

What is important to remember with any disease, especially mental health disorders, is that recovery is not linear. It does not go from bad to better and then good. It goes up and down and down and up, constantly changing like waves. With chronic illnesses like a lot of mental health disorders - complete recovery and being "cured" is not a possibility and accepting that takes time. I feel like I have come to terms with OCD, anxiety and depression being a constant part of my life, but I still get weighed down when I have a dip.

I don't really know where I wanted to go with this post, I just want to be honest on the blog, and I want it to be clear that I don't always feel okay. And it's okay not to feel okay. Be kind to yourself, especially when you are feeling bad.

I am personally feeling loads better, the intensity of my anxiety has decreased. I had a great Friday evening and I just wanted to thank all those people who wrote kind and caring words to me during this hard week.

I hope you will all have a fantastic weekend! I am going to rest myself so that I am ready for next week! What are your weekend plans?

Blouse: Chicwish (old)

Skirt: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Petticoat: ModCloth (here)

Heels: BAIT footwear via Unique Vintage (here)

About the outfit, real quickly. I wore my lovely red Vivien of Holloway circle skirt again (last time), but I paired it with an old batwinged blouse from Chicwish. Finally I added some Ione heels from BAIT that are both comfy and so pretty. The inspiration behind this outfit was again the character Ann from Roman Holiday played by the one and only Audrey Hepburn. This was inspired by her outfit pre-makeover.

Take care of yourselves and each other!

Much love,

Style Icon: Elizabeth Powell from "Breathless"

Hello all you lovely people!
It is time for another one of my Style Icons!

The style icon of today is another fictional character (surprise surprise) from the ITV period drama Breathless, that only ran for one series in 2013. The series is set in early 1960's England and revolves around the lives of a group of doctors and nurses at a gynaecology ward. It stars great actors and the show started very well, however the plot was lacking, it was a bit stupid and I understand why it wasn't picked up for a second series. However, it is a beautiful series visually. I wouldn't recommend you to watch it if it wasn't for the amazing, suave look of the show. The costumes are amazing and I've found not one, but two style icons in this series.

We'll start with the character Elizabeth Powell played by Natasha Little. Elizabeth is the wife of chief gynaecological surgeon Otto Powell and she's everything you'd expect of a doctor's wife in the 1960's. She's elegant and ladylike and it shows in her wardrobe. Since it is set in the early 1960's there is still some influence of the 1950's look, at least in the clothes of Elizabeth who would be a bit old-fashioned and modest.

Elizabeth wears beautiful, classic dresses and coats, and has a very glamorous air about her. The white dress with a black floral pattern (seen below) has been a favourite dress of mine since I saw it, I find myself still thinking about this dress, and I am very happy to say that I have something quite similar to it, that I have yet to wear. She also wears a lot of dainty gloves and has some beautiful details to her outfits.

I was very inspired by Elizabeth's style when watching Breathless. I find myself trying to emulate her outfits whenever I can. So I won't say you need to watch Breathless, it's not that good, but if you're looking to get a bit of vintage inspiration it is good.

Hope you all are having a great week.
Much love,

"Your Sunny, Funny Face"

Hello all you lovely people!
Hope you are all having a splendid Saturday filled with joy and sunshine!

I straightened my hair to cut the ends today, but while my hair was straight I decided to try to recreate the look of Audrey Hepburn's character Jo Stockton in Funny Face. I got inspiration from the publicity photos of Jo in a black turtleneck and the scene where she dances in the café.

This post will mostly be me sharing portrait photos of myself, because if I'm honest I think I look rather pretty. I'm not quite sure if I managed to get Audrey's look. I think I look much more like Lily Collins in that photoshoot where they made her to look like Audrey, so at least I'm halfway there.

Audrey's eye and eyebrows were her most prominent features, and while I have quite big doe-eyes, my eyebrows are lacking a bit, so I decided to fill them in for these photos. I want to take this opportunity to ask the makeup-wearing people out there what they use for their eyebrows? Pencils or otherwise? I've never used an eyebrow pencil, and in these photos I filled in my brows with a black pencil eyeliner (hehe). But what should I look for in good eyebrow makeup? Help a girl out. Favourite brands/products? Please tell me in the comments.

I wish you all a beautiful weekend, go watch Funny Face if you haven't (and if you have watch it again!), you won't regret it.

Much love,