Accessories Accede: Swedish Sweeties is Deco Domination

Q&A On Silja Symphony

Do you collect local handcraft souvenir?

Indeed, especially if the craftsmanship is exquisite, the size is rather mini and the price is not too outrageous. For examples, I love Russian doll from St. Petersburg (by courtesy of parents), rooster stand-up made in Portugal, and hooray, Swedish Dala mini horse!

How do you search the information of any other local souvenir?

Before travelling, no matter if it is a weekend holiday or a grand tour, I always purchase a paperback travel guide to develop the mood, at the same time acquire the basic knowledge of the language. This reading is my pre-souvenir before on the road, which providing souvenir recommendations from the editors/authors. When the departure date is approaching, I search some random travel bloggers’ posts and make my own conclusion. Notice that if some bloggers post very similar choices to each others’, meaning that probably they travel with the tour group and passively shop at cooperation vendors, because not everyone is devotedly crazy about collecting Starbucks city coffee cups.

✔Chanel Le Vernis long wear #516 Marinière is my new bluish collection of nail polish. I adore Chanel cosmetics collection so much, that the richness of the colour and the easy brush application take the great part of my admiration, of course the black-and-white-plus-gold packaging always capture my intensive attention.

✔Swedish Dala Horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden horse statuette originating in Swedish province Dalarna. It was mostly used as a toy for children, or a pastime hobby during the dark winter season; now it has become a symbol of Sweden since 1716, a beloved souvenir to attract visitors around the world. The wood from which carved into Dala horse is from the pine forest around Lake Silijan, through hand carving, priming, smoothing, polishing, sanding, painting and varnishing, no two Dala horse are exactly alike. My choice of 7cm height horse is 125 Krona from a lovely boutique, the mini 4cm one is 60 Krona found unexpectedly at a small Kiosk where I also choose the postcards. They like parent and child side by side, approach to somewhere out there together.

✔BYREDO, abbreviated from ‘By Redolence’, founded in 2006 by Ben Gorham, a native Swede with Indian and Canadian descends, graduated from Stockholm Art School. A chance meeting with perfumer Pierre Wulff that makes Gorham into the universe of fragrance, with the world renowned perfumers Olivia Giacobetti and Jerome Epinette, Byredo’s scented candles and perfumes using simple composition of the highest quality raw materials, have been developed with an understated approach. At NK department store, I choose Burning Rose (70g) fragranced candle and Gypsy Water hand cream (30ml). The packaging of Byredo reaches up to a luxurious experience: A paper cover carved with arte nouveau pattern, after the removal, the white cardboard box printed the big letter ‘B’ atop. The candle glass is in matte iron black, and gives a fresh sniff already without kindling it up.

TIP 1: Choose the Dala horse with rich painting colours, try your bargain luck at some mini Kiosk.

TIP 2: Purchase the cosmetics/skincare on board (cruise) since it’s duty free!