Morning After Dread: Understanding Hanxiety and What Helps
A clear guide to navigating post-drinking anxiety, body signals, science-backed coping tools and the products that can help
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Your pounding headache and rising nausea jolt you awake long before your alarm.
Your chest feels tight, a knot of dread coils in your gut and a single thought crawls in: did I say or do something embarrassing last night? Is it as bad as I think?
This experience — a signature blend of hangover and anxiety, now lovingly referred to as hanxiety — is familiar to many, especially after nights of heavy drinking, when physical and psychological distress overlap.
Hangxiety symptoms can include the obligatory nausea, shakiness, headaches, etc. paired with racing thoughts, shame, regret and fixation on what could have gone wrong the night before, often worsening as blood alcohol drops and brain chemistry rebalance begins.
It doesn’t help that, even on a good day, anxiety disorders are common with over 359M people worldwide affected and counting according to the World Health Organization. Adding stressors such as sleep loss and dehydration to a possibly already-anxious foundation can be challenging.
If you find the morning after harder than the night before, you are far from alone — here is what to do next.
Heretics and Headliners: The Women Who Rewired Rock
From the architects to the agitators shaping the genre now
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Right now feels different.
Not quieter, not softer, not diluted; but, volcanic and disruptive.
Women are not entering rock again. They are reclaiming it, backed by decades of women who screamed into rooms that were never built to hold them.
Women have been consistently ranked among the most influential rock musicians of all time, with Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and Joan Jett shaping entire movements rather than moments.
Today, that lineage is no longer symbolic. It is audible in festival lineups, metal charts, touring rosters and a new generation of artists whose rage is articulate, intentional and unapologetically feminine.
This is not a revival. It is an expansion.
The Year the Noise Comes Home: Must-See Rock, Metal & Alt Tours of 2026
A field guide to the tours and festivals defining the year ahead
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There is a difference between hearing a song and feeling it pulse in your chest.
Live music collapses the distance between sound and self, turning memory into muscle and strangers into co-conspirators.
This year’s calendar is stacked with festivals that feel mythic, tours that read like cultural milestones and one-off shows that you’ve got to see.
We’ve curated a list of confirmed festivals, announced tours and verified 2026 performances, alongside anticipated moments already lighting up ticket platforms.
See you there.
House of Steam: Inside Canada’s Most Haunting Winter Hydro Spas
The Canadian winter is a creature of contrast: frozen air that bites, trees stripped to bone, stillness that feels older than snow.
Step into steam rising against that cold, and the world realigns — warmth unfurls muscle tension and settles thought like a cathedral organ.
Outdoor hydrotherapy in the depth of winter feels mythical. Water that heats the skin becomes a balm, cold plunges elicit a sharp intake of breath and the virgin white surroundings focus every sensory moment.
This is not mere relaxation; it is a pilgrimage into sensation, a communion with heat and ice that feels sacred.
Hide Under the Covers: A Goth-Coded Psychological Thriller Watchlist
Fourteen films designed to unsettle the mind
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
National Cuddle Up Day (January 6) does not necessarily require sweetness. It asks for closeness, lowered lights and something unsettling enough to make you pull the blankets higher.
Psychological thrillers thrive in this space.
They trade jump scares for tension, spectacle for intimacy, comfort for proximity; these are films that crawl under the skin slowly.
The Mind, Reframed: A Watchlist Inside the Psyche on Screen
How 26 films portray mental health, harm and healing
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Film has long been fascinated with the complicated workings of our inner selves. The portrayal of mental health on screen ranges from being cast as mirror for our deepest fears to empathetically-driven epilogs or funhouse distortions, depending on who is telling the story.
Some narratives offer care and complexity, while others lean into spectacle at the expense of truth.
This watchlist examines how mental health is framed across genres, decades and tones, from compassion to controversy.
End the Year with Grace: A Conversation with a Modern Mystic, Molly Zancanaro
Reflections on revelation, Reiki and the rituals that bridge one year to the next
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The year ends softly for those who know how to listen. The light thins, and time seems to breathe between hours.
We spoke with a modern mystic, Molly Zancanaro, about the quiet work of closing the year with grace and intention. Her practice blends spiritual intuition with energy work. Specializing in Reiki healing and tarot, she reminds others that ending the year doesn’t mean that we have to resolve the past to move forward; but simply release carrying what no longer belongs with us.
In this conversation, she shares her story of self discovery and finding her online community, and then invites us to peak behind the curtain of a session to gain a deeper understanding of the energy and intuitive work she does. She also shares a simple ritual we can each use to welcome the new year as 2025 comes to a close.
Close the Circle: An Intentional Guide to Ending the Year with Grace
A ritual roadmap for stepping into 2026 with purpose
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Endings are their own kind of magic. The final page turns, the season dims, we feel that soft weight lift of what must fade away.
Make your final act of 2025 one of an acknowledgement of the lessons you’ve learned this year and a seed for what you’ll cultivate next.
In this guide you’ll find ritual ideas, prompt tools and a mystic tech stack to help you release 2025 and step into 2026 with clarity.
The 2026 Gothic Watchlist: Goth-Coded Film and Television
A year of unhinged storytelling and sequels for the darkly inclined.
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The year ahead looks deliciously chaotic, which is exactly what we want from our screens. Hollywood is still deep in its remake era, and 2026 leans into the trend with a slate that feels theatrical in all the right ways.
Wuthering Heights rises first with a fresh retelling that promises stormy obsession. Scream 7 follows with blood and meta bravado. The Bride builds upon 2025’s luxurious, heartbreaking retelling of Frankenstein. The Devil Wears Prada makes a high-fashion comeback. The Odyssey gets a modern edge. And, Practical Magic stirs again with renewed enchantment.
Television keeps pace as familiar worlds expand with new chapters. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adds fresh armour to the Game of Thrones universe. Bridgerton heats up the winter with season four. Euphoria descends later in the year with a long-awaited third season already subject to fan-fic plot theory. House of the Dragon storms again in June. And, The White Lotus is rumoured to be shooting it’s next season in France.
It’s a lineup built for nostalgia, inviting your favourite characters and stories to curl up with you on the couch.
Prompt Journals for an Intentional 2026
Pages that quiet the noise and give you space to map out your style with dark, feminine aesthetic
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There’s a journal for nearly every facet of your life this year (and beyond). We have curated titles for everything from wellness to witchery, healing to personal growth, sensuality to shadow work, cooking and travel.
Choose what matters most to you and give it a place to land with intention.
The right journal becomes a lethal accomplice, every entry pulling you a little closer to the person you’re becoming and meant to be.
Violent Hearts: 12 Action-Soaked Love Stories for the Darkly Romantic
From True Romance to The Killer, these films prove that devotion and destruction often share the same heartbeat
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Love doesn’t always show up with a boombox and a song. Sometimes, it screams through smoke, gunfire, broken glass and certain destruction.
Violent Hearts is a collection for those who crave their romance with consequence—where obsession feels like fate, and tenderness hides behind a trigger finger.
These aren’t horror films, exactly. They’re stories where love is both weapon and wound.
Paper Cuts: The Sharpest Magazine Subscriptions for 2026
A canon of moody reading for an elegant year ahead
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There’s a distinct thrill in finding a fresh issue waiting on your doorstep, its glossy pages still cool from the morning air. You flip it open and feel that familiar pull—a monthly ritual that settles beside you like a well-dressed companion. Your drink your coffee. Or tea. Or something stronger. The world softens as you read, and the conversation expands until you feel like you’re sitting with an entire community all at once.
A magazine can do that. It can widen the doorway the moment you leave it open a crack. It can remind you that inspiration can arrive bound, printed and right on time.
Here are our curations, chosen for the gothic archetype that shapes your story.
Holiday Movies for the Darkly Inclined
A cinematic feast of noir, nostalgia and winter mischief
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Not everyone feels drawn to the holidays for the sparkle alone — some settle into December with a taste for darker comforts and a preference for stories that don’t pretend that everything is neat and merry.
These are the long nights claimed by the darkly nostalgic, the romantic dark femmes that enjoy pouring a drink and queuing up some atmosphere.
If you’d rather watch a winter tale with teeth, tenderness and a touch of backtalk, this list is for you.
Deliveries from the Dark: Subscription Boxes Worth Unboxing in 2026
Because indulgence, ritual and surprise should arrive right at your door
There’s magic in the sound of a package arriving at the door — a small reminder that care can be delivered too.
Subscription boxes offer more than convenience. They save time, ease decision fatigue and carve joy into the ordinary.
For the gothic and creatively inclined, they also serve as ritual. Each box is a curated surprise, a celebration of taste and intention. Whether filled with skincare, coffee, lingerie or whiskey, these subscriptions embody a kind of modern self-care — one that honours authenticity.
Below, we’ve rounded up the best subscription boxes to consider in 2026, each offering indulgence delivered to your door.
When the Light Fades: Navigating Seasonal Affective Disorder in the Alt Community
Even creatures of the night need the sun sometimes (don’t tell anyone though lol)
The Darkness We Don’t Romanticize
For many in the alternative world, winter feels familiar. We dress in black, light candles instead of lamps and linger in quiet places where others might crave brightness. But when daylight fades early and mood follows, the line between aesthetic darkness and emotional struggle begins to blur.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is more than a seasonal dip in energy. It’s a clinical condition linked to reduced sunlight and changes in circadian rhythm.
Within the alt community, the impact can hide in plain sight — masked by humour, filtered through our existing aesthetic or mistaken for “commitment to the bit.”
What starts as solitude can quietly turn into isolation.
Books That Bleed: Rock’s Rawest Biographies
From motel rooms to myth, these volumes capture the confessional poetry of rock’s wildest icons
Rock culture has always blurred the line between performance and peril. Behind every guitar riff and blackout headline lies a story written in sweat and survival.
The best rock biographies don’t romanticize destruction — they study it. They show how chaos becomes craft, and how even the most reckless souls seek redemption.
Below, we’ve curated a blood-soaked canon — memoirs and biographies that refuse to sanitize their legends. Each book reveals a different version of the muse, the monster, the masterpiece.
Daughters of Darkness: 6 Female-Led Heavy Metal Bands to Blow Out Your Speakers
From stage to altar, these five women are rewiring modern metal
Heavy metal music has always been an anthem for rebellion. It growls against conformity and aches towards something primal. In the hands of women, this genre grows in depth, becoming an outlet for oppression, a ritual for rage and expectation, a pulse for pain.
In a scene built by men, these artists didn’t ask to be let in. They kicked in the fucking door.
To hear them is catharsis incarnate.
Each of these women — these conquerers — has helped reshape the genre, paving the way for artists and fans to come.
On National Metal Day (November 11), The Lace Ledger honours five dark femmes who forged their own mythology: Taylor Momsen, Maria Brink, Kelsy Karter, Lizzy Hale, Chelsea Wolfe and Jyl + Jules Wylde.
Each transformed darkness into devotion, casting from the chaos of those who came before and evolving it into something sacred. Their work will reverberate through generations.
The Unlikely Icons Who Shaped Baby Goth Girls (Millennial Edition)
From Sitcom Sidekicks to Animated Outcasts, These are the Characters and Celebs Who Gave Us Permission to Be Strange
Every goth girl has a story of initiation. It wasn’t always the black eyeliner, the lace corset, or the Nine Inch Nails CD that did it — sometimes the first spark was subtler.
The way we gravitated toward the sarcastic friend instead of the bubbly lead. The way we secretly wanted to be the villainess, not the princess. The way our hearts beat faster at a girl with strange hair, a biting wit, or a dangerous streak.
These were the warning signs of a budding goth: you didn’t want to be Lizzie McGuire, you wanted to be Xena the Warrior Princess, flinging around your Mum’s cross-stitching hoops and calling out her iconic battle cry. You started wearing short shorts and styling your hair like Lara Croft, eager to solve ancient mysteries at a fever-pitch pace. And when everyone else was laughing at Dee Dee wrecking Dexter’s lab, you thought: she’s chaos incarnate, and I love her for it.
Pop culture of the 1990s and early 2000s was full of unconventional female figures — women and girls who weren’t marketed as goth, but who cracked something open for baby goth millennials. They gave us permission to be weird, dark and clever. In hindsight, they were archetypal teachers, each aligning with one of The Lace Ledger’s darkly glamorous gothic archetypes.
Countdown with Decadence: 30 Goth-Coded Advent Calendars for the Darkly Inclined
Because anticipation is an art
Advent began as a solemn Christian countdown — a quiet preparation for light’s return in the depths of winter.
Over time, it became a calendar of joy and curiosity: small doors concealing chocolates, charms or treasures to mark each day until Christmas.
In recent years, the tradition has evolved into an indulgence for adults. Beyond simple chocolate treats, there is a wide variety advents for fragrance lovers, fashion collectors, whisky enthusiasts, beauty devotees and more. It’s a modern ritual of slow pleasure — each day revealing a spark of delight in the dark season.
For the gothic soul, advent is more than countdown; it’s ceremony. A daily offering of mystery and sensory indulgence.
Below, we have curated this year’s 30 most covetable calendars through an alternative lens — moody, opulent, utterly irresistible.
Walking After Midnight: Tools to Keep You Safe as the Nights Grow Long
Because empowerment is the most elegant accessory of all
As the days shorten and twilight lingers, many women quietly change their routes or keep a friend on the phone until they’re home. It’s not paranoia — it’s pattern. According to a 2023 Gallup survey, 60% of women in North America report feeling unsafe walking alone at night, compared to 25% of men. The numbers echo across Canada as well, where one in three women say they’ve experienced harassment or intimidation in public spaces (Statistics Canada, 2022).
For those who find beauty in moonlight, the goal isn’t to retreat from the dark — it’s to move through it wisely.
Safety is a staple. Preparation is power.
Below are tools that blend protection with subtlety, designed to help you walk safely after midnight without surrendering your freedom.