art · luxury

My Time With Yves

I would love to give you a bunch of captions, but this was an exhibit that had to be EXPERIENCED. Writing about it just doesn’t do it justice.

Yves St. Laurent “The Perfection of Style” was a perfectly balanced exhibition. Gorgeous outfits, lots of his personal notes, video clips, and great biographical information. I’ll post some of my favorite photos from the exhibit, but be warned: photos really can’t capture the genius that was YSL. Enjoy!

luxury

Review: Kimberly New York “Dimple” Perfume

I scoured the Internet to find some indie perfumes to try. I love beautiful scents and I was eager for a fragrance that would be unusual but have some staying power.

Enter Kimberly New York perfumes. The scents have adorable names – Artsy, Bubble, Dimples, and Poetry – and my interest was piqued.

Fortuitously enough, the perfumer had a sale on the scent “Dimple”, so I purchased the full sized “Dimple” perfume, as well as the “Spring Street” 4-vial set, which had trial amounts of all four fragrances.

While I did purchase only one full sized perfume, I had a chance to wear them all, so I will review the entire line, but give my most in-depth opinions about “Dimple”.

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Here is “Dimple” ‘s description, straight from the Kimberly New York website:

SEXY. EDIBLE. WARM.

Dark chocolate almond biscotti, and mint chips snuggle sweetly. “Dimple” is as alluring as a heartfelt smile. 

Notes: 
top – mint 
middle – sprinkled sugar cookie 
base – dark chocolate

I can comfortably state that I smelled all of these essences in the perfume. The chocolate base reminded me a bit of Thierry Mugler’s “Angel”, but the mint top note was a refreshing spin. Honestly, when I first sniffed Dimple, I immediately thought of my favorite ice cream, Mint Chocolate Chip.

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I wore it and LOVED it. I asked a few men what they thought of the smell, and they gave it a thumbs up, too!

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Here are some of my takeaways from this line:

Pros: This line ships SUPER fast. I had my products within 3 business days. The products were affordable ($15 for the vial set, and $45 [regular price] for the full-sized fragrances). Also, the perfume bottle and promotional inserts/materials were attractive.

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Cons: You can’t accurately gauge the sillage of some of the fragrances using the “Spring Street” vial set. These are eau de parfums, but when I wore “Artsy”, I noticed that I could barely smell it on my skin. I applied nearly half of the vial initially, and then I had to reapply every two hours (normal reapplication for eau de parfums is about 4 hours). Funny enough, I wore “Bubble” and the sillage seemed more accurate (only used about 1/3 of the bottle, and I could smell it with ease).

In addition, you MUST reapply during the day. I’ll admit: wearing more luxurious fragrances spoiled me a bit LOL! I don’t have to reapply my higher-end perfumes very often. But these needed to be reapplied every 4 hours, or the scent would be lost. That’s not a “con”, per se, but just something to note.

 

Overall opinion? I’d definitely order again, and I’m looking forward to trying all of the fragrances. And when I do, I’ll be sure to review them!

luxury

Christie’s to Auction Audrey Hepburn Memorabilia

Vintage cinema fans, time to rejoice! Christie’s (the prestigious auction house) will be auctioning off clothing and personal items owned by Audrey Hepburn. The bids are estimated to start as low as $130 for some items, while other items are expected to fetch over $100,000.

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(image courtesy of Movie Gazette Online)

 

The auction will occur both live and online. The live auction will occur on September 27, 2017, at 8 King Street, St. James’s, in London. The online auction will start on September 19 and end on October 3, 2017.

If you want to see the collection before the auction, you can visit the exhibition while it tours. The tours are as follows (information courtesy of the Christie’s website):

Tour dates

Hong Kong
Viewing Dates: 1 – 8 September
The LANDMARK Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong

Los Angeles
Viewing dates: 11 – 14 September
Christie’s LA, 336 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

The auction catalog can also be purchased for $25: Audrey Hepburn Collection Auction Catalog.

I enjoyed reading Christie’s touching biography of Audrey. You can check it out here.

I plan on checking out the online auction and seeing if I can find something that I simply must have. Do any of you plan to attend the touring exhibition, or the live auction? Or are you planning on purchasing an item via the online auction? Please let me know in the comments!

luxury

Vintage Car Fever

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved classic cars. While I know precious little about cars, I do know an attractive vehicle when I see it.

I first saw the 1965 Sunbeam Tiger while watching reruns of the television show “Get Smart”. Between the slick 1960s fashions, easy-to-process humor (everyone in the family could enjoy the show), and the “high tech” gadgets (the Cone of Silence, the shoe phone, and many, many more), it’s no wonder it was one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

But what I really loved most of all were the gorgeous cars driven by Maxwell Smart (the lead character on “Get Smart”). Here’s a Sunbeam Tiger similar to what Maxwell drove in the opening credits of the show:

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Do you have a favorite vintage car? Can you remember where you first saw the car, or what makes it so special to you?

(image courtesy of sportscarshop.com)

luxury

Luxury WINS!

I was intrigued when I saw the headline, “Costco Owes Tiffany More Than $19 Million, Judge Rules” on my phone yesterday. After all, I didn’t realize that Tiffany & Co. had a lawsuit against Costco. I was curious: why would Costco owe Tiffany & Co. money?

 

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As it turns out, Costco sold “Tiffany” rings, and didn’t make the distinction that the rings did not originate with Tiffany & Co. Costco’s argument was that the term “Tiffany” was generic enough that any copyright/trademark issues were nonexistent.

A court of law, however, disagreed with Costco’s stance. Judge Laura Taylor Swain determined that, “Costco’s upper management, in their testimony at trial and in their actions in the years prior to the trial, displayed at best a cavalier attitude toward Costco’s use of the Tiffany name”. Judge Swain didn’t appreciate how Costco’s stance was blatant disregard for Tiffany’s trademark and branding.

Further, Tiffany & Co. responded after Judge Swain ruled. The company issued a statement, saying, “Judge Swain’s decision validates the strength of the Tiffany trademark and the value of our brand, and most importantly, sends a clear and powerful message to Costco and others who infringe the Tiffany mark”.

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I always look for the larger lesson when things like this occur. Namely, how can I benefit from this story?

I’m not a megabrand like Tiffany & Co., but this story just emphasizes the importance of maintaining an excellent public “brand”. Our image is key to our reputation, and it affects the opportunities available to us. Let us all keep our “brands” consistent with values like excellence, quality, and prestige. No matter who we are, let’s be the BEST that we can be, always. Our brand depends on it!

 

(Photo courtesy of Tiffany & Co. – of course!)