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LUMINOUS | Cheeky Smile by JUSBOX
As far as I’m concerned, fragrance is an artform, a form of expression that transcends the traditional; the fourth dimension I call it, invisible and intangible, yet pertinent. Fragrance has the ability to convey a personality, a mood, a brand message and most importantly— your taste. Used correctly, fragrance is essentially an extension of self.…
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REIMAGINED | BLACKBIRD INCENSE
Incense has always been an intriguing type of fragrance to me mainly due to its unique characteristics and ‘tone’ of smell. In its pure incense format, the dense tangibility of scent has seen incense used as an accompaniment for pious ceremony, but the personality of incense goes far beyond the format. Any fan of the…
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STOER Skincare for Men
STOER skincare combines ingredients sourced from different climate and global locations to underpin the values of protecting the skin against the extreme elements of weather and the growing concern of pollution. The five best clinically-tested plant actives sourced from across four continents and four contrasting climates to create STOER Skincare’s Clima 5TM formulation. Clima 5TM…
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LE LABO | The Gift of Love
To make for a happy Valentine, ensuring your token of love, lust or coy enquiry hits the right is chords is paramount. It’s difficult to dictate or explicitly direct your acquisition as any gift should, of course, be reflective of your feelings and be agreeable to the tastes of said Valentine. Feeling and taste are…
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L’Envol de Cartier
Cartier are renown for their prestige, their almost ethereal quality as a brand representative of that glass ceiling purchase. But as often happens when a brand releases a fragrance, that aspirational price point is temporarily relinquished in favour of a more affable one, which is – much like the low reaching branches of a tree…
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REVIEW | Encre Noire à l’Extrême by Lalique
It was 2006 when Lalique reinvented the most masculine olfactory note with their fragrance enigma Encre Noire – regarded by many as the contemporary “vetiver of reference”. Now in excess of its 10th Anniversary, Lalique challenged its nose, Nathalie Lorson to create a new chapter in the saga, aptly entitled Encre Noire à l’Extrême. While…
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Gosha Rubchinskiy Perfume + Book
Gosha Rubchinskiy’s ascent pays tribute to the organic realism that fashion can represent, with his works a true reflection of the Soviet landscape in which he learned his craft. A photographer by nature, Rubchinskiy has taken his parternhip with Comme des Garcons a step further and released a fragrance to sit with his ever-growing streetwear…
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OUD by VINCE CAMUTO
Often called “liquid gold” and derived from Agarwood, the “Wood of the gods,” Oud is one of the rarest and most expensive ingredients in perfumery, and has been prized in the Middle East for thousands of years. Vince Camuto Oud combines the elegance and luxury of Oud with the strength, confidence, and independent spirit of…
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Censer by Apparatus
Look around your room and you’ll see that in its basic element, it’s a construction of detailed shapes; complex geometry all characterised by their positioning – or lack thereof. But home inspiration can come in many different forms as demonstrated by New York based design studio Apparatus, and none more so than their simple yet…
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Taxonomy of Design | Aesop ION
The epitome of ‘Glocalisation’, Aesop’s international expansion could almost be considered subterfuge, the way they ‘quietly’ integrate themselves into established retail districts all over the world. It would be wrong to say that these spaces were obscurely submerged within their retail communities, but their method of integration, connecting the store design with local history, always references such…
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FLAGSHIP | retaW Store Harajuku
When I first encountered Japanese brand retaW, they were a fledgling brand, with 6 products – all shower gels – but the unique quality of these six products alone were enough to make inroads in an already saturated marketplace. Their select distribution strategy saw them introduced to the world via niche retailers such as Dover…
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Acqua di Parma | Colonia Centenary Edition
We live in an age of innovation, and this wave of entrepreneurship & creation – among many things – has further served to engage our wonderment of brands that have stood the test of time, emerging unscathed through the vicissitudes of time, and so it is with Acqua di Parma. This is a brand that…