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Last weekend I was in London with my daughter Maui and I absolutely wanted to visit The Beauty Project at London’s trendiest megastore Selfridges.

The Beauty Project is a mind-provoking and multi layered exploration of the definition of beauty and what it means in today's society.

 The first thing you notice is a total takeover of the store's famous window displays. Statements are made about ‘letting your hair grow’, thoughts on science versus nature, ‘ eat yourself beautiful food, an open window fragrance lab and questions about what is beauty (and what not)

Un-retouched images of unknown faces will appear all over London in a new campaign shot by Norbert Schoerner, whilst debates in the store's ‘Salon’ focus upon challenging topics such as The History of Beauty and Ugliness and the relationship between beauty and youth.

The point of The Beauty Project is to define many versions of beauty: mature ladies, colored girls, pink hair or all over tattoos. The idea is that when we have a wider range of ideals to look at, so women can feel better about the way they look and do not need to be disappointed not looking like the lipstick advert girls in a magazine.

Fun workshops are be inn organized like a face gym (a workout for the face that uses collagen-boosting finger moves), skin analysis, a Dove self-esteem workshop for mothers and daughters, hair straightening demonstrations and yoga. 

There is also a GREAT Fragrance Lab (London only) which I visited off course, but I tell you more about this in the next post.

Founder Harry Selfridge was the first to introduce a fully-fledged beauty fragrance and make up department at the centre of its London store back in 1910. With the The Beauty Project Selfridges sets again the trend tone, after the very remarked ’Silence room of last year’, by putting topics around beauty issues close to their heart on the agenda.

Business need to run to, so the big brands join in as well: Chanel customizes nails, Nars offers one-to-one blush consultations and Mac gives advice on the perfect shades as Tom Ford offers manicures with private cosmetics consultations. For the guys, a pop-up barber shop provides traditional shaves.

But hurry! The Beauty Project only runs until June 12 at all Selfridges stores, but the one in London has the most allure and events.

http://www.selfridges.com/en/StaticPage/the-beauty-project-hello-beautiful

Join the #beautyproject. I did.

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Check out this music video for singer-songwriter Boggie revealing real-time digital retouching, in reaction to the the ever-present standard norm to digital manipulation of models, actresses and other entertainers for television and magazine covers.

Music directors Nagy and Lőrincz show in this music video, in real-time, Boggie's computerized cosmetic transformation. See her make-up free, natural face transform/mutate into her ‘public face’, the visualization of an aesthetically acceptable and pleasing person in showbizz nowadays. Beauty with a lot of irony!

boggieofficial.com
facebook.com/BoggieOfficial

Tom Tom Records 2013
tomtom.hu

Director: Nándor Lőrincz, Bálint Nagy 
Director of photography: Bálint Nagy, Dániel Szőke

Production manager: Zoltán Pálmai
Focus puller: Attila Kovács "Cica"
Smink/make-up artist: Ricsi Fazekas
Make-up assistant: Eszter Galambos
Hairdresser: Bálint Almássy

Post production: Studiolamb studiolamb.hu

Chief VFX artist: Balázs Sánta
VFX artists: András Bodor, Ákos Kiss, Marcell Andristyák, Kálmán Dulity
Supervisor: Zoltán Várfoki "Zoulu"

Aesop Love_a life inspiration story

I can be very short about this one.

I love Aesop.

I’m a huge fan, from the moment I had my first beauty product at hand. The smell, the graphics, the simplicity of the packaging. Pure love at first sight.

Introduced to us two years ago on a London trendseminar (LS:N Global)and never been out of stock since.

Not easy to find in Belgium though.

So, my stock was found in Paris (merci concept store), in London (different stores) and in Belgium (Brussels Senteurs D’Ailleurs).

So much about our love affair.

When walking in Shoreditch we visited a small Aesop store situated at the fashionably hip end of Redchurch Street.

The tiny store is simple, clean, authentic and yet so chic.

Every Aesop shop is done differently. The shops vary in size, props, plants but always keep an apothecary feel, with natural finishings: wood, porcelain tiles, concrete,glass, metal.

The Aesop Shoreditch location is kept sleek white with a very little wooden shelves. 

The best skincare products with the best scent are sold here. By a very helpful staff, friendly as ever to receive the 'die hard' fans, like me. 

Some back ground? Aesop was founded in Melbourne in 1987 with a quest to create a range of superlative products for the skin, hair and body. The team is committed to using both plant-based and laboratory-made ingredients of the highest quality and proven anti-oxidant efficacy. 

Aesop concept designs different stores world wide

A nice detail: my absolute favorite hand wash and hand cream duo Resurrection Aromatique handwash & Balm_mandarin rind, Rosemary leaf, Cedar Atlas_ (that I buy in large quantities) just hangs outside the store for people passing by, in need for some exquisite hand treatments. Lovely gesture, to make even more addicted fans. Quote under the bottles " One eye sees, the other feels" by Paul Klee.

Notice also the omni-present benches in front of nearly every shop, bar and resto in Shoreditch.

Aesop products are available in signature spaces like this one, in department stores in New York, Paris, Hong Kong and beyond, online and at selected stockists internationally. 

Aesop Shoreditch

5A, Redchurch Street

E2 7DP London

Phone: +44 (0) 207 613 3793

www.aesop.com/

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Everything is a perfume by Lernert and Sander composed out of all fragrances launched in 2012. Imagine what this would smell like!!

Over the last year Lernert and Sander http://www.lernertandsander.com collected almost 1400 samples of newly launched fragrances. By mixing the content of all of these bottles, they created 1.5 liter of Everything. This unique perfume comes in a specially designed and hand blown bottle, an enlargement of a classic sample bottle.

At the Toca Me design conference in Munich they said it smells kinda like Chanel N° 5...

In early March the bottle was showcased at Colette http://www.colette.fr, 213 Rue St-Honoré in Paris. 
Visitors had the rare chance to try it. 

Where you can try it now? I'll keep my eyes and ears open, and keep you posted on future expositions or 'smell sessions'.

What about the guys themselves? Who are Lenert and Sander?

Well, on their website, I find the following info: "Lernert Engelberts (1977) and Sander Plug (1969) are two highly talented Dutch artists based in Amsterdam. They create high-concept art films and installations, with simple but stunning art direction, all driven by their subtly dry, cheeky sense of humour.

They have created eye-catching installations for the windows at Selfridges, where they transformed large household objects into high fashion ladies' shoes. 

They have also produced remarkable editorial films for Fantastic Man and Nowness, the sassy music video ‘Elektrotechnique’, and their own personal projects, such as the ingenious documentary ‘How To Explain It To My Parents’.

Their film 'Natural Beauty', commissioned by Nowness http://www.nowness.com, has become an international phenomenon, receiving over a million hits on YouTube and being blogged by luminaries as unexpected as Perez Hilton and Oprah Winfrey."

I would keep an eye on them. Or try to smell if they're around...

Gourmand scents, a quest-a life inspiration story

I don't remember when we fell in love with the not so easy scent of incense. Off course I know from our childhood the weird ceremony in our catholic church, where incense was used in a silver burner and walked around by the priest. Why? No idea, but it gave a cerebral mystique feel and as we are looking more and more for authentic moments and full-filing sensations, my quest for this scent began in Paris last month.

Rick Owens' store there was filled with a sensual scent that took over our mind. We entered his place, his world and it felt familiar. Intimacy, devotion and silence on a moment we least expected it, just by some candles burning in a store. 
Scent as a travel in our mind, a happiness endorphin that worked for me.

So, back home, we started looking for that perfect scent, that perfect candle that would bring this same energy, feel and mystique.

First we found a candle from Cire Trudon at Your in Antwerp, the store from our friend Jorrit. Cire Trudon candles have been referred to as the “Rolls Royce” of candles. This old French manufacturer produces one of the world’s most prestigious candles of very high quality. We bought the 'spiritus sancti' candle after an intense 'sniffing session' in the store.

Beautiful scent in the store and in the nose, disappointing using it at home in our loft as the scent was not strong (enough) to fill the space. A pity...

Check: http://www.ciretrudon.com/les-bougies-parfumees-spiritus-sancti.php

We looked further. 
In Paris we bought the fabulous parfume Avignon by Comme des Garcons. It was love at first smell. Ivan wears it daily, and I 'm seduced once in a while for a little pump.

When we found out there was a candle with the same fragrance, we were trilled. Think about it, Avignon, the memory of a medieval city in the South of France which surpassed Rome as the Catholic Church's power center in the 14th century. The scent of gothic cathedrals and Papal palaces, of tapestries imbued with centuries of incense. Of cold marble steps, holy relics and dark confessions. This should be it..

Our verdict? The recognizable smells of frankincense and myrrh open the high mass of Avignon, evolving to an almost eye-smarting, gloriously smoky and resinous heart.

The Avignon candle scent is beautiful, dark and mysterious, and certainly among the most talked about (and admired) of Comme des Garçons line. But in our home? Again, not strong enough. Damn!

Series 3: Avignon – a spicy fragrance with Roman camomile, Labdanum, Frankincense, Vanilla, Patchouly and Palisander.

Next!

It's all ready years I know about a store 'Senteurs d'ailleurs'in Brussels, so friday we decided to pay this store a visit, and check out that other 'famous' scented candle Diptyque. 
The candle models talk about for years as 'their scent to beat home sickness and loneliness'.

Diptyque began producing candles in 1963, and it has cornered the candle market with its exotic wax concoctions and packaging.

Diptyque's fragrance repertoire is an ode to nature and its exquisite ingredients. Seemingly simple, they are all in fact an ingenious reinvention of nature. Each fragrance brings a moment, or an extraordinary place to expression: a summer field in Provence, a cozy evening at home with the family, a a dew-covered garden in full bloom.

Diptyque's luxury scented candles are handmade in 12 steps. Each candle has its own composition of wax and wick to ensure a consistent fragrance, with a duration of more than 60 hours.

And, do they have an incense scented one? More or less. At least at Senteurs d'ailleurs the had only one that came close.

Diptyque's Myrrhe candle is both mysterious and sophisticated, earthy, spicy and aromatic. And with a good sniff of incense.

Described as "an ambery resin burned in offering, the gift of a king and a sensual scent since Ancient Times.".

And, was this thé ultimate candle I was looking for? No, not yet.

The quest continues, stories will follow.

At the moment, we light them all at once, and we feel quite blessed in our home. Thank god.

http://www.diptyqueparis.co.uk

http://www.senteursdailleurs.com