Celebrity Life
Beauty Awards 2019: Fragrances to Captivate and Transport You to Faraway Places
Every season there are new fragrances that captivate us and transport us to faraway places, even if just for a moment. We’ve gathered a few favourites from this year that keep us coming back for another sniff.
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Bon Parfumeur 402 (HK$410)[/caption]
We just can't stop inhaling the warming toffee and vanilla spiked Bon Parfumer 402. bonparfumeur.com
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Les Eaux de Chanel Paris-Riviera Rich (HK$1,155)[/caption]
Sunny days in Côte d'Azur? Yes please! Les Eaux de Chanel Paris-Riviera Rich is a bracing blend of orange peel and jasmine. chanel.com
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Diptyque Eau de Minthe (HK$1,200)[/caption]
Inspired by a Greek myth, Diptyque Eau de Minthe make a spellh with fresh mint tempered by geranium and patchouli. diptyqueparis.com
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Kilian Woman in Gold (HK$2,450)[/caption]
It's hard to pick just one from this niche brand, but floral-vanilla Kilian Woman in Gold is near the top of our list. bykilian.com
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Penhaligon's The Ingenue Cousin Flora (HK$2,400)[/caption]
A burst of citrus and a heart of musk make Penhaligon's The Ingenue Cousin Flora our must intriguing choice. penhaligons.com
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Byredo Sundazed (HK$1,800)[/caption]
What we reach for when we want a sweet pick-me-up, Byredo Sundazed is also our kind of luxury in a bottle. byredo.com
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Beauty Awards 2019: The Make-up That Takes You Into the Night
The workday is done and it’s time to turn up the glamour. We’ve got just the ticket, whether you’re in the mood for a lashing of red lipstick or a hint of iridescent sparkle, with these party-ready make-up picks.
The Contour & Highlight
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Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (HK$550)[/caption]
Why buy two products when you can get them in one? Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow is our choice for subtle contouring and universally flattering highlights. Available in two colour combos, including medium to dark (pictured). charlottetilbury.com
The Longwear Foundation
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YSL All Hours Liquid Foundation (HK$550)[/caption]
It feels like 2019 has been the year of the foundation. YSL All Hours Liquid Foundation stood out with its promise of 24-hour, flawless matte coverage. We even tested it on a cover shoot and it definitely held its own. yslbeauty.com.hk
The Eyeliner
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Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil (HK$255)[/caption]
Everyone knows this brand for its cult-favourite eye-shadow palettes, but we’re casting our vote for the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil, thanks to its creamy -- and waterproof -- texture and 24 fun shades that range from deep black to neon green. urbandecay.com.hk
The Eyeshadow
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Dolce & Gabbana IntensEyes Creamy Eyeshadow Stick (HK$250)[/caption]
If you’re like us and prefer to keep things simple, Dolce & Gabbana IntensEyes Creamy Eyeshadow Stick is the perfect day-to-night make-up transition piece. Apply, blend and off you go. dolcegabbana.com
The Lip Products
When it comes to glamming it up, you can’t go wrong with a bold lip. And nowadays there are so many colours, textures and formulas to choose from that we couldn’t pick just one. Each of these products is great on its own but wouldn’t it be better to just have them all?
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Chanel Rouge Coco Flash (HK$270)[/caption]
Claiming to be "more than a lipstick", Chanel Rouge Coco Flash comes in 27 bold hues as well as three translucent top coats. We like the smooth textures and ease of application. chanel.com
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Christian Louboutin Rouge Louboutin Collection[/caption]
Another case of one just isn't enough, Christian Louboutin Rouge Louboutin Collection features the designer's iconic red in three must-have finishes. asia.christianlouboutin.com
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Kilian Le Rouge Parfum (HK$430)[/caption]
As soon as we heard about Kilian Le Rouge Parfum from creator Kilian Hennessy himself, we were hooked. The matte and satin finishes come with a marshmallow-y gourmand scent. bykilian.com
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NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil[/caption]
Matte lips look nice but they're not always easy to achieve. NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil is one way we've found to get a smooth, sharp finish. narscosmetics.com.hk
The Multitasker
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Shiseido Aura Dew (HK$210)[/caption]
Part of the brand’s reinvented make-up line, Shiseido Aura Dew immediately caught our eye with its silky, shimmering texture that can be used as an eye shadow, highlighter, lip gloss, we could go on... shiseido.com.hk
The Mascara
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Hourglass Cosmetics Caution Extreme Lash Mascara (HK$240)[/caption]
Length, volume, drama and lift -- Hourglass Cosmetics Caution Extreme Lash Mascara claims to do it all. It may not make our coffee too, but we loved the clump-free, buildable formula and durability. hourglasscosmetics.com.
The post Beauty Awards 2019: The Make-up That Takes You Into the Night appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.
Kilian Hennessy’s Uncommon Scents
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Kilian Hennessy may hail from one of France’s most famous families, but any success he’s had is entirely his own.[/caption]
“The fusion between Moët-Hennessy and Louis Vuitton was in 1987; I was 15 years old,” Hennessy recalls when we meet at Upper House during his stopover in Hong Kong. “At that point it wasn’t completely a family group any more. And to be honest, I never wanted to work for the group. Number one, I hated the idea of working for my father. And more importantly I wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror and feel that what I’d done with my life was entirely due to what I’ve done and not due to help I received.”
After enduring resentful looks during a brief internship with Dior’s perfumes division – whose president at the time, Maurice Roger, had been hired by Hennessy’s grandfather – the young Hennessy was determined to work for every luxury group except LVMH. After graduating from university, he did stints at Puig (working on Paco Rabanne), Gucci (“that created a big chaos because at that time Gucci and LVMH were in this humongous lawsuit”), Alexander McQueen (as marketing director) and L’Oréal (as marketing director for Giorgio Armani perfumes).
“I really made my whole career outside of the group,” he says. Indeed, Hennessy was involved in creating some of the most commercially successful fragrances of the time, often in direct competition with LVMH. But after negotiating all the elements that go into launching a mass product – from the designer’s vision to the packaging and print advertising – he found himself at a crossroads.
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Woman in Gold holds notes of rose, vanilla absolute and Akigalawood.[/caption]
“I was losing faith in myself, losing faith in the industry in general,” Hennessy says. “In 10 years of creating scents for fashion designers, I had never put out a product that was completely the product I would have wanted to do.”
At the urging of a headhunter, he spoke to several top designers about going back into fashion. But it was a dinner at the Baccarat restaurant at Paris that would decide his next move. “At the end of the dinner I stopped by the museum – it’s a tiny museum – and they were exhibiting one century of Baccarat perfume bottles,” he says. “Life is funny.”
“I looked at those gorgeous bottles and coffrets. I stayed two hours in that tiny museum and by the end my faith in perfume was back. I thought, this is exactly what I want to do. What if I would actually go out on my own and create a collection that would look, feel and smell exactly the way I think it should? And put perfume back on its pedestal in the same way it was back in the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries?”
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His approach to fragrance encapsulates exquisite wood coffrets.[/caption]
Soon Hennessy was putting his hours of study at “nose school” to use creating his first collection of 10 scents, L’Oeuvre Noire. He also dreamed up a bottle and coffret worthy of display in the Baccarat museum. “It’s very much reminiscent of what I witnessed that night: a beautiful wood coffret with several coats of lacquering and satin bedding inside; the coffret opens and closes with a key; the bottle is carved on the side with a shield motif; the names are not on a sticker but on a real metal plaque and filled manually by syringe with a black enamel.”
Having created such a precious work of art, Hennessy “suddenly realised there was a contradiction between creating a luxury product that would be a disposable product”. Again, he looked to the past and recalled how his grandmother had a personalised perfume bottle that she would take to the shop to be refilled once the fragrance ran out.
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The fragrances are personalised and refillable.[/caption]
“So I made the decision to make every bottle refillable. So the bottle you buy is the bottle you keep all your life,” Hennessy says. “And I made all the satin bedding removable, so you can reuse the case as a jewellery coffret if you want. I was creating what I call an eco-luxury product. Because in a way the best product for the environment is the product that creates no waste.”
Once Hennessy convinced suppliers to take a chance on his completely bespoke coffret, Kilian the brand was born.
In the 11 years since, Hennessy and his perfumer Calice Becker have created dozens of fragrances in categories such as The Fresh, The Smokes, The Cellars and The Narcotics.
“The way I think of creation is in terms of olfactive books, where every scent is a chapter of the book,” he explains. “At one point the book is over. So every collection has a certain amount of scents. L’Oeuvre Noire, my first collection, was from day one a collection of 10 scents. And four of the 10 are still alive and among our top sellers.”
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The new collection, From Dusk till Dawn, is inspired by secessionist artist Gustav Klimt.[/caption]
Hennessy’s newest collection, From Dusk Till Dawn, is an homage to Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. “What I love the most is his Byzantine period, playing with gold leaf and the contrast between light and darkness,” he says. “We have two scents in this collection: Woman in Gold, which is inspired by the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, and Gold Knight, which is a reference to the knight in golden armour in Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze.”
Hennessy and Becker created the scents by focusing only on ingredients that expressed to them darkness or shimmering gold. “The ingredients that express shiny gold for me were bergamot, honey, yellow roses, anise,” he says. “For darkness, it was black ingredients like black pepper, black vanilla, patchouli, leather. In a way it’s as if I shrunk the amount of raw ingredients available to express the same contrast as Klimt tried to express through his paintings.”
Besides traditional perfumes, Kilian has also expanded into a variety of products designed to “give women beautiful attributes of seduction and protection”. These include a collaboration with Fleur du Mal on scented lingerie and Hennessy’s new shower-gel and body-lotion line. Another popular collection has been Kilian jewellery, created with Lanvin jewellery designer Elie Top and featuring ceramic inserts that release scent as the wearer moves.
“I think our job is really to surprise the customer. Frankly, there are so many scents that I’ve created,” Hennessy says, laughing softly, “that you have to push the boundaries very far today to really come up with true creation.”
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