Two weeks ago Coty Inc. sent a proposition to purchase Avon for $10 billion cash. One giant is trying to eat the other. Avon refused the proposition as it was officially declared by Avon’s spokesperson: “At the time, the board concluded, and it still believes, that Coty’s indication of interest is opportunistic and not in the best interest of Avon’s shareholders“.
Coty decided to make the offer public as they think it would be at the interest of Avon’s shareholders. A complex matter that brings Avon into a hard decision as the company’s results are not at their best. Avon’s CEO Andrea Jung, is supposed to find her replacement after a drop down of 40% in terms of results. So by proposing a +20% higher than the normal price per share, Coty tries to convince Avon’s shareholders to sell.
Why Coty would like to buy Avon? I think their strategy is pretty clear. By purchasing Avon, Coty opens a new distribution channel for its own Brands: door-to-door. Coty belongs to the largest shareholder in Europe consumer-products maker Reckitt Benckiser Group Pic. With this acquisition, they expect to double their annual $4.5 billion sales.
Coty is a giant in the Cosmetic and Beauty industry. Founded by legendary François Coty (said to be the father of Modern Perfumery) in 1904, it became a huge multinational company owning multiple licenses for worldwide Brands such as David & Victoria Beckham, Beyonce, Celine Dion but also Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs. Coty also signed a huge contract with Lady Gaga and Madonna. A lot of Brands and a saturated distribution. If the deal with Avon is concluded, Coty will open new market opportunities, especially in regions like Latin America where Avon is strong. In the past decade, the Beauty industry got more than 300 main takeovers which makes it more and more concentrated industry. If Coty succeeds to buy Avon, it will become the number one company in front of Procter&Gamble in terms of sales.
Montblanc is launching next month a new special edition, called, Donation Johannes Brahms Special Edition fountain pen in tribute to the great virtuoso and classic music composer of the Romantic era.
Traditionalist, yet pioneering and inventive, just like Brahms, the writing instrument features a cap and barrel made of black precious resin enhanced with platinum-plated fittings. The clip is shaped like a tuning fork and the five lines of a music staff decorating the cap are inspired by excitement of his symphony scores and orchestras prior to a performance.
In his lifetime, Brahms became one of the greatest cultural figures, earning numerous formal awards by the time of his death in 1897. However, he was not content with fame alone and dedicated time in assisting young composers at the start of their career, just as Richard Schumann had done for him.
With its rich heritage of commitment to arts patronage, Montblanc shares Brahms’ passion for talent and his sense of duty in supporting generations of emerging artists worldwide. For decades, Montblanc has nurtured artistic talent across multiple disciplines including art, theatre, opera and classical music. With the purchase of each Donation Pen Johannes Brahms Special Edition, 20 Euros from the fountain pen and 10 Euros from the ballpoint pen or rollerball will be donated to carefully selected cultural projects relating to classical music, thus supporting young artists worldwide and carrying on the heritage left behind by Brahms.
The overall design of this Special Edition reflects the style of the composer’s music: traditionalist yet pioneering and inventive. The handcrafted Montblanc masterpiece is complemented by details inspired by the fascinating world of classical music to which Brahms dedicated his life. The cap and barrel of the writing instrument are made of black precious resin enhanced with platinum- plated fittings. The clip shaped like a tuning fork and the five lines of a music staff decorating the cap bring to mind the excitement of his symphony scores and orchestras tuning up before a performance.
The Montblanc Donation Pen Johannes Brahms Special Edition is available as Fountain Pen, Rollerball and Ballpoint Pen in all Montblanc Boutiques from May 2012.
In this sense, Montblanc has already presented different beautiful limited editions for the following artists:
Leonard Bernstein
Yehudi Menuhin
Johann Sebastian Bach
Herbert Von Karajan
Sir Georg Solti
Arturo Toscanini
John Lennon
Montblanc has been known for generations as a maker of sophisticated, highquality writing instruments. In the past few years, the product range has been expanded to include exquisite writing accessories, luxury leather goods and belts, jewellery, eyewear and watches. Montblanc has thus become a purveyor of exclusive products which reflect the exacting demands made today for quality design, tradition and master craftsmanship. Check the Brand official website for more information: http://world.montblanc.com
At Maison d’Ailleurs in Yverdon les Bains – Switzerland, a very interesting art exhibition opened its doors last month. It is called Play Time, videogame mythology. The curator is José Luis de Vicente. He is a researcher and writer working around the edges of New Media Arts, Digital creativity, and innovation in Design and Culture. His recent Fields of Interest: Information Visualization, Green Design, Spectrum politics, Media Architecture, Senseable Cities, Software Aesthetics, archeology and histories of Digital Culture, Magic and Technology.
According to the museum, Playtime — Videogame mythologies is an exhibition devoted to the culture of video games. It explores how the relationship between play, the various manners of gam- ing, and technology interrelate. An interactive presentation displays historical documents, examples of GameArt and innovative games.
The exhibition invites to explore computer games from a variety of different angles: Rules of Play / The Game of Life and the introduction to the mechanics of games; Game Geographies and PlayNations on the spatial dimension of video games; Bodies and Minds, dealing with emblematic figures, how players relate with their avatars and the involvement of the body in the video game experience; Assault on Reality, which presents innovative creations mixing the real and the virtual; and a historical section Archeology of Fun.
Throughout 2012, various events, happenings and mediation actions at Yverdon-les-Bains and in French- speaking Switzerland are being held in addition to the exhibition. They highlight the current state of research in the field and bring to a wide audience a chance to discover the broad range of registers in video games art.
The exhibition is part of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council’s GameCulture — From Game to Art programme.
This exhibition is not at all a playground. It is by far one of the most interesting exhibitions about the cyberculture. Different themes are presented, from an historical perspective, towards online gaming, cutting edge developments up to artistic visions of video games. The visitor gets a real immersive experience on the best of video gaming.
It was William Gibson, the king of Science Fiction literature, who invented the idea of “Cyberspace”. He observed that when kids are playing video games, the screen in front of them is not just displaying images. It is an open-door to another world.
For Henry Jenkins, American expert on Media, the art of creating video games has a lot of common points with Lanscaping or creating Entertainment parks. In a way, video games are the expression of the perfect contemporary aesthetics of a sort of utopia in terms of architecture. A mysterious and exciting experience that can turn to be very addictive.
In terms of cyberspace, different experimental games were presented, some of them reached the limits of reality and imagination. On of the interesting projects is called the SCALABLE CITY. It is a very interesting project by Sheldon Brown from Experimental Game Lab (USA). In a huge screen, we control a sort of vortex made of cars!!! that reshape the landscape based on the will of the player. A very interesting interface helps the player to move the tornado around. Check here the video about the demonstration:
Then, another interesting demonstration was a video game in which a second person controls the player movements, as if the human being was part of the game interface. Really disturbing. Another very nice idea is the one from Ryota Kuwakubo – Japan. The idea is to take a very simple game, here in our case a battle between 2 spaceships, and change one single rule or parameter. The game becomes another one. In our example here, instead of playing the game in a flat screen, the players will need to play the game in a circular screen. So that if you shoot the other spaceship and you miss, then the bullet will come back again, by going around. Here in the video it is José Luis de Vicente himself who explains the idea.
Another interesting topic about video gaming is about the fact that when we play a game, actually we create our own virtual character, or avatar. We play a role. So the question about identity is very interesting and is probably the most fascinating part of playing a game. There is always a very personal relationship between the player and his avatar. When a player start a game, the carnal and pixelized bodies are connected, that is why we cannot help shouting, jumping around or waving arms. This special relationship between the player and the avatar brings the video game industry to rethink about Joysticks and remote controls.
The online games also allowed players to live situations that they would never be able to live them on real life. With the avatar, you can be who you want to be, a better you?
So the exhibition is from March 11th to the 9th of December 2012 in Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland at La Maison d’Ailleurs. You can check the dedicated website for the exhibition here: http://playtime.ailleurs.ch. You can also get more information about La Maison d’Ailleurs on its official website: http://www.ailleurs.ch.
At the end of the exhibition, we can also visit the Jules Verne space, which is a amazing library. There, you can see some well known video games on their historical traditional version.Here a picture of Tetris and Angry birds. Funny.
On Tuesday 27 March, in London, has been presented the new ad campaign from the famous tour operator lastminute.com (known most of all for its affordable online hotel, travel and leisure offers), in the luxurious and trendy hotel W Leicester Square.
The event took place in Suite 717, big enough to welcome the guests and give a good idea of the services you are proposed in such a hotel category. But small enough as well, not to feel lost and have a chance to meet with the event organizers. Lastminute.com loves bloggers as this evening was definitely dedicated to them.
The purpose of this event was to show the new ad campaign who plays on the fact that, even with a small budget, you can reach the luxury hotels category, by booking online (at the last minute!), and be proud of it! Now, following the campaign, 4 or 5* hotels are reachable thanks to the website, at the price of a 3* hotel.
The creative, which features ordinary people in extraordinary locations (see pictures), brings to life lastminute.com’s brand promise of making the unattainable attainable, for everyone.
If you pass by the British capital city from the 30 March, you will be able to view the print ads – which target London’s commuter population – with a cover wrap of Metro. Additionally, outdoor advertising will appear in London train stations from April 2012. Lastminute.com’s owned channels, Facebook and Twitter, will also be used to tap in to customers’ spontaneity whilst out and about.
Kathy Maxwell, Head of Brand and PR at lastminute.com UK and Ireland said “To us, this creative is more than a rebrand, it marks a transformation of our business, our next chapter. We have identified our core value proposition and are focused on letting people know why they should come to us.”
Beside the fact that the idea of democratising luxury may be a beautiful idea, the question now is: what is luxury, if luxury is attainable for everyone?
It followup their “TOP SECRET SELECTION” in which you can book top 4* and 5* hotels in a complete discretion. The name of the hotel will be shown only on the confirmation email.
Bloggers could enjoy the new campaign by participating into a evening photo shooting in which they could see themselves in the photo campaign context. See here below our UK correspondent for Luxuryactivist:
The Creative campaign is definitely playing on the sense of humor and still, putting people on stage in exceptional situations. For more information, check the official website: http://www.lastminute.com.
In any case, this shows that luxury has became an aim for many people, not only for wealthy ones, as we can see it since a few years now, not only in the travel industry, but as well in fashion, or cars. And when large tour operator like lastminute.com are interested in it, maybe it means that this idea is already a mainstream today.
La Maison Chanel is revealing this week a new fragrance, Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, a flanker of Allure Homme Sport, already a flanker of Allure Homme. Purely disappointing. On the feminine side, Chanel always makes us dream. N.5 Eau Première was a beautiful creation and the Exclusive collection is for most of them real wonders. But in the masculine side, creation stopped with Egoiste in 1990.
With Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, we have a less peaceful sport as we are moving from sailing to surfing. On the main advertising we can see the worldwide surfer Danny Fuller. He is officially the Brand sport spokesperson. In the adverting video we can see Fuller in the art of action. Check it here:
In term of Flacon, nothing really new. In deed we can see the original Allure Homme Sport flacon in a darker grey version. It is supposed to express the more intense version of the original fragrance.
We cannot really say that there is a big artistic will behind this creation. The flacon and the name makes us think about the 1984 Dior Eau Sauvage Extrême. Same color universe, and almost same name. Don’t you think? Actually the Dior flacon is much more elegant and edgy.
In terms of fragrance, we have here a quite disappointing juice. There is a kind of minty note that brings a kind of functional aspect into the headnotes. As soon as the fragrance develops, it gets better but this start is hard. I would compare it with the 2010 rework made by François Demachy of the Eau Sauvage Extrême. Also with a Mint note that makes things much less elegant. I will not talk about Bleu de Chanel that was definitely a commercial product without Chanel soul. We wonder what is happening with Chanel as they were one of the leading fragrance houses for men in the 90’s. Flashback!
1955 POUR MONSIEUR
A timeless elegant fresh aromatic fragrance. Pour Monsieur remains the gentlemen’s fragrance by Chanel. The coriander and the cardamom here brings a fresh, sparkling and chic touch in a traditional fragrance structure. Basically the perfect companion for the N.5 woman.
1981 ANTAEUS
Not the big hit by Chanel but definitely in coherence with the power muscle of the 80’s. A strong leather fragrance for powerful man. The Advertising shown the mythological fight between Heracles and Antaeus a semi-giant. he only way to defeat him was to lift him from the ground so the contact with the ground (his source of power) does not exist anymore. Interesting fragrance but not an easy one, especially in the world of today.
1990 EGOÏSTE / 1993 EGOÏSTE PLATINUM
Egoïste was the big hit for Chanel. Or I should say Egoïste Platinum. Basically the first Egoïste was a tremendous spicy and woody fragrance with a clear distinctive trail. It got famous by this incredible advertising that challenged all the creative minds at that time. In order to make it a big worldwide hit, Chanel launched in 1993 the Platinum version. More fresh, orange flower than the original one. It is still one of the most sold fragrances inside Chanel. In some countries like France it is still ranked one of the top 50 best selling fragrances. The 2 versions deserves the attention as they are both beautiful creations. Interesting fact: when Chanel wanted to launch Egoïste in the USA, they realized that there was already another fragrance registered in the US administration with that name. As the launch was eminent, they decided to launch it in the US under the variant name L’EGOÏSTE with an L. It stayed many years in this way and after a while it changed.
1999 ALLURE HOMME
We all remember the advertising of the masculine version of Allure. We could see accomplished men with lot of charisma like olympic champions, architects of businessmen. In terms of product it is a true Chanel made of olfactive paradoxes. It was a fresh oriental fragrance in which the sparkling power of green notes was playing and wrapping the soft and warm touch of woods and Tonka beans. A beautiful fragrance, understated and simply Chanel. An interesting commercial success at the beginning but then the marketing concept got a little tired.
2004 ALLURE HOMME SPORT
With Allure Homme Sport, Chanel brought a big commercial hit into the market with a very interesting fragrance and reinterpretation of the Allure Homme Flacon in metal. The dazzling freshness and the soft yet strong masculine background makes it a nice, sportive and chic fragrance for men. It was one of the first modern worldwide hits simultaneously in Europe and the USA. Definitely the biggest hit of the Allure Homme line. I will not talk about the different flankers of this flanker but note that we had:
2008 ALLURE HOMME EDITION BLANCHE
2008 ALLURE HOMME SPORT COLOGNE SPORT
2012 ALLURE HOMME SPORT EAU EXTREME
2010 BLEU
Here we cannot say that Chanel showed the best they had. Lot of people say that it is not a Chanel, others tend to believe that was a launch for the US and finally some others just wait for better days. Probably Bleu became more known because Martin Scorsese directed the ad film rather than for the product itself. Here again a Mint note trying to bring a efficient freshness that looses all the mystery and the feeling we are wearing an expensive fragrance. No interest.
So now with Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, we have a kind of half-Chanel and the big question is: why do they not come up with a great Chanel for men?
Waiting for an answer… LA
Parvez Taj is launching a new event on Gilt. He is presenting his new artwork around a beautiful collection called the “French Collection”.
From the Grand Roue de Paris to Val D’isere and Charmonix in the French Alps, Parisian locales and the city charm are the inspiration for Parvez Taj’s latest collection.
Parvez uses Acrylic and water paints, photography, software and UV cured inks to create his signature style of wall art. in this collection the artist really brought his vision on this french feeling of different icons of the french culture like the parisian metro. All in a very arty way.
See here an interesting film that shows the artist’s inspiration:
There is an event starting Thursday 22nd March on GILT!!!
So you can check it out here: http://www.gilt.com/home/sale/parvez-taj-230
If you want to check more about the artist, please connect to the official website: http://www.parveztaj.com
Baselworld is going on very well this year. We expect more than 100,000 visitors, 3,000 journalists from 70 countries and the Markets are confident. This confidence comes from watch customers willing to buy at all levels of price. So the increasing demand brings watch Brands to review their production facilities and the supply chain. And here, the stress starts as the risk will be to lack of components. Swatch, Richemont and LVMH dominates the market and the race for components availability makes companies to purchase small swiss businesses to supply their demands. War has started.
It all started with a simple yet striking announcement made by Nicolas Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group by the end of 2009:
“We no longer intend to produce or deliver to third-party watchmakers“
This sentence sounded like a big bomb. In deed, only a few watch brands do everything in-house. Most of the brands we know, they purchase some components, especially the mechanisms, to companies like ETA. But the thing is that ETA belongs to the Swatch group and if tomorrow they stop delivering competition, this might make a big cleaning in the watch market. Mr Hayek explained that by stopping the deliveries to competitors, they would lose around 7% of their annual sales (around 300 million dollars). It would be a lost they would be happy to bare as this would possible erase some competitor’s brand, especially at Richemont Group.
Since then, we assisted each year to amazing announcements of global international watch brands purchasing small swiss components manufactures. And here is a small list of recent financial operations.
Already in 2007, the Richemont group purchased the component sector of the swiss watch maker Roger Dubuis. This was already a strategic move towards a more independent approach in terms of supply chain. In the same year, the Geneva group buys Donzé-Baume, maker of luxury bracelets and cases.
2012 is the year of the component race. Hermès announced the partial purchase of Joseph Erard, maker of luxury watch cases in the beginning of the year. Now, the latest news say they would also purchase Natéber, a small company from La-Chaux-de-Fond, producing watch Dials.
March 2012, Louis Vuitton announces the buy of Léman Cadrans, a geneva based company, specialized on the production of luxury Dials. Last year LV already has announced the purchase of La Fabrique du Temps, a specialized workshop building watch movements and specific complications like tourbillons and Repetitions minute. Louis Vuitton launched its first watch 10 years ago and since 2002, all watches are produced in a manufacture in La-Chaux-de-Fond.
Patek Philippe, one of the unique high-class swiss watch Brands, announced that they will not get into this war as they have already invested into their supply chain. According to Thierry Stern: “Many companies are behind in their investments and are motivated to strengthen their Production. But these are things we have already done“. But we know, this situation is not that simple as Patek Philippe depends on a company called Nivarox, a Swatch Group company. Nivarox has a almost-monopole on “echappements“, a crucial component in the luxury watch making. So? Not that easy.
Tag Heuer, the giant Watch Brand, which belongs to LVMH, is doing trials to replace Nivarox spirals by Atokalpa ones. Tag Heuer is working with Sandoz foundation, owner of Atokalpa, to make that change. Jean Christophe Babin, CEO of Tag, announced that Nivarox did not want to renew the contract with Tag as it arrived into an end this year. Will Tag Heuer be able to make this move? The arrival of Bulgari Watches will also make a difference in terms of component production.
The last news I got in the corridors of Baselworld last week was the purchase of Prothor Holdings SA for about 5.76 billion yen. Inside Prothor, there are 2 interesting companies. The first one is the luxury watch manufacturer Arnold & Son SA. The second one is the mechanical movements makes La Joux-Perret SA. This time it is the Japanese who gets into the component race.
So which one is next? Today we realize that the label “Swiss Made” is not only a national treasure but it worth money in the world market. In a small industry with around 3,000 companies, competition is key and most of the brands realizes that in 2013, the production of components might dicrease because of the different Groups strategies. So, we might attend to a U-Turn in the Watch industry in which we will separate the true Watch-manufacturers from the others.
All info sourced in Les Echos, Worldtempus, Herald Tribune, Wall Street journal, Le Monde, and the different Watch brands official websites. All images are copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
After a long period of renovation and a brilliant reveal of last year Christmas windows with Vanessa Paradis and Karl Lagerfeld, we see that Le Printemps became THE Parisian destination for luxury shopping in France.
Le Printemps was founded in 1865 by Jules Jaluzot and Jean-Alfred Duclos. Jules Jaluzot was considered as a “self-made” man. He was one of the biggest entrepreneurs of that time, very charismatic and social. After learning the business at Le Bon Marché, he gets married with Augustine Figeac in 1864.
She is a member of La Comédie Française and she brings to the couple a quite big dowry of 300,000 francs. Thanks to this money, he can create with Jean-Alfred Duclos the french department store Le Printemps on November 3rd 1865.
To remind the different inauguration dates:
Le Bon Marché: 1838
BHV: 1856
Le Printemps: 1865
La Samaritaine: 1869
Les Galeries Lafayette: 1895
Le Printemps has a great history of innovation and modernity. The original building is expanded in 1874 and elevators were installed which was a great innovation at that time. They were the same presented for the first time at the 1867 Universal Exhibition.
Figures of the Four Seasons were scupted by french artist Henri Chapu. Rebuilt after a fire in 1881, the store became proudly the first Department store with electric lighting. It was also the first Department store in Paris to have a direct access to the subway after its inauguration in 1904.
In this year, Jaluzot is replaced by Gustave Languionie as the business almost collapsed.
A remarkable feature of the Haussmann store is an elaborate cupola above the main restaurant in the store, installed during the 1923 reconstruction. In 1939, to avoid the risk that it would be destroyed in bombing attacks, the cupola was dismantled and stored.
In the beginning of the 70’s, the oil crisis brings down the french economy and Le Printemps becomes a corporation acquired by the Maus Frères Group. Led by Jean-Jacques Delort, the firm changes of strategy and creates specialty stores and Brands like Armand Thierry (clothes), Disco (food) and La Redoute (mail).
All Le Printemps businesses were acquiered by François Pinault in 1991 and merged with other holding into Pinaud-Printemps-Redoute, well known as PPR group. It brought a new dimension to Le Printemps, focusing more into beauty, lifestyle, fashion, accessories and men’s wear.
In 2006, PPR sells several of its luxury activities and Le Printemps is sold to the Italian group Borletti. Since then, Le Printemps stepped into a path of high-end luxury and the aim of Le Printemps is to become THE DESTINATION for luxury and lifestyle shopping in Europe.
Today’s CEO is Paolo Di Cesare, and his goal is to poursuit the transformation of Printemps.
Do not hesitate to visit the Department Store official website: http://www.printemps.com to keep updated on the latest news, animations or new services.
Cartier, the famous french jeweler is revealing this week a beautiful cinematographic film about the brand. It is a beautiful movie-retrospective of 165 years of creation. It is a 3,5 mn of pure dream in which they used a cutting-edge special effects. The Brand wanted this project to be treated like a real movie, not only in terms of visual aspects but also in terms of budgets. The film was directed by Bruno Aveillan, a multi-rewarded advertising movie director who has been successfully working for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Guerlain, Paco Rabanne, Jaguar, Samsung, Nike…. He got several prices, from Golden Globes up to being considered as in the top 3 best french advertising directors in 2009.
The filming requested more than 50 high special effect technicians on location and more than 6 month of post-production. To lift the ambiance, Pierre Adenot (french famous music “arrangeur” for Charles Aznavour or Stephan Eicher), did the soundtrack, especially dedicated for the film.
The entire film follows the “adventures” of the iconic Cartier Panther throughout the world, in which the glamorous feline goes to St Petersburg in winter time, to China where he comes face-to-face with a golden dragon in the majestic great wall, to an amazing and imaginary Indian palace built upon a huge elephant’s back and filled with glittering animal jewellery (many pieces of which reside in the Cartier archive), before leaping aboard the wings of and identical replica of the airplane built by Alberto Santos-Dumont, to showcase the classic Cartier Santos watch (first commissioned by the Brazilian aviation legend in 1904). The panther finally lands in Paris, the birthplace of Cartier, on Place Vendôme where he meets supermodel Shalom Harlow at the Grand Palais. She wears a sculptural red dress, a special creation by chinese designer Yiqing Yinwith. In order to protect the Panther, a total amount of 3 different animals were used during the entire movie shooting. The film itself was shot in Prague, Italy, Spain and Paris. It took 2 years to have all in film. Check here the result. Just sublime.
The film is a beautiful state of art. It costed about 4 million euros… for 3,5 minutes, this brings it around 20,000 euros per second… not bad. Bernard Fornas, Cartier CEO explains that they did this movie for a sort of revival of Cartier’s story. The brand wants to capitalize on its heritage and timeless elegance away from fashion trends.
I think it is very high-end in deed. The only thing it is missing is some short information in the film because basically, if you do not know the Cartier Story, you will not understand a dam thing. Why a Panther? People might not know that “Panther” was the nickname of legendary Cartier Jewelry designer Jeanne Toussaint (appointed as leading designer in 1033). She created the first Panther jewels for the Duchess of Windsor in the 50’s and since then, it became the symbol of the Brand.
Why this strange plane? Well, not everybody would have recognize the Brazilian legendary pilot, Alberto Santos Dumont. He made the first European public flight of an airplane on October 23, 1906. Designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for “bird of prey”), the flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft witnessed by the European press and French aviation authorities to take off and successfully fly. Santos-Dumont is considered the “Father of Aviation” in Brazil, his native country. His flight is the first to have been certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). And because he always complained not being able to see the time during flight, Cartier created the first wrist watch, dedicated to the brazilian pilot, that still is called “Santos”.
So see, you need some decoding here to appreciate the heritage highlight in this movie. I would personally have added some dates and some key short information about some elements and facts, so that this beautiful film would reach a broader audience. Nevertheless it is a magnificent film. With the latest Opium, Yves Saint Laurent fragrance ad, Cartier L’Odysée is a beautiful TV spot.
This month, LuxuryActivist is introducing Ange du Sud (South Angel in french), a new cosmetic brand, born in the south of France in Marseille. They provide a short yet interesting range of body products. The brand claims a refined, ecological and natural approach of cosmetics.
The Brand was born in 2011 in Marseille, France. The french city is known for its beautiful sea line and an annual sunshine. It is also the land of the traditional “Savon de Marseille”. Marseille soap or Savon de Marseille is a traditional soap made from vegetable oils that has been made around Marseille, France, for about 600 years. The first documented soapmaker in the area was recorded in about 1370.
Traditionally, the soap is made by mixing sea water from the Mediterranean Sea, olive oil, and the alkaline chemicals soda ash (sodium carbonate) andlye (sodium hydroxide) together in a large cauldron. This mixture is then heated for several days, stirred constantly. The mixture is then allowed to sit and, once ready, it is poured into the mold, and allowed to set slightly. Whilst still soft, it is cut into bars and stamped, and left to completely harden. The whole process can take up to a month from the start before the soap is ready to use.
Today Ange du Sud proposes to review this local tradition in urban modern and refined products. The brand is attached to authenticity at all levels.
The brand was born from an idea: to create in sunny Marseille refined natural and ethical cosmetics. The products procures you a pure moment of relaxation and pleasure.
The range is composed by 5 products:
Body Exfoliator 100ML – Gommage Corps
Hand Cream 100ML – Crème Mains
Body Milk 200ML – Lait Corps
Shower Cream 200ML – Crème de Douche
Liquid Marseille Soap 200ML – Savon Liquide de Marseille
All products have no Paraben and Phenoxyethanol, no silicone and recyclable packaging. The products are naturally perfumed with Orange flower and the formulas are at least with 96% of natural ingredients. I got to test the Body Exfoliator and the Liquid Soap.
100ML Body Exfoliator – Gommage Corps
With 98,5% of natural ingredients, this Body Exfoliator cares about the cleanness of your skin. His formula contain interesting ingredients, some of them even organic.
Bee wax: soothes, softens and protects the skin
Canadian Rock Salt crystals: 100% natural, rich in magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium. Removes the dead cells from the skin surface thanks to its exfoliating effect.
Organic Honey extract: antiseptic, demulcent, emollient and toning through the presence of Sugars, Vitamins (C,B6, K,…), minerals like potassium, selenium, sodium, iodine), enzymes and amino acids.
Sunflower Oil: rich in limoleic acid and vitamin E which give nourishing and softening properties.
Lime powder: exfoliating, cleansing, toning and invigorating for the skin.
Organic Pineapple oil extract: Pineapple contains active ingredients – sugars and hydroxy acids (AHAs) who have a significant effect on the skin and gives it a moisturizing and anti-aging effect.
Carnauba wax: also called Brazilian wax or Palm wax. It has hypoallergenic and emollient properties and gives a nice shining to the skin and protect it from external aggressions.
In terms of texture I was pleasantly surprised by the texture itself. It looked quite sensual, between a pomade and a honey for the shower. We can strongly smell a beautiful Orange flower scent. The mineral crystals of salt makes the job and cleans up your skin quite well. Personally I would expect more salt crystals in the formula but it will not be the case for most of the people’s expectancies. It is a gently exfoliator, well adapted to all skins. The application is quite soft and pleasant. You can easily take it out under the shower. Your skin looks clean, fresh and not aggressed.
200ML Liquid Marseille Soap – Savon liquide de Marseille
Here I must say I was really excited. Used to lots of different liquid soaps from more or less natural brands, I was wondering what to expect from this one. And the result is just great. In deed the formula is very soft, gently and at the same time very efficient. The formula follows the traditional recipe of the Marseille Soap. It is a very simple formula, as we say less is more.
Natural Glycerin: extracted from the saponification process itself and generally extracted from plants. It has a humectant effect that tends to keep the water on the skin, for this, it is considered as an moisturizer. In addition to other natural oils and cleansers, makes the best equation for a liquid soap. It is transparent, so perfect for a transparent or translucent formulation.
Coconut Oil: It is a natural moisturizer and also antiseptic, brings a perfect balance in a liquid soap formulation, especially for its natural origins.
Castor Oil: a natural plant-based oil used in cosmetics for centuries and continues to play an important role in the production of soaps as non-comedogenic, non-toxic and super emollient ingredient.
When you wash your hands with it, the blend with the hot or cold water makes it a true sensorial experience as the scent of Orange flowers flows in the airs and the very smooth and fluid texture wraps your hands. The skin is truly cleaned and still protected. Really a great formula.
All the products can be found on the brand official website: http://angedusud.fr.
They have a e-store in the website. They deliver in France and in Europe. In terms of retail shops, you can find Angel du Sud mainly in the south of France for the moment, either in drugstores, beauty saloons or some multi-brand shops.
It is a very interesting brand as the products are quite qualitative.
As Spring is arriving and we are quitting Winter, we definitely would need some southern sun.
