Luxist

The Aura residence is like nothing I've ever seen before. This unique home is located in Larnaca on the island of Cyprus a short drive from the Larnaca marina and the Cyprus international airport. The design was based on the Kanagawa wave of the famous Japanese artist "Hokusai" and features a unique ribbed roof. The luxurious home on Dekelia beach has six bedrooms, a hammam, media room, swimming pool with two Jacuzzis, yoga platform and more. It is listed at €12,500,000.

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W Hotels and Bliss Spas have been an unshakable combination for Starwood Hotels. But after a tough year for the travel and tourism industry Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has sold off the Bliss spa unit for $100 million to Steiner Leisure Limited. The Bliss and Remede brands will stay at the Starwood's W Hotels and St. Regis Hotels. Bloomberg News quotes Chief Executive Officer Frits Van Paasschen who said during a conference call in October that the company was looking at "assets that are non-core or that are so attractive that we can still get a good multiple."

The Bliss spa brand was founded in 1996 in New York City. The brand quickly grew and has become famous for its playful approach ot beauty and skin care treatments. The Bliss brand includes not just the Bliss and Remede spas but also branded products. Bliss products are also sold outside the spas through an e-commerce and catalog business and distribution in Sephora and many major department stores.

The brand is a natural fit for Steiner Leisure Limited which is a provider of spa services. The company operates spas and salons on 126 cruise ships and in 51 resort spas and two luxury day spas for brands that include Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Harrah's Entertainment, Hilton Hotels, Holland America Line, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Hotels and many others. Steiner Leisure also owns and operates five schools that offer degree and non-degree programs in massage therapy and,skin care, training spa professionals for health and beauty positions at Steiner spas and salons.

Can a scent capture a city? Many try but few with as much aplomb as the City Exclusive scents from Le Labo. The boutique perfumer has created six scents for the cities in which there are Le Labo shops. Usually each scent is only available in the city it was created for but fron now until November 30, the six scents are available on luckyscent.com

Tuberuese 40 (New York) is a tuberose and white flower scent. Aldehyde 44 (Dallas) combines narcissus, jasmine, musk and vanilla. Gaiac 10 (Tokyo) is a woodsy musk with hints of cedar and incense. Musc 25 (Los Angeles) is a musk with notes of vetiver, ambergris, lily of the valley, patchouli and rose absolute. Poivre 23 (London) combines the warmth of pepper with cistus, gaiac, patchouli, incense, Australian sandalwood, vanilla absolute and styrax resin. Vanille 44 (Paris) brings vanilla together with bergamot, incense and mandarin. There are just 25 bottles of each scent available and 50 ml sells for a steep $260.

[via All the Rage]

What is it about fashion's darlings that makes them so ripe for ridicule? Cheeky Italian artist aleXsandro Palombo shows no mercy when it comes to taking on icons in the fashion world and elsewhere. On his Humor Chic blog he has Calvin Klein swinging through the air like Tarzan, the Queen of England in harlequin leggings and fashion critic Suzy Menkes posed with both a cat and a chicken. Above, David Letterman gets frisky with Anna Wintour.

Palombo's second book of illustrations, which comes out next year features a variety of his illustrations. "Karl's Journey" shows fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld, in his signature white ponytail, blacked-out sunglasses and trim silhouette touring around Paris before boarding alien ship (I always suspected he was not of this earth). The images, in the gallery below, have a childlike sweetness to them, capturing both Lagerfeld's severity but also his mysterious charm. As Palombo says on his blog: "If you are feeling disappointed in the world and can no longer find the will to dream or unleash your imagination, don't be sad, just turn your attention to the delightful Karl Lagerfeld and he will be able to show you more than one way to do so."

Plenty of celebrities start fashion lines but few take the step of opening their own stores. William Rast, the casual clothing brand founded by Trace Ayala and Justin Timberlake and operated through subsidiaries of People`s Liberation has announced two new full-price retail stores at the Westfield Century City Shopping Mall in Los Angeles, California, and the Westfield Valley Fair Shopping Mall in San Jose, California as well as an outlet store at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, California. The brand has an ambitious plan to open around forty retail stores in major metropolitan locations over the next several years.

The William Rast branded retail stores will each be approximately 2,000 square feet and will offer William Rast contemporary apparel collection for men and women. The company also plans to offer a full range of licensed William Rast products in each store. Justin Timberlake is well on his way to a branded empire, he also has his own golf course, a tequila brand and owns several restaurants.

Pamela Anderson is stepping into the perfume game with two iterations of her Malibu fragrance named after the beachside town she calls home. Malibu Day/Malibu Pink is a fruity floral with notes of berries, white flowers, vanilla and ambered sandalwood. Malibu Night/Malibu Blue is a moodier scent, an oriental with notes of pomegranate, black orchid mahogany wood, lotus, patchouli and amber.

As Anderson describes it on her website she's been making her own products for years layering various scents. She says that her goal was to "create a fun, sexy fragrance that really captured the beach with soft, gentle touches in a way that lingers." Starting this month, Malibu Day and Malibu Night are going to retail for $39 (1.7oz) and $49 (3.4oz) at CVS/Pharmacy, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Nordstrom, Sears and other department stores and drugstores around the U.S. Maybe this new line will help pay off some of the $4.8 million in debt she has reportedly amassed because of some pricey home renovations.

[via Now Smell This]

The 7th annual Tibet House US Benefit auction is taking place on November 18th at Christie's Auction House in New York City. The event is aimed at promoting and preserving Tibetan culture. Proceeds from the auction will be divided to sustain the Tibet House and another organization with like-minded initiatives. Some funds will support projects and programs spawned by the Tibet House in their mission of displaying and maintaining the ancient traditions of the Tibetan civilization. The event will also donate to Tibetan Children's Village an integrated educational community for destitute Tibetan children in exile located in Dharamsala, India. The fundraiser will also benefit the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey.

Items to be auctioned off include a package of four VIP concert tickets and a meet and greet backstage with Sting, internships at Rolling Stone and US Weekly, a private journey for two to Bhutan with guest accommodations, a luxury yacht cruise for seven to the Bahamas with a week long stay in a private house on the beach, lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City with Uma and Robert Thurman, shopping and lunch with Donna Karan at her store, John Lennon, Martin Scorsese, and Miles Davis memorabilia, a one-week stay in a villa on the French Riviera, contemporary art and photographs from Annie Leibovitz, Patti Smith, Ed Ruscha, Donald Baechler, and more. TIckets to the event are $225 per person with VIP tickets that include a preview and private reception available for $500.

J Vineyards and Winery has unveiled its 2009 limited edition J Vineyards LiveStrong™ Bicycling Jersey, the third in an ongoing campaign which contributes ten of all proceeds to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for the support of cancer research and awareness. The jersey comes bundled with the popular yellow Nike LiveStrong wristband and is currently available for $115 at www.jwine.com. The design was inspired by the new J Vineyards varietal wine packaging, the body color is meant to represent Pinot Noir and it is acccented with black sleeves and a terroir background pattern suggesting striations in water, stone and vines found in the Russian River Valley. The white Lance Armstrong LiveStrong™ logo is on the jersey's sleeves. The LiveStrong™ bicycling jersey follows other J charitable campaigns, including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation "J Pink Project" bicycling jersey promotion and the J Scarf, a limited-edition accessory designed by the celebrated San Francisco-based artist Rex Ray.

Dinner and a movie takes a new twist at the a/k/a a bistro in St. Helena, California. The movie "Where the Wild Things Are" will be screened at the local Cameo Cinema and the bistro has created a dedicated WIld Things menu. The movie inspired menu includes freshly pulled made to order warm mozzarella with pickled wild mushrooms, roasted pearl onions, smoked paprika vinaigrette; a second course of penne with wild boar ragout and warm wild huckleberry clafoutis with lemon verbena sorbet in a wild rice tuile for dessert. This menu costs $35 and will continue every Tuesday until the end of 2009.

The restaurant also offers the Tasty Tuesdays series. Winemakers or winery principals circulate through the dining room chatting with guests, who can sample a flight of three or more of the winemaker's wines for $9 alongside any items from the menu. "The idea is to meet and get to know wine people you may not have met yet," explains owner Robert Simon, "and taste their wares at the same time and spend only a fraction of the published price for that opportunity." In October and November the wineries include Bourassa, Bravante, Turnbull, Broman, Cakebread, Luna and Swanson. The Tasty Tuesday series runs from 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. every Tuesday evening.

The restaurant also offers customers specialties on specific nights: Wednesday is handmade pasta night; Thursday is 'slow food;' Friday is fish and Saturday is coq au vin, although the menu offers a wide range of small and large plates across a modern reading of California bistro cuisine. The restaurant offers unlimited free corkage Sunday – Thursday. The complete menu can be found at www.akabistro.com.

If the front of this house looks familiar you might be flashing back to the 1990s television show "Party of Five." Charlie, Bailey, Julia and the rest of the Salinger clan lived in this 19th Century mansion in San Francisco. This house on a hill has stunning Golden Gate and Bay views from multiple levels. There are seven bedrooms total. The main level has a reception foyer with 12 foot box-beamed ceilings, stained glass windows and a grand main staircase leading to the upper levels. The main level also features a large living room, formal dining room and an open kitchen and great room with a greenhouse solarium that leads out to the garden. Upstairs the master bedroom suite has his and hers master baths and dressing areas and a home office with wet bar. The top level of this home has a large media/game room with cathedral ceilings, a wet bar with refrigerator and an abundance of skylights and windows. On the lower level there is a garage and storage room. This home is listed at $7.2 million.

[via Zillow blog]

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