Platinum Infused Face Cream by La Prairie

“The most precious metal on earth now empowers your most precious asset: your skin.”
Cellular cream may or may not work, but what works for us is the packaging. Is that a precious stone in the applicator?

Platinum Infused Face Cream, $1,000, by La Prairie
via: The Dieline

Jeff Koons Does Paris

Jeff Koons invades …the gilded chambers and sculpted gardens of the Château de Versailles …in recent years has displayed only a few select works of contemporary artists. The exhibition of 17 Koons sculptures marks the first time that the chateau built by Louis XIV has organized so ambitious a retrospective of one contemporary artist.
Not everyone here was as pleased by the installation. Several dozen people demonstrated outside the palace gates early Wednesday, a protest organized by the National Union of Writers of France, a little-known, right-wing group dedicated to artistic purity in France. The group’s chairman demanded that the exhibit be canceled.

Exhibition: Jeff Koons at Versailles
via: New York Times

Traditional Senko Hanabi Japanese Sparklers

Senko Hanabi (incense stick firework) is a thin shaft of twisted paper about 20 centimeters long with one end containing a few grains of a special gunpowder. Senko hanabi are always included in the packets of fireworks and are always done last to finish off the family fireworks which wouldn’t be complete without them. There is a sadness to senko hanabi. They evoke mono no aware, the flash of sadness at the beauty and briefness of life.

Senko Hanabi, at Cibone

Jeff Koons Puppy Vase Available for $7,500.00

Gagosian has released an edition of 3000 porcelain puppy vases signed and numbered by the artist Jeff Koons. Having first made a splash on the contemporary art scene back in 1998, the design took cues from Koons’s mongo-sized puppy sculpture (1992), which was filled with over seventeen thousand flowers. “The vase is a symbol of love, warmth, and happiness,” says Koons.

Puppy Vase, $7,500, by Jeff Koons, re-issued by Gagosian Gallery
via: V Magazine

Give a Lump of Coal This Year

The ancient Japanese tradition of making high quality charcoal, has inspired Sort of Coal from Denmark, to design a range of contemporary products that can be used for purifying and as decorative interior elements. Since the 8th century Japanese charcoal makers have produced high quality charcoal. During Edo-period (1603-1867) the refined Japanese quality Binchotan charcoal, commonly known as “White Charcoal”, has gained popularity throughout Asia.

Images from top to bottom: 1&2: Hakutan,  3: Kuro Kabe,  4: L:Binchotan, R:Hakutan Grain
5: Kuro & Shiro Soap, by Sort of Coal

via: Ray 20

Espasso—Unique Furniture from Brazil

Espasso is dedicated to modern and contemporary design from Brazil, with showrooms in New York and Los Angeles, the company is focused on the very niche market for Brazilian furniture. Their selection of designers, range from mid-century modernists such as Oscar Niemeyer, Ricardo Fasanello, Sergio Rodrigues and Joaquim Tenreiro to emerging and established designers like Isay Weinfeld, Carlos Motta and Arthur Casas.

Espasso Showroom, New York and Los Angeles, USA.

I Frammenti Micro-Mosaic by Claudio Silvestrin

Made from 5mm cubes, this micro-mosaic is made for an easy 2 step application, the results are stunning.

I Frammenti, by Claudio Silvestrin, for Brix

Marc Newson’s Space Tourism – Designed for Comfort

The spaceplane was unveiled in Paris by its manufacturer, Astrium, part of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, as the latest challenger in the space tourism market. Like its archrival Virgin Galactic, where the designer is Philippe Starck, Astrium plans to take people into space and straight back again. It expects to charge up to , or about $265,000, for a ticket when commercial flights start in 2012. Another competitor, Space Adventures, will offer multimillion-dollar eight-day holidays at a space station.

Spaceplane, €200,000 per trip, by Marc Newson
Read more at IHT

My Beautiful Backside, Inspired by Art for Moroso

A seating collection launched by Moroso during the Milan Furniture Fair, which draws inspiration from a miniature painting from “The Garden of Life” by Naveen Patnaik. The book is beautifully illustrated and a practical guide for the use of plants in a range of applications – sacred, medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and aromatic. The found illustration provided style cues and ideas to the duo which eventually led to the new series of seating.

My Beautiful Backside, by Doshi Levien, for Moroso
via: designboom

Photography: Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant

The German Car Giant Volkswagen, has built the largest motor vehicle factory under one roof in the world. The machine is building the machine.

Photography by Benedict Redgrove, of the Volkswagen factory, Wolfsburg, Germany for City