Elite Traveler November-December 2015

Ex Nihilo team From left: Olivier Royère, Sylvie Loday, Benoît Verdier

DISCOVER

elite traveler NOV/DEC 2015 ISSUE 6 54

Beauty

The fragrance

Personalized bottle caps inlaid with mother of pearl, buffalo horn or onyx. Special order fine jewelry tops made of gold and set with diamonds or sapphires, which can be removed and worn on a necklace. And that’s before you get to the fragrance itself. These showstopping fragrance bottle caps are the latest offering from Ex Nihilo, an avant-garde Paris perfume house that takes evocative scents from the grand tradition of French perfumeries of yesteryear and gives them a contemporary edge. The young founders, whose backgrounds vary from banking to engineering, partnered with the best noses in haute parfumerie and gave them no price limits for raw materials. The resulting eight fragrances vary from sensual florals to modern orientals, using precious materials such as Iris pallida Absolute. For somewhere special to store them, invest in the Collector’s Box. Made by hand in Italy, it takes 20 days to create. The company has also added a “demi-bespoke” perfume to its core collection. Using a special Osmologue machine, the fragrances can be customized to highlight a particular element or to introduce a new one, for a personal twist. The Osmologue is available at the flagship store in Paris, the Harrods Salon de Parfum, London, and Bergdorf Goodman, New York. The horn, onyx and pearl pendants are available now. The diamond and sapphire caps launch in 2016. From $365 for 100ml personalized fragrance ex-nihilo-paris.com

THE TREATMENT

This is one of the most luxurious spas in New York, if not the most luxurious. Located two floors below the Baccarat Hotel lobby, the intimate Spa de La Mer is the jewel in the crown of an already extravagant hotel. Decorated by Parisian duo Gilles and Boissier with Italian marble floors and custom Baccarat lighting, it has four treatment rooms, a lap pool and a gym. The signature treatment, the Baccarat Facial, begins with a diamond powder exfoliation, followed by a facial massage using Baccarat’s Victory Stones. A relaxing hand massage is given while the mask works its magic. Afterwards head to The Bar for a leisurely La Vie en Rose cocktail. $350/90 min cremedelamer.com baccarathotels.com/spa-de-la-mer

From top: Collector’s Box with four perfumes, $3,000; Ex Nihilo’s most popular fragrance

Elite pick Givenchy’s Masque Dentelle

Finish the treatment with Le Soin Noir face cream, $390 barneys.com

Only a couture house could create amask this beautiful. The newest addition to Givenchy’s Le SoinNoir anti-aging line is theMasqueDentelle, a luxury lace face mask. That’s right, a facemaskmade of lace. Saturate the lace with the black and gold algae sap serum, place the lace on your face for 20minutes, then remove andmassage in the extra serum to achieve firmer, rejuvenated skin. $330 for four. barneys.com

Words: Kristen Shirley

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