Les Journées Particulières LVMH 15 & 16 octobre 2011

Right after, visiting La Grande Epicerie and tasting absolutely everything and enjoying myself, I decided to go to Dior with my friend whereas I was supposed to get there on Sunday morning.

Once on the Avenue Montaigne, we realized that we might have made a mistake by not sticking to our original plan. There was a huge line contouring the Dior headquarters. Considering we only waited for an hour at La Grande Epicerie, we decided to give it a try and enter the line. We ended up waiting for...3 hours! Yes, you read it well. 3 full hours! Only fans could endure that. Thank God, we had lunch before at La Grande Epicerie. Most people in the line were starving and thirsty. After 2 hours and a half, we reached the Holy Grail. We were given invitations to get in but stayed outside for 30 minutes more. What made our waiting exceptional is that while waiting right at the door of the Dior headquarters we bumped into the Arnault family: Bernard Arnault, the father, and LVMH Chairman, Antoine Arnault, his son, an INSEAD graduate, in his early 30s, who is the Head of the Communication Department, and Delphine Arnault, his daughter, a London School of Economics graduate, Head of the HR department for the LVMH Group, Sidney Toledano, Head of Dior, John Galliano, and Fendi, and the French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.

Once inside, we felt like kids entering a toy store with our eyes wide open, amazed by everything we saw. The visit lasted an hour. We got in touch with different Dior collaborators and observed and learned some of the tricks to hand-make shoes, jewels, watches, dresses, etc. We learned a few tricks in make-up with two great Dior make-up artists.

At the exit, we were given goody bags (see my picture above).

I want to warmly thank the Arnault family for this wonderful day I spent thanks to them. I spent 10 hours in the Journées Particulières LVMH. Everything was perfectly organized. Visitors were well taken care of. Thank you for making our day. For making us dream.

Les Journées Particulières LVMH 15 & 16 octobre 2011

This weekend, in Paris and in some other cities in France and abroad, Antoine Arnault and his father, Bernard Arnault, Chairman of the French multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, decided to welcome visitors inside 25 of their houses and show the "behind the stage".

I decided to visit La Grande Epicerie and Dior. The reason why I chose to only focus on those two houses was very simple. I love gourmet food and taste exceptional food. I like to buy pastry, for example, at La Grande Epicerie on Saturdays. Every single bite is like heaven on Earth. La Grande Epicerie offered to its visitors to see and take part in bread-making, pastry making and gourmet food workshops led by its chefs. I was expecting to queue a few hours at every site so I decided to show up at La Grande Epicerie at 9.30 AM considering the visits were supposed to start at 10. When I got there, there was a sign indicating a 2-hour-wait. I did not get scared and started to wait. The weather was very nice with a beautiful blue sky and the temperature outside was clement. Visitors were all delighted to be there and chatting together. We were served tasty macarons to spend time and make our waiting a bit more pleasant. After just an hour, I was introduced inside the store and started the visit. We visited the below-ground production facilities (bread, pastry/desserts and catering). We observed the chefs and their staff working, we learned about their jobs, and taste. I ended up tasting over 15 different things!!! I cannot believe it myself! I had appetizers, main dish, desserts, drinks, cookies, cakes, bread, cheese, etc.

Since 1923, the ground floor of Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche department store has been home to a vast grocery store called La Grande Epicerie de Paris. Over time, it has established itself as a true gourmet institution in the French capital. 25 cooks, 20 bread bakers and apprentices from across the globe work there.

Christina Ricci October 11, 2011

She looks stunning! Christina Ricci in the streets of New York yesterday filming a scene for Pan Am.

Brides pressured to lose weight before the big day pile the weight back a few months later

A surprising yet quite interesting study revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald showed that most of the brides want to shed an average of 9 kgs before the big day. Every woman want to look her best when walking down the aisle. The idea of having hundreds of pictures of you taken when you are not looking your best is quite frightening. Pressure is high on the shoulders of the brides. Family members, grooms themselves, wedding magazines and dressmakers, etc tend to encourage the weight loss. Problem is the higher the pressure, the more likely the weight loss will only be temporary.

Dr Ivanka Prichard from Flinders University in South Australia followed 350 brides before and six months after their wedding. Half of those brides wanted to shed an average of 9 kilos. On the big day, half of them had lost weight but the majority had only lost between 1 and 2 kgs. The women who had the greatest pressure to lose weight prior to their wedding are the ones who generally gained the most a few months later. The reason for this is quite simple. Prior to their wedding they drastically changed their lifestyle by exercising more, eating less and watching more what they ate. The problem is that those changes were so drastic and not realistic with what a healthy diet should be that as soon as the wedding was over, those women were back to their usual lifestyle. This is what we called yo-yo dieting. Those women gained an average of 2.14 kgs six months after their wedding.

A study is underway to follow men before and after their wedding.

Stay Hairy, Stay Healthy

Have you heard about that law that New Jersey wants to pass? The State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is considering banning bikini wax after two women got hospitalized for infections.
In theory, the Brazilian wax or bare-it-all wax has never been allowed. Only neck, abdomen, legs and arms are permitted. But, bikini wax generates a lot of money with a procedure going from $50 to $60 and millions of American women -and men- get bikini waxed. Beauty salons are,therefore, not willing to see their revenue fade away.
What may cause an infection is the hot wax that can irritate or tear the delicate skin in that area and result in infection and in-grown hairs and rashes. But, banning Brazilian wax would only encourage people to cross the state border and get the procedure in another state. Regular bikini wax would still be permitted though.

Look 10 years younger in just 40 seconds! I found the Fountain of Youth!

When we hit the big 3-0, there are two ways of reacting. Either you try to comfort yourself by thinking of what older people always tell you such as the fact that turning 30 is a great experience. You feel better in your shoes than when you were 20. You have gained enough maturity and experience to fully enjoy life. Bla bla bla bla....or, the second reaction can be: It is so obvious I am older now. Before (when I was 18 to 29), I could party all night long, get back home & shower quickly and be just in time at work and be efficient all day. Now even RedBull Diet seems to have no effect on me. I am old. My body needs more time and sleep to recover. Jet lags have become something (much) harder to deal with. And, let us not speak about those ugly wrinkles appearing around my eyes whenever I laugh.

Fighting the aging signs might be a lost battle but we all want to get involved in that battle. We are ready to try every single new beauty cream on the market. To the cheapest to the most expensive ones. To the more natural ones to the weirdest ones (snake venom and placenta proteins are some of them).

There are mainly two problems that women face using those miracle beauty creams. 1) they want to see obvious change over the night aka look like they are 20 when they are 35. 2) Those creams might be effective but only in the long run which means "be ready to spend a lot" and as soon as you stop using them, you lose all the benefits you might have gained.

Women spend, on average, $ 37.457 on wrinkle-reducing treatments over their lifetime (source: Daily Mail 10.10.11). Wow! That makes a lot! Multiply this number by the number of women around the world who are 30+, I understand why the cosmetics industry is doing so well.

Recently, a new miracle product has entered the market. Its name is Nanoblur. Since it has been released, it has been number 1 of the sales charts in 22 countries!

A few quick facts on this cream that are given on the website:

- Works in 40 seconds

- Reduces signs of age by up to 10 years

- Non-oily, fragrance free

- Suitable for all skin types

All that for only $19. It might be worth it to give it a try and judge by ourselves.

I have not tried the cream yet. I will should the opportunity arise.

Here is the link to the website if you want to know more about it: http://www.indeedlabs.com/nanoblur/

Victoria Beckham October 8, 2011

Victoria Beckham holding baby Harper looking amazing in different variations of pink.