360 DEGREES Weblog

The world of luxury hair dryers just got a serious upgrade. Conair’s BaByliss Pro line has come out with the Volare model which uses real Ferrari parts. The Volare comes in two sizes, a medium and a compact one, and in two colors, black and Ferarri red. It is the world’s first professional luxury hair dryer driven by a Ferrari engine. The dryer has been constructed to maximize its airflow for fast drying and comes with a one-year guarantee and ann extension of the one-year guarantee on engine. The AC V12 engine is 2200 watts and it has a very long life, up to 2000 hours. The dryer’s turbo shot boosts airflow pressure up to 15 percent. It sells for around $400 and is for pros only.

Looks like splurging is in vogue again! After the economic turndown is finally over and out, the world of luxury is now raining bags and watches. Big fashion brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, LV and Puma have set cash registers ringing ensuring big profits for the year 2010. And Asia has played the biggest role in this new turn of fortunes.

As for numbers, PPR’s profit for the first of the year shot up by 113.3 percent to $528 million, while LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton announced a 53 percent to earn a net profit of 1.1 billion euros. Relately smaller brands like Hermes (with a hike of 22.8 percent sales), Burberry and the watch company Luxottica saw green this year. The watch exports at Switzerland, was up by 35 percent in June, with a 40 percent hike in high-end watches.

Private members club Quintessentially and Norwegian shipping company Kloster, have teamed up to offer the luxury loving globe trotters a luxurious voyage like no other. Their offering christened, the Quintessentially One is a luxury superyacht that will sail the well heeled folks on board to some of the most exclusive events in the world like the Monaco Yacht Show in Monte Carlo, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix or the Barbados Garrison Savannah horse racing or even the famed Cannes Film Festival. Dubbing itself as “’the world’s finest floating club”, the Quintessentially One will surely be the new residence of the rich and the famous. When ready the 220-metre liner will boast of 12 residential suites alongside a £750 ($1,182)-a-night boutique hotel run by CampbellGray Hotels, a Wolseley-run restaurant as a shopping mall. The superyacht is now offering its residencies for sale up to £10 million (15.7 million).

A new world record was made i St.Tropez when two rival billionaires got involved in a contest to see who could order more £600 bottles of Cristal at Les Caves du Roy nightclub in St. Tropez. It was Zhen Low, the younger brother of the Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, against Winston Fisher of the New York real-estate family. In the end, Zhen Low turned out to be the winner when he made for a whopping €2 million ($2.6 million) champagne bill. The lavish clash was witnessed by Thor Equities CEO Joseph Sitt, SBE CEO Sam Nazarian and Paris Hilton, who helped Jho Low celebrate his 28th birthday last year with a four-day party in Las Vegas. Hilton herself raked up a bar bill of £350,000 buying 10 six-liter bottles of champagne. How much money you have it still doesn’t say about how much taste you have!!!

Although for us no champagne today the Veuve Clicquot’s traveler gift sets are designed to celebrate the luxury Veuve Clicquot experience. After revolutionizing the champagne consumption with its Clicquot Ice Box, the brand has trusted designer Denis Boudard to fascinate its consumers with another unique giftbox, The Veuve Clicquot Fridge. This box allows savoring one’s favorite vintage at the ideal temperature and can keep the bottle fresh for up to 2 hours.

A restful sleep comes for a price. The luxury bedding craze is luring the rich to bed in style. Luxury bed maker Hastens, known for its high-end clientele including Tom Cruise and David Beckham, is now offering a royal treat to its uber rich clientele with “The Royal Bed” to celebrate the marriage of Crown Princess Victoria to Daniel Westling on June 19. The all-natural mattress set, a trademark of Hastens, features bridal colors, “lavish white with subtle accents in sumptuous gold,” and it features legs made in oak and accented with brushed brass. Each bed is embroidered with gold thread that reads: “Hastens Royal 2010″ and each corner of the bed is adorned with a brushed brass crown that is detachable. The royalty comes for a matching price tag of $18,000.

Sure, Gillette’s got a shaving cream that’s so intense it will make John Cena accost you in the men’s room, but what if you want grooming products that go the way of all natural caring, as opposed to cage match? In that case you need wares from Dino Caracciolo’s Crown Shaving Company. Part of a family that’s been in the barbering business since 1955, Caracciolo wanted to create lathers and lotions free of chemical fillers and synthetic fragrances, that would pair old world luxury with masculine appeal.

The five products are ambassadors for natural ingredients: the supreme glide pre-shave formula contains aloe, meadowfoam seed and orange fruit extract, the shave cream has Shea butter and white tea leaf extract tinged with eucalyptus and spearmint, the aftershave lotion is coconut and jojoba oils along with vitamin E, and the peppermint tea tree body wash and peppermint tea tree conditioner are similarly dedicated to the natural care of your skin. They’re available online only, with the entire set of five offered for $75.

Poker is not just a stalwart game like many others, it’s furthermore known for a social class and gender transcending characteristic. On a poker table everyone is equal, and shares the same passion as also the same motivation, however the poker player’s tools distinguish. This sleek poker set clearly strikes a huge statement of sumptuous luxury, and a masculine appeal every gentleman would be proud to play with. Dunhill conceived an elegant, understated black lacquered box that accommodates quirky colored, solid aluminum chips, weighted poker dice and two packs of chrome-edged cards illustrating the exceptional standards of Dunhill and this poker set’s consistent appearance of luxury.

$431

A $4.5 million 1932 Bugatti (above) will be among the attractions at Masterpiece London, a new fair combining fine and decorative art with premium collectors’ items, taking place at the city’s former Chelsea Barracks from June 24–29. UK classic car specialists Fiskens and Coys will be showcasing a dazzling array of fine historical automobiles at the event. The 1932 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix racer from Coys has been piloted by legendary driver Jean Pierre Wimille and is one of the finest surviving examples of its kind. Another highlight from Fiskens is a magnificent Aston Martin DB4 GT, which competed on a multitude occasions at some of the most high-profile Swiss races between 1962 and 1965. Joining the cars will be exquisite pieces from the diverse worlds of arms and armor, contemporary furniture, antiquities, clocks, ceramics, haute couture, watches, fine antique jewelry, textiles, rare antique books, paintings and modern works of art from around the world.

It might have sound bizarre or purely unbelievable when Mont Blanc launched “fraud proof” ink saying “Only one person will own this ink – You,” but given the reputation of the iconic pen manufacturer you can’t help but trust. Recognized as the icon of writing culture, Mont Blanc has developed an ink that is linked to each individual as matchless as a fingerprint. This new innovation is comprised of components containing an invisible, inimitable botanical code which is similar to the human DNA code. Available from Spring 2010, this revolutionary set of writing instruments with the Personal Code Ink will be offered for the first time in handcrafted Montblanc pens imbued with a new, cutting-edge ink to facilitate the manual art of self-expression.