A friend in town, an anniversary, an “I deserve it” moment … welcome to the luxury micro holiday club On a shiny winter’s day, seagulls, surfers and whale-watchers are framed in the picture windows of Bondi Beach’s famous Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. The caviar tartlets and the thyme-infused Campari spritz have been dispatched. A…
Small but perfectly formed, Regatta is back in Sydney and dressed to kill. Imagine you’ve arrived a little early at Jay Gatsby’s drawing room in West Egg, Long Island, ahead of a lively soiree. The marble floors are being mopped and polished to a shine; there’s the sound of carpets being vacuumed; the Christmas tree,…
Why pepper, lily and Cognac are on the wishlist of perfume connoisseurs This summer, luxury perfumers are drawing inspiration from the Silk Road, warm sun on citrus, 1980s pop culture, ancient opulence, heady islands like Madagascar and Sicily, and warm, after-dinner ambience. Among the new season’s surprising A-list invitees are pepper, lily, Cognac, and that…
A new luxury pharmacy with scent to burn and treats for pets opens on Sydney’s fashion strip There is no end to the number of ways you can appreciate a good scent. Proof was the official opening this week of Santa Maria Novella at The Intersection in Paddington (Shop 10, 2-16 Glenmore Road), a heady…
Tapping into this year’s staycation imperative is a new way to explore Sydney Harbour Excess All Areas played hooky this week, exploring the bays, beaches and bushland of the playground that is Sydney Harbour on Spectre, a sleek 12-metre Scandinavian Axopar37 sports cruiser, aka MySydneyBoat. Company director Mark Dalgleish and his skipper daughter, Elodie Dalgleish,…
* This post may contain affiliate links. Excess All Areas may receive a small commission, at no cost to readers, if a purchase is made What makes a perfume a classic? Michael Edwards dissects the divas of scent in a tome that has this week been named Fragrance Book of the Year… Perfume is a…
Japan in springtime, Morocco in an orange haze, London dipped in derring-do … experience exotic locations through a fragrance filter. There’s a new wave of niche perfumes that aim to re-create a destination in a bottle. It’s a cache that lets the perfume lover daydream about travel that might still be, once closed borders are…
Stargazing, underwater dining, art classes, and swimming with manta rays sets one Maldivian destination apart. In the Maldives some things are a given: powdery sand, turquoise water, coral reefs, kaleidoscopic fish, dolphins, starry nights. What, then, are the points of difference in paradise? Unique selling points might be exclusive sandbars for sunset cocktails (Soneva Fushi);…
A pumping new perfume stumbles into the disco dawn Christopher Chong’s latest exotic perfume for the Oman-based Amouage pays homage to high-voltage 1970s New York — with its celebrities, glamour, energy and artistic daring. The newbie, Imitation (Woman & Man), evokes a time when nightclubs like Studio 54 were heady playgrounds for grown-ups; when Andy…
What’s in your carry-on? Some luxurious – portable – perfumes, yes? Right now, travellers are in the sights of the perfume houses. Dinky little travel kits, slimline atomisers, and his and hers minis give jet-setters variety when they travel and ensure they don’t flout airlines’ rules on carry-on liquid limits. Travel kits are also a great…