Hating

This Salvador Dali perfume bottle, if you believe its seller, looks and smells as good as when it was created in 1985. With a frosted glass nose and a Dali-signed pair of lips, the real appeal is the Salvador Dali-designed perfume bottle, though the scent is supposedly as charming, and picked by Dali: a blend of rose and jasmine, the rose celebrated Mrs. Dali’s rose garden, while Dali wore a sprig of jasmise behind his ear as he believed the flower to be a hallucinogen.

So why do I hate such a charming piece of art? I can’t figure out how to justify buying this Salvador Dali perfume bottle, since I’ve been stuck on a non-transferable perfume for years. Though for forty bucks, who cares…

Wanting

Usually called the Cartier “Dali” watch, Cartier’s melted watch is really the Cartier “Crash” watch, and Salvador Dali had nothing to do with the design, though he’d appreciate the twisted story:

“A vice president from the Cartier offices in London was involved in a fatal car crash. A fire ensued and the occupant along with his watch was caught up in the flames… “melting” the watch on his wrist, a Cartier Bagnoire Alongee, which is shaped like an elongated oval. The watch being melted and mangled took on the shape of a surrealistic watch from a Dali painting… Cartier found this “watch design” inspiring, and decided to introduce is as a new design, as a tribute to their fallen colleague.”

Cartier “Crash”/”Dali” watches are rare, though they had a few runs: first in the 1960s, 300 18K gold pieces were made in 1991, a special platinum edition was made in 1993, and Cartier re-released the “Crash” watch as a ladies’ diamond dress watch. The last edition of the Cartier “Crash”/”Dali” watch comes in 18K yellow, white, or rose gold. The rose gold “Crash” watch is the most choice: it’s set with rare, rose diamonds. Even if you can find one, the rose gold Cartier “Crash” watch retailed for $73,000…

Wearing

Before Murakami stamped cherry blossoms onto Louis Vuitton bags, Salvador Dali designed a “Bird In Hand” compact for compact manufacturer Elgin in 1952. Sweetly Surrealist, the bird’s wings lift to reveal powder, the tail hides a space for pills, and you tug off the bird’s head to access your tube of lipstick. Salvador Dali “Bird In Hand” compact comes in satin bronze, too, but this sterling silver version is choice, espesh with 14K overlay on its wings…

Wanting

Pour this Origins The Way of the Bath Matcha Tea body soak into your evening bath, and drown out all those mornings you wanted to swim in your matcha green tea…

Using

I used to suck down seven soy lattes a day and snort lines of espresso grinds around midnight — sleep was a waste of time.

Then I discovered matcha green tea. A premium powder of ground-up green tea leaves, matcha is higher in antioxidants than regular green tea, and whisking matcha and boiling water into a cup of jade froth makes for a better a.m. ceremony than whining in line at Starbucks.

Le Palais Gourmet matcha green tea is especially fine. When you open its canister, the bright green powder smells like an idealized version of a spring morning: sweet and alive.

Which is lovely. But the best part?

Matcha green tea gives you a higher, smoother buzz.

“Sleeping” is always better as a euphemism…

Wearing

So I listen to too much Jay-Z.

Months ago, I had a pinkie ring planned: a white gold square up to my little knuckle, with a “K” lightly hand-etched on.

And then I saw this photo of Coco Chanel.

Of course…

Wanting

How simply choice is a thumbprint replacing a family crest on a signet ring? But since this ring is pimped by a gallery, I wonder: is this Gerd Rothmann “Signet” ring a statement about vain individuality replacing tribal pride? Or is fingerprinting a “signet” ring — which were traditionally used to authenticate official documents — a wink at how privacy and security have dissolved? Or –

Could any other blog post better illustrate that I have a bachelors degree in Pseudo-Intellectual Masturbating?

Let’s discuss…

Wanting

Nomade Exquis is a collection of fingerprint-unique, vintage jewelry curated by Mo Clancy. Nomade Exquis’s beginnings are as organic as the jewelry vibes: a former trendcaster, Mo started collecting the antique jewelry out of a passion for modernist, brutalist, and biomorphic pieces from the 1950-1970s .

Mo charmed me at lunch months ago. She shared that one of the artists behind Nomade Exquis’s collection used such harsh methods to create his brutalist jewelry that only deaf people could be employed at his factory…

Hating

I just wandered into Le Palais Gourmet tea boutique in Beverly Hills, between running errands (all of my body is serviced in Beverly Hills).

Le Palais is great, and restarted my matcha kick — they’re having a “Matcha Madness” month, with matcha everything 20% off, including matcha candies, the same matcha Japan’s imperial family drinks, and  this Le Palais Gourmet matcha bowl.

It’s darling, but if you want to blow dough on an artisanal matcha bowl, get deep — check this antique chawan by Kenji Sakuma, who was born in 1907 as the son of second generation of Totaro Sakuma, a famed master potter…