 
It's a no-brainer for a posh house like Gucci or Chanel to crank out a new fragrance every year; not so much the underfunded avant-garde. That's the territory of Colette and perfume manufacturer Symrise, who've tapped As Four, Bless and Hussein Chalayan for their first foray into fumes. With ginger, vetiver and orris, the unisex Three As Four is bracing, spicy and less attention-grabbing than As Four's clothes. Of Bless's many references, it's more the Nutella and tea, and less the baby blankets and hair gel that characterizes their spicy-chocolatey, vegetable-oil-based juice. Hussein Chalayan's choice is the least unusual, with more than a whiff of heady, old school after shave, inspired by the journey between foggy London and sunny Istanbul. Each 50 ml bottle is 50 euros at Colette.fr.
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Pushing two products where one should do is a skanky practice, but we'll make an exception for the one-two punch of Caudalie's Eye Lifting Serum and Eye Contour Cream ($99 each, 15 ml). We've tried every eye cure out there, but with this we're impressed. The serum dramatically tightens, blasts dark circles and de-puffs with witch hazel, buckwheat and Caudalie's anti-oxidant power-potion grapevine Reservatrol. The cream adds more of the same benefits plus a protective and moisturizing layer to minimize the wrinkles we love so much. We honestly tried to pick one over the other and couldn?t, and the company offers a little savings if you get both. Get over yourself and take the plunge.
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Looking for something to protect freshly sandblasted skin, French microdermabrasion guru Odile Lecoin synthesized a shielding molecule from a deepwater micro-critter. You'd never know such high-intensity activity was going on in her super-light, super-rich, super-absorptive mega-cream, but if your skin is at all stressed from acne, sun damage or Retinol treatments, this stuff will make you consider pulling a reverse Little Mermaid. $275 for 50 ml at Barneys.com
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Ever considerate of our time (though less so of our desire to retire house model John Paul DeJoria), Paul Mitchell's Quick Slip styling cream purports to provide UV protection and cut down your hair drying time by 25%. After testing, we weren't sure about the dryer-time difference, but its effect on our air-dried hair made us true believers. It's like they took cult product Bumble and bumble Grooming Creme and perfected it. The lightweight cream imparts body, weight and texture with zero stickiness or grease. We're so happy we might even give John Paul another look.
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Curious after our encounter with Ingrid Millet's product line, we popped into the IM Paris spa on a recent sojourn. IM's package design may be less than chic but the spa isn't—BD's blood pressure drops the minute we walked into the airy and white interior. (We're not sure what this has to do with the space's "female-proportioned" design theme of egg-looking sconces and curved walls, but they do like to point out that it exists.)
Maybe the egg thing was a subtle inducement, but we went for the much-touted caviar facial and mask. Fish eggs are an au courant ingredient for their proteins and marine DNA, but most products don't use much. Not so here: we were looking for the blini when spa manager Syvlie rubbed IM's Osetra massage cream into our skin. The 45% extract content was apparent the moment she opened the package, which she did after multiple moisturizing, toning and exfoliating steps, and a thorough pore-evacuation—bless. (Less fishy is the subsequent Caviar Collagen Sheet Mask.)
The treatment was awarded "most effective" prize by a French editorial company (we can't remember which—we were kind of relaxed by the time we were done); after seeing the results on our own previously mottled, dehydrated, jet-lagged, hungover skin, we agree. Red marks were diminished, pores were tightened, tone was evened, cells were plumped. All for about $150—which is not bad for an hour and a half at a Faubourg Saint Honoré joint.
L'Institut de la Beauté Ingrid Millet, 9 rue Royale, Paris 75008, +33 (0) 1 47 42 36 60
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