Endless Summer

We heart NY: Bond No. 9's latest tribute to New York.

By Nandita Khanna

What's summer for if not to conjure up scents and memories of vacations past? Or even, in many cases, to inspire one's peripatetic pursuits. Personally, I prefer the latter, as I'm longing to escape the sweltering heat of New York at the moment. While editorial deadlines (and, ahem, financial constraints) permit me from hopping on a plane on a whim, I'm delighted to report that there are several new perfumes, candles, and even diffusers (my absolute new favorite olfactory trend) to help transport you--even if temporarily-- to far more idyllic destinations. No SPF required.

A Rare Import

A Stately Affair: Space.NK's U.S. flagship sits on historic Greene Street in New York's trendy SoHo neighborhood.

By Nandita Khanna

As a student studying abroad at University of Oxford in England to my delight I found that small, inexpensive pleasures abound: a pain au chocolat at the patisserie on High Street, an afternoon spent perusing the books at Blackwell's, and watching students perform Shakespeare on the Thames. It wasn't until I traveled into London that I discovered small pleasures could be found there too--only there it's for a costly sum given the current exchange rate. It was then that I came across Space.NK.apothohecary in Covent Garden, and quickly became hooked on high-end beauty products and the store's eponymou--and affordable--beauty line. What struck me about Space.NK was that I wasn't finding run-of-the-mill beauty lines that I'd find at say, Sephora, but I was finding special, more boutique-y feeling lines that weren't on every girl's vanity. The great thing was that the lines carried here were quite diverse--there's everything from Acqua di Parma to Laura Mercier and exclusive lines like SheerinO'kho and Eve Lom.

Space.NK's founder, Nicky Kinnaird (who I'm proud to say, shares my initials), believes that beauty is a natural extension of fashion, and in her first atelier in Covent Garden helped garner attention for the likes of Anya Hindmarch and other up-and-coming Brit designers. Kinnaird believes that there isn't one particular brand that does everything perfectly (a rather sensible approach, if you ask me), but rather, plenty of different brands that do a few things very well. With that very mindset, Kinnaird launched her own eponymous line Space.NK, which now includes fragrance, aromatherapy, thalassotherapy, and even beauty tools (like a genius eyelash curler, but more on that later). Plus, there's several great travel sets including the "Fragrant Traveler" that comes in scents like Compelling (inspired by Kinnaird's trips to Morocco) and Soulful (influenced by her trip to a Japanese hot spring 1-1/2 hours outside of Tokyo).

Much to my delight Kinnaird opened her first US location here in New York in SoHo--giving faithful Space.NK habitues like myself a new place to play. Because isn't that what apothecaries are all about? Spritzing and sampling to your heart is content? I like to think so. Here, Belfast-born Kinnaird, a frequent flier and constant globetrotter talk to us about her new store opening and some of her travel tips (and discoveries).

My spin in a hybrid and other eco-beauty musings

By Nandita Khanna

After all of my talk about green fashion and sustainability I'll admit, rather sheepishly, that I've never actually taken a spin in a hybrid car. That all changed earlier this week after I returned from Los Angeles where I saw many hybrids sitting in traffic on the 405 and was told by my friend Emily Birdwhistell that she too had received one as a law school graduation gift just last year.

On Wednesday I was picked up in a Toyota Prius and taken to a John Hardy press preview. A perfect match, I instantly thought, since as I mentioned last week, John Hardy is quite big on sustainability and lessening his company's eco-footprint. Manhattan-based Ozocar, is two-years old, but it was love at first sight when my car was waiting for me on 42nd Street--shiny and silver and a standout in a sea of black Lincoln towncars that are perpetually parked outside of Conde Nast's headquarters. Turns out the company has a full fleet of brand-new hybrid Priuses and Lexus SUVs to take you uptown, downtown and to the airport, which is a steal from $50-$65 from anywhere Manhattan. Once I got in side I relished in the silence--no real noises and the drivers have GPS-equipped BlackBerrys instead of those annoying walkie-talkies that keep beeping all the time. The real treasure was in the back seat (rather roomy might I add). There, waiting in the back seat pocket was a MacBook--the car was equipped with Wi-Fi! How much better could it get for a workaholic like myself. The driver also kindly chimed in that I could select whatever radio station I wanted since they had Sirius satellite radio. These were enough perks to keep me wishing I was stuck in traffic and now I'm hooked on a new type of conveyance.