A fuchsia-coloured crocodile-skin Hermes bag has broken the record for the most expensive handbag sold at auction, selling for US$222,912 at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong. The shiny pink bag was sold to an Asian phone bidder in an auction that saw "fast-paced bidding from start to finish", Christie's said in a statement late Monday. The final price realised at the Monday auction was around 15 percent more than the auction house's estimate. "With its 18k white gold and diamond hardware, Hermes Shiny Fuchsia Porosus Crocodile Diamond Birkin 35 dazzled the crowds, achieving a HK$1.72 million record," Christie's said in the statement. The bag, part of the "Birkin" series named after British-born French actress and singer Jane Birkin, features a gold and diamond-encrusted clasp and padlock and is 35 centimetres in width and 25 centimetres in height. At the same auction that saw some 300 designer handbags going under the hammer, a shiny black crocodile "Kelly" bag was sold for US$145,000, breaking the record for the most expensive "Kelly" bag sold at auction. The "Kelly" product line is named after the late Princess Grace of Monaco. The auction house's Handbags and Accessories sale achieved $5.99 million in sales. Designer handbags are the latest craze for collectors, taking global auction houses by storm and fetching record prices. The previous record was set at the sale of another Hermes Birkin by an American auction house valued at around $203,000 in 2011.
There are plenty of makeup tutorials on the Internet that can teach you just how to get flawless skin and almond eyes with the stroke of a brush. However, the makeup video taking the world wide web by storm right now is one that shows a woman wiping her face clean. Well, half of it anyway. The video, titled "how to remove your face," uploaded by a South Korean woman on YouTube shows her dabbing one side of her face with a wad of cotton dipped in makeup remover. Slowly, almost like magic, you see the eye liner, eye shadow, brow filler, mascara, foundation and whatever else was used before disappear to reveal her 'original' face. And to say the difference is stark would be an understatement. It's amazing to see how the woman transformed herself with a just few cosmetics and some handy brushwork. You cannot help but notice the glaring difference in the shape and size of her eyes. If the made-up and not made-up sides weren't on the same face, you'd think it were two different women altogether. Uploaded exactly a month ago, the makeup-in-reverse video has gone viral with over 7.7 million views on YouTube.
With casino revenues in Macau in freefall due to Beijing's anti-corruption crackdown and a slowing Chinese economy, the gambling hub is hoping to reinvent itself as a family-friendly mass market destination. But the enclave's plan to replace the high-rolling elite with tourists drawn by new entertainment-focused mega-resorts will not be plain sailing. Macau's creaking infrastructure is already struggling to cope with visitor numbers and analysts and residents question how the city can accommodate the influx necessary to make up for the loss of VIP gamblers. "Casino operators cannot expect the return of the good old days," says Macau expert Sonny Lo of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Lo says the success of Macau's reinvention depends on consumers' appetite for both mass market gaming and non-gambling entertainment. "It remains to be seen whether tourists are developing this taste."
