The Hunt – Romantic spots

February 2, 2012

Global – Every week, The Purple Passport team goes out in search of a designated item in whatever city our team members happen to be in at that time. We wanted to share with you, our readers, some of our finds from around the world. And with Valentine’s Day coming… (more)

Introducing: New York – Cosmopolitan to the Core

January 25, 2012

NEW YORK, US – Start spreading the news…We’ve launched The Purple Passport Guide to New York! Fittingly for the nation’s largest metropolis, it’s our biggest guide yet, featuring over 450 of the choicest hotels, restaurants, spas, nightlife spots, shops, and activities to help you plan a distinctive city experience. Drawing… (more)

Tempting Tuesday: Beauty Buys in Beverly Hills

December 13, 2011

LOS ANGELES, USA- Hear that? It’s the collective sigh of relief from the ladies of Los Angeles. They’ve been fretting about their holiday party primping scheduling–when will I ever get my haircut? Can I squeeze in a blowout before the party? Is that really the color of my roots?–but now… (more)

V is for Versailles at George V Spa

December 12, 2011

PARIS, FRANCE – When Marie Antoinette resided at Versailles Palace, the opulent royal residence became synonymous with the petulant queen’s notorious extravagance. While the peasants had no bread to eat (her supposed solution: “Let them eat cake”), she allegedly encrusted the walls of the Petit Trianon, a small chateau on… (more)

Solid gold styles at haute-coiffure guru Alexandre Zouari

November 30, 2011

PARIS, FRANCE – A trip to Alexandre Zouari in Doha, Qatar (yes! He has a small salon in the W Hotel there) this past weekend, has me thinking about my experience at the mother ship in Paris. As the richest country in the world per capita, it makes perfect sense… (more)

The antidote to a Champs-Elysées shop at L’Espace Payot

November 28, 2011

PARIS, FRANCE – A day of shopping on the Champs-Elysées can be a rather taxing affair–to both your feet and your credit card. What with dashing from Cartier to Dior, dodging the swarms of photo-snapping tourists, and taking an obligatory lap around the Arc de Triomphe, the soles of your… (more)

Dodging mullets at Catherine de France

November 19, 2011

BEIJING, CHINA – Walking into a salon and coming out with a bowl cut or helmet head is a fate you might expect in small towns of America’s heartland, where (with good reason) crops are generally cut more carefully than hair. But in a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis like Beijing, you’d… (more)

A rare Beijing hand-and-foot haven at Lovely Nails

November 13, 2011

BEIJING, CHINA – In many international metropolises, quality nail care is easier to come by than good health care. A broken tip? No problem. A broken bone? Good luck. The opposite, however, is true in China, where the public health care system in urban areas like Beijing is widely accessible,… (more)

Letting go at Soho Sanctuary

October 1, 2011

NEW YORK, USA – On the road, my lunch hours are often filled with the buzz of surrounding suits conversing over their day’s conquests people, unable even for a moment to keep their minds off of meetings, schedules, and tasks. I, too, am guilty as charged. I surround myself… (more)

Tempting Tuesday: Soothe your Skin at Ciel Spa

September 27, 2011

LOS ANGELES, USA- Whether it’s a post-summer exfoliation treatment or a nourishing pre-winter dryness preparation, every once in a while our skin needs a little love. We bake it on the beach, force it into itchy wool-polyester blends, and have tested more beauty products on it than most home shopping… (more)