Latest news with #indulgence
Harpers Bazaar Arabia
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Harpers Bazaar Arabia
Galeries Lafayette Dubai Makes Indulgence the Season's Best Accessory
Because sometimes, the most tasteful thing you can do is take your time. If you're looking for a reason to spend a little extra time at The Dubai Mall this summer, Galeries Lafayette just gave you one. The iconic department store has launched Tasteful, a multi-sensory in-store campaign that runs until the end of July – and it's as stylish as it is smartly curated. Designed to celebrate the art of indulgence, Tasteful is about taking a moment to enjoy the finer things – whether that's discovering a new signature scent, investing in a standout piece for the season, or slowing down for lunch somewhere that actually feels worth it. With surreal visual installations, experiential beauty stations, and personal styling zones dotted throughout the space, the campaign invites visitors to explore fashion, fragrance, and food in a way that feels fresh and effortless. The fashion edit is a highlight. Think Marni, Coperni, Cult Gaia, Ganni and more – designers who know how to strike the balance between directional and wearable. It's not about head-to-toe looks, it's about mixing and matching standout pieces that speak to your personal style. From oversized silhouettes to structured tailoring, the focus is on confidence and individuality. Beauty lovers won't be left behind either. The fragrance and skincare selection spans everything from cult favourites like Kilian, Fugazzi, and Maison Crivelli to the newly launched Prada Beauty. It's less about the hard sell, more about playful discovery – and the kind of in-store experience that reminds you why beauty shopping used to be fun. Of course, all of this is best enjoyed with a break in between. That's where Le Gourmet comes in, Galeries Lafayette's dedicated food hall on the second floor. It's the kind of space that makes it easy to turn a quick shop into a full-day affair before hitting the next edit. Even the practical details have been thought through. With digital gift cards and same-day delivery available across the UAE, Galeries Lafayette makes it easy to shop on your own terms whether you're browsing in-store or sending a last-minute gift to someone else. If you're after an excuse to treat yourself this season – this is it.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Premium Pints Go Portable: Luxury Ice Cream Brands Bet On Convenient Formats
Jeni's J-Bars There's little that captures the heart of American summertime more than licking a half-melted ice cream cone during the twilight hour. Consumers are eager to spend their money replicating that experience, now in a way that aligns with evolving values on what they eat. That will always include indulgence, but through real, simple ingredients, clearly evident beyond the frosted doors of the novelty ice cream set, known for its convenient, single-serve formats. The subcategory does look different than in previous generations–modern brands taking away shelf space from its legacy competitors. Modern brands who not long ago were most known for their premium pints of ice cream one door over. Premium, not necessarily in price point, but in their exceptionally high butterfat content, beyond 10%. The frozen novelty category in the US has shown a steady year-over-year increase, according to data from NielsenIQ (NIQ). In 2022, the frozen novelty category was worth $7 billion and in the summer of 2025 sits at $7.8 billion. It largely correlates with the increase in the umbrella frozen category which has grown in that same time period from $75.8 billion to $78.5 billion. Three premium ice cream brands stand out for adding novelty ice cream products to their line of premium pints. Another thing they all have in common: nostalgia with a twist. Alec's Culture Cups Alec's Ice Cream Culture Cups Alec Jaffe remembers making homemade ice cream for class projects when he was a kid. His blood is practically part dairy. His family has been involved in sustainable agriculture well before it became more mainstream. He also focused heavily on nutrition while he was a running back at USC. Mix all of those up and thaw them out, and you get Alec's Ice Cream. Alec's Peanut Butter Cup Culture Cup In less than five years since hitting its first store shelf, pints of Alec's Ice Cream are beginning to become a familiar sight behind those frosted doors. It's largely known for its impressive commitment to high-quality dairy. 'Not all dairy is created equal,' Jaffe says. 'It's one of the original superfoods.' Specifically, Alec's began sourcing organic A2 dairy from ROC Certified and Verified Land to Market pasture-raised dairy farm Alexandre Family Farm in California's Redwood Forest, but has since begun sourcing from other similar A2 farms because his demand grew so much. ROC Certified cane sugar in Alec's Ice Cream is sourced from Brazil's Native.'It's just about being able to offer what I believe the next generation of consumers is looking for, which is caring about the products that I'm buying, their impact on me and also the planet,' he adds. 'But especially in something like ice cream, I'm not going to sacrifice eating some bland thing that doesn't taste good.' To continue that ethos, Alec's recently released its first foray outside of pints: Culture Cups. It's like a Dixie Cup, but make it Alec's. 'You need to speak a language with what you're doing that has broad appeal, but also stands out in a way that catches someone's attention,' Jaffe says. Alec's Mint Chocolate Cookie Culture Cup As if the functional benefits of the pints weren't already attention-grabbing, the Culture Cups take it to another level–all while maintaining the integrity of real ice cream. 'It's a completely different recipe than our pints…lower calories, lower sugar.' It's still made with A2 dairy, but the Culture Cups, as the name suggests, also contain pre- and post-biotics, making it the supreme gut-health ice cream on the market. 'It allows us to tell the A2 story and the whole digestion story of our product in a much cleaner and simpler way,' Jaffe explains. But you wouldn't know it from eating it. Especially given the added layer of indulgence via the chocolate crackable shell resting on top of each Culture Cup. 'Texture is such an important part in my mind to novelties, so the chocolate shell was a really fun way for us to do that,' he says. Right now, Alec's Ice Cream Culture Cups come in packs of four in the flavors Madagascar Vanilla, Dark Chocolate Honeycomb Crunch, Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Covered Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Cookie–all a little more restrained from the more experimental flavors in the pints. But if Jaffe were ever to sell the Cups in a grab-and-go retail format, he believes he will embrace the portability even more by including a spoon under the lid. 'Week one, day one, [Culture Cup] was selling out at stores across the country,' he says. RoseBud soft serve pouches Rosebud Soft Serve Pouches For Sam Rose, founder and CEO of RoseBud Ice Cream, the nostalgia is the point. 'I just have a lot of positive associations with ice cream…going to the beach with my family on vacation and we'd go to watch the sunset, but really where my eyes were drawn was the blue ice cream in my hands,' he tells me. His original plan, at the suggestion of friends while living in Denver, was to create a THC-infused ice cream, but soon realized, in 2016, the market wasn't quite ready for such a product. That made him realize that his brand wasn't about what you could put in ice cream, but the ice cream itself. 'The foundation of the company has always been on really high quality ice cream and to focus on ice cream that has the power to make a bad day good and a good day great.' RoseBud Original Vanilla soft serve pouch RoseBud is classified as super premium American ice cream, meaning it has a very high butterfat content–14%–and does not contain eggs. By 2024, RoseBud pints were in about 300 stores nationwide. 'Everything's been done bootstrapping and just learning things along the way,' Rose says. Even though that number is expected to double by 2026, he was still concerned about the demand for his pints, until his sister swooped in with a makeshift mom move. 'She made this suggestion to put ice cream in baby food pouches for my nephew. Her words were, 'he'll go 'ape' for that.'' That was the genesis of RoseBud soft serve pouches. Rose couldn't sleep some nights because he was so fixated on the idea of this additional strategy that would eventually trigger new momentum in his business. 'This is a good fit to go sell at a movie theater or baseball games,' he says. '...so many places that a pint would never go.' He needed to create a new formula from his pints for a lighter texture, more appropriate for a pouch. 'You can only find [soft serve] out of a machine,' he says. 'So this doubles down on the uniqueness.' As opposed to most soft serve which contains a low butterfat around 2%, RoseBud soft serve has a 7% butterfat content. 'I want to maintain that this is premium, high quality ice cream,' Rose says. 'We're going with just a higher overrun because that's what gives it that more whipped, softer textures, the more air. The soft serve pouches are not just for kids; the pouch format is growing among other demos who view the products as something for the entire family. 'Part of our target audience is millennials who are now having younger kids, but we want them to be able to eat the pouch versus feeling like they're eating baby food.' Aside from ease of use, that's also the reason why the nozzle is about twice the thickness of a typical pouch nozzle. But for convenience's sake, there's also no scooping or dishes necessary in this format. RoseBud Blue Moon soft serve pouch Once consumers fall in love with the soft serve pouches, they could potentially become brand loyal and then get into RoseBud pints. 'The novelty case keeps getting bigger,' Rose says. 'We're seeing more brands like us in the premium space who have long done pints starting to get into it. It's a natural progression of bolstering a brand's power to have placement in multiple places in the freezer.' 'It's renewed my passion for the business,' Rose says. 'We're seeing that the pouches have the possibility to be as big as I thought they could be.' RoseBud soft serve pouches include Original Vanilla, Classic Chocolate, Cookies n. Cream, and Blue Moon–while not blue in color, Rose describes the flavor as 'citrus marshmallow,' and is a nod to the blue ice cream that would drip down his hands on summer nights as a kid. Jeni's J-Bars Jeni's J-Bars Jeni's Ice Cream is no stranger to innovation. From Brambleberry Crisp to Bubble Gum, founder Jeni Britton created the brand based upon sourcing each of its ingredients in a highly intentional way. As Head of Innovation, Beth Stallings oversees the Jeni's test kitchen. '90 something percent of what you taste is actually what you smell,' Stallings explains. 'We joke that ice cream is kind of like an edible perfume. We're really good at locking those flavors into this higher butterfat content ice cream.' Jeni's Passion Fruit Dreamsicle J-Bar More than 20 years ago, Britton opened her first scoop shop in Columbus, Ohio, and formats have slowly trickled in over time. She would hand-pack pints in addition to scoops on cones and cups, and those pints inevitably rolled out into retail. 'Our shops are sort of our testing ground,' Stallings says. 'Then you get that national distribution where we can make it more available to our customers, who are really asking for it on the bars now.' The first venture into the novelty space in retail came two years ago with Jeni's ice cream sandwiches, of which the Key Lime Pie flavor performs best. 'Sandwiches were something that we used to do by hand in the shop,' Stallings says. 'You might be looking for something that's more single serve.' The successful retail rollout of the sandwiches gave Jeni's the confidence to roll out its other scoop shop novelty in retail: J-Bars. '[Jeni] used to hand mold, hand dip those…The Caramel Vanilla Sundae bar is an ode to the very first bar that Jeni ever did.' Jeni's Vanilla Caramel Sundae J-Bar Jeni's J-Bars are chubby blocks of Jeni's ice cream stuck on a popsicle stick. 'In addition to the flavor profiles we were going for, we spent a lot of time talking about the experience when you bite into the bar,' Stallings says. 'Everyone keeps calling [nostalgia] a trend,' Stallings says.' I think it's just always going to be a motivator…like I'm like seven or eight, chasing that truck down. Other J-Bar flavors, all exclusive to the bars, include Passionfruit Dreamsicle–a nod to creamsicle with a tropical twist–Dark Chocolate Bombe–made with the same deeply intense chocolate ice cream from the pints but with an outer chocolate shell–and Chocolate Churros & Cream (only available at Whole Foods Market) –of which the cinnamon cookie crumble sticks to the sides of the bar in the most nostalgic of nostalgia bombs. And yet still, Stallings says, 'it feels new…It had to hit all of the hallmarks of what we consider the perfect Jeni's experience.'
South China Morning Post
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Your Hong Kong weekend food guide for July 18-20
As the city winds down from the buzz of Asia's 50 Best Bars – while battling the summertime heat – this week's food guide is all about cool indulgences and leisurely meals. From Italian fare by the waterfront to delicate seasonal desserts, these fresh offerings promise a flavourful, laid-back weekend to savour. Advertisement For more fine dining options, check out the 2025 100 Top Tables Guide Friday, July 18 Created by chef Grégory Doyen, Sunny Side Up is a whimsical egg-shaped chocolate dessert layered with banana coulis, chocolate sponge and marshmallow. Photo: Handout There's no better time than summer to indulge in light, refreshing desserts. Coco at The Mira has just unveiled a limited edition collaboration between celebrated French pastry chef Grégory Doyen and the hotel's executive pastry chef Smita Grosse. Ideal for sharing, their custom box of petit gâteaux includes four mini cakes – two of which are Doyen's Sunny Side Up, a chocolate egg infused with banana coulis and marshmallow, and Grosse's graceful Madame Butterfly, layered with raspberry-kaffir lime confit and lychee jelly. For something more decadent, dive into chef Doyen's signature purple berries cake, where oolong cream, chocolate mousse and red berry compote come together in a midday treat. Where: G/F, Lobby, The Mira Hong Kong, 118-130 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui Advertisement When: Until August 31 Saturday, July 19
National Post
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- National Post
Magnum Ice Cream Invites Race Goers to Enjoy the Ultimate Bite at Montreal's Crescent Street Grand Prix Festival
Article content MONTREAL — This weekend, Magnum Ice Cream (Magnum) is inviting Montrealers and race-week revelers to experience the ultimate bite. From June 12 to 15, visitors can stop by the Magnum ASMR Studio at The Crescent Street Grand Prix Festival and partake in a multi-sensory activation designed to deliver a moment of indulgence. Article content The immersive Magnum experience offers a pit stop from the action of the track with an experience that brings the signature 'crack' of Magnum's 100% Belgian chocolate-coated ice cream bars to life. Visitors can step into the Magnum ASMR Studio, get close to the mic and create their own ASMR-inspired content – from the slow unwrapping of an ice cream bar to the iconic chocolate crack from the first bite. Each guest will receive a video capturing their personalized Magnum Moment to share on social media. Article content 'In a weekend known for speed, sound and adrenaline, we're giving people a moment to slow down, indulge, and really savour the small luxury of a Magnum,' said Benjamin Finn, Marketing Lead for Ice Cream, Unilever. 'Our ASMR activation taps into a trend people can't get enough of, offering that satisfying chocolate crack and sensory delight our fans love.' Article content The hero of this year's activation is the Magnum Mini Double Caramel – a perfectly mini-sized ice cream bar featuring velvety vanilla ice cream, gooey caramel sauce, and a decadent layer of 100% Belgian chocolate. The perfect bite-sized indulgence, Magnum Minis are the ultimate treat for fans craving something sweet during race weekend. Magnum will be sampling June 12 – 15 starting at 11 a.m. ET until supplies last – AND everyone who visits the Magnum booth will have a chance to win a $1,000 gift card for a shopping spree. Article content As temperatures rise, there's no better time to treat yourself to the rich, luxurious taste of a Magnum. Whether you're racing between events or strolling the summer streets of Montreal, Magnum's premium ingredients and assortment of flavours is the perfect go-to for all your summer adventures. Article content For more information and updates, please visit and follow @ on Instagram. Article content About Magnum® Article content Launched in 1989, Magnum® was the first handheld ice cream brand targeted as a premium adult offering. Today, Magnum® is one of the world's leading ice cream brands, selling over 1 billion units annually worldwide. Since launching in Canada in 2011, Magnum® has remained committed to bringing premium, indulgent ice cream bars to Canadians. Article content About Unilever Article content Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 128,000 employees and generated sales of €60.8 billion in 2024. Article content For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit Article content Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 128,000 employees and generated sales of €60.8 billion in 2024. Article content Our leading brands in North America include Dove, Hellmann's, Vaseline, Degree, Axe, TRESemmé, Knorr, Magnum, Ben & Jerry's, Nutrafol, Liquid I.V., Paula's Choice, and Dermalogica. Article content For more information on Unilever U.S. and its brands visit: For more information on Unilever Canada and its brands visit: About Unilever in Canada Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 128,000 employees and generated sales of €60.8 billion in 2024. Article content Our leading brands in Canada include Dove, Vaseline, Degree, Axe, SheaMoisture, TRESemmé, Knorr, Hellmann's, Breyers, Magnum, Ben & Jerry's, Liquid I.V., and OLLY. Article content Article content
The Sun
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Modern luxuries include noise-cancelling headphones and quilted loo roll
Modern life's little luxuries include noise cancelling headphones, quilted loo roll, and pre-chopped vegetables. A poll of 2,000 adults found they typically enjoy a touch of luxury five times a month. 2 2 With robot vacuum cleaners, smart thermostats, and having an after dinner treat also considered to be indulgences. Others include high-end scented candles, a mid-week glass of wine, and boiling water taps. Commissioned by Müller Bliss, the research found almost 46 per cent of adults feel like they don't have time to add luxury to their daily life. Great British Menu winner Kate Austen, who has teamed up with the yoghurt maker to show us how to inject a little extra into our daily grind, said: 'For me, little luxuries are basically edible happiness, from a comfort dish to a sneaky ready-made dessert, it's my instant mood elevator.' Kate has created "Bliss Bites" inspired by two new flavours: Whipped Greek Style Strawberries & Cream with miniature biscuits, and Whipped Greek Style Yogurt Lemon Meringue Pie. The study also identified the things adults believe used to be considered luxury which aren't any more – including holidays abroad, air travel, and owning a personal computer. Others include subscription TV, buying clothes, and fast food. For 38 per cent, getting the chance to enjoy 'little luxuries' has become more important than it used to be. With 72 per cent of the opinion being able to enjoy such things is also much easier now than it has been previously. And this is reflected by the 34 per cent who 'always' or 'often' incorporate indulgences into their daily lives. Brits renting spend nearly £700 on décor to make rentals feel like home As many as 82 per cent believe small luxuries have a positive impact on their mood, suggesting making a concerted effort to enjoy them is worthwhile. However, it can be very much a private pleasure - 70 per cent have secretly enjoyed their luxuries alone. While 35 per cent have resorted to 'extreme' lengths to do just this – including hiding away in the bathroom (43 per cent) and repackaging it up in disguise (32 per cent). Carried out through the research identified food as the most common type of indulgence (39 per cent), with dessert being seen as the most luxurious meal (58 per cent). A decadent taste (51 per cent) is the number one reason for food feeling more luxurious, followed by the sensation they get when eat (44 per cent) and how it enlivens more than one sense (33 per cent). Marina Lazu, Müller Bliss brand manager, said: 'Luxury is enhanced convenience, it is important we indulge in luxuries to give us those dopamine hits. "We believe luxury isn't about extravagance, it's about those small moments that bring joy. Our new Whipped Greek Style flavours offer a way to elevate the everyday with a little bit of luxury in every spoonful." TOP 30 MOST COMMON LITTLE LUXURIES: 1. Peace and quiet 2. High-speed internet 3. Good quality coffee 4. Next day delivery 5. Grocery delivery 6. Good quality skincare 7. A TV show with no ads 8. Robot vacuum cleaners 9. Having an after-dinner treat 10. Ad-free TTV 11. Air fryer 12. Unlimited data when abroad 13. Priority boarding 14. Boiling water taps 15. Getting your nails done 16. Subscription boxes e.g. food, beauty products 17. Heated blankets 18. Scented candles 19. Having a mid-week glass of wine 20. Quilted loo roll 21. Noise cancelling headphones 22. Heated clothes airers 23. Pre-chopped vegetables 24. Electric bikes 25. Smart thermostats 26. A fully charged electric toothbrush 27. His and her sinks 28. More than one type of cheese in the fridge 29. Ordering food/drinks using a QR code rather than getting up to order 30. Phone charger nearby so you don't have to get up
