Exquisite

There’s a lot of scoffing at detoxes about. Sure aren’t we grand just the way we are, we’re told. The body is well able to cleanse and alkalise itself we’re told. Our kidneys and liver can do their job unassisted, we're told. Detox culture leads to body dysmorphia and eating disorders we’re told.

Vegan lessons so far: Vegan one year one: On the set of Brendan O'Connor's Cutting Edge, April 2018 DON'T DECLARE YOU'RE GOING VEGAN Perhaps in hindsight, announcing my decision to go vegan live on Brendan O’Connor’s Cutting Edge was a tad rash.

THE BEACH Arcachon: There's plenty of room for everyone on the beaches of Arcachon Credit: Exquisite.ie Who needs the jet lag and expense of the Caribbean when you have these soft, powder white beaches on our doorstep? Just 55 km south of Bordeaux (expect to drive for an hour),...

Considering the medical community consider James Bond a chronic alcoholic, perhaps it’s best not to follow his advice for his famous Vesper cocktail, as described in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale. In the book, the secret agent instructs the barman: "Three measures of Booth's gin, one of vodka, half a measure of...

What’s a girl to do when she finds herself surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye can see in the south of France?  You guessed it, clear that palette (a banana helps) and head for the nearest wine tasting or dégustation as they’re known...writes Aisling O'Loughlin. Provence is the oldest wine growing region in France with the Greeks the...

Kurt Cobain was Oirish. Fair enough, there’s barely a beast or human, villain or hero, in this world and beyond we haven’t laid claim to, but this one, this one is guitar smashing big. His people emigrated from Carrickmore in Co Tyrone in 1875, taking with them the genes of a shy young man who would turn his rage...

  Kim Kardashian: The ultimate influencer of a tacky and tawdry culture of sex tapes, plastic surgery, nude selfies and shameless self promotion where everything is for sale? Or a cultural icon who has reshaped perceptions of body shape and beauty while freeing women to express their sexuality on social media and beyond? You could say, she is all of...

'You’re not half as fat as you look on the telly,’ used to be my favourite backhanded compliment when I worked on the box. It came back to me the other day when I read French First Lady Brigitte Macron’s assessment of Melania Trump: ‘She’s someone who has a strong personality, but works hard to hide it’. Honestly, I...

Is social media turning us into a big bunch of uniformed, easily offended, pack mentality thicks? Probably. Unapologetic rabble-rouser Ricky Gervais certainly thinks Twitter and Facebook have much to answer for the demise of civilisation. “It’s more important to be popular than right,’ he tells the audience on his Humanity Tour. ‘In this post-truth era, people don’t care about...

He was expecting Hollywood superstar Katherine Hepburn but it was the other Hepburn, a doe-eyed, gamine beauty in cigarette pants, a t-shirt and sandals who Hubert de Givenchy greeted when she arrived to borrow clothes for her latest movie Sabrina in 1953. Funnily enough, Givenchy, who died this week aged 91, was a bit disappointed the ‘real deal’ hadn’t...