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Sydney-based makeup artist Bonnie Gillies spent twenty years watching women overcomplicate their routines. In 2019 she built a brand around the opposite instinct and called it Basics by B. The brand has now officially launched in both the UK and the United States, expanding the reach of what Gillies describes as the Australia Effect, an observed cultural phenomenon where people who spend time in Australia gradually strip their beauty routines back to their essentials, replacing the habit of covering skin with the habit of caring for it. Fresh skin, a natural glow, makeup that reads as effortless because the formulas are designed to work that way. It is an aesthetic that Australian women have practiced for considerably longer than the clean girl trend has existed anywhere else, and Gillies, who has worked as a professional makeup artist across both editorial and commercial contexts for two decades, built the brand from inside that tradition rather than in response to it. The formulation language across the range is consistent. Lightweight textures that allow the skin to breathe, pigments calibrated to enhance rather than obscure, and a finish that reads as skin rather than product. The Liquid Glow Drops deliver a soft luminosity in three shades: Marbella in a soft pink, Tulum in champagne shimmer, and Miami in warm bronze, designed to work as effectively mixed into a moisturizer as applied directly to the skin. The Body Glow illuminating lotion uses ultra-fine pearl pigments alongside jojoba seed oil and antioxidants to produce an all-over luminosity that reads as hydration rather than glitter. The Cream Liquid Lipstick across nine shades maintains flexibility through wear, which addresses one of the most persistent failures of the liquid lipstick category: the tendency of formulas to dry down into something rigid and uncomfortable by midday. What makes the brand worth paying attention to at launch is the coherence of the perspective behind it. In a market filled with brands focused on single ingredients or trends, Basics by B offers a refreshing perspective rooted in a genuine philosophy of how beauty should feel. Basics by B is available at basicsbyb.com.au

Royal Pop Audemars Piguet and Swatch have launched the Royal Pop, a collection of eight bioceramic pocket watches that merges the design language of Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak with the modular ingenuity of Swatch's POP line from the 1980s. The collection launched on May 16th. The POP system, which long-term Swatch followers will recognize, allows the watch to move between different wearing configurations, including lanyard, wrist-mounted straps, and potentially bag charms, giving the collection a versatility that conventional watches do not offer. The eight models are divided into two styles: Lépine, in which six models offer two-handed functionality with a crown at the twelve o'clock position, and Savonnette, in which two models feature a small seconds sub-dial at six o'clock with the crown at three o'clock. All eight share a 40mm bioceramic case at 8.4mm slim. The Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop collection At the movement level, each model has a new hand-wound version of Swatch's SISTEM51 calibre with a Nivachrom balance spring, which is an upgrade from the standard SISTEM51 and allows for manual winding in a movement originally designed for automatic winding. The Royal Pop combines the Royal Oak's geometric design, the POP system's modular wearing flexibility, and the upgraded SISTEM51, giving it a technical and cultural layering that sets it apart from a straightforward luxury collaboration. The Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop collection is available now. www.swatch.com

TAG Heuer's relationship with American motorsport runs deeper than Formula 1, and the brand's new Formula 1 Solargraph Indy 500 Limited Edition is the clearest expression of that history it has produced in the modern era. Released ahead of the Indianapolis 500, the watch is limited to 1,110 pieces worldwide and comes in special edition packaging carrying the Indy 500 logo. The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph Indy 500 Limited Edition The dial is black with brown accents on the minute track and bezel, a combination that gives the watch a muted warmth without departing from the Formula 1 Solargraph's established design language. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway logo sits at the six o'clock position, while large dot indices alternate with TAG Heuer logo shapes at the twelve, nine, and six o'clock positions. A date window sits at three o'clock. The 38mm case and matching three-link bracelet are both crafted from sand-blasted steel, a finish that reduces visual weight and gives the piece a contemporary restraint. The bezel is crafted from TAG Heuer's TH-Polylight material and offers bi-directional operation. TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph Indy 500 is limited to 1,110 pieces worldwide. Inside, the TH50-00 solar-powered calibre provides the movement architecture, drawing energy from light rather than requiring manual winding or battery replacement. The case is water-resistant to 100 meters. The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph Indy 500 Limited Edition is priced at £1,900, €2,200, US$2,250, and approximately AU$3,500 and is limited to 1,110 pieces worldwide. www.tagheuer.com

The lariat is one of jewelry's oldest silhouettes. A single continuous chain that loops through itself, falls in two strands, and terminates in a drop, it has existed in various forms since the 19th century and has been interpreted and reinterpreted so many times across the history of fine jewelry that finding something genuinely new to say with the format requires more than a different gemstone or a more expensive setting. What Kalyan Jewellers' high jewelry atelier produced for Kalyani Priyadarshan's first red carpet appearance at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is a piece that asks a more fundamental question about what a lariat can actually do, and the answer it proposes is something most high jewelry does not attempt. The piece does not sit at the front of the body. It does not rest at the collarbone or fall between the clavicles the way a conventional lariat does. Instead, styled along the back of the gown, it extends into two sculptural cascading strands that flow outward and downward along the silhouette of the dress itself, so that the architectural lines of the jewelry and the architectural lines of the couture become the same lines, one reading as the continuation of the other without a visible seam between them. The result is not jewelry worn over a gown. It is a jewel and a gown that share a single visual identity, each incomplete without the other. The design draws from the geometry of Art Deco, a movement whose defining contribution to jewelry was the application of architectural thinking to adornment, the treatment of a jewel as a structure with load-bearing logic rather than a decorative object placed on a surface. The lariat in the sketch, worked out with the precision of a technical drawing, has the symmetry and the visual weight distribution of something built rather than simply assembled. Two sweeping arcs flow from a central morganite floral cluster at the apex, one arc falling on each side in a continuous diamond-set chain, while a single vertical strand drops from the same central point downward through a second morganite and terminates in a 52-carat pear-shaped blue sapphire. The sapphire, deep and pear-cut, is the visual anchor of the entire composition, the weight at the end of the structure that the eye travels to inevitably, held in place by 15 carats of round pink morganites and 945 natural diamonds set across marquise, brilliant, and princess cuts in 14-karat white gold. The combination of pink morganite and blue sapphire represents the color intelligence of the piece. Morganite is a gemstone that sits in the peachy pink to rose range, with warm and feminine undertones. Blue sapphire in the deep pear-cut drop reads as cool and formal. The two stones should compete and instead they balance, the warmth of the morganite clusters at the structural points drawing the eye upward while the cool depth of the sapphire anchors it downward, and the all-white diamond setting between them serving as a neutral that lets both colours speak without interference. The piece took forty days to complete. The sketch in the atelier drawing shows the working language of the design: the fine pencil lines of the chain structure, the cross-hatch shading that indicates depth, and the handwritten annotations in capital letters identifying each stone: MORGANITE at the floral cluster, MORGANITE again above the sapphire drop, and BLUE SAPPHIRE at the terminal point. It is the record of a piece being thought through rather than rendered, which is where the real design decisions live, in the working drawing before the final form is fixed. What makes this piece worth noting beyond the gemstone weight and the celebrity occasion is the design decision it represents. High jewelry has largely operated within a set of understood boundaries about where on the body a jewel sits and what relationship it has to the clothing around it. Jewelry adorns. Clothing clothes. The two coexist, but they do not usually complete each other's formal logic. A back jewel that extends into the gown's own silhouette and uses the movement of the fabric as part of the visual effect of the piece is more than just a lariat styled unusually. It is a piece that challenges the fixed boundary between jewelry and couture, producing something unique to their combination.

Da Milano has been making leather goods in India since 1989, drawing on Italian design sensibility and applying it to materials and craftsmanship that have built the brand a loyal following across more than a hundred boutiques worldwide. The Summer '26 collection is its most considered seasonal offering yet, and it works because it does not try to be one thing. Six themes run through the collection, from the unapologetically joyful Riviera in ivory canvas with cobalt and red stripes to the deeply quiet Vero in lizard-embossed forest green, from the luminous architectural clarity of Clara Nova in white and silver-grey snakeskin-embossed leather to Iconica, which places the brand's DM monogram at the center of the conversation rather than the edge of it. Imprint makes a serious statement for men with quilted pouches and woven-leather briefcases and laptop bags in charcoal and mocha that blend beauty with function. Biometric is a smooth olive-toned leather laptop bag featuring an all-over print of flowing cursive script, reflecting a personal sense of authorship rather than mere storage. What holds all six together is the craftsmanship that has defined Da Milano since its founding. Hand-finished edges, gold-toned hardware, and leather chosen not just for how it looks but for how it will age. Bag charms and signature accents run through the season as a personalization language that makes something already considered entirely one's own. The Summer '26 collection is available now across Da Milano's 100-plus boutiques worldwide, including premium airport locations. www.damilano.com.

Winning a design award is one thing. Winning more of them than any other brand in your category across the two most respected design programs in the world is something else entirely. Humanscale, the New York-headquartered ergonomics company, has just claimed that distinction, becoming the most decorated global brand in the office furniture category across the iF and Red Dot Design Awards with 28 wins to date. The 2026 additions to that record include iF Design Awards for the Humanscale Lounge and the eFloat Quattro and Red Dot Design Awards in Product Design for the Diffrient Lounge and M/Class. What makes these wins notable is not simply the number but the consistency of philosophy behind them. Humanscale does not compete across a sprawling product portfolio. Humanscale focuses on a streamlined range of ergonomic solutions—seating, sit-stand desks, and technology supports—each guided by the same principle established since its founding in 1983. Design should begin by asking how work can be made healthier and easier for people, and everything unnecessary should be removed from the answer.\ That philosophy has produced some of the most influential pieces of workplace furniture of the last four decades. The Freedom chair, designed by Niels Diffrient, redefined what an ergonomic task chair could do by drawing on the laws of physics and natural movement rather than relying on complex manual adjustment mechanisms. The same thinking runs through every product that has followed it: seating, monitor arms, sit-stand solutions, and task lighting that prioritize function, longevity, and environmental responsibility in equal measure. Humanscale is a certified B Corporation and has 29 products certified climate positive by the International Living Future Institute's Living Product Challenge, meaning those products leave the environment better off than they found it over their full life cycle. For a company operating in a category not typically associated with environmental leadership, that is a meaningful credential. Alastair Stubbs, Country Director India at Humanscale, described the awards as a reflection of a broader mission to create products that enhance the way people work while respecting the planet's finite resources. The recognition, he said, ultimately belongs to a design philosophy rather than to any single product or year. Learn more at www.humanscale.com.

The ergonomic chair market has spent years refining the same basic formula. LiberNovo has completely rethought the ergonomic chair, introducing three new models that utilize dynamic ergonomics to move with the user, eliminating the need for manual adjustments. The headline launch is the Maxis Series, a dedicated big-and-tall chair designed specifically for users between 5'10" and 6'6" with a maximum load capacity of 399 pounds. LiberNovo's argument is that most chairs marketed as large-size still fail to properly support broader shoulders, taller frames, and heavier body types during extended work sessions, and the Maxis has been built from the ground up rather than adapted from an existing model. It features a 52-centimeter seat depth, a 52-centimeter backrest width, deeper seat cushions, larger armrests, an extended headrest adjustment range and a six-spring recline mechanism specifically engineered to avoid the sudden backward drop that makes some oversized chairs uncomfortable to recline in. Across all three new models, the core technology is LiberNovo's Bionic FlexFit Backrest, which combines eight flexible support panels with a multi-pivot linkage system that contours around the spine in real time as the user shifts position. The company says its research indicates people unconsciously change posture more than 120 times during a working day, and the chair's system of 60 precision joints and four synchronized mechanisms is designed to respond to every one of those movements without requiring the user to reach for a lever. The two new additions to the Omni range take the lineup in different directions. The Omni Pro adds active seat ventilation through a five-layer breathable seat structure and a built-in centrifugal fan powered by an internal battery, a feature that was not on most people's radar for office furniture but makes immediate sense for anyone who has worked through a warm afternoon in a sealed foam seat. The Omni SE takes the opposite approach, removing the electronic systems in favor of manual lumbar adjustment to bring the price down to a more accessible level. All three models feature a revised recline system with five positions ranging from 105 to 160 degrees, including a new 115-degree setting designed for more relaxed desk work without fully reclining. Pre-orders open May 12 with an official launch on June 16 across the US, Canada, and Europe. www.libernovo.com.

Home solar energy has always had the same fundamental problem. Panels generate power during the day when the sun is out, but most households need that energy in the evening when it is not, and without a proper storage system, the electricity generated simply feeds back into the grid rather than reducing the bill it was installed to address. Anker SOLIX has built the Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro as a direct answer to that problem, and it is the most powerful and longest-lasting plug-and-play solar storage system the brand has produced to date. The system accepts up to 5,000W of solar input, stores up to 5,000Wh of energy, supports up to 12 solar panels, and is rated for 10,000 charge cycles, which Anker estimates translates to approximately 15 years of operational life. It plugs directly into a home circuit through an 800W interface without requiring major electrical work, making it genuinely accessible for households that want to get started without a full installation project. For those who want to push further, Anker's new PluginPower 2.0 mode increases output up to 2,500W, and the modular design allows the system to expand up to 30kWh over time as energy needs change and grow. The intelligence built into the Solarbank 4 Pro is what separates it from simpler balcony solar setups. Anker PowerOS uses AI to automate energy management with features like weather-based charging optimization, dynamic tariff support, Home Assistant integration, and local encrypted data processing. A bi-directional inverter feeds surplus energy back into the home, and a backup power function switches over within 10 milliseconds during a power cut to keep essential appliances running without interruption. The hardware itself is built for conditions well beyond the average balcony. The Solarbank 4 Pro carries an IP66 rating for dust and water resistance, corrosion protection for coastal environments, operating support across a temperature range of -20°C to 55°C, full 100 percent depth of discharge capability, and seven internal protection layers designed to guard against overheating, short circuits, and fire risks. Anker is not making compromises on durability for the sake of a lower price point. In European markets where plug-in solar is already permitted, the system is available now starting at €1,999, with a 25 percent launch discount currently running through the Anker SOLIX website. Anker plans to introduce the Solarbank 4 Pro to the UK once regulations permit, directly addressing the market instead of leaving buyers uncertain about its arrival. www.ankersolix.com

Most people who own Philips Hue lights bought them because they wanted the best. The colors, the scenes, the bridge, the ecosystem, and the whole considered experience of walking into a room and having the light already know what mood you are in. Hue earned that reputation, and it is not losing it. But not everyone wants to start there. Setting up a Hue system takes commitment, both financially and in terms of the time it takes to build it out properly. Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, has clearly been thinking about that gap for a while. Philips Smart Lighting offers a more accessible option by using Wi-Fi, compatible with the WiZ app, and priced lower than Hue without compromising on essentials. The distinction is cleaner than it sounds. Philips Hue remains exactly what it has always been, the premium end, bridge-based, deeply integrated, built for people who want sophisticated connected lighting and are willing to invest in it. Philips Smart Lighting serves as an affordable, easy-to-set-up entry point, now expanding into expressive, entertainment-focused products, making it a compelling option beyond just a budget alternative. If you already own Hue, nothing changes. If you have been curious about smart lighting but hesitated at the price, Philips Smart Lighting is worth a closer look. www.signify.com

Levoit has launched its Windi Mini series, three compact portable fans that take the brand's popular tower fan design and scale it down into something small enough for a desk or bedside table without sacrificing airflow or noise performance. All three models in the series share the same core credentials. Each delivers five speeds of airflow up to 7.0 meters per second with 90-degree oscillation, weighs just 1.2 kilograms, measures 12.5 x 12.5 x 33 centimeters, and drops as low as 20 decibels at its quietest setting. A built-in timer comes standard across the range. The design carries a handle at the top for easy portability, giving the fans a compact, lantern-like silhouette that works equally well in a bedroom, home office, or living room. The Windi Mini is the entry-level model, mains-powered and priced at £59.99 in the UK and $49.99 in the US. It is small and light enough to move between rooms with ease, provided there is a plug nearby. The Windi Mini Plus steps up to cordless operation with a built-in battery delivering up to 20 hours of runtime depending on speed, a 12-hour timer, and splash-proof construction that makes it suitable for outdoor use as well. It is priced at £89.99. The Windi Mini Pro is the standout of the three. The cordless Windi Mini Pro features wireless charging through a dock and an integrated LED ambient ring light with three lighting modes and a fade mode for nighttime use. It is priced at £99.99. All three models in the Levoit Windi Mini series are available now. www.levoit.com.

Garmin has quietly launched two new running watches that punch well above their price bracket. The Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 arrive with AMOLED displays, advanced training tools, and adaptive coaching features that until now were reserved for the brand's more expensive lineup, making both watches a genuinely interesting proposition for beginner and aspiring runners who do not want to compromise on capability. Both watches feature a 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen and Garmin's familiar five-button controls, offering the clarity of a smartwatch with the tactile feedback preferred during workouts. Despite their more accessible pricing, the feature list reads closer to a mid-range device than an entry-level one. Training readiness, training status, wrist-based running power, running dynamics, and adaptive daily suggested workouts are all present, alongside Garmin Coach plans that now support run and walk sessions and lower-volume training for those building up gradually. The Forerunner 70 adds a new quick workouts feature that generates sessions based on a runner's desired duration and intensity, a genuinely useful addition for days when planning ahead is not realistic. Both watches also include advanced sleep tracking, HRV status, Body Battery energy monitoring, breathing variations, and access to more than 80 built-in sports apps, which makes them capable well beyond running alone. The Forerunner 170 builds on the standard model with Garmin Pay contactless payments, while the Forerunner 170 Music adds offline music storage with playlist support from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Battery life holds up despite the AMOLED screens, with Garmin claiming up to 13 days in smartwatch mode for the Forerunner 70 and up to 10 days for the Forerunner 170 lineup. Susan Lyman of Garmin described the watches as bringing premium running and training features pulled from the brand's more advanced Forerunners while remaining approachable for newer runners. On the evidence of the spec sheet, that description is accurate. The Garmin Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 are available from May 15 via Garmin's US, UK, EU and Australian websites. The Forerunner 70 starts at $250 and £220, the Forerunner 170 at $300 and £260, and the Forerunner 170 Music at $350 and £300. www.garmin.com.

Nobody expected the next Bond gadget to be a pair of glasses that looked like they came from a high street optician. But here we are. Even Realities has just announced a partnership with IO Interactive and Amazon MGM Studios to bring its G2 smart glasses into 007 First Light, the upcoming Bond game. It is the first time a real-world wearable has been officially integrated into a Bond gaming experience, and the brand chosen for that distinction is not the loudest name in the smart glasses space. It is one of the quietest. That quietness is the whole point. The Even G2 does not have a camera. It does not record or broadcast. What it does is display notifications, live translations, AI-generated notes, and teleprompter-style text directly in the wearer's field of vision through a miniature built-in heads-up display, all while looking entirely like a normal pair of glasses. Nothing about them gives the game away. This is, when you think about it, exactly what a Bond gadget should do. Even Realities founder Will Wang said the brand builds technology that does not shout for attention and that both the G2 and the Bond universe share a commitment to intelligence, discretion, and design that performs when it matters most. It would be easy to dismiss that as launch-day marketing language. It is actually just an accurate description of the product. Even G2 also works with the Even R1 smart ring, a separate accessory priced at $249 that acts as a discreet, finger-based controller for the glasses. The in-game integration arrives as a post-launch update for 007 First Light later in 2026. The specific details of how the glasses function within the game have not yet been shared, but the broader point the partnership makes is already interesting. The most credible wearable technology right now is subtle. It is the kind that disappears into daily life and surfaces only when needed. The Bond franchise just said the same thing. The Even G2 is available now from $599. www.evenrealities.com.