Design
Excess of the Day: Hanoi's Gold Leaf Masks
A specialty salon offers an expensive therapy to whiten the skin.
Budgets may be tight, but that hasn't stopped Hanoi's beauty mavens from doing some serious primping in honor of Valentine's Day. Despite rampant inflation, the city's love birds are still spending upwards of 1.8 million Vietnam dong ($86.41) on 24-karat gold-leaf face mask treatments, said to help make skin whiter.
According to the Huffington Post, Valentine's Day is celebrated across Southeast Asia with an "almost alarming ferocity." They write: