Le Labo Prefumes: Handmade in Nolita

When it comes to perfume, I’m over the mass produced overpriced choices. Back high school, you would not have been trendy, if you didn’t have “Ultraviolet” by Paco Rabanne, “Light Blue” by Dolce & Gabbana or “Bright Crystal” by Versace at different points of time.

As soon as I smelled “Ambrette 9” by Le Labo for the first time in the basement of Barneys on a cold winter NYC day, I fell in love with its subtly and natural smell that adapts to your skin and is quite durable. Today I treated myself to a refill – the store offers around 15% discount when you refill your old bottle. Reduce, reuse, recycle and smell amazing! xo Ksenia

Le Labo in Nolita: 233 Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10012 212.219.2230

Fall in Pictures: NY, CT, MA

Before I finish my procrastination of packing for California (taking off tomorrow, and thanks to JetBlue, for the price of two frozen yogurts!), I thought I’d share with you a few snaps from my travels. I’ve been discovering upstate New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and watching shooting starts (just thinking of it gives me chills) and sunrises with friends on New England beaches. If you want to see more, follow my adventures on Instagram. Au revoir in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Big Sur!

Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve

Part of the Appalachian Trail in Goshen, CT

Acting as the Baywatch on a Beach in Scituate, MA

A peaceful sunrise in Scituate

Standing on the balcony wrapped in a blanket, with a cup of tea in my hands

Fall has arrived to Cambridge, MA

Harvard University

Delicious vegan meal at Life Alive

And here’s a little bit of NYC. Just because I live here, just because I can now say I love it without hesitation, just because of all the opportunities it is giving me, and just because Gilt City has featured a few of my photos within the #LoveYourCityMore campaign.

NYC from Brooklyn

The place I call home, Soho

Windy Highline

Sunset over Meatpacking from the Highline. #loveyourcitymore

A cloudy sunrise from Brooklyn Bridge Park after a visit to my favorite Abhaya Yoga

It’s the traveler’s spirit. Always looking for another train, for another plane, for another road, for another open door, for another fresh experience.

Good Morning, Beth Kanter!

Not every morning do I get to have a discussion with one of the most influential women in technology over bagels and coffee. That was my Friday morning at Fenton, with a group of like-mined people and Beth Kanter, the guru in marrying technology and nonprofits who has traveled around the globe – from Cambodia to Australia and the Middle East to consult organizations on using data to change the world.

Beth Kanter at Fenton NYC

The first time I saw Beth was at Mashable’s 2012 Social Good Summit, where she delivered a very short, engaging, real speech – in this very unique Beth Kanter manner – about her experience as a social media consultant for nonprofits. To me, she’s a role model. She is one of those people who has found her passion, chose a direction she wanted to go with it, and went for it.

Such organizations as the Red Cross, Greenpeace, the International Rescue Committee, and the CSR departments of Chase and Cisco were represented at the discussion. Talking about her new book “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” (co-written with Katie Delahaye Paine), Beth mentioned several very important things, and her main message was this: Don’t be afraid of data. As we delved into Beth’s tremendous knowledge of what works and doesn’t work in social media marketing, the incredible importance of collecting, measuring and acting on data became very clear.

Me and Beth Kanter

There is a great amount of books on social media, on top of all the social media guides that are available online. Supposedly if you follow them, your organization will get positive results from using social media. But from my personal experience managing social media for Gilt, Visual Therapy, and most recently for a nonprofit fair trade organization Global Goods Partners, this is not how it works. You can have terabytes of Google Analytics or Facebook Insights data, but they don’t mean much without proper measurement. The only way to be a successful social media marketer is to understand your specific audience: What they engage the most with, in what format, what time of the day, etc. If you’re not personal, don’t expect your social media followers to be personal with you. And the only way to be more personal and engaging is data analysis.

Here are some of my favorite Beth’s ideas from the bagel and social media for nonprofits (seriously, I can’t think of a better combo) morning:

• Don’t confuse activity and results
• Employ “Slow” social media, aka choose one platform and focus on it instead of managing five different platforms poorly
• Always set up intention for your campaign, otherwise you will not be able to measure its results
• Give the campaign enough time to develop before assessing it

My Perfect Train Ride: Tea & a Book on Social Media

For now, that’s it! I already started reading my signed copy of Beth’s book on a train ride to beautiful Connecticut this weekend. I highly recommend “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” to anyone who’s a social media addict like me – whether you do it for a nonprofit organization, a for-profit company, or even for your personal brand. It was a pleasure meeting you, Beth!

One Day in NYC: Photo Diary

My friend Anna snapped a pic of me walking in my neighborhood

SoHo, I love you

Fuerza Bruta performance – very different, at times breathtaking

Antique Garage on Mercer street is a hidden gem

Antique décor, delicious food, good company, and live jazz and sounds of SoHo in the background. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night

No utensils are the same, and the check was brought to us in a cute antique tea box

All photos were edited with Cross Process for iPhone.

My Life According to Instagram (Not Facetagram)

Snapshot of my Instagram Profile (All photos ©whereisksenia)

Last week, the buzz was all about Facebook acquiring Instagram – the world’s most successful (30 million users) mobile photo sharing app. To be honest, ever since I gave into the idea of owning an iPhone a few months ago, I’ve been quite addicted to this photo sharing app. I’ve always liked snapping quick pictures with my phone camera. To me, that’s a way to document little happy moments that can be easily forgotten otherwise. Instagram’s filters help to make the pictures more artsy, and then get social by sharing them with friends. It also lets me discover new people to follow by interests – hash tags work great for that. My current top 3 Instagramers whose pictures always put a smile on my face are @veganfoodshare, @da0da and @kinax.

Me on my roof, filtered with Instagram (Zara leather jacket, Zara skirt, Pour la Victoire leather handbag, Tommy Hilfiger booties)

But who would have thought that a picture can be worth $1 billion?..

Mark Zuckerberg stressed Facebook’s interest in working closely with Instagram team to expand from sharing photos with your friends and family to sharing mobile photos with people based on your interests. But is that really Facebook’s main interest? I highly doubt it.

The main difference between the two social networks is that: While Instagram is still a user-generated platform (with brands catching up very slowly and unintrusively), Facebook has a significant amount of brand-generated content with its Sponsored Stories, Ads and other ways to monetize the social networking giant. When the news about the acquisition broke, a lot of Instagramers revolted, unhappy with the idea that Facebook might turn Instagram into something that it’s not. But why does that have to be bad? I am not very keen on this idea either, but if you think about it… What happened to YouTube after it was acquired by Google? It flourished! Not that Instagram needs any help growing, but now that the deed is done, why not try to think of all the possible good outcomes of this acquisition? For example, now there’s a high chance that the Instagram plugin on Facebook will work correctly… finally.

A picture I snapped from the top of the Bank of America Tower last week, filtered with Instagram

Anyway, the rest of the story is up to Mr. Zuckerberg, all I have to say is that I hope that Instagram’s authenticity will be preserved. Meaning, please don’t attempt to turn “Your Photos” into a “Timeline”. That could lead to a new record of mass deactivation of a mobile app. And one more thing, which I completely agree with Mashable’s Christina Warren on: Keep it mobile only!

What are some of your favorite instagram users? I’d love to check them out!

p.s. If you’re not an owner of Instagram-compatible iPhone or Android, you can check out what the app is all about on Statigram. It’s also a great way to see your stats if you’re an existing Instagram user.

Begin Anywhere

I’m relaxing at my desk: Candle lit, I’m sipping on some chilled coconut water. After 5 hours of dance/martial art in two days, I can’t think of anything better to do on this Monday evening.

Ballet, Samba and Capoeira are completely different types of classes: they all bring a great dose of satisfaction (and muscle pain), but in a very different way. I’m in my mid-twenties, and having seen people of ALL ages in my class yesterday made me realize that I’m not that old. It’s not too late. As the card on my newly mounted board says, “Begin Anywhere.”

With live piano music accompanying the class, ballet was very meditative. Hopefully my meditation will help me to point those toes like a real ballerina.

Samba was fun, as always. It makes me want to run away to Brazil, wear feathers, and do samba, samba, samba!

My first capoeira class was challenging, exhausting and out of this world in a good way – it makes you feel the kind of strength in your body that no dance does. I mean, when a muscular Brazilian guy tells you to kick or to work your abs, how do you say no to him?

My Version of SoHo

Dance aside, I’ve been exploring my new area and falling in love with it more deeply with every step. Realizing that two of my favorite brunch places – Cafe Gitane (the best avocado toast in the world) and Tartinery (ridiculously good tartines with fresh prosciutto and ricotta) – are just a few blocks away from me makes it even better. I’ve also found a book store/coffee shop spot that I’ll try out as my new Borders, and a rice pudding shop called Rice to the Riches – overpriced, but worth a visit or two.

Anyhow, food spots of SoHo and Nolita deserve a separate blog post, but for now I have a QUESTION. Does anyone know if there’s an app that allows you to note local places that you want to go to? A lot of time I pass by a restaurant, its dim lights and beautiful atmosphere enchant me, and by the time I’m picking a spot for dinner, the location has completely escaped my mind. Solution, anyone?

2012 NYC Living: Chapter I

Few months of my New York life, the Instagram version © Photos by whereisksenia & analevi

New York life is busy. Is sucks you in, making you wonder how it could have happened to you, too.

Busy is good: To me, that’s a dogma. That’s the only way to stay challenged and to grow. When your free time is limited is when you enjoy it the most. When I come home after a long day of work, tired and accomplished, and only have a few hours to relax (read: dinners with friends, yoga, reading, Skype with family, watching movies, plotting another getaway, catching up with Facebook and Pinterest news… Yes, I just admitted that), you cherish it so much more.

2012 has changed my life in a major way. Due to some difficulties related to bureaucracy, I had to leave a dream social media job at the best online flash sales company in US and enter the classroom once again. This time, as a ballet student.

Photo via http://www.tabac-blond.tumblr.com

Life is unpredictable, and that makes it that much more exciting. What might seem as a very difficult time in life can lead to something better, bigger that you’ve ever expected. Many years ago, I had a vivid dream in being in NYC, and woke up with a feeling of complete and very real bliss. I was 17 back then and had never yet been in this city. I agree with Carl Jung: There are no coincidences.

My student life will begin, ironically, on April Fool’s Day. The fact that after two months of couchsurfing I found my own place and will be moving in tomorrow makes this new chapter more tangible. And the fact that the new place is in SoHo only confirms my belief that despite everything, New York has been very kind to me. Its people, its opportunities and chances, its energy… At times overwhelming, the happy moments here make all the challenges worth it. Thank you, New York. And hello again, my blog, and whoever gets to read this.