Image via Gouts de Diamants

Really feel like impressing your friends? Try inviting them over for a casual bottle of Goût de Diamants’ Brut Diamond champagne, which bubbles in a bottle worth $1.8 million.

You would have to commission it yourself, of course, as the unnamed client did of this specialty bottle filled with a light and flowery mixture of Grand Cru Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Like this wealthy client, you could even get your name engraved on the 18-carat white gold that forms Goût de Diamants’ logo, where the real value of the bottle lies.

Nestled in the white gold, where the usual Swarovski crystal would sit, is a 19-carat diamond, providing the $1.8 million value of this unparalleled champagne bottle. For some people, crystals clearly don’t make the cut when it comes to bottle adornment.

The UK’s Alexander Amosu was commissioned to fabricate this bottle, a task that should not have been a big challenge for the man responsible for creating a bespoke suit service “based not only on the opulent fabrics” but also on Amosu’s years of experience and training as an expert tailor, according to his website, where you will also find his “bespoke mobile phones” and other luxury accessories.

As the Daily News reports, Goût de Diamants is not alone in putting their wine in a wildly pricey container. Champagne De Watère performed a similarly dramatic value increase before by including a 24-carat gold coin on the bottom of their bottle. At least the Goût de Diamants version put the expensive piece where we can see it.

Image via Car Shoe

Auto enthusiasts may be well aware 2013 marks Lamborghini’s 50^th birthday. But they may not realize it’s also the golden anniversary for Car Shoe, which is known for its driving leisure apparel. So it’s no coincidence the two companies have teamed up to create a commemorative pair of moccasins.

Image via Car Shoe

The limited-edition shoes include a variety of Lamborghni-inspired details, including colors—red, black or blue—and the iconic Raging Bull logo. Moccasins were the perfect commemorative design for Car Shoe—now owned by the Prada Group—since it gained fame from its original moccasin back in 1963.

Image via Car Shoe

Thus far, the shoes have been given as promotional gifts. During Lamborghini’s 50^th anniversary grand tour—a 745-mile road trip including participants from 29 countries and 350 different models of Lamborghini—some participants received the shoes. But Car Shoe plans to release them to the public in the future for $460 a pair.

Image via Car Shoe

Image via Bonhams

The Hope Diamond is envied by jewelry enthusiasts worldwide for its size, history and brilliant blue hue. The diamond found in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum is more than 45 carats and was once owned by King Louis XIV of France. When originally mined in India, it is thought to have once been as many as 112 carats when crudely cut. According to auctioneer Bonhams, blue diamonds—created when boron atoms mix with the carbon that comprises the diamond’s structure—make up less than 1 percent of all diamonds mined worldwide, and those exceeding five carats are extremely rare and highly sought-after in the market.

That theory rang especially true last month when a 5.3 caret blue diamond sold for an astounding $9.6 million—about $1.8 million per carat—at Bonhams. The cushion-shaped “fancy deep-blue” diamond is set in a “Trombino” ring made by Italian jeweler Bulgari—a company known for bejeweling Hollywood elite—sometime around 1965. “Fancy deep-blue,” describing the intensity of the color, is one of the rarest among diamonds.

The winning bid of $1.8 million per carat set a new world record, according to Bonhams, beating the previous blue diamond record of $1.68 million per carat. Of about 25 telephone bidders and a packed saleroom, London’s Graff Diamonds, an international dealer, came out the winner April 24.

Image via Floatworks

Dip your body and mind into the tranquility of the womb with the i-sopod floatation tank. Called the purest form of relaxation, the tank looks like a spaceship and provides users with impenetrable calm as their anxieties melt away.

According to Floatworks, the maker of the i-sopod, the floatation tank was designed with precision engineering to create the most technically-advanced and luxurious system ever. With 16 years of floatation industry experience and by dedicating three years of research and development, the i-sopod sets new standards in quality, performance and durability.

The i-sopod floatation tank is unique in that its saline solution is heated outside the tank, eliminating electro-magnetic fields created by embedded heaters.  The tank was also designed with top-of-the-line safety features.

Image via Floatworks

With prices starting at $25,500, the i-sopod floatation tank is not for those with slim wallets or too few zeros in their bank balances. But the tank can not only be purchased for home relaxation, but also for use in a commercial setting. Spa and health club owners can certainly innovate their businesses with the addition of an i-sopod floatation system. The tanks can be hand-finished to customers’ specifications, including color choice. And the internal floatation area is 50-percent larger than most other tanks on the market.

The tanks also include underwater LED lights to enhance the experience. Likewise, the tanks are integrated with audio—stereo sound is supplied through a built-in MP3 player.

Floatworks began making tanks in 1993. After finding issues tanks across the industry for years, the company concluded the ideal system didn’t exist, which led to the research and development—and ultimately the creation—of the i-sopod.

Image via Camus

It’s been 150 years since the Camus family produced its first bottle of Cognac, and the company is celebrating its anniversary with the Cuvee 5.150 from the Camus “Masterpiece Collection.” A luxurious blend of five of the finest eaux-di-vix from the independent French Cognac house’s cellar, each marking a generation of the Camus family’s 150-year history, makes up the precious spirit: 37-year-old Bons Bois, 22-year-old Fins Bois, 37-year-old Petite Champagne, 22-year-old Borderies and 32-year-old Grande Champagne.

“When you taste an exceptional cognac, you are left with a lasting memory, and this is precisely what we were thinking of when we blended the Cuvée 5.150,” Cyrus Camus, president of Camus, said. “In our 150th year, we wanted to be respectful of our past while resolutely looking towards our future. The Cuvée 5.150 is a tribute to how each generation has built on the skills of the previous one and breathed new life into enduring traditions.”

Image via Camus

The Cuvee 5.150 is offered in just 1,492 limited-edition, numbered Baccarat crystal decanters inside individually-numbered black lacquered wooden cases for just $13,500 each. The decanter is actually the same Camus Masterpiece used for Camus’ 100^th anniversary, an asymmetrical design from perfume bottle creator Serge Mansau. The difference can be found in the corks. The 5.150 includes a cork made of black lacquered crystal, while the 2.105 stopper was decorated with silver and golden rings.

The Camus 5.150 will be sold nationwide, complete with an “Ultimate Sample”—a 100-milliliter taster of the liquor taken by the cellar master just before the decanters were filled so buyers can taste the spirit without unsealing the collectible decanters.

Image via Kohler

Perhaps one of the worst feelings in the world is waking up in the middle of the night and getting a jolt when you sit down on a cold toilet seat. And this feeling has prompted the great success of the heated toilet seat sales, giving us constant comfort and providing users with a relaxing experience when they use the toilet.

Luxury appliance brand Kohler has long been interpreting the bathroom experience as one that should provide the user with mental comfort as well as physical comfort. The brand’s latest and greatest product, the Kohler Numi Comfort Height toilet, has come a long way from the days when a heated toilet seat was considered a luxury good. After consulting with many clients, Kohler crafted its newest luxury toilet to provide the user with an escape from everyday life when they use the toilet.

For starters, the toilet of course has a seat warmer as well as feet warmers and a dual flush system. That’s where the “normal” features ends. The Comfort Height toilet is so-aptly named because the seat is more than 18 inches from the ground, a height Kohler says ‘makes sitting down and standing up easier for adults.” As part of the ambient experience that Kohler is trying to encompass in the toilet, the chair back is equipped with a seven-inch LED light that provides the user with a soft light that promotes relaxation and comfort.

And if you’re expecting to be on the toilet a while, Kohler has crafted the toilet to accommodate users who need something to do when their time on the toilet is longer than expected. Since the chair is fully operated by touch-screen remote, users can pair the remote with a Bluetooth device or insert an sd card so they can listen to music through the toilet’s speakers while they handle their business. The $6,000 throne is also equipped with a USB port for quicker software updates and an accessible battery pack for flushing in the dark.

Image via Kohler

All in all, Kohler’s newest toilet is a lot like any other luxury good item on the market. While most of the features seem unecessary, who wouldn’t want to be as realaxed as possible at all times?

Image via Christie’s

A gorgeous pink diamond—weighing more than 34 carats—that once belonged to Indian royalty recently sold at Christie’s at the record-breaking price of $39.32 million. The stone, bearing a cushion cut and rare for its color, originated about 300 years ago in the Golconda mines of South-Central India and is known as “Princie.” It marks the most expensive Golconda diamond ever sold at a Christie’s action.

The diamond earned its nickname in 1960 when it was purchased at an auction held by the London branch of jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. The firm’s Paris store held a party attended by Sayajirao Gaekwad, the 14-year-old prince of Baroda—an Indian princely state now knows as the city of Vadadora—and his mother Maharani Sita Devi. The stone was named in his honor.

Prior to the 1960 sale, the stone was owned by the royal family of Hyderabad, most specifically the last Nazim of Hyderabad who ruled one of the Mughal Empire’s wealthiest provinces. The Nazim offered it for sale as “Property of a gentleman” and Van Cleef & Arpels paid $70,158 for it—equivalent of $1.3 million today. The jeweler’s London branch has retained ownership of the diamond since 1960.

“Princie” was purchased at the Christie’s auction by an anonymous telephone bidder. The identity of the seller is also unknown.

Image via Christie’s

Some self-portrait. Iranian contemporary artist Farhad Moshiri—who became the first Middle Eastern artist to sell a piece of artwork for more than $1 million in 2008—created this crystal-studded painting depicting himself as sleeping child being carried by a bear into a fantasy forest of sparkling flowers. Was the guy tripping or remembering some crazy-ass dreams he had as a kid? We may never know, but the painting, “Secret Garden,” just sold for a cool $987,750 on the Christie’s International auction block in Dubai. A private collector was the top bidder for the artwork that was valued at as much as $500,000 going into Christie’s sale of modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art April 16 and 17.

A total of 28 lots in the part one sale included works by Saliba Douaihy, Sohrab Sepehri, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, Chafic Abboud, Louay Kayyali, Fateh Moudarres, Paul Guiragossian, Parviz Tanavoli, Adel El Siwi, Lalla Essaydi, Nadim Karam and Murat Pulat.

“This will be our 15^th sale season in Dubai, confirming our commitment to hold regular sales in the region of art from the region which began with our first sale seven years ago,” said Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie’s in the Middle East. “We are the only international auction house to hold sales exclusively in this category in the Middle East and are proud of our part in encouraging international collectors to recognize the quality of the modern and more established contemporary masters while at the same time supporting the emerging artists by exposing their work to an international marketplace. By aligning these two strategies with our regular part I and part II format, we continue to be encouraged by the solidity in this market and the sustainable way it has matured.”

Moshiri’s “Secret Garden” held the highest sales value going into the auction, thanks to its use of metallic and glitter paints, beads and nails. The giant bear in the painting is entirely made of light-reflecting crystals. According to Christie’s, Moshiri’s mixed-media technique “provides a sharp contrast between the almost fairy-tale childhood memory of the dreaming boy and the slightly sinister undertone of the jarring colors and textures.”

Image via Stuart Hughes

One Hong Kong businessman, referred to only as “Joe,” never has to worry about the home button wearing out on his new iPhone 5. That’s because it’s made of a single, 26-carat deep-cup black diamond worth $14.5 million. The diamond had been passed down through “Joe’s” family for generations, and he decided to make it the centerpiece of his new iPhone 5, designed by Stuart Hughes of the UK.

That phone has now become the most expensive iPhone ever sold at $15.3 million. Hughes spent nine weeks crafting the phone with its solid-gold chassis, sapphire-glass screen and 600 white diamonds that make up the Apple logo and line the edges.

The iPhone may be one-of-a-kind, but it’s not the only Apple product the English designer and jeweler has created. The iPhone 4S Elite Gold phone he designed, which cost more than $9 million, previously held the title as the world’s most expensive phone. His solid gold iPhone costs more than $33,000 and his iPad Supreme Fire Edition costs more than $168,000. And while Hughes may never create another iPhone to match the black diamond, he has no doubt he’ll be commissioned to design future versions, as well.

“I have been commissioned to do all of the iPhones from when the 3G version first came out,” Hughes told ABC News, adding he gets most of his business through referrals.

It’s every garage-saler’s dream come true. You buy some old piece of pottery for three bucks, just because it looks cool and it’s cheap. You sit it on a shelf in your house for a couple years, then miraculously find out it’s worth a lot more than you paid for it—like a couple million more! The fantasy is exactly why people show up with their crazy junk to “Antiques Road Show” events 16 years after the series  first aired, and why series like “American Pickers” and “Storage Wars” have become so popular as of late.

But the dream became reality for one New York family who bought an antique bowl at a yard sale back in 2007. Fortunately it never broke, because almost six years later the small, ivory-colored bowl turned out to be a 1,000-year-old “Ding” specimen from China’s Northern Song Dynasty. And it might have sat on that shelf for years, but the owner got curious about its origins (maybe after watching “Roadshow?”) and decided to get an appraisal.

The pre-sale estimate for the five-inch bowl came in between $200,000 and $300,000, but like they tell you on “Roadshow,” things can always change in an auction scenario, and that’s exactly what happened here. The bowl was put up for bid at Sotheby’s in New York, a bidding war ensued, and a London dealer, Guiseppe  Eskenazi, bought it for an unbelievable $2.225 million. Apparently, there is only one other piece in the world like it, a Ding bowl that has been housed at the British Museum in London since it was donated by a collector back in 1947.

Once this news gets out, it’s sure to fuel the fire of springtime garage-salers, out at dawn picking through someone else’s junk hoping they’ll find the next overlooked prize artifact. Because you never know when that old vase or statue marked a quarter could really be worth millions.

[Images via Sotheby's]