Bloom Magazine Qatar - January 2016

A BRIGHT LIFESTYLE

January 2016

Distributed with

CAT WALK

DRAMATIC HAUTE COUTURE COLLECTION BY

Cable Knit Sweater Nail Art Trend is So Perfect for Winter

NICOLAS JEBRAN RED CARPET JEWELLERY

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

LOUIS VUITTON

SETS THE STAGE WITH ACTE V INTRODUCING LES TALISMANS DE CHANEL

PRODUCTS Yves Saint Laurent Boho Stone Collection

DIOR GLOWING GARDENS COLLECTION

Ralph Lauren Dazzle Into 2016

Dramatic Haute Couture Collection By

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Nicolas Jebran

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Red Carpet:

Celebs Glam Up For Awards Night

19 Published by

Guerlain Spring 2016 Makeup collection

16 Baby Dior

The Spring 2016 Collection

Editorial:

Hanan Ghazwani Atul Srivastava Design:

Ravindranath Koonath Sales & Marketing:

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Maria Carbungco For contributions and

12 Minutes of Yoga for Better Bone Health

advertisements please contact: Tel: 4000 2156 (Editorial)

Office address:

Safwa Block, Landmark 6, Abu Hamour, Doha, Qatar

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perfect foundation

Email: bloom@qimqatar.com

Barwa Commercial Avenue,

It’s time for skin revival

Innovation : 3D pen prints the

4000 2155 (Sales)

P.O. Box: 22345,

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New Year, New You: Healthy Nutrition Hacks to Ring in 2016

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Travel: What’s New, On and Off the Mountain

inside

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CAT WALK

Dramatic Haute Couture Collection By

NICOLAS JEBRAN Nicolas Jebran is one of the most talented designers in the world of fashion. His passion and love for this work, appeared since his early years and with a hard work, dedication, ambition, amazing talent and distinctive collections, Nicolas built an impressive brand with an international fan base.

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This collection is called “Nostalgia� and it is one of the most dramatic collections for 2015-2016. Nicolas Jebran has used bold colors and luxury materials with interesting textures. You can see various designs with over skirts and fringes. Some are made with sheer fabrics and define woman’s curves and beautiful body figure. The designer paid lot of attention to the tiniest detail and made each dress perfect and astonishing.

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RED CARPET

Red Carpet: Celebs Glam Up For Awards Night

Jennifer Lawrence was ravishing in a red Dior gown and Chopard jewelry

The Golden Globes proved again that it has a tried-and-true formula: rewarding past big winners on the film side and embracing newbies on TV. AS Hollywood’s biggest stars turned out for the Golden Globes, kicking the awards season into high gear, we look back at the hottest and not-so-hot - looks of the red carpet.

Here are a few of our favourites.

Amber Heard looked stunning in red Gucci gown and marching lipstick

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Zendaya was gorgeous in a red Marchesa red tiered dress

Jane Fonda wore an off white ves Saint Laurent Couture which had sequenced ruffles on her shoulders

Rachel McAdams looks lovely on her Lanvin dress

Leslie Mann showcased a Monique Lhuillier gown, Tyler Alexander clutch, and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry

Eva-Green dazzled in Elie-Saab

Kate Winslet in Ralph Lauren

Actress Eva Longoria was beautiful in a white Georges Hobeika dress with little flower print

Lady Gaga, who is nominated for the first time at Golden, went for a black Atelier Versace dress and Neil Lane jewelry

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JEWELLERY

RALPH LAUREN DAZZLE INTO 2016 For the debut of 2016, rediscover Ralph Lauren’s collection of dazzling & resplendent timepieces & jewelry, to commence the year in sensational style.

With a various assortment of feminine ornaments & alluring time-keepers, one will be sure to radiate opulence & sweet sentiment.

Which one is your favorite?

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For the debut of 2016, rediscover Ralph Lauren’s collection of dazzling & resplendent timepieces & jewelry, to commence the year in sensational style.

With a various assortment of feminine ornaments & alluring time-keepers, one will be sure to radiate opulence & sweet sentiment. Which one is your favorite?

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LOUIS VUITTON SETS THE STAGE WITH ACTE V Louis Vuitton’s latest theatrical release, the Acte V also known as The Escape, is a collection that embodies the best features of the Art Deco years with a pure manifestation of creative energy and streamlined modern aesthetics. The high jewelry collection also includes four unique timepieces with a changing dial and a fully paved diamond bezel and bracelet.

Buccellati Timeless Style

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Designing iconic and timeless pieces is no easy feat, but Buccellati keeps seducing us with new collections.

The brand’s latest high jewelry pieces shows off stone variations mixed with a modern twist, and what proof of beauty would you need more than having the seducing Elisa Sednaoui as their new ambassador?

Called the Opera Collection, this bespoke line of jewelry from Bucelatti includes several new and fascinating pieces that reveal the company’s fine craftmanship

INTRODUCING

LES TALISMANS DE CHANEL Chanel has presented its latest high jewelry collection: Les Talismans de Chanel. Featuring a dazzling array of precious gemstone and diamond designs, the collection is inspired by the mythical and protective powers of the talisman.

A talisman is an object believed to contain magical and sacred powers. Combining Chanel symbolism with the talismanic power of set gemstones and diamonds, this new collection is a tour de force. A focus of the collection is the quatrefoil pattern that recalls the Chanel camellia – a flower with which Gabrielle ‘Coco’ had great love. Incorporating a mix of Japanese cultured pearls, multi-colored lacquer, sapphires and enamel, the shapes revealed echo both geometric and natural forms.

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MEN FASHION

SPRING/SUMMER 2016 MEN’S COLLECTION Simple lines, laidback colours and classics revisited are the three starting points for an elegant, fresh, contemporary spring/ summer collection, three recurring features of Carolina Herrera Menswear collections.

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The initial impression is of warm colours like beige, punctuated with navy blue and other tones of blue and touches of orange evoking a relaxed atmosphere in which the Carolina Herrera man finds himself at ease with the arrival of the new season.

Navy blues accented by bright yellow and orange evoke a sense of playfulness and lightness. Not only the colors lend to the relaxed feel of the collection but stylish polo shirts and Bermuda shorts marked by whimsical motifs such as florals, polka dots, flags and stripe prints, create a fun appeal for the “off duty� CH man.

Knitwear and leather jackets finish off the collection epitomizing the fresh spirit of Carolina Herrera.

A collection fine-tuned to unify details and trimmings, which subtly enhance the garments in a manner perfectly in keeping with the spirit of CH Carolina Herrera

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STYLE

Be a French Girl (or Look Like One)

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he fog comes on little cat feet,” Carl Sandburg wrote in a 1916 poem, and he might have been talking about Kate Moss slinking around London for the past two decades in her trusty black ballet flats. The shoe itself has a feline cast — it rounds the foot into a pawlike shape — but there’s also something feline about the women, like Moss, who have popularized ballet flats over the years.

Sinuous Amy Winehouse wore down her pink slippers until they looked like dirty Band-Aids.

Brigitte Bardot spent most of “... And God Created Woman” curled up in sunny locations, purring (and wearing ballet flats). Audrey Hepburn could have wriggled through any cat door.

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Since 1947, French shoe company Repetto has been producing ballet shoes, and since 1956, they’ve been offering a civilian version, called the Cendrillon, with a fortified heel for nondancers.

The company has opened its first boutique in the United States, in New York City’s SoHo, on a stretch of West Broadway that we’ll soon have to designate Little Frenchtown: Two doors down is Bonpoint, maker of tulle underskirts and leopard cloche hats for the children of Francophile parents; and next door is Ladurée, the patisserie where you can watch stoic chauffeurs in black Escalades pull up to the curb and deposit thin women in luxury apparel for a midweek macaron bender.

The Repetto store takes its dance heritage seriously. There’s a ballet barre near the entrance and racks of leotards toward the back. In between are carousels of shoes — flats, midheel ballerinas, T-straps, ankle boots — and tuffets in dark cherry velvet for trying them on. Some of the employees speak with French accents. The store soundtrack is Rossini-centric.

As with many wardrobe commodities these days — white cotton shirts, wrap dresses, yoga pants — ballet flats are so minimally designed and so widely available that they are nearly fungible. You can find a decent pair for $12.95 at H&M, and you can find a decent pair for $795 at Chanel.

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LITTLE STYLE

Baby Dior The Spring 2016 Collection For spring 2016 is here! The shoot took place in the gardens of Versailles, complete with cherubic children and little Dior handbags for girls strewn in the rosebushes.

The fashion has a clean and minimal line with some strong floral prints and theres one amazing blue scatter embroidered girls dress. Boyswear is neat and tailored with classic basics. Baby Dior is one of the few designer labels produced by the main adult label not by a licensee and has a very luxe quality and price point which has been increased in recent years.

There are a lot of entry level baby products and gifting items in the Baby Dior collection too though for accessibility as presents.

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PARENTING

After Menu Labels, Parents And Kids Order Same Foods

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ost parents and older children notice calorie counts posted in New York City fast-food restaurants, but the information doesn’t stop them from ordering their favorite burgers and fries, new research shows.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Obesity, come as federal officials are writing rules for chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus and drive-through signs. The federal guidelines follow moves by several cities, including New York, to require restaurants to disclose calorie counts to diners before they order.

New York University researchers decided to measure how calorie postings influenced dining habits among low-income families. They compared food receipts at New York fast-food restaurants in several low-income neighborhoods before and after the labeling law took effect. The researchers compared the eating habits of the New York families

to diners at fast-food chains in Newark, N.J., where restaurants weren’t required to disclose calorie information.

A total of 349 children, ages 1 to 17, visited the restaurants, which included McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC. About 70 percent were with their parents, while 30 percent of the kids ordered their own food. About half the children involved in the study were teenagers.

The children and teens in the study ate an average of 645 calories per meal before and after the labeling rules took effect. Nearly 60 percent of the children said they had noticed the calorie counts on restaurant menus before ordering, but more than 90 percent said the labels didn’t influence how they ordered. Even when parents ordered the food for their children, the calorie information on menus had no effect on how much the children consumed.

The findings are similar to those reported in a 2009 Health Affairs study by the same researchers, who found that the ordering habits of 1,156 low-income adults in New

York were largely unaffected by the food labeling law.

The authors noted that the study size was small, and that a larger study or one focused on a different demographic might produce different results. However, other food labeling studies have produced similar results, showing little change in eating habits before and after restaurants add calorie information to menus.

Brian Elbel, assistant professor of medicine and health policy at the New York University School of Medicine and lead author of the new report, said that the data don’t mean that calorie counts on menus are a waste of time.

Instead, he said, the findings suggest that menu labeling needs to be combined with other public policy efforts aimed at improving the nation’s diet.

“There are a lot of things that go into you choosing the large French fries aside from just the knowledge part of it,” said Elbel. “These foods taste really good. Just putting the calorie information up there, I think we know now, is not going to be enough.”

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PRODUCTS

MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour In the beauty world, 2016 is bringing about a whole new set of collaborations, a bunch of amazing new products from cult brands, and some innovative new ideas as well. Whether you’re looking for something inexpensive or more pricey, we’ve got you covered, and this is only the beginning!

For those who prefer timeless glamour to all-out flash, matte reigns supreme.

MAC has created an innovation on this classic texture with 15 robustly saturated shades of Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour. Whether you choose the intense fire truck red of Fashion Legacy, the vivid fuchsia of Tailored to Tease or the tantalizing nude of Lady-Be-Good, all these lipcolours promise one thing: a big splash of colour in a liquid-suede finish that transforms lips instantly and lingers, impossible to forget.

Cable Knit Sweater Nail Art Trend IS SO PERFECT FOR WINTER Sweater weather isn’t just a time of the year, it’s an obsession and a must for winter, and now trendsetters have shown the possibilities of mimicking the pattern on your nails. This is one of the year’s newest nail trends, and it’s taking the world by storm.

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Guerlain Spring 2016 Makeup Collection Promo Photos Guerlain revamps its famous Meteorites Base and it’s relaunching a new formula, with delicate rose pearls, just perfect for boosting the healthy glow of your skin. Guerlain Meteorites Voyage Illuminating Matte Powder – Limited Edition is definitely the star product of this collection and most likely the most expensive one as well.

Yves Saint Laurent Boho Stone Collection BOHO STONE COLLECTION. THE YVES SAINT LAURENT WOMAN PAR EXCELLENCE. HER INTUITIVE SENSUALITY AND ASSERTIVE FEMININITY; AN INSPIRATION TO THE ADMIRERS THAT FOLLOW IN HER WAKE – ENTRANCED.

Each shade of the radiant face powder can be used separately to correct any uneven skintone or all shades can be used together for a soft and sophisticated touch of brightness.Uninhibited and modern, introducing the limited edition Boho Stones Couture Palette. Inspired by the free-spirit of a bohemian lifestyle, pink opale creations float throughout the palette that is trimmed with gold.

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Dior Glowing Gardens Collection A spring breeze blows through the 5 Couleurs Glowing Gardens Eyeshadow Palette, a limited-edition treasure trove of flowers inspired by the gardens of Christian Dior. It brings together a variety of textures in a single case to help you create beautiful eye makeup styles through layering. Diorskin Nude Air Illuminating Powder to sculpt your face with touches of light, Diorskin Nude Air Glowing Gardens draws inspiration from the technique of strobing.

Jill Stuart Crystal Bloom Snow Fragrance The pretty bottle which has a lovely cap made from three flowers ornated with Swarovsky crystals that have five petals. The soft scent of white Iris produces a powdery snow feeling while the fragrances wraps you in a sweet smell of blooming flowers. It comes available as 50 ml and 30 ml Eau de Parfum

Bobbi Brown Glow Spring 2016 Seeing Bobbi Brown Glow Spring 2016 Collection, featuring soft, shimmering shades and textures I can say, in my opinion, it’s one of the new makeup lines which makes the perfect transition between winter and spring, from dark shades to soft, pastel and sparkling ones.

Bobbi’s Glow Collection allows for effortless indulgence—a quick lift, soft glow and fresh start for the new season

HAIR CARE

A new concept for hair rebirth THE BENEFITS OF HAIR SPA TREATMENT • • • •

& revitalize the scalp that leads to natural hair rebirth.

It helps to normalize oil secretions.

It increases cell metabolism and stimulates blood circulation.

It eliminates impurities inside pores and repairs damaged hair.

Spa is a rehydrating therapy that restores vital oils and moisture for a smooth, sensuous glow that begins at the roots.

GHD GOLD CLASSIC STYLER..

SUITABLE FOR ALL HAIRSTYLES GHD Gold classic is the perfect tool for quick, effortless straightening and easy curls and waves.

Suitable for all hair types and lengths.

How does your ghd gold classic works?

This ceramic thermal device shines bright with a luxe, sleek design that gives a professional finish. It operates advanced technology and has the plates stuck on the locks of hair tightly and slip on the hair easily giving you great results, and it is characterized by a rounded body to facilitate controlled wrinkles and ripples in the most difficult process.

Available at Nazih

Available at Nazih

Hair Spa is a therapy that is essential maintaining a healthy growth. It is basically a procedure that helps to make your hair strong, bouncy and shiny, while simultaneously to deal with dandruff, damaged, and fall control. Today it is one of the popular and best trends for conditioning your hair to keep it healthy.

Benefits of Hair Spa:• Deep conditioning Hair Spa treatment is designed to strengthen the hair follicles, nourish the roots

DISCOVER A NEW SKIN WITH CASMARA ALGAE PEEL-OFF MASKS Casmara has recently launched a pioneering range of luxurious face mask kits, these masks are promising the same high tech formulations and age-defying efficiency as professional spa-treatments and giving comparable results.

Discover a new skin with casmara algae peel-off facial mask. These modelling algae based mask form a plastic film that adapts itself perfectly to the facial muscle structure.

Each mask is characterized by unique components which helps to give the desired effect as the skin needs: LUXURY MASK FOR THE FACE Formulated with SEAWEED, it contains 24 CARAT GOLD dust, VITAMINS & MINERALS, helps to revive, renew and soften the skin.

PURIFYING MASK FOR THE FACE It contains seaweed, diatomaceous earth and oxygen.it is refreshing, detoxifying and purifying HYDRA MASK FOR THE FACE It contains a seaweed extract and herb marine wakame and Aloe Vera. It works to deeply moisturize and soften the skin to get rid of the aging signs.

ANTIOXIDANT MASK Contains seaweed, extract Alqoja fruit, honey and seeds of quinoa. It works to prevent aging, softening and granting balance to the skin.

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ATUL SRIVASTAVA

hey accentuate beauty and add an attractive smile which can make you a cynosure of the eye. Not everyone is fortunate enough. Many of us find ourselves lacking when it comes to comparing with someone who has a kind of beaming smile and a radiant face. This sense of lacking might spark a chain-reaction of depressive emotions and damage self-worth.

Meet Dr Jassim Al-Maseeh, Periodontist and Implantologist.

A senior consultant at Hamad Medical Corporation since 2003, Dr Jassim became the co-founder of the IDKATAR dental centre in 2015.

Having a diploma from American Board of Periodontologist with an M Sc in oral biology, he also has a certificate in periodontology and fellowship in implantology from University of Pennsylvania. Dr Jassim also has a diplomate and fellowship of the International Congress of Oral Implantology. With him is Dr Esmael Al-Emadi, a Prosthodontist, he joined Hamad Medical Corporation in 1991 and is also a co-founder of IDKATAR. He received training in Los Angeles, California (University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles) where he obtained Advance Education in Prosthodontics, A Master Science in medical education, his sub specialty includes maxillo-facial prosthodontics.

Bloom had an opportunity to have a candid conversation with them on various issues of oral health and hygiene, dental correction, full mouth restoration to severe diseases which affect a majority of people.

Dr Jassim, a super-specialist, deals with very complicated issues. He deals with both the disease and conditions that affect them. “A patient’s health can be judged through the mouth”, is what he believes. Implantology is a specialty which involves placing an artificial tooth root and then cover it with a prosthesis replacing the missing tooth. This may sound something not that difficult. But the fact is that it is a highly specialized job that requires skill and a series of pathological investigations.

“Lip tack is one of the procedures I perform to make your face more beautiful and your smile more attractive”, pat comes his reply while carefully avoiding the technicalities of his job.

He is very optimistic and lauds the new generation for their awareness about the oral health and hygiene.

“More and more youngsters are coming to us for cosmetic surgery,” he said adding that “it reflects that the youngsters are actually taking care of overall oral health and getting

A Sparkling Smile, A Radiant Face

Successful treatments derive from a collaborative effort between patient and dentist. Preventive care will keep the teeth and gums in optimal condition to provide a healthy, disease free oral cavity. With some patients, it can involve more complex treatment of existing dental problems.

rid of deformities as well.”

However, he was not very pleased with the older people “who comes to us when they are at the edge.”

“This limits our options due to severe deterioration,” he regrets.

He was all praise for the programs being formulated by the government to create awareness about oral health, especially the one that is being prepared for school-going children.

“I am sure that the government will definitely take concrete steps to create more awareness about oral health,” he sounded confident sipping his coffee.

Dr Esmael, an apparently seasoned wood, was forthright is his observations. “We provide substitute for anything that is missing yet I will not term it as cosmetics,” he maintained.

He was also not very happy with the current mindset of the majority of people about oral health. “ We are far behind westerners when it comes to oral health and hygiene,” he said and put the onus largely on the cultural values of the society.

He is a super-specialist in dealing with complicated and simple restorations of the whole mouth as well as in treating facial deformities that include dentures, partial dentures, fixed bridges, crowns, veneers, implant restoration and full mouth rehabilitation.

“My job honestly is to put icing on the cake,” he said. He too was very optimistic about the support that is being provided by the government and foresees more programs being launched to create oral health awareness.

Our collaborative approach will ensure long lasting prevention from further progression or recurrence of problems.

LIFESTYLE

12 Minutes of Yoga for Better Bone Health

Y

oga enthusiasts link the practice to a long list of health benefits, including greater flexibility and range of motion, stronger muscles, better posture and balance, reduced emotional and physical stress, and increased self-awareness and selfesteem.

But definitively proving these benefits is challenging, requiring years of costly research. A pharmaceutical company is unlikely to fund a study that doesn’t involve a drug, and in any event, the research requires a large group of volunteers tracked over a very long time.

The subjects must provide health measurements at the outset, learn the proper poses, continue to do them regularly for years and be regularly evaluated.

No one knows these challenges better than Dr. Loren M. Fishman, a physiatrist at Columbia University who specializes in

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rehabilitative medicine. For years, he has been gathering evidence on yoga and bone health, hoping to determine whether yoga might be an effective therapy for osteoporosis.

The idea is not widely accepted in the medical community, but then, researchers know comparatively little about complementary medicine in general. So in 2005, Fishman began a small pilot study of yoga moves that turned up some encouraging results.

Eleven practitioners had increased bone density in their spine and hips, he reported in 2009, compared with seven controls who did not practice yoga.

Knowing that more than 700,000 spinal fractures and more than 300,000 hip fractures occur annually in the United States, Fishman hoped that similar findings from a much larger study might convince doctors that this low-cost and less dangerous alternative to bone-loss drugs is worth pursuing.

Those medications can produce adverse side effects like gastrointestinal distress and fractures of the femur. Indeed, a recent study published in Clinical Interventions in Aging found that among 126,188 women found to have osteoporosis, all of whom had Medicare Part D drug coverage, only 28% started bone drug therapy within a year of diagnosis.

Many of those who avoided drugs were trying to avoid gastrointestinal problems.

On the other hand, yoga’s “side effects,” Fishman and colleagues wrote recently, “include better posture, improved balance, enhanced coordination, greater range of motion, higher strength, reduced levels of anxiety and better gait.”

Weight-bearing activity is often recommended to patients with bone loss, and Fishman argues that certain yoga positions fit the bill.

“Yoga puts more pressure on bone than gravity does,” he said in an interview. “By opposing one group of muscles against another, it stimulates osteocytes, the bone-making cells.”

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BEAUTY

It’s time for skin revival

If you’re used to wearing make-up every day, however little, it can become a real habit. But is that such a bad thing? We ask the experts for the low-down on properly cleansing the skin

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Your skin does not ‘breath’ Dr Justine Hextall, the consultant dermatologist at The Harley Medical Group, says “It is important not to take the term ‘breathe’ literally. Our skin does not breathe as such (in fact, the top layer contains dead cells). I am not sure going make-up free benefits skin, and a lot of make-up now contains ingredients such as antioxidants and sun protection factors that will protect skin from the ageing effects of pollution and sunlight.”

Switch to a lighter foundation There is no evidence that make-up exacerbates acne but avoid oily, heavy bases. However, there’s no need for heavy coverage as there are so many light-reflective foundations and concealers now that do a much better job of giving the impression of glowing skin tones.

Always remove make-up at the end of the day “You need to take off all your make-up before bed time, but you needn’t stop wearing it for a day,” says Andrew Gallimore, make-up artist and UK ambassador for Nars. “With today’s formulations and ingredients in many foundations, they are almost like skincare anyway. Give your skin a break overnight and use a gentle toner after cleansing to make sure you’ve removed everything. Then in your day-to-day make-up, choose foundations and tinted moisturisers that nourish the skin and feel light at the same time.”

Double-cleanse Make sure you thoroughly cleanse your skin every night, and this means twice.

This ensures any debris and dirt that has built up from the day doesn’t clog up pores during the night, which could result in breakouts.

DECOR

ing re look If you’ a heade to hav n the o start design home that will trends te 2016, a domin been we’ve g for the scourin dictions e top pr dustry in m e fro s. Her expert top home e are th to look d tren s he New t for in : r a Ye

Home Decor Trends to Look for in 2016 HOME DECOR Back to the Future: many design experts are saying that the 80s will be making a comeback in home decor this year. Try things like bold and bright colour schemes, as well as sharp, geometric designs.

One-of-a-kind: unique decor pieces have always seemed to have a place in design, but things like custom ceramics or vintage finds will be big this year.

Mixing: it’s finally okay to break the rules and mix materials like metals and fabrics, as well as combining design styles like bohemian with western, or whatever it is your heart desires.

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Minimalism: less is more, and a simpler way of living is becoming the norm when it comes to home decor and design. This might be the perfect time to implement this design trend as well, with New Year de-cluttering on the agenda for many people.

Geometrics: strong shapes and geometric designs are dominating as well. This could mean something like a bold wallpaper, or geometric accent pieces.

Sustainable and smart: green home gadgets and decor items are becoming all the more popular, a great trend for the environment and our wallets too. Look for products with an eco-friendly aspect or made from organic or renewable resources, as well as ones that help reduce your footprint.

One of the sustainable features we continue to implement into our new homes is the NEST Thermostat.

Houseplants: and items that are literally green are making a comeback as well, bring some life into your home with houseplants. You can also get creative with planters, adding another unique touch to your home decor.

HOME COLOUR Rose Quartz: this was chosen as one of Pantone’s Colours of the Year, and this subtle shade will make for a fresh, bright look in any room of your home.

Serenity: this blue hue is the second Pantone Colour of the Year, both of this year’s choices are on the softer side.

Lilac Gray: this is one of Elle Magazine’s choices for a colour in 2016, and since it goes well with pastels and softer shades, it’s perfect for pairing with the Pantone colours.

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SHOPPING

How To Shop The Sales Like A Pro

W

ho can resist the lure of the Christmas sales? With everything you never needed at eye-wateringly low prices, it can be difficult not to splurge on unnecessary items.

If you know exactly when an item will be on sale, you can decide whether you want to wait to buy it on the cheap, or you think it’s worth the extra money to buy it beforehand. Having the option gives you the chance to be the savviest shopper possible.

BUY FOR THAT SPECIAL OCCASION

MAKE A LIST

Smart shoppers are early shoppers. Your friend’s wedding may not be until later in the year, or maybe you’re already planning your Spring Racing outfit; shop the sales now to get a great deal on designer pieces. After all, a great dress is a great dress, no matter the trend or season.

Before setting off for the sales, make a shopping list of everything you wish to purchase, and set yourself a budget.

WEAR COMFORTABLE CLOTHES THAT ARE EASY TO TAKE ON AND OFF

There is no point in buying something that has been heavily reduced if you don’t really need it. Don’t base your decision to buy solely on the size of the reduction or how much you’re “saving”

You MUST try on everything you’re potentially buying. No time to try? Walk away. In summer, I wear a loose dress, no zips and shoes I can easily slip off.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS Before you make a purchase, be sure you know the store’s refund and exchange policy during the sale period. This will differ for each company, so to avoid misunderstanding, always ask or read the signs that are usually located at each till point.

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banging on about that? The short answer is never.

EVER. Knowing exactly what is in your wardrobe is key to always having something to wear. It’s also key to knowing what you need to add to it

I always opt for nude underwear as well – that way if you’re trying on a sheer garment you have a better idea of how it will look than if you’ve headed out in your black lace undies.

EDIT YOUR WARDROBE FIRST

Use sales to purchase seasonal trends that way you haven’t invested a lot of money when it goes out of style. Always purchase items that will be an asset to your wardrobe making sure you can mix and match with existing pieces.

I KNOW, you’re thinking when will that woman stop

Happy Shopping!

'Tis the season for baking, snacking, ordering in, and dining out—but a recent study suggests we may engage in extra eating during the winter for a much more biologically motivated reason.

Researchers from the University of Exeter created a computer model representing how much fat animals (including humans) must store during different times of year based on how much food is available and how likely they are to encounter a predator while foraging. (Hey, our species used to live in the wild too.) Not surprisingly, due to colder weather, the model showed we have a tendency to eat more in the winter, when, historically, food sources are scarcer and venturing outside is less desirable.

Couple that urge with the fact that we're wired to biologically resist becoming underweight more than being overweight, since food shortages have been more of a problem than overabundance for the majority of human history.

"Because modern food today has so much sugar and flavor the urge humans have to eat it is greater than any weak evolutionary mechanism which would tell us not to," lead author Andrew Higginson, Ph.D., said in a press release.

The study also illustrated a commonly observed pattern: It's difficult for people to shed pounds to begin with because our bodies have certain set points they just don’t want to drop below.

So if you're having trouble resisting leftover holiday treats, you can blame your hunter-gatherer ancestors. But don't be too mad: They had no clue Toll House Rolled & Ready packages would be waiting in your fridge one day.

CHAT

Here's Why It Feels Like You Can't Stop Eating in the Winter WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO EAT MORE IN THE WINTER, WHEN, HISTORICALLY, FOOD SOURCES ARE SCARCER AND VENTURING OUTSIDE IS LESS DESIRABLE

The availability of tasty treats these days is also a culprit:

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NUTRITION

New Year, New You:

Healthy Nutrition Hacks to Ring in 2016 With the New Year steadily approaching, it’s time to take a look back at 2015. Did you hit your health goals?

Are you getting close? It’s never too late to modify our eating, exercise and sleep patterns, The good news is you can still meet your 2015 health goals, have fun along the way and set yourself up for a new way of eating – and living – in the year to come.

Here are five ways to ring in optimal health in the New Year: 1. Decorate your plate: Aim for seven colours each day. Don’t forget to leave out your plate when you break out the bright and colourful holiday decorations this year. Prioritize dark leafy green salads and glazed carrots, or even try to find a way to get some deep purple beets in your next holiday potluck lineup. Seasonal pureed pumpkin, yams and sweet potatoes now make it easier than ever to sneak in immune-boosting beta-carotene.

Be sure to keep this tradition going even after the lights and New Year’s noisemakers are put away.

2. Trim the fat: Embark on a new holiday tradition.

Still ruminating over your Thanksgiving dinner?

The good news is it’s never too late to start a new tradition that celebrates physical activity and the healthy basics – fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes – at your next gathering. The secret to healthful trailblazing: Make it fun, and make it festive!

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3.

Create a precision eating plan. Keep a food diary, and write down what you eat, the serving sizes and how you feel after you eat specific foods.

Which foods help you satiate hunger, and which ones ramp up your appetite? Plan accordingly, and stock up on those that keep hunger at bay.

4. Prepare in advance: Share your favorite recipes.

We’ve all been to gatherings with foods that could derail our health and fitness goals. To avoid this situation, make a healthful pit stop along the way.

Pick up a veggie platter, or if you like to cook, try your hand at roasted Brussels sprouts or a bean salad. Nobody will know if your next “meatloaf” is actually a lentil loaf, a mix of fiber-packed lentils, beans, nuts and seeds. And if they do, encourage them to have a slice and share the recipe.

5. Reset your mindset: Give it 21 days. Still need help fine-tuning your diet? Getting fit and healthy is everyone’s No. 1 goal this year, for good reason.

It’s hard to prioritize our health when other demands – family, work, and the holidays – take center stage. The easiest way to make your health goals a reality, for 2015 and beyond, is to make reaching for disease-fighting foods a daily habit. It takes 21 days to begin to retrain our brains. After a few weeks, everything falls into place. With Jan. 1 right around the corner, now is the perfect time to kickstart your health into high gear. Don’t wait another day.

FITNESS

Can Too Much Exercise Harm the Heart?

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ith many of us contemplating marathons or other prolonged endurance events in 2016, we, our spouses and other family members most likely have wondered whether such strenuous training could be harmful to our hearts. Could any of us, in making ambitious resolutions, exercise too much?

A newly published scientific review offers both reassurance and some caution. It found that while most athletes’ hearts can withstand most exercise, there are exceptions. For some people in seemingly good health, heavy loads of exercise might be problematic. That’s why all of us who work out should be as informed as possible about our family’s cardiac history and our own potential genetic risks.

Exercise, of course, is in general extremely beneficial for heart health. Dozens of large-scale epidemiological studies have found that people who exercise in any amount, whether five minutes a day or two hours a day or more, are much less likely to develop or die from heart disease than people who are sedentary.

But these studies, while encouraging, contain a disquieting subtext.

Their plotted data typically shows some type of bell curve to the heart benefits from exercise, meaning that the more people work out, the less they are at risk of cardiac problems — up to a point, and then the benefits plateau or decline.

To some scientists, that finding made little intuitive sense. If a little exercise is good for the heart, why shouldn’t more be continually better?

Dr. Paul Thompson, the chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and for years a dedicated marathon runner, was particularly drawn to that issue. He and his colleagues at Hartford Hospital, along with scientists at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, recently decided to delve more comprehensively than had yet been done into the available data on the topic.

Many past studies have looked at individual aspects of prolonged exercise and heart health. But no past review had comprehensively examined all of the ways in which prolonged endurance exercise might affect the heart and whether, on aggregate, those studies indicated that we should — or should not — worry about the effects of heavy training.

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BLOG

2 AOL Tech Blogs Face Off In A War Of Insults

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He frequently turns up the controversy a notch or two just before TechCrunch’s public events, one of which, the Crunchies, an Internet industry awards show, is to take place in San Francisco this week.

Last week, Arrington started a fiveday online sparring session with Engadget, a sister blog at AOL, accusing it in multiple online posts of being “immensely unethical” and a “plasticized caricature of a real blog.”

Since its acquisition by AOL for more than $25 million, TechCrunch has covered AOL extensively, publishing articles that are often tinged with ridicule, like the headline, “AOL e-mail goes down.

No one notices.” But until now, it had kept its irreverent commentary within the loose norms of online news coverage.

nyone who expected Michael Arrington, the pugnacious founder of the technology blog TechCrunch, to mellow after his site was acquired by AOL last year was wrong. In fact, the acquisition provided a new target for his frequent and scathing attacks: fellow AOL employees.

Joshua Topolsky, Engadget’s editor in chief, eventually had enough and returned fire.

“Explain what we’ve done to you,” he wrote in response. “Explain anything that you’ve said beyond a personal vendetta. I haven’t heard a shred of substance behind your attacks – only the vitriol of a manchild who can’t control himself.”

Public brawls are hardly unusual for Arrington, whose previous targets have included Jason Calacanis, a former business partner and chief executive of the search engine Mahalo, and, separately, the organizers of the DEMO technology conference.

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On a superficial level, the latest fight started when a post by Arrington accused Engadget of buying ads on Google to lift its traffic; he said that strategy broke an unspoken industrywide rule against buying “bad traffic that doesn’t stick around.”

He also complained about an Engadget editor who left the dismissive comment “slow news day” on a TechCrunch article, calling it just one of many slights against TechCrunch by Engadget employees over the last year.

In an interview, Topolsky said that AOL bought the ads without his knowledge and, in any case, rebutted the idea that advertising

is wrong. He acknowledged that an editor commented on a TechCrunch article, but called it a joke and hardly part of a broader effort to damage TechCrunch.

Arrington did not respond to requests for comment, but he put up a post Sunday night in which he leveled new accusations against Engadget, including that it had tried to block AOL from acquiring TechCrunch. Topolsky denied any such effort.

TechCrunch and Engadget, together, make up an important part of AOL’s revival effort under Tim Armstrong, the company’s chief executive.

His strategy is to focus on areas of strength, including technology coverage. Engadget drew 7.8 million unique visitors in December while TechCrunch had 4.3 million, according to comScore.

AOL’s management has taken a low-key approach to the family feud, at least from Topolsky’s perspective.

Executives, he said, have advised that he keep a cool head and move on, although it is unclear whether they echoed that message to Arrington, who has made not responded to Topolsky’s demand for proof of ethical missteps.

INNOVATION

3D pen prints the perfect foundation Few women have the same skin tone all year round. Often, they will buy makeup that matches their skin color in winter only to find it’s too light after their summer holiday. Offering to solve this age-old problem is Adornthe latest addition to the 3D printed makeup market.

To begin, users scan their skin with the inbuilt sensor, and the device will process the color and blend the perfect foundation within the cylinder of the pen. Then, the user simply ‘prints’ the liquid foundation and applies it to their skin.

Smart disc makes any surface into an Internet of Things remote control Knocki, a battery-powered disc, which transforms any surface into a smart communication tool — translating up to ten knocking patterns into commands for the user’s smart home. o begin, users place Knocki on a convenient surface — this can be a door, kitchen countertop, bedside table or anything else. Knocki then connects to the users smartphone via wifi, which enables the user to program in their desired commands using the companion app.

The eye-scanning ATM is almost here The ATM machine is being developed in collaboration with Diebold. It would use the customer’s mobile device as a screen and eliminate the need for a card reader, PIN pad or screen. The ATM is expected to reduce the average time it takes for customers to withdraw money from 45 to 15 seconds.

Another model being developed by Diebold does away with the receipt printer, sending statements to the user by email instead.

What other industries could make use of eye-scanning technology to streamline services?

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ENTERTAINMENT

Finding the Keys for the Right Ballet Steps

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here are only two tempos, too fast or too slow,” Cameron Grant, the principal pianist with New York City Ballet, said with a melancholy laugh after rehearsal a few weeks ago. It was the middle of “Nutcracker” season, and that evening he was scheduled to play the celesta, the bell-like keyboard instrument that accompanies Sugarplum’s solo, in the orchestra pit. With his neat appearance and calm demeanor, Grant is a constant, quiet presence in the theater, someone relied on by dancers, ballet masters and the orchestra. And yet few outside the circle of his colleagues realize how central he and the other company pianists are to the life of the theater.

In his three decades with City

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Ballet, Grant, an accomplished pianist with a chamber music career behind him, has learned that an ideal tempo — one that suits the music, the choreography and the skills of any given dancer — is an elusive thing. Too fast, and the choreography goes off the rails. Too slow, and it loses momentum, or worse, deflates like a droopy soufflé. “My job,” he explained, “is to make the middle sound like that’s the way the piece should go.”

This winter, among other things, he’ll be accompanying “Sonatine,” a pas de deux by George Balanchine set to a dreamy piano sonata by Ravel, the musical equivalent of a watercolor

by Pissarro. (Balanchine made it in 1973 for Violette Verdy, one of his most musical dancers.) He’s also playing “Kammermusik No. 2,”

a prickly, difficult-to-count score

by Paul Hindemith, and the lushly romantic Tchaikovsky Second Piano Concerto. “Meat and potatoes,” as he recently put it.

At a rehearsal of “Sonatine” in December, Grant calmly played through the score as two dancers practiced the steps. Every few bars, he was stopped by the ballet mistress so she could correct a transition or adjust a shape. Each time, as if reading her mind, he knew exactly where to pick up the next phrase. He seemed to have as firm a grasp of the choreography as the dancers.

Here and there, his score was marked with notes in pencil: “Man hops to side,” “Woman enters,” “Man turns.” The final bars of each section were copied and taped to the previous page, to avoid awkward pauses for page turns.

MOTIVATON

CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIORS TO BECOME A MORE INSPIRING LEADER IN 2016

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abits can be a trap for people in leadership positions – whether they are in business, politics or another field.

As leaders, they should provide a compelling vision that inspires those around them. Instead, many of them lapse into automatic and mindless thinking. And that can affect every decision they make – and the actions of the people who report to them.

“Too often, we don’t come up with imaginative solutions because we let ourselves be ruled by routine and by preconceived notions,” says RobJan de Jong, a behavioral strategist and author of “Anticipate: The Art of Leading By Looking Ahead” “We think we know ahead of time what will and won’t work, which makes us quick to dismiss ideas that sound too ‘out there.’ The people who answer to you learn the lesson that creative thinking is frowned upon, even if that’s not the lesson you wanted to teach.”

Simply making a New Year’s resolution to have a more open mind in 2016 likely won’t be enough to turn things around. But de Jong says there are behaviors and practices that, through repetition and perseverance, can help leaders and anyone else develop a mindset that’s open to imaginative and better ideas.

• Formulate powerful questions.

Generating ideas starts with asking the right questions and the best questions are thought-provoking. They challenge underlying assumptions and invite creativity. “They also give us energy, making us aware of the fact there is something to explore that we hadn’t fully grasped before,” de Jong says.

Train yourself to catch poorly designed questions, asked by you or someone else, and reformulate them. Questions that begin with “why,” “what” and “how” are best because they require more thoughtful responses than those that begin with “who,” “when,” “where” and “which.” Especially avoid questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no.”

• Expand your sphere of influence.

“We are strongly influenced, for better or worse, by the small group of people we have direct contact with,” de Jong says. “Since we tend to hang out with people who are fairly similar to ourselves, chances are we are limiting our perspectives.” He recommends making a deliberate effort to encounter people and ideas that are “profoundly different from the usual suspects you hang out with.” Visit a conference of a different profession, hang out with skaters, join an arts club or buy a magazine randomly off the shelf.

• Break your patterns. You can increase your chances of seeing things differently if you deliberately break your normal pattern of working, communicating, thinking, reacting

and responding, de Jong says. Take a different route to work. Change where you sit in meetings. If you are normally the first to volunteer, hold back.

• Learn to listen. “We’ve all been taught the importance of being good listeners,” de Jong says. “The problem is most of us struggle to actually do it.” Often when people are “listening,” they really are waiting for the first opportunity to share their story, their opinion or their experience. De Jong suggests training yourself to engage in three pure listening conversations a week. They don’t need to be longer than 15 to 20 minutes, they can be formal or informal, and the other person doesn’t need to know what you’re doing. Vow that you won’t try to take over the conversation no matter how much you want to. “Just keep asking questions and don’t dismiss anything the other person says,” de Jong says. After the conversation, reflect on what you learned. Don’t dismiss any ideas or views that don’t align with yours. “Dare to challenge your own assumptions and reframe your beliefs if need be,” he says.

“Some of these practices may take people outside their comfort zones, and everyone might not be ready to try all of these at once,” de Jong says. “But if you start to put them into practice, you’ll be able to grow into a more mindful, visionary leader one step at a time.”

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TECHNOLOGY

Melding Craft And Technology, Jewelers Adopt 3-D Printing

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o catch a glimpse of modernday alchemy, jewelers who attended the JCK Las Vegas trade show in June ventured past glittering displays of diamonds and gold to an equipment pavilion at the back of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. There, a machine resembling a hulking 1970s mainframe computer beamed a highly focused laser onto a plate of atomized metallic powder and, over the course of 24 hours, produced a selection of gold rings.

a director of Rio Grande, a jewelry equipment and findings manufacturer in Albuquerque, N.M. “You can make very intricate parts that are hollow, and since you’re building them layer by layer, you can put structures inside of them.”

The Mlab machine provided many passers-by their first glimpse of a form of 3-D printing known as additive manufacturing. Unlike traditional “subtractive” methods of cutting and drilling metal, the $289,000 machine lays down successive layers of powdered metal into which a laser beam melts a traced cross-section of the desired shape, building up the object according to instructions imported in a computer-aided design, or CAD, file.

The advent of 3-D printing is the latest development in a technological revolution that began about a decade ago, when jewelry-specific CAD software first became available. When the financial crisis stranded millions of dollars of unwanted inventory in jewelry showcases across the United States, the ability to design madeto-order pieces gave jewelers with CAD capabilities a leg up on the competition. Instead of committing their cash to costly merchandise,

Pioneered by the medical, dental and aerospace industries to build prosthetic parts and aircraft doors, the technology has recently found its way into jewelry.

“Until now, people have been creating things that could be extracted from a rubber mold,” said Frank Cooper, technical manager of the jewelry industry innovation center at Birmingham City University in Britain. “This technology allows you to ignore all those rules.”

Laser-melting machines let designers create complex shapes they “couldn’t make any other way,” said Eddie Bell,

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Fans say the process avoids two flaws common to conventional methods of jewelry casting: wasted materials and porosity in the finished pieces.

They also point out that it facilitates customization: A unique piece can be built literally overnight.

many retailers began to display prototypes made of inexpensive base metals that could be customized using CAD and manufactured in precious materials.

“The jeweler doesn’t have to pay for the jewelry and the manufacturer doesn’t have to make the jewelry unless they have an order,” said Peggy Jo Donahue, director of public affairs for Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America. “You don’t want to guess what people want. Now you don’t have to.”

Scores of companies have ventured into the realm of just-in-time personalized manufacturing. But most high-end jewelers still shy away from discussing their technical knowhow, preferring to talk of old-world craftsmanship.

Executives at Dior, for example, say technology comes into play only when “the hand of man might fail.”

As an example, they cited some of the gold lace work in the house’s new Dear Dior collection, calling it “so fine that we have been obliged to resort to using an extremely precise laser in certain cases.”

For Mr. Bell of Rio Grande, however, technology and artistry need not be mutually exclusive. Despite their commitment to old-world techniques, the makers of today’s priciest jewels are also high-tech believers, he said.

At the annual Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in Switzerland, “go to the equipment section and look to see who’s there,” Mr. Bell said. “They’re there. They’re keeping up — they’d be crazy not to.”

GOURMENT

In Six Compartments, All the Flavors of Home

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efore Sonny Caberwal left his small hometown - Asheboro, North Carolina - for college, his mother, aunt and grandmother pulled him into the kitchen.

“I think they thought I was going to starve,” said Caberwal, 36, the founder of Bond, a venture that seeks to resurrect the ritual of handwritten correspondence, using robotics.

The women taught him to make rajma, his favorite dish, a Punjabi curry of red kidney beans. Then his mother gave him a loondani, a round spice tin of beaten copper, the size of a small kettle. Today it sits, shining and ornate with a Braille of flowers, in the coolly modern kitchen of his apartment in the financial district.

Unlatch the domed lid and you find a shallow tray with a long, dainty spoon for measuring.

Below are tucked six canisters of spices, five of them - loon (salt), jeera (cumin), dhania (coriander), lal mirch (red chile) and amchur (mango powder) - arranged like petals around haldi (turmeric) at the center. “You keep all the

spices together so there’s no rummaging around,” Caberwal said.

With this, his mother had equipped him to face the world, even though he was going only an hour way, to attend Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. In a sense, he wasn’t leaving home at all: His family’s gurdwara (Sikh temple) was in Durham. There he had helped out in the langar (communal kitchen and canteen), where everyone gathered after services to cook and eat together.

The langar meal is free and open to all. “You don’t have to be Sikh,” he said. “Everyone sits at the same level and eats the same food.”

“Since I was a kid, people always look at you because you’re different,” Caberwal said. “But that’s part of being Sikh, to wear the uniform, to look different.

“I’m not the most religious person in the whole world,” he added. But in 2008, he became an ambassador of sorts for the Sikh faith, appearing in a Kenneth Cole ad campaign with the headline “We All Walk in Different Shoes.”

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RECIPE

Wyndham Grand Regency introduces a new buzz to the traditional coffeehouse

Global cold-brewed coffee program featuring exclusive concoctions from award-winning chef Stephanie Izard Wyndham Grand Regency is bringing a new buzz to the traditional coffeehouse experience with the launch of Brew Parlor: a fresh take on afternoon happy hour where people can meet, recharge, or simply take a breather over cold-brewed coffee-based drinks developed in partnership with the brand’s “Chef de Caffeine,” awardwinning culinary personality, Chef Stephanie Izard.

Classic Cold Brewed Coffee • Pound of Freshly Ground French or Dark Roast • 64 Oz. Purified, Spring, Natural Water (Tap water will not provide ideal product) • Place coffee grounds in filter if using Yama Drip Tower, or stir grounds into cold or room temp water • Place mixture in covered plastic or glass gallon container with grounds well stirred in refrigerator for 12 hours • When time has completed, strain coffee through filter • For Yama Drip Tower, fill reservoir with water and allow drip process to complete phase • Recipe Yields ½ Gallon of Cold Brew Concentrate

Five Spice Shaken Iced Coffee Makes 1 serving • 10 oz. cold brew coffee • 2 oz. *five spice Thai chili simple syrup (recipe below) • Fill cocktail shaker with ice • Add all ingredients • Shake vigorously until liquid is foamy • Serve over ice

Simple Syrup • 1/2 cup raw sugar • 1 cup water • 1 tsp 5 spice • 3 dried Thai chilies • 1 cup sweetened condensed

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milk (about 1 14oz can) • Combine sugar and water in small sauce pot • Bring to boil • Remove from heat • Add 5 spice and chilies • Let come to room temperature • Stir in sweetened condensed milk

If prefer spicy- don't strain, cover, refrigerate overnight If prefer less spicy- strain, cover, refrigerate overnight

Will keep approximately 2 weeks in the fridge

Café Olé (Yields about 2 QT) • 1224 g dark brown sugar • 612 g water • 200 g Belgian cocoa powder (pictured below) • 135 g dark chocolate (65%) • 4 g salt • 24 g vanilla extract • 1 cinnamon stick (11g) *we use Ceylon cinnamon • 50 g dried ancho chilies, toasted • 20 g dried guajillo chilies, toasted • Put all in pot and simmer until chocolate is melted. let cool to room temperature. strain.

For the Drink: • 8 oz. cold press • 2 oz. chocolate • Ice • Shake in shaker until quite frothy.

Pour into glass with ice. (Nice to drink without straw so get all the froth)

Biscotti Almond Cream: • 2c sliced almonds, toasted until very dark but not quite burnt • 1 Qt heavy cream • 15g powdered sugar

As soon as nuts come out of the oven, put into container and pour cream over. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Put into pot and bring to simmer for 5 minutes.

Then chill over ice. If time to sit overnight it will get more flavor… but if not it should have good flavor at that point. strain. Whisk in powdered sugar. This is ready to use in a whipped cream canister.

Simple Syrup • 2c sugar • 2c water • 15g fennel seed • 5g star anise • Zest of one orange (using a microplane) Bring to boil in stainless steel pot. Turn off and let sit until cools to room temperature. Strain.

To make the Drink: • 8oz. cold press • 2oz. simple syrup • Big spoon of whip cream • More whip for topping

In shaker combine all with ice. Shake until frothy and pour with ice into cup. Top with more whipped cream.

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TRAVEL

What’s New, On and Off the Mountain MAX Pass, or Multi-Alpine Experience ski pass, which allows up to five days of skiing at each member property, has expanded to 22 resorts in North America this year

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cross the country, ski resorts are trumpeting an El Niño winter that they hope will blanket their slopes with powder. In case it doesn’t, many have amplified snow-making capabilities and diversified entertainment and recreation options, from learning to drive a snowcat to visiting an art museum to bike racing.

The biggest news out of ski country pertains, naturally, to size. Vail Resorts, having purchased Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, will marry it to the company’s neighboring Canyons Resort this winter with a new gondola and unified lift ticket. The resulting 7,300-skiable-acre resort is the biggest in the country, and the $50 million expansion includes a 500-seat restaurant at the Park City base.

Big Sky Resort in Montana, which has just lost its title as the nation’s biggest ski area, will introduce three runs at the beginner and intermediate levels that are gladed, with trees for weaving in and out.

Similarly, Homewood Mountain Resort on the west coast of Lake Tahoe in California will add 750 acres of glades, accessible to groups of no more than 10 skiers.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming will open the Teton Lift on Dec. 19. The new high-speed quad offers access to at least 100 acres that previously required skiers to hike in.

Back in Utah, the high-end Deer Valley Resort has acquired nearby Solitude Mountain Resort,

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replacing a central two-person chair with a high-speed four-person model that will boost access to backcountry-like Honeycomb Canyon.

In Alaska, Tordrillo North will offer new heli-ski and snowboard access from Winterlake Lodge, about 200 miles north of Anchorage.

Five-passenger Eurocopter A-star helicopters will fly to more than 1 million skiable acres in the Tordrillo Mountains of south-central Alaska, Feb. 28 to April 23.

up to five days of skiing at each member property, has expanded to 22 resorts in North America this year.

The rival Mountain Collective pass now includes Stowe, Vermont; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Taos, New Mexico.

About 35 miles north of Salt Lake City, Ogden is making a pitch for weekend traffic with a new Ski3 Pass, which offers full-day lift tickets at Powder Mountain, Snowbasin Resort and Nordic Valley Resort for $139 to guests of participating hotels.

Utah Olympic Park’s new Park City Ski Mountaineering Team expands the events at the Park City location to include ski mountaineering, or “SkiMo,” a timed racecourse that combines Alpine, telemark and Nordic skiing.

Children are the focus of many deals, including Ski Utah’s new Fifth and Sixth Grade Passports Program offering children nationwide free lift tickets at 14 participating resorts.

And Aspen Snowmass is lowering rates for teenagers to match those of children 12 and under.

MAX Pass, or Multi-Alpine Experience ski pass, which allows

At Copper Mountain, its mobile app Sherpa tracks runs, speed and

vertical feet each day. New this season is its trail recommendations, based on skiers’ previous skiing or snowboarding patterns.

Both Steamboat and Winter Park Resort will incorporate radio frequency identification technology in its passes, which can be reloaded online, bypassing the ticket office, and offer the option of linking a credit card to allow resort charges at restaurants and shops.

Snowbiking continues to grow in the mountains, and Crested Butte, Colorado, will host the first Fat Bike World Championships, Jan. 27-31.

Other resorts are adding trails for the inflated-tire winter bikes, including the Gold Run Nordic Center in Breckenridge, Colorado, which will open 16 miles of trails to cyclists this year.

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ADVICE

COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE SOOO SENSITIVE...

"...HERE'S WHAT THE PUNDITS DON'T GET: STUDENTS ARE SO SENSITIVE, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEIR BEST QUALITIES."

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ccording to recent and widespread media coverage, the college bubble is bigger than ever. Colleges, claim the media, have been churning out a generation of graduates with worthless degrees. Worse, students are coddled, privileged, wholly lacking in resilience, and driving their campuses off the cliff of political correctness. What are we supposed to do about this crisis?

I suggest we reframe the alarmists' claims. These pundits rarely set foot on college campuses. They critique colleges and students from afar or by using singular anecdotes to justify broad conclusions. I visit more than a hundred colleges each year, and here's what the pundits don't get: Students are so sensitive, and this is one of their best qualities.

This tail end of the Millennial generation venturing through their college years has emerged as social justice champions, so much so that "Sensitives" might be a more accurate term than "Millennials" to describe them. What a marvelous quality

to possess, to be champions for social justice. If administrators are perplexed by this, and media commentators are vexed by it, consider that American society was transformed by youth culture in the 1960s.

Student protests bookended by Berkeley in 1964 and Jackson State in 1970 marked the power and investiture of the student social justice movement. Today's champions of social justice on college campuses are a cyclical revisitation of that era, and will likewise leave their own indelible mark on our society.

We may not agree with their every aim and tactic, but this segment of the Millennial generation has a voice, is dedicated to causes they believe in, and is motivated to reshape the world in their image. I'd rather this than cynicism, pessimism or apathy. If right now they want to eradicate every vestige of slavery and fire every dean who is slow to enact a meaningful diversity plan, we need to understand that their methods will mature with time, as will their expectations and demands.