When a pair of veteran fashion publicists put together an intimate trunk-show space just off Madison Avenue on New York City’s Upper East Side, it’s not a surprise to find a selection of hard-to-find cult brands on view there. Old friends Candice Postel and Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler launched the Drawing Room earlier this year as a way to bring New Yorkers together with brands that don’t have a presence in the city. Some days there are shows, with chic neighborhood ladies browsing tall racks under sprays of flowers; other days the space is used for product launches or press events.

Max Luxe spoke to Postel about the duo’s idea.

 

-How did you both get involved with this business?

We grew up together in Palm Beach,  and always lived parallel professional lives. We both come from fashion public-relations backgrounds.  I started at Salvatore Ferragamo many moons ago and Emilia at Bottega Veneta. From there, we both opened our own boutique agencies but motherhood called and we took time to raise our children.  Now that they are a little older, we decided this was the right time to do something.  We were hosting trunk shows out of Emilia’s home and decided to turn it into a business. But The Drawing Room is so much more than just trunk shows.  Brands have hosted their press previews here as well as launched products.  The Drawing Room truly is a jewel box of a space!

 

– When you’re running a trunk show, what is your typical day like?

We both wake up super-early, get our kids ready for school and drop them off, then head to The Drawing Room.  There are days that it is so busy that we look at each other at 5:00 and ask what is for lunch!

 

– What brands have you shown? Which ones are coming up?

We try to have different kinds of brands and interesting companies all the time. For example, we did a Bespoke Week with Attolini custom women’s blazers, Devon Woodhill beautiful bespoke lockets, and Paul Renwick’s gorgeous cashmere, and we topped the show off with an amazing portrait painter, Rob Beckett. We did a week with Veronica Beard, where they designed six exclusive styles for The Drawing Room. Before everyone leaves for the winter holiday, we are doing a Basta Surf swimwear sale along with L’Etoile, a tennis and golf wear collection.

 

– What are a few high-end fashion trends you’re seeing now?

Investment pieces: an item that goes with several things in one’s closet. Not bling but something that compliments what you already have on.

 

– What’s the one most important winter item women should buy?

A fabulous coat makes a statement. The navy car coat from Veronica Beard is a no-brainer.

Dinner parties are both a relic of a bygone era and the most modern way to entertain today. When author Daniel Cappello set out to document what makes a dinner party special, he turned to a selection of noted and celebrity hostesses like Ivanka Trump. Each answered a list of questions about parties, style, and hospitality in her own handwriting.

Cappello, the fashion director at Quest Magazine and a former longtime assistant editor at The New Yorker, previously wrote a book about his alma mater, Harvard, and its university cohort (The Ivy League, Assouline). Max Luxe spoke with Cappello about his new book, Dinner Diaries: Reviving the Art of the Hostess Book (Assouline)

 

– What was the inspiration for the book?  

I grew up with parents who loved entertaining, and dinner parties were a very essential part of what we did with friends and family. That tradition has certainly carried through with me. It didn’t occur to me to do a book about entertaining, though, until I happened to be hosting a dinner party one night where one of the guests (who himself is a generous and fun host) decided we ought to change up the music because he didn’t love the vibe I had chosen for the night. He started looking for where my iPod was docked so he could put on a playlist of his own, and I was appalled! I couldn’t believe someone would dare to criticize a host’s or hostess’s choice on anything, let alone try to act on changing it. Part of the joy of a dinner party, for me, at least, is to relish in someone else’s tastes for an evening. I’ve often been inspired to do something I’d never have done before just by observing other hosts.

At some point, I happened to be telling this story to my publisher, Martine Assouline (who is herself a terrific hostess), and she walked over to her very impressive bookshelf and pulled out a vintage copy of Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Book of Etiquette. She opened it up to the section on dinner parties and asked if maybe my sense of propriety was stuck in the ’50s. Do enough people even have dinner parties anymore? Is the art of the dinner party dead? Have good manners and etiquette become antiquated? We started asking all these questions, and I told her I believed enough people still do cherish the finer details of the dinner party—and that I would poll some of my friends and acquaintances who had impressed me with their sense of style and entertaining. The result was a resounding yes—that the dinner party was very much alive, and that people still cared enough about it to document their own by keeping menus and invitations and place-card settings, or with iPhone photos or even old-school hostess books. So Martine and I set out to poll some great modern hosts and hostesses in the form of a Proust Questionnaire, and the result was this book, full of some very traditional and some very contemporary views on entertaining.

 

– Can you give us some tips for elegant home entertaining? 

Elegance is a state of mind, a state of being. Fundamentally, it’s about being true to your own sense of style. If you want to achieve truly elegant home entertaining, you have to own your own sense of style. If you’re a traditionalist and love silver candelabra and flowers and antique china and formal seating arrangements at the dining room table, your guests will feel special spending a few hours in your very traditional ways. If you’re more relaxed and prefer quirky evites, relaxed family-style buffets or passed plates around the kitchen island followed by freestyle dancing after dinner in the living room, then your guests will indulge in the fun. Whatever your style, you should command it. One of the tips I offer in the book for hostesses is that, as hostess, you are the director—so you set the tone and scene for the evening. Being confident and in command—and enjoying your own dinner party as much as your guests—is the ultimate elegance. Your guests will follow your lead and truly enjoy themselves.

 

-What did you learn while working on the book that was surprising?

Well, it’s funny. In some of the research that reached back to the days of, say, the 1950s picture-perfect housewife, there were some funny suggestions I came across. For instance, one authority back in the day told stressed-out wives to retreat to the kitchen and lie flat on their backs, against a cold kitchen floor, to regain their composure. I just imagined a beautifully coiffed housewife in a cocktail dress sneaking into the kitchen, swallowing a Valium with a vodka martini, and taking to the floor.

In truth, it’s not such a ridiculous scenario. I’ve had freak-out moments of my own hosting dinner parties, and maybe I should have gone into the kitchen and stretched out on the floor to take a few deep breaths to recover. Any host or hostess will tell you to expect the unexpected and to learn to go with the flow. One of the most formal women I interviewed for the book told about how her chef once mixed up salt and sugar in a dessert recipe. A guest took a bite and shouted out to warn everyone not to touch the dessert. She said she always has a stock of very good ice cream in the freezer for such situations. So if the flourless chocolate cake turns sour or the soufflé flops, there’s always some really delicious ice cream on hand. And who doesn’t love an indulgent ice cream for dessert?

We say that practice makes perfect, but you can’t always perfect the dinner party, so I learned a lot of fun tips from hostesses on how to turn a potentially bad situation into a fun or memorable evening.

 

– What’s the funniest anecdote from the book? 

I think the funniest—or most telling—part of the book is the response to the question about what makes for a bad guest at a dinner party. Many hostesses I polled said a drunk was a bad guest (while many others suggested a drunk made for a good guest). I suppose it depends on what kind of conversation or mood an intoxicated guest can stir up at a party. The funniest response for me, though, was when one of the participants polled said a bad guest shows up late, and a very bad guest hits on your husband!

 

– What’s your next project?

I have a few ideas for another possible book with Assouline. I have truly loved the process of working with Martine and Prosper Assouline. Their luxury-book house is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, and they have an amazing aesthetic for luxe books and products. I never know where our initial thoughts or conversations will eventually lead me.

I’m also in the process of researching a historical Renaissance figure to whom I may or may not be related down the ancestral line. Either way, I’m working on a book about her exciting life and times. I’m also working on a performance piece with some theatrical producers. So I’m looking back in my family history and looking inward to potentially take to the stage myself.

For those who love to ride, seeing the world from the back of a horse makes for a perfect vacation. Darley Newman, who hosts the PBS show Equitrekking as well as several other travel-related shows and web-video series, has been riding since childhood. On her show, she takes viewers along on horseback through some of the world’s most exotic places. Her travel company also arranges horseback tours around the globe for vacationers.

Newman talked to Max Luxe about what drives her, what her days are like on the road, and where she’d like to go next.

 

– How did you get interested in luxury riding trips? 

Horseback riding is such a great way to see a new place and really immerse yourself in nature and culture. There are amazing luxury riding vacations all over the world in destinations as far flung as Jordan and as close to home as Virginia.

 

 – What’s your favorite place to ride on vacation?

I have a few favorite riding destinations in Ireland, Botswana, Turkey and throughout the American West and Southwest. In Ireland, Castle Leslie is wonderful and unique. The horses and riding are exceptional with hundreds of cross country jumps built by Willis Bros. of Badminton Horse Trials fame sprinkled throughout the private estate, which is still inhabited by its eccentric founding family. You can hang out with Irish aristocracy, unwind in the Victorian-themed spa and spend nights in this splendid castle. Each room is richly decorated with family antiques and fireplaces, great for relaxing after a day on horseback. Past guests have included Irish poet WB Yeats, Prince Pierre of Monaco, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and members of the Churchill family, to whom the Leslie family is related.

 

– What is your typical day like while you’re on the road shooting an episode?

Every day is different and an adventure when we’re filming for Equitrekking. We’re normally in some exotic destination riding horses and trying other adventures with locals, who are passionate about their home area and sharing its rich culture, cuisine and history. When we’re filming, days are long, as we’re always trying to take advantage of the light and capture the diversity of the destination so the viewer feels like they’ve come along for the adventure. We’ve filmed in some extraordinary locations, including the Royal Stables with HRH Princess Alia in Jordan, historic Blair Castle in Scotland’s Highlands and the wild lava fields of Iceland.

 

– What are the most popular trips that riders book with Equitrekking?

North American ranches and riding tours in Ireland are really popular. These trips are great for both first time riders and more experienced equestrians and can be a great choice for mixed groups, where some people want to ride horses and others want to fish, golf, go to the spa or do other sightseeing. We started Top20Ranches.com and the Equitrekking Vacation Guide to catalog some of the exceptional ranches and riding vacations we’ve discovered and make it easier for other people to find these often lesser publicized experiences.

 

– What’s a luxury destination for people interested in riding that’s under the radar?

If travelers want to combine some of the most amazing wildlife viewing with a luxury, classic safari camp, Botswana has great choices and is lesser known. I’ve traveled throughout, enjoying exciting riding and some of the best wildlife viewing in the world. One amazing place that is definitely lesser visited is the Makgadikgadi Pans, one of the world’s largest salt pans. You feel like you’re riding the surface of the moon in this remote, otherworldly locale, which has the best stargazing I’ve ever experienced. A great time to visit is during the wet season, when you can observe the last surviving migration of zebra and wildebeest in Southern Africa. I even got the chance to gallop with a herd of zebra and wildebeest. This is not for the faint of heart! For guests who want a truly memorable, stylish safari experience, stay at Jack’s Camp, an opulent tented oasis complete with Persian rugs, unusual African art and artifacts and private butler service.

Looking for your next Southeast Asian beach resort — with a deeply local history? Hoi An, a small trading port in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province, could be your pick. We asked friends of Max to tell us what they liked about their luxury vacation in the South China Sea beach town.

– Stay

All signs point to the opulent Nam Hai Hoi An, one of the GHM Hotels and a Leading Hotel of the World. This all-villa beach resort boasts tranquil private pools and stunning views. Feel free to bring children, who will enjoy the resort’s kids’ club. The food is one of the high points, our informants say. If you fall in love with the place, the villas (up to 5 bedrooms) are for sale, with personal butler service included.

– See

The resort is situated close to three UNESCO World Heritage sites: the old town of Hoi An, My Son and Hue.

Hoi An, UNESCO says,  is “an exceptionally well-preserved example of a small-scale trading port active from the 15th to 19th centuries” revealing the influence of  Japan, China, and Europe. The town has an abundance of temples and features a noted Japanese-style covered bridge with a pagoda.  Lanterns illuminate the town at night, and a special night market is devoted to lights.

My Son, a day trip from Hoi An, is the ancient capital of the Champa Kingdom, which flourished from the 4th to the 13th centuries. The site includes 71 stone towers dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It’s comparable in quiet magnificence and worldwide significance to Indonesia’s Borobudur temple and the Cambodian holy complex at Angkor Wat. Hue is another former capital, the seat of the Ngyuen dynasty, which ruled Vietnam from the early 1800s until 1945.

– Do

If lounging by your own pool is too passive for you, rent bikes and ride into the surrounding rice paddies or the local markets. You can also try a cyclo, a three-wheeled bike, which is ideal for touring the Old Town.

Locals traditionally fish using giant baskets. The hotel or a tour agency can arrange an outing where you can try this technique yourself.

For foodie travelers, the Nam Hai offers cooking classes that include excursions to market stalls with the hotel chef. Other culinary seminars off the resort are easy to find and can introduce you to local styles of cooking.

The area is famous for its tailors and some 400 of them are in business here. Stop in with a picture of your favorite dress, or any clothing item you love, and have a tailor replicate it for you.

 

We invited our friends at FeeX, a service that helps investors figure out what fees they’re paying on their retirement accounts, to contribute this guest post.

---

By Molly O’Brien

Community Manager, FeeX

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, things in the finance world aren’t what they used to be. We’re living in an era when it’s never been easier to make your money work for you, and with the new ways we manage our finances also come changes in the way we think about our finances.

Working at FeeX, an online tool that helps people find and reduce fees that are hiding in their retirement accounts, I’ve noticed that prevailing financial attitudes are transforming in a good way.

“Research sucks” vs. “Research…is…easy?”

If you wanted to research your investment strategy or hunt around for a better interest rate, you had to do it the old-fashioned way — digging through prospectuses, crunching numbers, and spending way too much time comparing performance and fees from different institutions. If you wanted to check out the fees in your investment accounts – from somewhere like SoFi, you needed to grab a magnifying glass and find your funds’ expense ratios, plus see if any extra fees were tacked on, then add your financial advisor’s cut if you had one. Are you getting a headache just thinking about this?

Now technology has enabled people to do the research without putting in the elbow grease — whether it’s comparing interest rates for checking and savings accounts, finding the right way to manage your cash (as Max does), or scanning your retirement investments for fees to find lower-fee options (which is what FeeX does), doing the research is now often as simple as clicking a couple of buttons.

“I’m sure it’s fine to leave this account alone” vs. “There are things I can do to maximize my savings”

Like Newton’s law says, an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and that’s true for the way some folks have been managing their money in the past. Settling on one particular strategy and sticking to it forever won’t necessarily hurt you, but with all of the options we have today, it doesn’t make any sense to let the status quo rule your money.

Max is a perfect example of this—sure, cash can sit in your accounts for all time without doing anyone any harm, but if you had the opportunity to use a service that let your cash accounts earn more money for you, wouldn’t you do it, especially if you could increase FDIC insurance along the way?

Likewise with FeeX: retirement accounts can easily sit for decades as-is, but with a free FeeX account, it becomes incredibly easy to see the changes you need to make to save more money. A few changes can be all it takes to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees over the long run.

“These fees are probably normal” vs. “If you don’t know what you’re paying, you’re paying too much”

If there’s one attitude that has become particularly apparent in the recent past, it’s this: you should always question what you’re earning versus how much you’re paying to earn it. FeeX was created with the mission of delivering clear information about how much it really costs for the privilege of investing. If you know more about your fees, you can make better decisions about how to invest. If you make better investment decisions, you’ll end up saving more money. If you end up saving more money? Well, that’s a good thing—and that’s one attitude about finances that’ll never change.

We invited Ben Hammer, a passionate wine drinker and foodie, to contribute this guest post on how to think about wine choices. Ben is a strategic communications advisor for technology, media and entertainment companies. His firm, Hammer Strategies, is based in Washington, D.C.

---

By Ben Hammer

In Vino Veritas: In wine there is truth. They say alcohol is a form of social lubrication. Behind closed doors or in a front of a bar, with a trusted confidante, a nice glass of our favorite elixir poured by a friendly bartender can help us ease into our personal time and space. The one we own, not the one most of us rent out for the day when we work for someone else.

To see, smell and taste is to believe. Reading a description of a wine is a bit like reading a greeting card. It’s either funny (and it should not be if received as intended), or it’s too flowery to understand. No, the only way to really know what a wine tastes like is to try it. Ideally, try it with another human being with whom you have a real live connection. One never truly experiences something unless with another human being.

For me, wine is about opening up a time capsule that encompasses soil, dirty fingernails, hard work, families, reputation, and the new discovery of a particular vintage, grape and combination of wine, food, palate and conversation.

Some wine snobs will pontificate what you should and should not drink when it comes to wine. I’m not one of those people. If you ask, I’ll tell you what I’ve heard about what to pair with duck (Pinot Noir, preferably from Willamette, OR, for my taste Patricia Green Ribbon Ridge; or if you like yours with a bit of spice, from France); or shellfish or fresh fish (something white, not too sweet, possibly a Riesling or Gruner Veltiner).

But I would rather arm you with the tools to make your own decisions.

Want to buy a serviceable $5 pinot noir from Trader Joe’s? Look for the blue bottle with the fish on the front [Blue Fin Pinot Noir]. Want a case of a white blend for a party?  Go with the Eichinger Gruner Veltiner for about $12-15 per bottle or the Edmund St. John Hearts of Gold blend for about $22 a bottle if for a special occasion.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should or should not do. That said, here are a few things you might enjoy.

The 5: Tips for sure bets.

1. Decoy red blend, Duckhorn Vineyards, Napa, CA ~$20 bottle
2. Heart of Gold white blend, Edmunds St. John, El Dorado, CA ~$20 bottle
3. Birgit Eichinger, Hasel Gruner Veltiner, Kamptal, Austria ~$13 bottle
4. Schramsberg, blanc de blancs, Brut, CA (Champagne style) $~40 bottle
5. Anything from Willamette, OR; Mallorca, Spain; or Stellenbosch, S. Africa.

Send questions or a picture of your favorite wine to benhammer@zoho.com. Best email of the month will receive a free bottle of wine.  Subject to local and federal laws.

Having financially-savvy children is among the top luxuries parents covet. When you work hard, it’s important that your kids know what to do with finances. It’s easier than ever for kids to get the wrong ideas: debit cards, student loans, and credit card debt, when approached in an irresponsible manner, can all be money pits for young people.

How do children learn how to handle money? Usually, they watch what the adults around them do. But modeling smart financial behavior isn’t enough. Parents often have questions about how best to impart certain concepts about money so that their kids grow up with the right ideas.

Into this void steps a new startup that launched this fall. Dubbed Bodeeo, the New York-based site is the brainchild of longtime financial journalist Erika Vujnovich. She spent years covering the markets and investing for CNBC and other outlets. Simultaneously, Vujnovich became a mother of two, and discovered that her children – adorably – had no idea about money. Unlike, say, how to stack blocks, financial sense is not innate in humans. Her kids had all kinds of questions, and she had to come up with answers that sated their curiosity while giving them the foundation for responsible spending, saving, and borrowing.

Bodeeo – The Financial Playground – is where parents can come to mine Vujnovich’s answers. She combines blog posts with lessons that parents can buy ($10 each or monthly subscriptions starting at $6), focusing on specific areas like credit cards, back-to-school shopping, and the anatomy of a job. The lessons feature coaching on how parents can explain the ideas, fun activities for the kids, and a story involving the site’s cast of themed cartoon characters. Among them: two friends named Bode and Leo; a bouncy piggy bank named Moolah; and of course a bull and a bear.

Your kids will still see what their friends do, as well as what’s online and on TV.  The idea is to give parents a conversation-starter to counteract all the bad financial advice they’ll get outside of the home.

 

Founding and running a luxury skincare brand is exhausting: Patricia Pao, the CEO of New York City-based Restorsea, sleeps 4 hours a night without an alarm clock, has racked up 150,000 flight miles on United Airlines, and recently got back from Oslo (try Alex Sushi, she suggests; ask for Wolfgang, the co-owner and manager). She walks to work when in town. To relax, she relies on Pilates, guided meditation, and a trampoline. We asked Pao, a veteran beauty executive who started Restorsea three years ago, about her daily schedule, her own beauty regimen, and what she’s seeing in the skincare world. Perhaps her answers will provide inspiration for those of you reading who are thinking of creating your own cbd skincare brand at some stage in the near future.

– How did Restorsea come about?

When I graduated from Harvard Business School all I wanted to do is work in the beauty business. My poor dad asked me, “Why can’t you be an investment banker or consultant like everyone else?” My first job in the beauty business was with Avon. It was there that I learned that I was really good at finding new technologies and ingredients and turning them into blockbuster brands. I discovered the potential of glycolic acid as an anti-aging active ingredient and helped to create the billion-dollar Avon Anew franchise.

In August 2010, I was touring a salmon hatchery and saw that the workers’ hands, which were constantly submerged in the baby salmon post-hatching fluid, looked like they were 20 years old while their faces looked much older than their actual ages. The reason why is because of an enzyme that baby salmon release at birth. Unlike a chicken who can physically peck its way out of its eggshell, a baby salmon can’t get out of its eggshell unassisted. Therefore, when it is ready to be born, it releases an enzyme. This enzyme is designed to only dissolve the eggshell so that the baby salmon can swim safely out of the opening carved by the enzyme. When this enzyme is applied to human skin, it only dissolves the dead skin cells leaving the living skin cells untouched and able to thrive. Plus, we believe that the amniotic fluid from the eggshell has anti-aging properties and the eggshell fragments have skin strengthening properties. The workers’ hands, submerged in the post-hatching waters, were constantly exposed to this enzyme.

I spent a year formulating a day cream and an eye cream and in August 2011 I sent lab samples to beauty executive Pat Saxby at Bergdorf Goodman. A month later she called and said that she would take the brand. And that was the beginning of Restorsea.

– Walk us through a recent day in your life.

5:00AM	Wake up, feed cats (Max & Peter) and bird (Woody), clean bird cage. Now I know what it’s like to live on an urban farm…
5:15AM	Read The New York Times, WWD, WSJ. I read three newspapers every day.
5:30AM	Jump in the shower and cleanse my face with Restorsea Reviving Cleanser and the latest lab sample of our Body Wash which will be launching in the first quarter of 2015.
6:30AM	Assemble my nut mix for the office. We are trying to eat healthy. My nut mix recipe is: 1 cup of unsalted: macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, dried cherries, dried apricots (chopped) and dried figs (chopped).
7:00AM	Guided meditation with my instructor Naomi Ponce de Leon.
8:00AM	Walk to the office. It’s about two miles, but I started doing this because since starting Restorsea, I barely have any time to exercise.
9:15AM	Speak via phone or email with our MD Affiliates. These are licensed aesthetic physicians who recommend and give the Restorsea Regimen (Cleanser, Serum, Day Cream, Eye Cream) to their extremely loyal patients and in turn receive 10% of the orders for 10 years.
11:00AM	Make a Starbucks run (Grande Misto). Sitting is the new smoking. It shortens our telomeres, which are responsible for aging. So I make a concerted effort to get up and walk around.
12:00PM	Meet with NextBee to discuss developing Restorsea Rewards, a loyalty and referral program which we are planning to launch in the first quarter of 2015.
2:00PM	Break for lunch. When I am in the office I make smoothies for everyone. Today’s recipe is: 2 cups of kale, 1 cup filtered water, 1 cup coconut water, ½ cup almond milk, 1 cup blueberries, ½ cup raspberries and 1 banana, and blend well. This recipe makes 2 servings.
3:00PM	Meet with Restorsea Conference team regarding our conference schedule. Our weekends are spent exhibiting and speaking at medical conferences.
6:30PM	Update with my co-founder and business partner, Muneer Satter. He is a genius. The universe gives all of us one gift—he is a very successful business man and is always six steps ahead of me. I say that when the money waterfall flows, I am running back and forth trying to catch the droplets. In contrast, Muneer has a huge dumpster positioned directly under the flow of the waterfall.
7:30PM	Begin the walk home (in the pouring rain).
8:30PM	Feed my cats.
9:30PM	Write the weekly Restorsea newsletter, and answer MyRestorsea customer profile inquires. Our app, MyRestorsea (available in the iTunes store) enables you to 1) virtually “try on” the Day Cream and Eye cream, 2) complete a personalized skincare profile and send to me for 3) a custom consultation. From October 6-November 30 we will be offering a FREE Day Cream (value: $150) to the first 1,000 to download the app, fill out and send their personal profiles to me for a custom consultation. We pride ourselves on our customer service and answer all correspondence within 24 hours.
11:00PM	I need to read for an hour before going to bed. I read between 3-6 books a week. I just finished reading The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancy and The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith; they are both great beach reads. I am re-reading Katherine Neville’s The Fire, A Calculated Risk and The Eight. For non-fiction, I am currently reading Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys and rereading one of my favorite business books, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz.

– What’s in your toiletry case when you travel?

For makeup: mascara (Black Ecstasy), lip/cheek color (Stila Convertible Color in Poppy), Nars: The Multiple Makeup Stick in Orgasm, Givenchy Waterproof Ombre Couture Cream Eye Shadow in Taupe, and Laura Mercier Tinted Foundation SPF 20 in Nude.

For skincare, I carry the following from Restorsea: Reviving Cleanser, Revitalizing Eye Cream, Rejuvenating Day Cream, 24kt Liquid Gold Face Oil, Repairing Neck and Decolletage Gel, Retexturizing Body Butter, and Revitalizing Scalp Treatment.

– What trends are you seeing in skincare today?

Face Oils: The concept was formulated in the ‘70’s by Shu Uemura. He believed (and was right) that in order to fight oil, you need oil. The tendency of people with oily skin is to strip the skin of the oil. By doing so, it tricks the body into thinking the skin is dehydrated and it actually starts producing more oil. Applying oil to the skin causes the body to regulate sebum production because it thinks that the skin is hydrated. I believe that face oil will be a part of the standard skincare regimen. To use face oils correctly, you need to pat on the oil over your moisturizer. Why? Because if you apply the oil before the moisturizer, you’re preventing the moisturizer from penetrating into the skin cells because it can’t pass through the oil. But if you apply the moisturizer first and then pat the oil on top, the oil creates a moisture barrier, sealing the moisturizer into the skin and preventing the air from making it dissipate.

On a trip to Tanzania in 2011, Stacey Asher discovered that the charity food pantry where she was volunteering was vulnerable to shutting down in situations where it didn’t have enough money, leaving 250 local children hungry. Asher, on vacation from her job in hedge fund marketing in New York City, asked how much it cost to fund the operation for a month.  The answer: a mere $250.

Asher figured she would have no trouble canvassing her network of finance friends back home to ensure a steady stream of donations that could keep the kitchen open. Then she thought, what else could she do to support her friends’ favorite causes while asking them to back hers?

The model she came up with is a cross between fantasy football and stock-picking: a stock contest that lasts a year and involves choosing 5 stocks. Participants, 90% of whom are finance professionals, pay an entry fee and choose a charity to support. The money that’s raised goes to the charity chosen by the winner in each contest category.

Portfolios with Purpose launched in 2012 as a beta, raising $25,000 for charity; the next year, after a public launch, the nonprofit raised $185,000. Based in New York City, the nonprofit now attracts some of the biggest names in the world of hedge funds and Wall Street.

Basis Points asked Asher about her idea of linking stock picking and philanthropy, and where her nonprofit is headed next.

– Is stock-picking something you do yourself?  

One of the many reasons I started Portfolios with Purpose was to create a contest in which everyone with an interest in stocks and philanthropy could participate. I was always interested in the stock market, but never confident enough to actually invest outside a small investment account comprised predominantly of index funds.  Portfolios with Purpose offers a fantasy stock competition that is completely anonymous unless you are in the top standings.  I hope this provides even the most timid of investors to test their skills and see how they rank amongst the top investors in the world as well as against their peers.

– What are the most popular charities/causes for contestants to choose?

The three most supported charities this year include Wounded Warrior Project, New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We have over 200 different charities represented in the competition. Each charity listed includes personal comments from each player about why he or she chose the particular charity as well as a direct link to each charity’s homepage.

– What’s next for PwP?

With the 2015 contest only a month away (registration opens on October 15th), we are working hard to make sure we have another successful year. We also have PwP Mini Games launching on Oct 1st. PwP will now allow friends, firms, schools and any other social groups to customize and host their own competitions throughout the year. Mini Games will open up more opportunities for people to compete, have fun and raise money for even more worthy charitable organizations.

 

Stockholm – a walkable, genteel city featuring royalty, cutting-edge design, and a fever-pitch foodie scene — is gaining attention as a luxury destination. Team Max visited some years ago, and we asked some friends of Max who are Stockholm natives to help us shape an itinerary for a trip to Sweden’s capital.

 

– Eating

 Where to start in a city with 8 Michelin stars? Celebrity chef Mathias Dahlgren has two restaurants in the renowned Grand Hotel: Matsalen, which boasts 2 stars and a new-every-day menu of seasonal New Scandinavian dishes, and one-star Matbaren, a more casual gastro-bar. Also try two-starred Frantzén, the brainchild of chef Bjorn Frantzén,  which boats what the Guide Michelin called a “particularly interesting wine list.”

Locals point in the direction of Gastrologik, run by Jacob Holmström and Anton Bjuhr with a produce-first philosophy: “The potato is worth exactly as much as the truffle. It is not nature that decides what´s good or bad, it’s you and me,” reads the manifesto on the restaurant’s website.

 

– Excursions

Start by walking around Gamla stan, the old town center, which is lined with coffee bars and small boutiques. Head down Strandvägen to Djurgården, a leafy island bound by bridges to the rest of the city. There’s enough to do for a whole day: the Grona Lund amusement park; Skansen, an outdoor museum dotted with historic houses moved from all around the country; and the iconic Vasa Museum, which boasts a preserved Viking ship.

 Elsewhere in the city, locals recommend the Hallwyl Museum, in a former Victorian-era castle, and the Modern Museum in Skeppsholmen. Once you’ve taken in the quaint blocks and arching bridges, hop on a ferry to one of the outer islands for a trip to the country.

 

– Shopping

 Looking for Swedish-born design? Stop in at Svensk Tenn, the venerable home-decor house known for its colorful prints and seen in chic homes around the world. Another destination is Design Torget, which features high-design items from a variety of famous and undiscovered designers, often for a limited time.

If you’d like to take home some of the crystal for which Sweden is famous, try the grand old department store NK, which stocks local favorites Orrefors and Kosta Boda. They have a range of crystal goblet sizes not found elsewhere.