Terroir In Craft Cannabis: Emerald Triangle Fashion

I am a fanatic for a little thing named terroir, no not terror, but terroir. In the study of wine, it's a French word that means quite simply, the taste of the place. The characteristics of the soil, the rock and the drainage. The way of the earth. In ultra-high end cannabis it's also the taste of the place. Hey, wait a minute, didn't I just say that in wine that terroir is the French word that describes the taste of the place, yet in cannabis it's the same thing? Well my friends may I suggest drinking wines from the same regions that cannabis is grown. You'll be astounded, just like I was when we started discussing appellations and the deeply sensual characteristics of the soil. Who knew that rocks would be sexy? (They are, especially with grape vines struggling out of the crushed stones and crystals. The taste of the place in wine is essential. Just like the difference between pretty label wines and true garragist wines. Then, organically our the conversation leaks into Biodynamics. Did you know that Rudolph Steiner developed the theories of Biodynamics in the late 1800's? Steiner saw himself as a clairvoyant of the earth. That the soil is a living thing and it requires self-regulating utilizing techniques of a purely organic manner? That different types of organic applications give the soil acidity but others make the soil sing its own song of renewal. That  Biodynamics teach me everything that I need to know about growing vegetables and cannabis. Preferably together, along with wild herbs. The taste of the place, the taste of the soil, the way things are grown. No chemical manipulations or augmentations are allowed, ever. We need to have this conversation about replenishing the soil with nutrients that add balance and structure to the growing process. That outdoor grown cannabis naturally tastes better. Less corporate. More passion. You may disagree with me. That's fine, the massive cannabis conglomerates are not worried about craft cannabis, just like the massive liquor manufacturers are not worried about craft spirits. They aren't even on the radar. Sure everyone wants to make money in cannabis. But corporate weed has no place at the craft table, just like speed rack quality whiskey can never be called Straight Bourbon. There is a difference in craft spirits as there is in craft cannabis. I'm absolutely positive that all craft cannabis growers want to earn a good living for their talent. By creating a workable format for an appellation,  these mom, and pop cannabis growers will raise their bar. Initially growers may doubt the path of an appellation, but with quality comes success. And organic success doesn't have to be corporate run to earn a very fine living for themselves. That's why in France, where appellations have contributed to the quality of life itself. Not a bad way to become known for utter quality over quantity.

Craft cannabis is my topic. I want to share with you real people who make a difference, doing what they love, getting the word out on what it means to grow the very best. People who are passionate about the soil and want you to taste what they've nurtured from the earth.

Biodynamically grown is not only the wine world or your vegetable garden. It's also the cannabis way. A Tao of truly gourmet cannabis, from a specific place, grown in a specific way with Biodynamics as the driving force.

Many thanks to Michael Katz and Justin Calvino for their deeply enriching kindness towards me. I can't wait to test my wine-centrist theory about your appellations. That is, you can taste the place in every puff!

Here Are The Best Travel Insurance Apps For Your Next Trip

When Dary Merckens needed the name of a reliable doctor or the number for the U.S. embassy, he turned to an unlikely source: his smartphone's travel insurance app.

"It helped me out in numerous situations," says Merckens, the chief technology officer for a technology firm based in Las Vegas.

Travel insurance apps, which used to be simple programs that helped you contact an insurance company or file a claim, are coming of age. The best travel insurance apps for your next trip offer real-time access to medical and emergency travel assistance, extensive embassy and hospital contact information, and even the ability to buy insurance on the fly.

A stable and useful travel insurance app can make the difference between a bumpy trip and a smooth one. With the busy summer travel just underway, it's an excellent time to consider what may be an important feature of your travel insurance policy.

The best travel insurance apps could "literally be a lifesaver"

"All the travel insurance apps do a good job of helping someone keep track of their policies and helping claims get processed faster," says Kimberlee Leonard, an insurance analyst for FitSmallBusiness.com. "The better travel apps have additions for free, like where to find providers for medical attention or pharmacies, country emergency information, alerts, and other local travel aid information."

Leonard says one example of a travel insurance app that does more is the Allianz TravelSmart Mobile App.

"TravelSmart has a medical translation feature," she says. "Even if someone is fluent enough in a foreign language to get around, most people will not know complex medical terms and explanations. This tool could literally be a lifesaver when working with medical providers in emergency situations."

Exploring one of the best travel insurance apps

No one officially tracks the most popular travel insurance apps, but with more than 470,000 downloads, TravelSmart appears to be one of the most popular.

"One of the things people love about travel is the discovery of new places and people," says Daniel Durazo, a spokesman for Allianz. "TravelSmart helps travelers navigate unfamiliar territory and gives people the confidence to travel off the beaten path.

I'm a regular user of TravelSmart since I have an annual Allianz travel insurance policy. (It's free to download and available to anyone, regardless of whether they’re an Allianz customer.) Mostly, I use it to file claims -- I've had a few smaller ones earlier this year after suffering a minor medical condition on a trip to New Mexico and Arizona.

Everything You Need to Know About Permanent Makeup

My combined morning skincare and makeup routine eats up an hour of my life every morning—which is why the allure of permanent makeup is tempting. Not having to bounce my beauty blender on my dark circles, put on lip gloss, or re-do my eyeliner eleven billion times would make time for at least three extra cups of coffee in the morning (so necessary). Here's the thing: My pain tolerance is so low that I've cried while getting my teeth cleaned (I still blame the hygienist and not the fact that I hadn't flossed in two months). As for commitment? I can't even make up my mind about I want to have for breakfast in the morning.

Exactly how painful and permanent is permanent makeup, anyway?

I asked Dr. Jackie David—the microblading and permanent makeup expert at NYC's Jackie David Skincare—to breakdown the good, the bad, and the ugly about the four most requested permanent makeup services: Permanent eyebrows, permanent eyeliner, lip blushing, and permanent concealer.

"Microblading involves using a handheld, manual tool—either a blade or a rotary pen with different configurations of needles depending on what the client is going for," explains David. "If they want a soft, powdery brow then I like to use the rotary pen with the appropriate configuration of needles to deposit pigment, whereas using a blade creates sharper, more angular strokes. With the blade, you create slices in the skin, and in the slices you put the pigment on top and rub it in and let it sit. From start to finish, I like to give myself 1.5 hours."

Climax will leave you ironically dissatisfied

Have you ever been staggeringly drunk at a house party that was so noisy you thought you might throw up, and so out of control someone was literally peeing on the floor? Have you ever descended, like Dante, to the very centre of Hell? If you’ve never done either and are wondering what it might be like, Gaspar Noé’s newest should set you crooked.

First, a word on the title. Noé’s last film, 2015’s Love, was two-and-a-quarter hours that had critics pondering the line between art and pornography, and whether he’d blurred it, erased it, crossed it or strangled his audience with it. So it should be stressed that Climax does not contain an onscreen climax, in either the sexual or narrative sense.

It opens with documentary-style footage of a bunch of French dancers discussing their craft. We get to watch it on an old-style TV screen, flanked left and right by the kind of books and VHS tapes that a certain kind of poseur would have purposefully stocked his shelves with in university in the early 1980s; Kafka, Nietzche, Wilde, Bunuel and a well-worn copy of Suspiria.

Noé, who graduated from Louis Lumière College in Paris in the early 1980s, then presents the dancers performing in a 10-minute single-take shot that is the highlight of the film, the camera swooping up over their heads and back to the floor as they writhe and shimmy. And then they break apart into little groups to drink and smoke and discuss their sex lives. Climax is set in 1996, which means no one is texting. For this alone, I award one star.

Carcinogens in your cosmetics? Welcome to Brexit Britain

How would you feel about putting a lovely dollop of formaldehyde on your nails? No? Well, perhaps I could interest you in a sprinkling of asbestos for your skin? Hmm, tricky customer, eh? OK, surely you couldn’t object to some coal tar on your eyelids, to really make them pop. Oh, come on, who wouldn’t risk a little light cancer for a really banging shade of eyeshadow? You wouldn’t? Too bad. In our brave new Brexit world, where EU legislation is no longer in force, and we are forced to accept trade deals on Trump’s terms, expect all these known carcinogens and more to be appearing on a beauty shelf near you.

Since 2007 UK consumers have been protected by the EU’s "precautionary principle". Essentially, the EU doesn’t think that chemicals that have been linked to cancer and birth defects belong in cosmetics, and so they are banned from use in consumer products. And who could argue with that?

Well, the US, actually, where a chemical is only banned if it poses an "unreasonable risk". Whereas in the EU there is no "safe" level of exposure to a proven carcinogen, the US system, is "steeped in quantitative risk assessment", says Mike Belliveau, executive director at the Environmental Health Strategy Center.

The result is a major disparity in the level of consumer protection from hazardous chemicals. The EU bans 1,328 chemicals from use in cosmetics – including formaldehyde, asbestos and coal tar – that are known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation, reproductive harm or birth defects. The US Food & Drugs Administration (FDA), by comparison, has only banned or restricted 11.

Of course you could argue that adults can make their own choices about what to use on their own bodies. If I want to put asbestos on my face, then the American Dream says that I should be free to do so. Down with the nanny state!

The thing is that only works if consumers are able to make meaningful choices, based on adequate information. And in the US, they are not, thanks to the handy "fragrance loophole". This legislation, intended as a way of protecting trade secrets, in fact means that hundreds of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and hormone disruption can be smuggled into all sorts of personal care products under the catch-all, innocent-sounding "fragrance".

And don’t think you can bypass these chemicals by simply buying "fragrance-free" products: the FDA does not regulate the terms "fragrance free" or "unscented" and a recent study found that 45% of products marketed as "fragrance free" in the US were in fact not fragrance free at all.

The multibillion-dollar US fragrance and cosmetics industry hit back at such concerns, saying that it tests its products for safety. But those studies have never been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and the industry refuses to publicly release the safety data. So we just have to take an industry that has spent millions of dollars lobbying against more transparent labelling requirements on trust. Rather than, as in the EU, having a right to know what it is we’re putting on our bodies.

But this right is at risk if we lose access to EU data – a major concern given how reliant we have been historically on other EU countries doing chemicals testing for us. Even more worrying, our government has made no commitment to keep aligned with EU chemical rules, leaving us at risk of becoming a dumping ground for hazardous chemicals – a future that was heralded last month by a civil servant who explained that the UK would consider EU decisions, but also "look at what the US does". Welcome to Brexit Britain, where the chicken is chlorinated, and the cosmetics could be carcinogenic.

How to make your makeup last all day

Summer has well and truly arrived and you know what that means. Long, hot days followed by sizzling nights, sunshine, laughter and plenty of good times. Oh - and makeup that slides right off your face the moment you put it on. At least that's how it used to be, but follow the handy tips and tricks below and that particular problem will be nothing but a bad memory.

We love the summer season but the steamy weather can wreak havoc with our beauty routines. It needn't though, says skincare guru and founder of Paula's Choice Paula Begoun. In fact, Paula says as long you do the following your perfectly-applied makeup will stay right where it should.

Once you've cleansed apply your usual moisturiser and give it some time to absorb fully. Next, pop on a serum so that makeup has something to cling to. Try one that has oil-reducing properties or is designed to promote long-wear. We like Paula's Choice Shine Stopper Instant Matte Finish Primer

Next, apply your foundation.

Start with a thin layer, then build more coverage if needed.

"A thick layer of makeup is more prone to sliding off your face throughout the day because it just can't adhere as well to skin," says Paula.

If you have oily skin, try an absorbent shine-control product before you apply your foundation.

"This can go a long way toward keeping excess shine in check, so your makeup lasts (and looks better) longer. Also consider a matte-finish foundation for longer-lasting wear," she adds.

how to be terrifyingly on trend this Halloween

If you have left buying your Halloween costume until now, then you don't stand a chance in the shops. But if you are planning to celebrate (if that's the word) Halloween on the day and have only 20 minutes to cobble something together, fear not. This year, it's all about keeping your ghouls fictional and on trend, so you can wear something you already own.

Key, of course, is your subject matter, and what exactly constitutes the 2018 "frightgeist". We have long retired the sexy cat – the only acceptable cat is Salem from Sabrina – and while political posturing via your Melania Trump outfit is all well and woke (especially now that our Instagram feeds double as a lesson in virtue signalling), it just feels a little bit … sincere. And as for dressing up as Philip Green, avoid it. You're in danger of trivialising a serious issue in the name of banter.

You would be surprised how much mileage you can get from what is alre ady in your autumn wardrobe. That faux-fur coat? Perfect for Tonya Harding's embittered mother. A pair of gloves? That's Theo Crain from The Haunting of Hill House right there. A navy jumpsuit? Pair with a sheet mask, and you're Michael Myers.

The character: Madame Blanc from Suspiria
The costume: a voluminous orange dress
Witches abound in 2018 culture, although fans of Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake will be familiar with a particularly unpleasant breed who pretend to be staff members of the Helena Markos Dance Co in order to carry out nastiness devised by the top witch Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton). Getting Blanc's look is easy, thanks to the work of the costume designer Giulia Piersanti. All you need is something scene-stealing, voluminous and monastic in orange – the kind of dress Roksanda put on her catwalk. Pair with a centre parting, and a vague air of satanic doom.