Create It

Since it’s getting too cold to venture outside, here is an idea for whiling away the hours indoors. At www.thisissand.com, moving your cursor around drops digital sand on the screen letting you fill the monitor with your own art. You can choose the colours of the sand (or get seasonal and pretend it’s snow) and it even makes a soothing sand sound as it falls. Also check out the gallery, which displays the amazing efforts of people who clearly have far too much time on their hands – soon to include your humble works, we’re sure!

Warm It

In fact, we have an even better solution to keep warm while playing with the sand – a mouse with a built-in heater and, yes, you heard that right. It’s a USB optical mouse with a heater that, once turned on, takes only 10 minutes to reach a toasty 40ºC. Constructed from safe material that prevents heat damage to the working parts of the mouse, to all intents and purposes it looks just like any other mouse, making it perfect for the many offices with the sub-Arctic air-conditioning that we complain about every winter. Get yours from www.usbgeek.com.

Heat It

Uniqlo just made keeping warm in HK’s cold winter easy with the fabulous HeatTech range of clothing: given that over 20 million units of the clothing have sold in Japan, the company must be doing something right. Now for the science bit… not only does the clothing retain heat (through air pockets between the fibres) but when the fabric absorbs your body moisture, the movement of the droplets generates even more heat, making the clothes ideal for layering up on those chilly days. As if that weren’t enough, the fabric contains natural amino acids from milk protein for soft smoothness and comes in the trademark Uniqlo range of colours.

Plump It

We can’t promise it’ll heat you up in the conventional sense but who knows what might happen if it has the desired effect on the boys? Cult beauty product Lip Venom by DuWop is a blend of essential oils (including cinnamon, wintergreen and ginger… we’ve even heard a rumour that chilli pepper might be involved) that increases circulation – meaning blood rushes to your lips, causing them to flush and swell. The resulting pout should look suitably bee-stung, a la Angelina Jolie – although we have heard it does tingle when applied, meaning they might actually feel bee-stung too! The lip gloss also contains jojoba and avocado oil to moisturise and give lips an even more intense shine. DuWop cosmetics are available from the Extravaganzas in Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay (2295 6072) and APM Mall in Kowloon (3148 9271) and the Sephora in Mong Kok (2771 8061), so try it out and let us know if it works!