Dear Mommy,

We’ve been together for the past 28 years, from the moment that I was born. You’ve seen me grow up, starting from a sometimes quiet, sometimes wailing baby, going thru the the wonders of toddlerhood, to the brattiness of that age just before the awkwardness of puberty. Now, you are with me in my almost mid-life crisis. You’ve been with me all my life, protected me from all the monsters of the world for as much as you can, fed me with your delicious cooking, and took care of me when I was sick. Sometimes, I would think that what you do is so hard as you have 5 of us to take care of, and that you’d rouse awake to tend to us the moment one of us complains of discomfort or a sick feeling. I thought – you almost never thought of yourself, forgot about taking care of yourself just to tend to our needs.
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It’s the summer, and I’m all feeling warm and icky, that heavy makeup just isn’t an option. No matter how much I love makeup that it smoothens my raw, imperfect skin, my nerves act up with heavy stuff, and my nerves are demanding that they usually win.

This summer, I take solace with Clinique’s Superbalanced Mineral Powder. As a mineral makeup fan, I have a soft spot for ground powder, and loose mineral powders that give coverage to the skin. They feel absolutely light on the skin, but give me ample coverage that is natural, and yet long lasting. Thru the years, I’ve experimented with mineral makeup, and traditional makeup, and I think mineral makeup really spoils the skin with its non pore-clogging qualities and the benefit that it allows the skin to breathe.

I love Clinique Superbalanced Mineral Powder as it’s so cute! This compact pot, when opened, reveals a grinding wheel, that as you turn, grinds out mineral powder for you to buff in your skin. It’s actually a mess-proof way of dispensing mineral makeup!

I got my shade in Medium, which is great for light to medium skin tones. I’d like to give you a series of pros and cons of this product, so here I go!
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One thing that I am most particular about, when it comes to hair care, is the shine factor of the hair. I love shiny, reflective hair. Shiny hair is actually healthy hair, as it means that the strands are not damaged, and the hair strand even enough to reflect its color, and produce shine.

For me, shiny hair ( of course, considerably shiny, not oily hahaha! ) is such a head turner!

When I was given a chance to choose which Bedhead products I am to review, I immediately chose Headrush with the description I was given – which was, to give the hair such amplified shine, great for natural hair, and even for highlights.

For its description, Headrush is :

Shine Adrenaline with a Superfine Mist
A lightweight aerosol supershine mist that gives explosive shine for immaculate, healthy looking hair.

For the ingredients,
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Last December, when I had my hair bleached, and dyed into ash blonde, I was actually having that fear that if I didn’t take care of my hair, I would end up having awkward, frizzy, really ugly, damaged bleached hair. Eew, my imagination just freaked me out. As a promise to take care of my new high maintenance hair, I started researching good hair products, and stumbled upon The Souq Organics’ Moroccan Argan Oil. It has been very much present during bazaars and I have been reading about it online, and it seems that argan oil is the “it” ingredient as of late bearing the following benefits :
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I fondly recall the last time I was so smitten and in a total girlcrush mode was when I saw Marian Rivera for the first time during her first major teleserye role in Marimar. That was like, n years ago? After that, it was Andi Eigenmann. I don’t really go crazy over movie stars and celebrities, but sometimes, there are such talents that really make me zoom in and support! Haha!

And now, I have just found the next celebrity that I really, really admire! The young, fresh, and really beautiful Julia Montes!

I watched her first during the remake of Mara Clara, and found myself liking her alot for her beauty and for her acting prowess! She can really make you hate her onscreen! I learned, ( well, by cyber-stalking on gossip websites LOL! ) that she is very down to earth and humble in person, that I even followed her on Twitter ( teehee ! ) I initially had doubts that it was a good thing to be paired with Coco Martin for Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan because I felt she was too young, but now, my entire family is yet again hooked, watching every single night this teleserye! Aside from being really beautiful, she can really act! I predict that she will be one of the biggest stars in the coming years. Consider me your fangirl, Julia!

Anyway, for some fun watching, here is Julia’s Youtube video teaching us how to pose to have great Facebook photos. She’s just really cute here! Great choice of endorser, Eskinol Philippines!

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Earlier this year, it was a quick stroll in the mall when I chanced upon MAC Cosmetics’ temporary pop-up stall. My eyes immediately zoomed in the latest collection, which was Iris Apfel. There and then, I was able to swipe one of the brightest, most daring, and oh! so beautiful orange lipstick in the whole wide world. I exclaimed, “ahhh! beautiful!” just as soon as the makeup artist manning the booth smiled and told me, “out of stock.” I felt my world fell apart that day!

This was MY orange! Ahhh!!! It couldn’t be!

I actually contacted my friends over at MAC Cosmetics to ask if there were still stocks coming in, or if they would still have them in other branches. Dingdingding, I wasn’t doomed at all! Kirsten of MAC Cosmetics told me that this is not a limited edition shade, as it was part of the permanent line, so I immediately had one tube reserved pronto! Thanks to Phoebe for picking it up for me, and when I finally got my hands on it, I was in cloud nine!

MAC Lipstick in Morange is a loudmouth orange. All I can say is that it was bright, bright, bright! Knowing me, I would tend to shy away with bright, red lips, but I’ve always wanted to sport a look that is similar to that, just not red. I have self proclaimed that I am more of a peach/coral/orange person rather than a red person, and I even look better with peaches than pinks. So I am claiming it my color!

I am rather nervous with a bright orange shade, well, I just mustered my guts to sport the look, and here are the looks that I came up with! Continue reading

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the world above the clouds, surrounded by overflowing positive energy, full of colors and full of light.

the same scenery, the same world can look so different, if seen with all your senses full open.

unchain yourself, play with the colors, enjoy make-up, and above all enjoy precious moments that exist in your life.

For Spring, Shu Uemura has launched Celestial Garden, and just by taking a look at the campaign photo, we are talking about fresh, fresh shades!

Here are my thoughts with regards to some the products that are included in the collection :
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Last month, March, was the most busy month for me. Why? Because two little girls hired me to be on call, and do their makeup for their parties, and graduation! Hahaha!

Sarabeth was about to graduate high school, and this March, she was having twice-a-week birthday parties and debuts. I was actually wondering how come alot of her classmates were celebrating their 18th birthday parties this March, and well, that includes Sarabeth. Sarabeth just told me that it seems that most girls in her class were March babies! I did her makeup for every party, but maybe the most memorable one that I’d share with you, aside from her 18th birthday party makeup, was her makeup for the Graduation Ball.

For her Graduation Ball, I did some grown-up smoky eyed makeup on her. I figured that she already had enough of fresh, cute makeup looks, I wanted to experiment on some a little bit grown up makeup on her. I did makeup for her, and her friend Paulene. The picture above is Sarabeth’s Grad Ball getup. She’s wearing a Coexist dress, which is mine, by the way, but since I kept it inside my closet and never got around to wearing it, she came first because she crammed me for an outfit three days before the ball! Haha! I am totally liking her pink heels from Call It Spring!
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Our next stop after Nuwara Eliya was Yala National Park. It was a far drive, and by the time we arrived to our accommodations, our driver, Roshan, asked us to take a really quick lunch, as we needed to be ready by 2.30pm for the Safari driver who will fetch us. We had half an hour to freshen up and to eat lunch! Result? We had sandwiches and of course, french fries.

For that day, I was wearing red. My friends were teasing me that animals can spot on people specially when they are wearing red. That was all I had for the day! I was getting really paranoid, and wanted to change my attire, but one of my friends advised me against it and said that everything was going to be fine. Oh well, bahala na!

Well, the 4×4 jeep proved to be an adventurous ride. We were gripping to the rails, and good thing we brought with us small towels, hats, and shades, as the road was very dusty. We were told that from our accommodations, it was a two hour drive towards Yala National Park. We passed thru houses, and even bodies of water upon our view. I was getting excited as I started seeing exotic creatures like these that early,

Our jeep looked like the photo below. I actually took this photo as the jeep was just in front of us. Haha! Continue reading

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As we departed the beautiful city of Kandy, we headed for the tea plantations in Nuwara Eliya. The drive would be quite long, for two hours or even more, as we were heading towards the “highlands.”

I was actually getting excited to visit the tea plantations as it was a dream of mine to visit such. Since I was a kid, I would read about the famous tea plantation of Ceylon from encyclopedias, and even from romance novels that used that as a setting, and it was such a romantic place for me as it was very old-world. The tea plantations of Ceylon ( which is now called Sri Lanka ) have existed since the 1800s, after the coffee plantations were destroyed by disease. For a precise history of how the tea plantations came about, you may read it from here.

Sri Lanka is the world’s third largest tea producer, with its economy relying heavily on its tea produce. Ceylon tea is definitely famous around the world because of its quality and exquisite taste. Know the brand Dilmah? It’s being exported all over the world and tastes divine.

Anyway, the van was actually driving in circles, up to some sort of a mountain, and we just thought that the drive would never end. It was such a “high” drive! The scenery was full of lush greens, almost nothing but greens. It was mint to the eyes. Just one sore spot that caught my eye was a spot on another mountain that was balding because it seemed to be up for development. Sigh. I was so accustomed to the beautiful greens here in Sri Lanka that I was getting upset with Mother Nature being destroyed. Sri Lankan countrysides are such precious places, that I encourage everyone to go there and just enjoy the fresh, cool air ( specially in Nuwara Eliya ), and reflect. It’s the perfect place.
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