about that vietnam trip

oh, ho chi minh ... you're such a lovely city. so much like home, and yet so much unlike manila. i had fun, and there are so many things to write about.

like that wonderful topiary park we accidentally discovered while walking around the city

or how our very own crazy tricycles would not stand a chance against the rampaging scooters that lord it over the streets 24 hours a day.

i could write about how we were surprised to stumble upon a louis vuitton store in a country without starbucks ...

... or how much i learned about the vietnam war from a brief visit to the war remnants' museum (learn ... hmmm, maybe more like shocked from all the information).

i could write about how we realized that there was a reason behind the muddy water at the puppet theater, and how the mekong delta is always this muddy brown color ...

... and how we tried the elephant ear fish which is supposed to be the area's specialty but tasted like a not-so-good tilapia.

but, i will not write about those things. instead i will write about the beauty loot i got from vietnam. see:

while they had only recently released the all new pantene shampoo, conditioner, and treatment in the philippines (remember all those mystery shampoo posts?), i stumbled upon them in a tiny grocery in vietnam and couldn't help but buy them considering that the 350 ml bottle cost around Php123 only and the treatment around Php150 only. not only that, the sunsilk leave on conditioner (and it's the new products too -- the one with the tie-ups) cost me a measly Php27.75 per bottle, and the schwarzkopf treatment thingee less than Php100. all in all, my stash of hair stuff cost less than a trip to the salon.

and, i must admit that if i had more (1) time (2) money and (3) baggage allowance, i would have bought more stuff.

so forget about the cute beaded bags and the yummy dried jackfruit. ignore the much talked about coffee and the original north face backpacks for only Php875. the next time i set foot in vietnam, i'm going to make sure that i'm going to be bringing home a ginormous stash of beauty loot.

btw -- i've tried the "new" pantene stuff and i must say, i likey :)

para sa ikagaganda ng aking balat

thanks to the generosity of beauty for a living's frances amper sales, i am now the proud owner of a bottle of kiehl's midnight recovery concentrate. that's Php2,880.00 worth of beauty in a bottle that i didn't have to shell out money for thanks to a blog contest which i won with this entry.

i received the package on a tuesday -- i had almost forgotten about it because of the frenzy that i went through before going on my mini-vacation but sometime before lunch, the receptionist came bearing a small bag from rustan's. five seconds later, it struck me: this was the prize that i had been waiting for and it's finally here.

that night, i tried following every single requirement that would help me on my way towards skin perfection. but, i must admit, i couldn't wait to wake up the following morning and see the miracle that took place while i was asleep. the verdict -- i felt a bit of oil when i rubbed my cheeks (then again, i'm always oily) but lo and behold, i looked well-rested when i checked myself on the mirror. very, very good.

happy with my first night's experience, i immediately packed the bottle to take with me on vacation. and, while i knew i was in for two red-eye flights, i almost didn't mind. i believed in my heart that the kiehl's midnight recovery concentrate will shoo away all of my skin's issues and make me no less than picture perfect for my vacation photos.

my bad: since we arrived at almost two in the morning, i wasn't able to put some on my face anymore on the first day. and while i was able to do the routine on the second evening (hello beautiful skin once more), me waiting for my aunt to arrive on our third evening and the flight back to manila on the fourth evening meant no miracle recovery concentrate once more. but last night i put on the requisite two drops and slept early after turning off the television. so, guess what i woke up to once more -- pretty skin.

i must admit that in spite of the abuse my skin received while on vacation -- late nights, sun, hardly any skin regimen -- my skin stayed blemish-free. i'd like to think that more than anything, it's the concentrate working overtime to keep my skin supple. good job, kiehl's.

i got a big bottle from frances, and with only two drops before sleeping, i'm sure that my concentrate will go a long, long way. and considering that using the concentrate will force me to acquire good habits (sleep at least 7 hours, turn off the tv before sleeping, and drink lots of fluids), truly, me having beautiful skin is a miracle that i'm confident will happen soon.

i'm manas ... what's up with that?

every single working day, as long as the receptionist is at her station, i get the requisite "good morning." now, since we're a tiny office and we're basically on chatting (read: critical at times) terms with one another, sometimes, the greeting will be punctuated with "ang taba niyo po ngayon" (to which i make a mental note to decrease the person's gift budget for christmas, mwahahaha) or "bagay po yung suot niyo today" (upon which the person's budget increases) or, the typics "ma'am, hinahanap po kayo ni xxx" (the partner who just can't get enough of my presence, hahaha).

today though, after i lounged about in bed an extra hour and a half, i was greeted with "ma'am, bakit ho mukhang manas na manas kayo ngayon."

sigh. manas. a tagalog word for which there is no exact english translation. i googled it and came out with beriberi and edema. i don't think so. for one, beriberi = weight loss, which i certainly have not experienced in years, and edema ... oh wait, edema just sounds about right, but doesn't really capture the idea of manas.

anyway, i tried pressing my face (to make it less swollen, how crazy, i know) and then i remembered, i just won the kiehl's miracle recovery concentrate contest over at beauty for a living. and, frances emailed saying that she'll just send it over by messenger. oooohhh. how happy is that?

so i said to myself, fine, the receptionist might think i'm manas. and, i sorta do feel a bit like manas in my face (especially below my left eye where i think some insect bit me). but a bottle of miracle is arriving soon (probably monday since there's no work saturday and sunday?) and i bet that in a couple of days i can tell the receptionist (with my now miracle-d out face), "so who is manas now?"

p.s. thanks again to frances for picking me as the winner! i had never won any "write a post" contest ever and it's especially encouraging that you picked my entry out of the many entries that you had ☺☺☺ so while i may write for a living (lawyers write more than they argue in court, promise), writing on this blog has been a passion for seven years (more if you count the old blog) and the prize is just the fuel i need to keep on writing more.

p.p.s watch this blog for updates about the transformative power of kiehl's on my manas face ☺☺☺

dear frances, a miracle would be much appreciated right now. thanks.

When I was young and cocky, I didn't think much about skin care. Soap was almost always the the only cleaning agent of choice, and it didn't really matter to me what soap I was using even. As a matter of fact, one time, I actually believed my aunt that bathing using blue laundry soap (it was ajax i think) would do wonders for my skin.

When I was young and cocky, lotion was just something relatives brought home from the US when they couldn't think of anything else to give you. Moisturizer was a foreign concept and toners, well, toners were just eskinol with a sprinkling of dalacin-c (if i remember it correctly).

When I was young and cocky, I didn't mind putting lotion (yes, body lotion!) onto my face to make it softer. I didn't mind burning under the hot sun -- sunblock was too expensive and I knew that sooner or later, things would go back to normal.

When I was young and cocky, I thought soft supple skin would last forever.

And then this happened. I was burned, I was peeling irregularly, and I had an impending blind date with someone who's in the Philippines for just two weeks. I was desperate, and I tried almost everything.

It didn't come as a surprise that in spite of all my efforts, nothing much happened. All the facial moisturizers, sunblock, recovery creams, toners, and extra loving care couldn't undo the damage I had done to my skin simply because I neglected to apply and reapply sunblock that weekend. I wasn't young anymore, so I couldn't have afforded being cocky. So, I am sending a major shout out to the beauty gods to send some love my way. (please?) I want to try Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate because I am no longer young and cocky, and my skin could no longer afford the abuse being young and cocky brings..

You see, long after that trip to beach, people were still commenting on how dark I was (note, not tanned, but dark as in maitim -- to the tune of repeated chants of ang itim-itim mo!!!) It didn't matter that I regularly used a particular whitening product range, applied moisturizer with sunblock first before heading out of the house, and stayed out of the sun as much as I can. More than a month after getting back, my skin was still not over the torture it received. I'm afraid it'll never go back to its former glory -- I need a miracle, and judging on Frances's running diary on her experience with the Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate, maybe it's just what I need to bring back that youthful glow I once enjoyed.

And don't think I want to do this so I can be fair again -- the only reason why I used whitening products (and so wrong I know) at that time was cause I (mistakenly) believed that it was the best way to get my old skin back.

Promise, I'll use only two drops a day. Promise, I'll sleep the requisite 7 hours. And super promise, I won't be cocky anymore with my skin.

But before I go on making a bazillion promises, I just I hope I win my very own bottle of Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate from Beauty For A Living!

*image from kiehls.com

rosa, the crispy lechon

my bad.

they've always said that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. unfortunately, while i believe in it, i failed to act on it. and so i came back from my weekend at the beach burned to a crisp.

boo. i am fat and burned. i feel like a lechon at a fiesta. kulang na lang, apple.

all self-mockery aside, my skin's present state is horrible. i am sunburned, and days after i got back, i still feel slight pain on my back and shoulders. my face is peeling like crazy, including my ears.

and in case you were wondering, i did apply sunblock, i just forgot to re-apply.

since i couldn't do the past over, i thought i'd do the next best thing: take care of my skin. so i trooped over to watson's megamall and tried looking for something that'll (1) fix (2) cure (3) alleviate my sunburn.

in the end, i came home with this:

the packaging promised to help "renew skin in the shower" (yes, my skin needs major renewing). they claim that it is "infused with dead sea salt and exfoliating beads to help remove old skin cells" (uhm, including sunburn peel i hope!) as well as "concentrated vitamin c known to increase the synthesis of collagen and help reduce skin damage cause by free radicals" (collagen is good, right?). and, while it was inside a box and sealed i (gently) opened the box so i can get sniff the contents. what good is a product that fights free radicals is it'll make me smell like chowking's orange chicken, right? (connection: orange chicken = orange = vitamin c. i always associate vitamin c products with the orange smell. don't you?)

the verdict? the slight orange-y scent was the selling point. i LOVED it.

i used it last night and again this morning and i just love how even without a bath lily or scrubbing glove (neither of which i could use cause my sunburn HURTS!) the product is easy to use. i hate how you can't maximize bath gels unless you use a bath lily to distribute the product on your skin but the consistency of the radox "shower cream" allows you to wash your entire body without using much product. i could feel the tiny dead sea salt that they incorporated in the product and while it does exfoliate, i believe that the sparse amount of the sea salt makes it gentle enough for daily use.

it didn't hurt that smell lingered even after i had washed off the product. ☺☺☺ shower love ♥♥♥

going back to my predicament, i'll need more than two showers to determine whether or not it does help in renewing my skin and making it all better. but, to my mind, the mere fact that it makes showering fun and it makes me smell slightly of oranges is a happy thing. and i think that if you want happy showers and the hint of an orange-y scent in your bath, then you should hie off to watson's yourself and get a bottle of this product for only P220 for 450 ml.

*image from beauty haven