I don't know when I can post again.

Hello, I'm alive again! While shooting, Ina's dog, Miso, joined me.

We look so happy!

Anyway, on to serious business. My goodness, I've missed being able to blog. I'm actually just procrastinating right now. Here I thought I'd be posting this weeks later.

Jacket: Zara

Shirt: Trunk Show

Pants:Thrift

Shoes: S&H from Instagram (@snh_fashion)

Changing my skin with the Kiehl's challenge!

Last week, my skin had the worst ever allergic reaction. My face would burn whenever I would sweat or cry. When I told my friends, Je and Mae, about what happened, they said that we should go to Rockwell to make me feel better (since it was the nearest cold place around). We were walking and Je pointed out that Kiehl's had free consultation and said that I should have my face checked.So I did.

I always knew that my skin was dry. I just didn't know how bad it was until the lady who was giving me my diagnosis showed me. To tell what kind of skin condition my face has, she used two strips of paper and stuck one to my forehead, and my cheek. The paper will then be compared to a scale from dry to oily, and boy my test results were at the farthest end of dry. She also pointed out a few problems my skin had that I never really noticed before (such as discoloration or uneven tones, and huge pores). Overall, I was very impressed by their service and expertise!

After the test, she recommended I try a few of their products and use for one week so I could see the difference they would make on my face. This is what she put my samples in. 

Day products from left to right:

Ultra Facial Cleanser, Clearly Corrective White: Skin Whitening Exfoliator, Cucumber Herbal Alcohol-free Toner, Ultra Facial Serum, and Actively Correcting and Brightening BB Cream.

She also gave me instructions on how to use them.

1. Ultra Facial Cleanser or Clearly Corrective White: Skin Whitening Exfoliator.

The Ultra Facial Cleanser can be used everyday, while you should only use the Clearly Corrective White: Skin Whitening Exfoliator two to three times a week. 

2. Cucumber Herbal Alcohol-free Toner.

Put some toner on a cotton ball and apply to your face after using the cleansing products. I've never really used toner on my face before, so this was my first time to try it.

3. Ultra Facial Serum.

You use this to moisturize after using the toner on your face. 

4. Actively Correcting and Brightening BB Cream

Their BB Cream is the last step for the day products. You use it whether you'll be in or outdoors for the day. I also never used BB Cream in my life, so this was also a new experience for me.

Night products from left to right:

Ultra Facial Cleanser, Clearly Corrective White: Skin Whitening Exfoliator, Cucumber Herbal Alcohol-free Toner, Ultra Facial Serum, and Midnight Recovery Concentrate.

The only big difference in the steps for the night products is you take out the BB Cream and replace it with the Midnight Recovery Concentrate. This would also be the very last step, and it was important for her to tell me that I need to be relaxed when using the concentrate for it to work properly. You put two to three drops of it on your hand, rub it till warm, then dab it onto your face.

This is a picture of my skin before using any of the products. As you can see, my skin in the nose area was really raw and red. It was even peeling 24/7 and it's not a very pretty thing to look at. This was one of my concerns about my face, and I hoped that using the products from Kiehl's would help heal this area. The area between my nose and cheek is also very red and dry. 

Lo and behold, after using the products religiously for a full week, my nose area looked a whole lot better! I actually first noticed the difference the products had on my face on the second day! People were telling my that my face looked healthier. They even saw that my nose area looked better, too! It was great because these comments came from people who had no idea that I was trying new products on my skin. No power of suggestion, either, just pure spontaneous compliments based on their observation.

Here is a picture of my face after using the products for one week. Note, this was taken without anything on my face. The peeling and raw redness of my nose area was gone, gone gone! The area between my nose and cheek had also improved greatly, but you can still see traces of dryness (which would be improved with continual use, I'm sure).

I have fallen in love with Kiehl's. From their service down to their highly effective products. I feel more confident about my face, now that I know that it looks much better compared to before. I can honestly say that I have changed my skin with Kiehl's, and I'm never going back to my old products again. 

Seriously, just try it! Not only is this experience for free, but it was also amazing!

Neil Gaiman used Hurdy-gurdy in Stardust

I'm aliiiiive!

Went to Shang with some of my favorite people last Saturday. 

Denim cover up: Given to me by my cousin, Kevin, who got it from a thrift place.

Shirt: Trunk Show

Necklace: Forcefully taken from my cousin, Jordan.

Skirt: Thrift find from Baguio.

Shoes: Some store in Nepo Mall.

Yellow Car

So I finally stopped being lazy and documented an outfit. Okay, actually, I was still pretty lazy. So here's a pretty simple outfit for when Ina, Kevin, Maronne and I went to Ana's exhibit (more on this exhibit in this post).

Shorts: Thrift find.

Necklace: Random kiosk in Nepo Mall.

Shirt: Forever 21

Bracelet: Skin Candy Manila

Stockings: Forever 21

Shoes: Sweet Little Thoughts

Looping the loop, and defying the ground

I've been MIA lately, mostly because of school work. I've only been able to document 1 outfit since hell weeks started! But that's okay, cuz Saturday is the first day of summer! Hooray!

Shirt: Thrift find by my cousin Kevin, and was gifted to me! 

Mostly because he was too lazy to have it tailored. And since he's tall, the shirt is a bit short for his torso. Idk, he actually said a lot of things about this shirt not working for him. I wasn't listening cuz I was really happy he thought of giving it to me instead. Thank you, again, Kevin! 

Julia, look! The shoes! Thank you again for telling me about these shoes, Julia. I love them. And they feel like I'm wearing socks. Like, seriously. Just socks. They're so hella comfy for such a low price! *__*

Shoes: SM Department Store. 

Mermaid dancing is a lot of floor work.

Ana Kendrick plays the role of Beca in the movie Pitch Perfect. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love this movie! And if you noticed, Beca almost always has makeup on (even in the shower!). I decided to try my hand at making makeup tutorials, and start with this!

If you have dark skin like I do, you'd know better to avoid makeup that's dark like this (especially if you have luggage as heavy as I do under your eyes). This is where the challenge came in: how do you pull off a look close to this without it being too dark? This is usually my problem with using blacks and  dark browns, because instead of it coming out really nicely, it usually ends up looking like I have dirt on my face (especially when I sweat!).

For this tutorial, I used the following items! Of course, you don't need the exact same things that I used. Let's begin!

Step 1: Apply your base. 

My go-to makeup base is Olay's natural white. I usually use this for my everyday look for school. I'm not completely in love with this product, but it's just really convenient to have it in such a small container. I also like the fact that it protects you from UV rays, which is very important in a country like mine.

Step 2: Prime your eyes.

I instantly fell in love with Benefit's Lemon Aid. Not only is the name really cute, it works so well! It helps brighten your eyes too, so it's great even without applying anything on it after putting it on your eyelids. Also, it does keep your makeup in place, and helps the colors come out! Yay, extra pigmentation!

Step 3: Apply your foundation.

If you have dry skin like me, it's hard to find good powders and foundation that won't harm your skin. I always use Natural Rice's Dual Wet & Dry foundation. It covers up redness without a problem, so there's really no need for concealer when you use this.

Step 4: Apply your eyeshadow! 

This is pretty much all that Beca wears anyway. I decided to use my new Naked 2 pallet, which I am absolutely in love with. I keep playing around with all the colors and inventing different looks with this baby! 

I mentioned how you should stay away from really dark makeup if your skin color is anywhere near mine, right? Well, this can easily be fixed by applying a nice light but neutral color to your eyelids first! For this look, I applied the color Bootycall all over my lids.

After you've applied a bright base for your lids, that's when you go crazy with your dark colors. I then used an angled brush to line my eyes (both top and bottom lids) with Blackout. You can also use a pencil eyeliner for this, actually. Once you've applied it, blend like crazy! Blend out the black colors and make sure it mixes well with your base. You'll know you're done blending once you see that the black color's harshness has smoothed.

Step 5: Apply lip gloss. 

But this is really optional, in my opinion.It doesn't really look like Beca wears any lipstick, so applying any kind of clear lip gloss or just lip balm should be fine.

And this is what your end product will look like! It looks like Beca has fully lined eyes, but I applied the color Bootycall to the corners of my eyes, just to brighten it up a bit.

Hope you enjoyed my first tutorial, and if you have your own versions of how to do this look, please share with me, and let me know what you think!

Pink Elephant

I recently got to spend some time with my friends! And every time I see Ina, I need to dress up because this blog was made for her.

Vest: Thrifted from Dave and Margaret's (It's this really nice goodwill place in LA, and all the proceeds go to helping homeless and troubled girls).

Shirt: Gifted from Ina! I actually had to confirm that it was in fact from her when we met up. Just to be sure, because I didn't remember getting it with all the other things she gave me. Thank you, again!

Skirt: Thrifted from Tagaytay. This skirt actually reminds me of Ana! Or is it just me?

Shoes: Schu

Bracelet: Fashioncloset_. To be quite honest, I got this bracelet because it reminded me of Ina. Also because I love it when I match with people. And I think that it's really cool and it makes me feel dangerous.

Earrings: Jekaloja Accessories.Speaking of maching, Ina and I were both wearing accessories with eyes! Mine were these earrings, while Ina's was a bracelet! I think we're really cute that way.

Two four six oh one

Please don't mind my puffy eyes. These were taken right after I watched Les Miserables. If you haven't seen it and you plan to (because you need to see this movie), please bring tissue for all your tears and feelings.

Jacket: Zara

Shorts and Bag: Thrift finds. Shorts came from this thrift place. 

I am super in love with these shorts because they don't just look really nice, they're MILEY CYRUS. My friend Ina and I had a conversation before about how we didn't really care much about the brand of clothing unless we find them at thrift places. I freaked out when I saw the tag, because I really love Miley, okay?

Shoes: Bayo

Top: Mnl Thrift Shop. You can find them on Instagram, @mnlathriftshop

I. Love. This. Top. So. Much. Okay. It's a bit long, so you can use it as a cute dress.

Ring: Jekaloja Accessories. You can also find them on Instagram, @jekaloja_accessories

My friends call this my Wolverine ring. Since Hugh Jackman is Jean Valjean, I decided to wear this. I don't see how it makes sense, but it does, okay.

Spades are my favorite suit.

Today, my friend Ina had a reshoot with my cousin Kevin for her thesis. I was their designated driver of the day, because I'm really nice. Also, because I haven't seen Ina in a while (well, properly at least, since the last time I saw her was just for 5 seconds or something) and I missed her so much!

Shirt: Warehouse

The back part of the shirt is my favorite part of this outfit! I really like laced things, and pleated things as well. Please just try to imagine how happy I was to see laced pleats on this shirt. Just try.

Here's a closer look at the details of the lace. It feels wonderful to touch too.

Skirt: Thrift find from Tagaytay

I really love card suits, especially spades! I never really understood why, but I just always did. And then after spades are hearts. The other two are tied for third place.

Headband: Online find. Check them out on Instagram: @fashioncloset_

Necklace: Apostrophe, gifted from the boy's mom.

Shoes: Aldo