Happy Tuesday everyone! I have just realized that the first quarter of 2014 have passed and I am loving my year so far. There are times when I wish I could have done more but I guess it's better to give myself a pat on the back and celebrate my successes rather than being too harsh on myself. Sometimes, I tend to forget I can only do enough. First week of March, I was able to celebrate Fat Tuesday with my church friends. Fat Tuesday, if you have no idea what it is, is  the day before Ash Wednesday--the start of Lenten season.  Since Fat Tuesday is the day before fasting and abstinence, devout Catholics are having a merry gathering of food and laughter before pursuing a month of sacrifice and soul-searching.   Aside from the beginning of Lenten season, March also marks the start of summer. I had an early summer with my friends at Bakas River, Norzagaray, Bulacan. The place is such a marvellous tranquil, perfect for escaping the urban life. . ...

"My mother used to say to me, "You can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t feed you." And these words played and bothered me, I didn’t really understand them until finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume. It was something that I just had to be. And what my mother meant by saying that "you can’t eat beauty" was that you can’t rely on beauty to sustain you.  What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul."

Once a gay friend told me, "Red lipstick is so back then." I immediately replied back and told him a true lady would say otherwise. For a real woman, red lipstick is a timeless weapon to look and feel beautiful. My first lipstick is a red one and up until now, even if I have other shades of lipsticks, red will always be on my stash. So, today, I thought of highlighting the most precious red lipstick I own, my precious baby,  Christian Dior’s Rouge Dolce Vita in #014. Timeless as it is, the inspiration for today's lipstick is the movie The Mona Lisa Smile which is set in 1950's. Just like the girls in the movie,  Christian Dior’s Rouge Dolce Vita in #014 is not in-your-face retro red lipstick because it has a slight hint of orange. Source "That's a snapshot"- Mona Lisa Smile It has a semi-matte finish but very creamy, it glides smoothly on the lips when applied. This is not for the faint heart because it is too striking and...

When I was in kindergarten, I had a hard time understanding Math specifically the lesson in  “greater than- less than-equal to” equations. My mother, being a teacher, helped me understand the lesson by using analogy . In a manner of storytelling, she told me that the sign corresponding greater than/less than/equal to is  Pacman  (the famous computer game back then), while the numbers in the equation represent the amount of apples . She told me I have to point Pacman’s mouth to the larger amount so he can eat more apples. I never failed at greater than/less than/equal to lesson ever again. SOURCE: h ttp://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/08/montessori-inspired-greater-than-less.html Outliers  by Malcolm Gladwell is a lot like my mom’s way of teaching me Math. It is composed of analogies and stories that helped me understand the wisdom behind success. It will not tell you what to do, it will ask you to analyze the roots of success and w...

Elow elow elow Dear Reader! So, today, I bought new set of earrings and I realized, I haven't really talked about my piercing experience. So, I thought maybe I should answer some common questions about my piercings and piercing in general. How many piercings do you have? As of the moment, I have a total of six individual piercings. Three on the left ear, three on the right. When did you get them and why? 1. The first pair was done when I was four or five years old. I remember my father bringing me to a little health center and telling me to just tilt my head and that was it. I don't have much to say about this piercing because it was like a "default" kind of thing - sort of a tradition or one of those mandatory things a girl has to go through-  so nothing special in this pair. Also, I was too young to remember how it felt like. Too young to even comprehend. But I remember being happy having the privilege to wear such pretty gold earrings. I had the rest ...

Living in a country where straight hair rules, finding a good styling product for the curly hair is such a pain in the ey-ess-ess. For the past few months, I've been experimenting on different hair products, mixing and jumbling all sorts of creams, mousse, gels, etc etc. Product after product, layers after layers.  I honestly sometimes feel like going back to straight hair is way easier and economical, than spending so much money on hair products, but then I do love my current buhahag hairstyle- I feel some sense of uniqueness and personality with this kind of hair- so I think I wold just go on with this journey and just enjoy every part of it. So, today, I thought I would share my experience with this Dove Nourishing Curls Whipped Cream Mousse.  This is by far, my favorite mousse cream for my curly hair. Let me tell you some of my opinions regarding this product.  1. SMELL - Oh. Goodness. I love the smell of this one right out of the can. This is...

Ever since I started working, I have been wearing lipsticks all the time and neglecting the joys a lipgloss can do. I don't know if it's the age or maybe I have worn a lot of gloss when I was on my teens that I feel lipstick is  for my twenties. But, when I saw Revlon Color Lustrous lipgloss, I cant help but fall in love once again with lip glosses.  Why do I love this gloss? Let me count the ways.. 1. The shade is a beautiful golden nude that has a bit of shimmer, not glitters, that creates a lovely shine to the lips.  2. It glides on smoothly and is not sticky to wear. 3. Opacity is just right, not too opaque, not too sheer.  I got this on sale so the price is way lower than usual, I got this for only P200 (such a steal right?)\The sales assistant told me that Revlon booths placed in the middle of the malls have more sale items compared to counters located inside the department stores. So, if you are looki...