TOPAZ HORIZON: October 2015

Thursday, October 15, 2015

It's huge! I visit MANGO's Eastwood branch to shop!

This post is brought to you by MANGO.

I missed the opening of the bigger and better MANGO store at Eastwood a few weeks ago. Eastwood is not my stomping grounds but because I saw fellow bloggers talking about how they absolutely loved the new store, I went to check it out.

Boy, it's really big! Look!

This is the MANGO Kids section:

My photos can't seem to do justice to the wide aisles, the well-spaced clothing items, and the high ceilings. I loved that there's space to shop. The only place in the store that felt masikip was the fitting rooms.

Anyway, the MANGO store in Eastwood is right in the garden area. I don't know what it's called, basta it's where the fountains and ponds are. Just across Bread Talk, right beside GAP. I like that when I was shopping and I look past the windows, it's all nice and green trees and bushes. Super refreshing. Dangerous, too, in my case because nakakagana to shop!

Here's what caught my eye in the store:

Jeans! Jeggings! Pants!

I love anything with roll-up sleeves.

Military-inspired jacket.

I almost bought that dress but my tummy was too big!

Little black dress to the left and little red dress to the right.

An adorable outfit! Almost got it but was afraid I'm too old for it haha.

Of course, since I'm a mom, I went through the racks of MANGO Kids, too, and found these:

For my mini heroes.

If they had a bigger size sana for my husband!

This camel jacket! Why not in my size???

I also liked MANGO's Autumn/Winter 2015 Boho Collection showcased by supermodels Kate Moss and Cara Delavigne.

I was born in the 70s so I have a soft spot for gorgeous prints, chiffon kaftans and maxi dresses, bell-sleeved blouses, flared jeans, fringe, flower power, embroidery on everything. Here are my Boho Collection outfits:

Really loving the dress that Cara wore! Cara and Kate are part of MANGO's #somethingincommon campaign, which emphasizes that Kate may be born in the 70s and Cara in the 90s but their love for free-spirited fashion is their common denominator. Aside from being supermodels, of course!

“MANGO is great,” says Cara. “When I think about what to wear every day, I like to be creative and MANGO is a perfect brand to play with the range of styles there are nowadays. This is the first time I have worked with MANGO and having Kate as my partner in crime is ideal! We are a lethal combination. I admire her personally and professionally, she is a true fashion icon. It is a privilege to learn and to share this experience with her.”

Kate has been part of the MANGO family for while now, starting with her collaborations with the Spanish brand in 2011 and 2012. Kate says, “It's so great to be working with MANGO again; it is such a fresh and modern brand.” Of Cara, she says, “Cara and I always have fun together and you really can see that in this campaign.”

I had fun just shopping! I may not be a supermodel but what I have #somethingincommon with Kate and Cara is a love for looking fantabulous! Look at what I bought from MANGO Eastwood:

Not near Eastwood, like me? You can still shop for these pieces and more at these branches:

MANGO – Robinsons Ermita, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Power Plant Mall, Gateway, SM Mall Of Asia, Alabang Town Center, SM Megamall, SM Davao, SM Clark, Ayala Center Cebu, TriNoma, SM Cebu, Greenbelt 5, Eastwood, Marquee Mall, Newport, Abreeza Davao, Lucky Chinatown, Bonifacio High Street, Robinsons Magnolia, Centrio, Harbor Point, Glorietta 2, Ayala Fairview Terraces, SM BF Parañaque

MANGO MAN – Power Plant Mall, Alabang Town Center, Bonifacio High Street, Glorietta 2, SM Mall Of Asia, Ayala Center Cebu, Abreeza Davao

MANGO TOUCH – Robinsons Ermita, Power Plant Mall, Robinsons Magnolia, SM Megamall, SM Mall Of Asia

MANGO KIDS – SM Mall Of Asia, Ayala Center Cebu, SM BF Parañaque, TriNoma, Glorietta 2, Eastwood

MANGO SPORT and INTIMATES – SM Mall of Asia

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Beauty Biz Bliss: Collaboration, not competition

I have really amazing news, dear Loyal Readers!

Last weekend, on Sept. 26 at the Work-at-Home Expo 2015, my friends Ginger Arboleda of entrepreneurial lifestyle blog Mommy Ginger, Martine de Luna of intentionally blissful lifestyle blog Make It Blissful, and myself of this all-about-honesty-in-an-increasingly-fake-world blog launched our new business—Beauty Biz Bliss.

Me, Ginger and Martine onstage at the Work-at-Home Expo.

Beauty Biz Bliss caters to the woman who has made a living out of her passion. We want to support this amazing woman in everything she does—from looking and feeling her best as she works to growing her business and managing her home and family with a blissful attitude even with all the work she's busy with.

As working women ourselves—Ginger owns several businesses, Martine is a social media consultant, while I am a professional blogger and magazine editor—we've encountered many challenges that come with pursuing our passions. Isolation is top of the list. Working from home, our days filled with dirty diapers and typing on a computer, there's hardly any time to create and nurture friendships. Having no co-workers and bosses also means we have no sounding board on our performance. When we do go out for meetings and events, how exactly do we present ourselves as professionals when we're used to wearing tees and shorts when we work?

Another challenge we encountered was the fiercely competitive nature of blogging. Mom blogging to be more specific. We think maybe this is because we raise our children in many different ways—some breastfeed, some give formula; some believe in tough love, some adhere to attachment parenting principles; some believe in sending their kids to traditional schools, some are staunch homeschoolers. Perhaps these differences raise our defenses, thinking that because someone's ways are different than ours, her actions are a criticism of our decisions. In our experience, we have been shunned, bullied, gossiped about, and even threatened just because we live the way we do, which was painful to us.

We now believe that there is no need to compete for readers and brands. We all have our own unique strengths, after all. Ginger wants to empower entrepreneurial mothers through her blog—naturally her readers are business-minded mothers. Martine's blog is all about having an inspired vision, purpose and lifestyle—her community of readers is made up of positive women who love beautiful everything. My blogging is all about being real and honest in absolutely everything, even when life gets ugly, I will talk about it like it's no one's business—and my readers are all feisty, brutal and no-nonsense women. We attract different kinds of readers and different kinds of brand partners.

There is no need to compete!

Especially because we three have the same purpose—to empower women. When we collaborate, we make each other stronger. For one thing, working together helps us reach a bigger audience. We strongly believe that we women should be encouraging each other, working together, and finding ways to live with each other's differences, maybe even celebrating them! We believe in collaboration, not competition.

That's how Beauty Biz Bliss was born! We talked about what we're good at and what we're poor at and realized we can help each other out. Martine is absolutely driven with ideas and vision, and she's great at making things look pretty. Ginger is all about execution with frightening efficiency, and she knows how to make money. And I have experience working with big brands, and my years in magazines have taught me a lot about looking fabulous. Together, we can build each other up where we think we need help.

We also realized that many women need support and encouragement, too. In fact, a thread in the Facebook community, WAHMderful Community for Work-at-Home Moms, encouraged us to create workshops addressing this very need of many women. So okay! Let's do this!

Beauty Biz Bliss will offer workshops on everything a working woman needs to juggle her full life. We'll learn how to put on makeup in 10 minutes, what to wear to meetings and events (especially useful to women who work at home), on how to build your brand, market it and get more business, and how to balance that all with joy not stress. We are planning big and beautiful events! Yes, so we can all get together with other women and share stories, swap business contacts, and build each other up. We also plan to work with brands that want to target us working women and offer them our unique voices to help push their campaigns.

Sooo exciting! We really want to help us women encourage each other (yes, we hope you also encourage Ginger, Martine and myself) with this new collaboration. Isn't this so exciting!?

If you want to be part of our new community, please like our Facebook page: Beauty Biz Bliss.

If you are a business that wants to reach our audience of empowered working women, send an email to ginger@beautybizbliss.com.

If you want to collaborate with us for gorgeous and inspiring events, email martine@beautybizbliss.com.

If you are a beauty and fashion brand and you want to be part of our mission to help women be absolutely gorgeous, email me at frances@beautybizbliss.com.

Together, we can all make a difference in women's lives. We really do believe that the secret of the universe is working together. I hope you think so, too! Imagine what we can all do when we help each other! I'm so excited. Please pray for us, okay? Thanks always for the love and support!

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