TOPAZ HORIZON

As I was washing my face last weekend, I noticed my bathroom counter and shelves had a dominant color scheme. Black. It was all black.

Hehe! With pink. There was a lot of pink, too. Kaya na-inspire ako to share with you a few (yes, just 10 out of many haha) of my pink prettifiers. Look at them!


Okay, I need to improve my flat lay skills.

From left, clockwise:
1. Simple Mama Pure Beauté Facial Wash in Rose
2. Girlstuff nail polish in Pretty in Pink
3. Solique by Girlstuff gel nail polish in Just a Fantasy
4. NYX Angel Veil primer
5. L'Oréal Paris Voluminous Lash Paradise mascara
6. L'Oréal Paris Infallible Lip Liner in Rose
7. Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink in Lover
8. L'Oréal Paris Colour Riche Metal Addiction in Rose Champagne
9. Maybelline lipstick in Almond
10. In Her Element Petal Skin Toning Essence.

Let's start with the skin lovers...


Pure Beauté Facial Wash in Rose is a limited edition product so it's not available on the Simple Mama website. But I think if you send them a message, you can ask for them to make you one. I did and my request was granted. I was soooo happy, I cried! Why??? Okay, the start of summer 2018, I ran out of my usual trusted products so I started using the stuff in my blogger giveaway box. Big name products, too. My skin wasn't happy. I started breaking out again.

For Mother's Day, Simple Mama sent me their limited edition Rose Geranium line. By this time, I had stopped using anything on my face. But I still needed to wash my face, right, so I used this facial wash and only this facial wash for my skin care regimen. Plus sunscreen, of course. In 2 weeks, my skin cleared up and was rosy and glowy and just damn gorgeous! I was stunned! I can't live without this facial wash!!! It's the only facial wash I've been using since May last year. I'll do a more in-depth review next month. You deserve to know this amazing product! Meanwhile, you can browse the other Pure Beauté products in the Simple Mama shop.

In Her Element Petal Skin Toning Essence, P875, literally makes your skin feel like rose petals. I bought the rose products of In Her Element because of Pure Beauté. I figured if the rose facial wash is amazing then I'm hoarding every product that has roses in it!!! This has rose water and aloe vera as its major ingredients. Mamas, my skin after using this feels soooo nice. I keep touching my face because it's so soft and velvety! I use it twice a day, every day. Buy this!!!

NYX Angel Veil Skin Perfecting Primer is what I apply when I'm going to be out all day or if I'm going to an event or meeting and I'll be commuting. I don't use primer every day, just on those aforementioned days. Primer helps keep my makeup from sliding off my face, and since I'm very oily, this is necessary! I like Angel Veil because it's super light, feels like nothing, fills in pores and acne scars so I have a smooth surface, and leaves me matte. Oh, big plus: It doesn't make me break out!

Now let's check out my pink prettifiers for my puckers...


I have a LOT of lipsticks in all colors—from essentials like nude and red to wild ones like green and blue!— but these are the ones I wear nearly every day. They're all a wearable pink!


Well, I don't really wear this metallic lipstick every day. But I do love it because nearly all my lipsticks are matte and this adds a sheer metallic sheen on my lips that isn't wet like a gloss. I don't like moist mouths.


Here's a sample of what it looks like. The left is a swipe of my Maybelline Almond lipstick. The right is the sheer champagne lipstick. The middle is what it looks like together.


Lash Paradise is probably the best volumizing mascara I've ever tried. My oily skin loves it because it doesn't budge at all. It stays on your lashes all day long without smudging, smearing or flaking. Lashes stay thick and gorgeous! That said, it's extremely difficult to remove.

There's your sneak peek! I can do more thorough reviews if you like! But for now, just know that these are my reliables and my face is so happy I found these pink prettifiers!

Good-bye, dull hair!

1. After coloring, wait 24 hours or longer before you wash hair. 

A good trim gets rid of dry ends.

Just a dark brown with red highlights throughout

Subtle but pretty!

9. Refresh color. 

Happy New Year, mamas! This 2019, I'm going to call every Wednesday my blog's Beauty Wednesday. I'll write about beauty products, beauty tips, fashion finds, style inspiration, health and fitness (whut!), and salon and spa reviews on this day. Anything and everything that will make us beautiful people! Today, let's start the year with the ProLon Diet System.

The ProLon Diet is a 5-day meal plan designed to mimic intermittent fasting (IF) without you starving. The photo below is a sample meal for one day. Yes, it's basically soups and protein bars and a whole lot of tea and glucose water. All your meals for the day come in a box so you get 5 boxes. I'll be honest: It can be alarming to see all you'll eat in 5 small boxes.


I'm planning to try IF this January. Fasting has so many benefits to the body, and I'll get to those in a bit, and if you're also going to try IF, I recommend easing your body into it with the ProLon Diet. You see, IF is you eating just 2 meals within an 8-hour window and going without food for 16 hours. Some people can even go beyond 18 hours. ProLon is you eating 3 solid meals a day, plus a snack, but you get the same benefits as a fast.

I can do 14 hours without food, easy. I eat my last meal at 8pm, sleep, eat breakfast at 10am. I eat lunch at around 2pm, have a small snack at 5pm, then dinner. But those 14 hours are sustained by the 4 (or more) meals I eat throughout the day. So to do real IF, I just skip breakfast and go straight to lunch at noon, then eat dinner at 8. Easy! Haha, cockiness goes before a fall, my friends. I honestly don't think I can do it because I know my body. My stomach starts screaming at 10:30am and I'm so active throughout the day that I need food to see me through. So we'll see how this IF goes.   


Anyway, I tried the ProLon Diet in October, during my kids' sem break. I wanted to see if I could live on drastically reduced calories for 5 days. As you can see from the above photos, breakfast is just a protein bar, tea, and oil. The oil is fat and that's where I'll get my energy. The bar of nuts and seeds with honey isn't so bad. It tastes like Christmas, like a fruit cake but without the cake and gooeyness. Not very satisfactory especially since I always start my day with a creamy latte. So this day was hard.

By the way, I specifically chose the sem break to do the diet because I was afraid I'd faint if I did it on my regular, chore-and-errands days. On hindsight and based on the reviews I found online, this was not a good idea. When you're just at home with your kids, you're (a) bored, and (b) you're constantly making food for the family—the perfect recipe for you to overeat! Try ProLon when you're busy so you get distracted, but not on days you have physical exertions planned. Yep, no exercise, no marathons, no thorough house-cleaning, no big party at home where you'll be cooking and entertaining all day long. You'll get dizzy.

Here's lunch.



The soups are really good! They're so good I wish I had a huge bowl of it haha. The kale crackers taste like cardboard but I found that if you toast them first, the kale and seeds develop a nutty flavor, making them taste so much better. The olives are nice and salty, and just what my body needs—salt!

As you can see, there's not a lot of food. And this is the first day, the day you eat the most food! As the diet progress, there's even less food to eat. The ProLon Diet is low in calories, protein, and sugar. Yes, you'll still get sugar and it's from the water you'll be drinking. It's high in good fats, too, because we need fat to survive! Fat isn't wholly bad, people!

The ProLon Diet is 100% plant-based. So if you're vegetarian or vegan, you can be assured that all the soups, protein bars, energy drinks, herbal teas, and supplements are okay for you. If you're a carnivore like me, don't worry—the soups are soooo good, you won't really miss meat (but you will haha). The quinoa soup below is especially delicious. You have to prepare the soups in a pot on a stove. Some you can microwave but I found they don't taste as good if you just microwave them so best to cook. You also get that satisfying "I cooked my food" feeling.


The proprietary formulation was created by Dr Valter Longo, who's devoted his research on how fasting affects our bodies and even how it makes us live longer. Yep, ProLon is not about making you lose weight really. It's about making us live longer through fasting! Fasting helps the body shed fat, yes, but it also lowers blood pressure, lowers cholesterol levels, reduces inflammation, and triggers cell regeneration.

Actually, the important thing for me there is it reduces inflammation. Inflammation causes a lot of problems in the body, like diabetes and cancer. Both diseases are in my family history.

Anyway, here's dinner!


That minestrone soup is my favorite soup! I can have that all day long. Preferably with buttered garlic toast and a stick of pork barbecue haha

You can tell I missed food when I was on the ProLon Diet! In fact, I failed on the 4th day. Like I said, being on vacation with the kids wasn't a good idea after all. I kept preparing food for them, which meant I was in the kitchen a lot and finally my resolve died. While I wasn't exactly hungry, being exposed to lots of food didn't help. Then on the 5th day, I decided to clean the house. I almost fainted so I ended up eating. I'm so disappointed in myself!

Why? Because I saw a lot of good changes in my body:

1. I lost 5 lbs. in 3 days! Maybe I'd have lost more if I stuck to the diet!

2. I was burping and farting a lot on the first day (sorry TMI) but by the second day, my stomach had deflated. I wasn't bloated anymore!

3. I felt so light and clean!

4. My poop didn't smell bad. Sorry TMI again but this really convinced me to eat more plants. Maybe even become a vegetarian one day. I mean my poop didn't smell bad at all! It was like cow poop or rabbit poop. It smelled like grass! I was so amazed!!!

5. After the diet, my stomach (and by stomach, I meant the organ) had shrunk so much that I didn't eat a lot anymore. I quickly felt full. In fact, I only started eating like a pig again this Christmas. But for a good few weeks, I didn't.

And that's why I think it's good to start on intermittent fasting with the ProLon Diet! You condition your body to consume less without starving. I want to do this again. I was miserable the whole 5 days, I admit, but that's because it was my first time to go on a diet ever. Seeing the results made me resolve to do better next time!

If you're interested in doing the ProLon Diet, too, you can learn more about it here: Just 5 days a month to weight loss and better health.

The ProLon Diet is available at the BioBalance Institute at Shangri-la Plaza (Unit 1014, Lower Ground Level, East Wing, Shangri-La Plaza, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City). It's around P15,000 last year but with the rising peso-dollar exchange rate, it may have changed. Call (02) 650-4858, (63917) 521-4860, or e-mail info@biobalanceinstitute.com for a consultation.

Very important: Please consult with your own doctor if you can go on a fasting diet!

Exactly one month ago, I tried the Biotulin FNT facial that's exclusively available at Flawless Skin & Body Clinic. So today I'm writing a review. Spoiler alert: I love it! I look sooo good!

Day 1 - Red marks all over my face and a bit swollen.

Day 4 - Red marks have faded, no more swelling.

Day 6 - Pores have all but disappeared! But I still have red marks around my eyes so I wore shades.

Day 15 - My face is slimmer, firmer, poreless, even toned. Even my racoon eyes have disappeared!

LOL I don't have any fashion blogger dreams. But I did want to do more #OOTDs on my Instagram because waiting for my kids at dismissal time is boring and I figured it would be fun to pass the time with outfit posts. Like this:


Okay, I usually don't dress up when I fetch the kids. I had an event to go to after my school run so I put on something prettier than usual. The silk top is from Australia. I forget the brand but a reader sent a big box of goodies to me and there were a lot of clothes in the box. This blouse was one of them. The pleated skirt is Zara. The pleated flats are Dune London. The bag is my very own. The earrings are Rory & Sloan.


Now this is what I usually wear when I get the boys: Uniqlo torn jeans, basic top I bought from Zalora, my worn out super comfy Skechers sneakers, and H&M back pack.

Some days, I switch it up with ballet flats and a hardy tote. But the shirt and jeans stay. My shirt is Uniqlo. My bag is from IG: @themodernfolkph. My favorite black ballet flats are Mango. The belt is just a black ribbon I used to make my outfit look more feminine. Poor Piero. His face! I wanted to take a better photo but he refused so I need to respect that.


I came from a meeting here so I had to wear a nice top from IG: @casualchicmanila and my favorite Topshop slacks. But since sa BGC yung meeting and kailangan ng maraming walking and chasing after taxis dun, I wore my Skechers sneakers.


This was a rainy day ensemble. So I threw on a satin jacket from Evernew over my chiffon blouse. The blouse is from that same box of goodies from my Australian reader. My flats are Bata. My jeans are Uniqlo. I was wearing a cream belt, by the way, but I took it off nung nag-banyo ako kasi hindi ako makahinga LOL


This day, I didn't fetch the kids. My husband took time off from work so I can attend a vlogging workshop care of my Nido family. I wore a Zara coat over my Bench shirt and Topshop pants. This is really comfy!

So why bye to my "fashion blogger dreams"? Well, again, wala naman talaga akong balak maging Camille Co of the mommy universe (I'm so excited to see her mommy-and-baby OOTDs one day, though!). Gosh, si Cams talaga ang peg kapag fashion blogger. All her posts are FANTASTIC. So since siya ang peg, hindi na ako nag-attempt. Masyadong impossible haha

But I did enjoy the OOTD pics I posted recently. Sadly, that has come to an end as my photographer, my 6-year-old son Iñigo, has decided he no longer wants to take my pics. Cryyyyyy. I guess I should pay him. Maybe that will change his mind. But as of now, no more OOTDs from me! Thanks for indulging me, though!


Check back on Wednesday for a new post! Have a great day!

I don't know how to dress for rainy weather. Yep, that's all you'll find out in this edition of OOTDs from last week. So if you can share tips on how to look fashyon in stormy, windy, flooded to the calves, muddy, and yet hot and humid weather, do tell!
 

Zara shirt, Topshop pants, Mango ballet flats, Kate Spade bag

For a meeting with the L'Oréal team at Lazada (where we shot a promo video for a giant lipstick sale on National Lipstick Day this week), I wore pink trousers to liven up the gray day. I'm usually in black, white, gray and navy, but it's been dark and dreary for weeks now so I wanted to wear something bright.

Casual Chic Manila blouse, Uniqlo jeans, Cole Vintage belt, Dune London loafers

Oh, this was a really stormy day! I went to a Gold Seas Tuna Chunks event and wore blue because that's the Gold Seas brand color (I try to match the brand color to show my support). I wished I wore my rain boots because I was up to my ankles in flood water when I walked the final block home! (Thanks for the ride and the fun chat, Denise of Royal Domesticity!). Plus, I think the water destroyed my loafers. They're a really old pair and I love them because they've become incredibly soft. Oh well.

Topshop shirt and slacks, Skechers sneakers, H&M backpack

I wore this at the start of the week, yung binabagayan ko pa yung weather. Gray everything! I love this outfit. It's soooo comfy.

Uniqlo hoodie and eyelet shorts, Zara knit shirt, Bata flats, H&M backpack

But this is the comfiest! Kasi nakapambahay lang ako! This was the day when classes were suddenly cancelled and we had to rush back to school and get the boys before lunch. So walang ligo, walang suklay, walang makeup, walang bra!!! I just basically threw on a jacket and went! Wag tularan, mamas.

Aaaaand that's all for last week's outfit recap! I'll try to put together a more chic rainy-weather fashion look this week. I dunno if I can do it but you judge next week! Have a good week this week, mamas. Stay safe and dry!

Here's the next episode of my OOTD details! You know, I'd actually watch a show of my favorite style stars talking about how they put their outfits together. I bet it would be so fun plus it's going to be full of tips on what goes with what. Why is there no show like this???

Anyway, till that happens, we'll just do my OOTDs! Not because may balak ako maging fashion blogger. To be honest, the last 7 years or so, wala na talaga akong pakialam sa damit ko. Comfort and efficiency above all! I don't think I dressed too sloppily but it is a slippery slope when you live in daster and sweats, diba? So I was looking through my Instagram last year and I think I slowly realized I looked like crap hahahahahaha

We're going to sloooooowly change that this year, mamas! Again, I have no plans to become a fashionista. No budget! Lahat ng budget napupunta sa grocery and tuition kaloka! So I'm going to have to get creative with what's in my closet. Here's what I wore this week with the clothes I've had in there for years:

Lunch with family! I paired my favorite Topshop pajama pants with an off-shoulder blouse from Casual Chic Manila (shop here). I used to just wear these pants with t-shirts but my husband Vince said I look like I'm going to go to sleep so he suggested I pair it with nice tops para hindi ako mukhang nakapambahay. And so I did. What do you think of this look?

My favorite piece ever since lumaki balakang ko: midi-skirts! These are full skirts that cinch the waist and make hips and butt look sexy not fat. I got this skirt from Zalora and I love its deep pockets. Every woman in the world needs pockets! The shirt is from Uniqlo. The ballet flats are Mango. This is one of my go-to outfits.

Sundo duties means dapat comfortable ako. I usually wear a t-shirt and shorts when I fetch my kids from school but I leveled up with a silky blouse. Problema lang is mainit so dumidikit talaga siya sa pawis so maybe I'll wear this blouse kapag aircon lang ang pupuntahan ko. Scallop-hem shorts are Mango, blouse is from Cole Vintage, backpack is H&M.

I use my backpack a lot now because my spine is bending to my right side because heavy bags. Moms always have heavy bags. Plus, with 3 kids in tow every weekday, I need my hands. This is one of my mommy uniforms. Simple and easy to throw on. But if I didn't have my kids with me, I'd wear it with a big belt, chunky necklace, platform heels, and a tote.

Hindi ako tamad this day, though! I really like this top I'm wearing! It's a cowl-neck blouse from Pastel and Paisley (shop here). Cowl necks, turtlenecks and long-sleeved shirts (and let's not forget silk blouses) are usually not a good idea in our climate but since this is made by a local brand, it's manipis and magaan so hindi mainit. I paired it with Mango jeans, Dune flats, and my Fino doctor's bag that Vince gave me 10 years ago. I wish I used another photo na mas cute si Piero but a manong guard took this photo and he said one picture lang daw kasi baka mapagalitan siya.

And that's this week's instalment! If there's anything I'm learning from my OOTD updates is I need to add more color to my wardrobe and I have to make my mommy uniforms more interesting! Okay rin pala ang naka-document ang outfits ko on Instagram (follow me!) kasi I become more mindful of what I wear. I hope this makes me strive to look my best!

I've discovered a marvelous thing! My son, Iñigo, can take good outfit photos so now I finally have an official #OOTD photographer! Hooray!

Maganda yung angle niya kasi he's shorter than me so my legs look longer. Unlike when it's my husband Vince who takes my photos. He's much taller than me so my head and shoulders look huge and my legs look stunted. Nahihiya naman akong mag-dictate sa kanya na lumuhod siya sa harap ko haha So buti na lang marunong kumuha ng picture si Iñigo!

Anyway, you know what this means, mamas. I can do outfit posts again! Here's what I wore last week:

Sundo duties. Uniqlo ang shirt and shorts. Charles and Keith ang shades. My own satchel. Dune loafers.

Sundo pa rin! Zalora shorts. I don't know the brand of the shirt kasi regalo lang siya nung Pasko but obviously Disney siya! Skechers shoes.

Sundo ulit but I dragged Iñigo to the nearby salon to have my eyebrows groomed while we waited for his Kuya Vito's dismissal. Zara shirt. Zalora skirt (big deep pockets!). Kate Spade bag. Mango ballet flats.

Sundo pa rin! Wanted to be girly today for my husband. We had a nice morning and lunch together. Then he went to work and I went to get the boys from school. Dress from a brand sold in Zalora (I obviously shop there a lot!). Dune leather and lace flats.

At Mind Museum with my family. What a fun day! Sobra kaming napagod ni Vince kakatakbo after our sons! This is my bunchokoy Piero who celebrated his birthday last week. He enjoyed the dinosaur part of the museum tour. Super happy boy! Button-down blouse from a brand in Zalora. Topshop slacks. H&M backpack. Melissa sandals.

As you can see—no heels! Everything has to be about comfort now that I'm a working mama with kids in tow. Next time na lang ang style. Maybe in two years, when I'm not running after the kids all the time.

But life sure is much different from what I thought it would be 10 years ago. I was telling Vince last week, "I have to get rid of all my heels. I haven't worn them in years." He replied, "I'll buy you new shoes." And I said, and with no regret at all, "Ten years ago, all I wore was high heels. I never thought I'd live in flats and sneakers. And it's okay."

It's really okay. Of course, when I was 31 and you told me that one day my heels will be gathering dust and I'd be running around in shorts and t-shirts, I'd never have believed you. I'd be horrified haha But I love this mama life. The outfits, not so much, but they serve a purpose, they help me be efficient, and they keep me comfy. That's what I need! And that's what matters.