Tuesday, May 05, 2009

My new beauty blog

So have you gone over to Beauty For A Living? It’s my new baby, a blog dedicated to all things beauty! Lofty as it may sound, it actually serves a practical purpose—I need a place to put some of my thoughts on the tons of stuff I get from beauty brands.

While I initially thought of putting those opinions here on Topaz Horizon, I very quickly also decided against it because I want this to remain my personal diary. The new blog can be the place for my honest reviews of products—from cheap drugstore finds and expensive luxury brands to the most out-of-this world treatments and services like a Colonix review!

Anyway, Beauty For A Living was supposed to be an anonymous blog but so many people recognized my profile photo—even if it was a heavily made up me! Oh well! As Vince said, “If you want to remain anonymous, take down your photo. It’s logical.” I guess I’m not prone to logical reasoning!

Do head on over to my new blog. I’m giving away fabulous prizes: a Shu Uemura makeup brush kit, a Jurlique facial care set and a Shu Uemura lipstick case. I announce the winners on Friday!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Ghosts in the house

Vince fell in love with the Philippe Starck Louis Ghost chair two years ago. It's a simple chair made of polycarbonate and it's famous for melting into its surroundings and standing out at the same time.

Eclectic chic study

Contemporary dining room

French vintage formal dining room

He asked if he could buy one. Two years ago, it cost P12,000 each. I said, "No, let's wait for a sale." Last year, he asked me again. This time, the chair was P14,000. Again I said, "No, let's wait for a sale." A few weeks ago, while we were at Rustan's, the price tag on the Ghost was an eye-popping P16,000 (USD 332.55). Vince said, "If we wait for a sale, it will just get even more expensive. Let's buy it while we can still afford it."

So we bought two. I know that's a lot of money for an invisible chair but to get just one seemed incomplete. Now, twin Louis Ghosts sit in our house. They are stark and simple and elegant. We are in desperate love with them.

Our twin Louis Ghosts and my niece Nicole

Today I found out from Real Living magazine that Dexterton in Greenbelt 5 has a sale on its home and office furniture. The Louis Ghosts were marked down.

I sat down on one of my beloved Ghosts and allowed one frustrated tear.

*images from Marley&Lockyer, PointClickHome, StyleAtHome

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Welcome to my playground

End of April. This time last year, the sun was blazing down in unforgiving rays--no surprise since April is always the month we fear our eyeballs would melt from the heat. This year, however, it's raining buckets. Global warming indeed.

This time last year, my husband had just left Playboy Philippines because he realized that if he was going back to the magazine world, he might as well do T3. He had just begun settling back in when we were all told to pack up and move to our new digs.

At last, we were leaving our basement office in Robinsons Galleria! Good-bye to the rats, the cockroaches and the strange dust that coated our desks and computers. And hello to the new home of Summit Media!

For security reasons, I won't post pics of our new office. I will, however, show you my table. It's all cluttered with memos, drafts, press releases, page plans, signature proofs (that's the test magazine pages), invitations and bags upon bags of beauty products. I'm very cluttery. So embarrassing! But I can always find something in that awful mess!

And this is my favorite place: The library. Don't mind the empty-looking shelves--we've got tons of magazines from all over the world!

So a very happy anniversary to Summit Media's lovely new office! I love working here really. Oh, let me rephrase that... I love playing here. Yep, I feel like I'm paid to have fun and that's why this is the best gig in the world!


P.S. Grab the April issue of T3 (it's the bikini issue!) with this remarkable-looking woman on the cover. This is the result of that post I wrote about the yacht and the helicopter. Click here if I don't make sense.

And have you gotten yourself OK!'s April issue? It's our special 4th anniversary issue! It's our best issue yet--anti-aging secrets of Jennifer Aniston and 8 other stars, 69 of the best gowns this year, an exclusive interview with Wolverine star Hugh Jackman and MORE! Be a good Topaz Horizon reader and get a copy now!