TOPAZ HORIZON

Got my hands on the summer collection of my favorite nail polish brand, Girlstuff. My favorite shade is definitely the orange one, called Breakbeat. The blue one is called Chill, the green one is called Lounge. There's a pink one, too, called Techno. Must get my hands on that one! Breakbeat, Chill, Lounge, Techno. The names reflect the party vibe of Girlstuff's Rave Neon summer collection. I'll tell you later why these polishes are perfect for partying.

Anyway! I recently discovered a tip to make nail polish colors pop: white nail polish!

I use white only for French tips and I always thought, "Sayang naman the whole bottle kung ganito kaunti lang ang ginagamit ko." Turns out white nail polish is an excellent base for other colors since it makes the color more opaque and brighter, too.

What an excellent tip for my fingertips! So now we know!

Oh, now this is the UV-Glow Solique Gel Top Coat. This is Girlstuff's fab new product because it glows in UV light. Perfect for girls who love going to parties na madilim at may black light! It's also an excellent top coat because it increases shine, protects polish so it lasts longer (I can attest to this—there's really no chipping and dulling!). It also makes polish dry faster, like really fast. As a mom, nail polish that dries fast and lasts long is a monumental find!

My baby and I went to the launch party at RELIK Bar at BGC. Yes, it was Piero's first time in a bar. And he was 20 months old! Don't worry—it was a very girly party!
Piero saw Mama's friends! From left: Ginger Arboleda of Mommy Ginger and my fellow co-founder of Beauty Biz Bliss, Working Mom EIC Jane Kingsu-Cheng and blogger at Flats & Stilettos, Piero and me, and Janina Gutierrez Tan, creator of Girlstuff.

Janina and our dear friend beauty blogger extraordinaire, Nikki Tiu of Askmewhats. She was also the super funny host of the event. Here they're posing with the giveaways—kikay kits with the Rave Neon nail polishes plus UV-Glow Solique Gel Top Coat, a small black light/flashlight, and gift certificates for even more Girlstuff nail polish!

Here's RELIK glowing in the dark.

Every guest wore silly headbands that also glowed. The effect was really cute. All these kitten ears and bunny ears bobbing in the dark.

We also took home a pair of Fly Shades. I like mine a lot. Must buy more Fly Shades!

One part of the room wasn't dark at all—this was the nail polish bar where guests can get a manicure using the new Rave Neon Collection and the UV-Glow Solique Gel Top Coat. After application, all the girls partied!

And here's what nail art Instagrammer @hotmomnailarts did with that amazing UV-Glow Solique Gel Top Coat:


You can buy the Girlstuff Rave Neon Collection and the UV Glow Solique Top Coat from Girlsuff shops at SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, SM North, SM San Lazaro, Glorietta 2 and Alabang Town Center. You can also check out other shades (please check out the Topaz Horizon shade!) at their website, and see how nail polish lovers have created nail art using Girlstuff by liking their Facebook page and follwoing them on Onstagram.

To see more launch party photos, visit Girlstuff's Facebook page.

We have a new helper finally. So I can finally sleep in now, and I can cook happily now because the dishes and pans are all washed and clean now, and the floors aren't sticky anymore now, so basically I'm not so tired anymore now. Still, since she's new, I've had to teach her how to clean, how the machines in the house work, and many other minutiae like you can't vacuum until you've thoroughly swept the floor and looked through the cushions because there are definitely tiny Lego parts there and everywhere. Stuff like that. Adjustment period but if she proves to be masipag, masinop and mapagkakatiwalaan, I believe life would be much easier soon.

So anyway, one time, while we were chatting, our new helper observed, "Ma'am, ang yaman-yaman niyo siguro. Kasi parehas kayo ni sir na nasa bahay lang."

"Oy, hindi kami mayaman. At may trabaho kami," sagot ko. I always get alarmed when our household help speculate on our financial state. I've heard stories of helpers going through trash cans looking for shopping receipts, credit card slips and payslips, and then showing these off to their fellow kasambahays. Then I explained, "We're writers. Manunulat. Yung mga sinusulat namin ay mga libro, mga articles para sa magazine, sa website, sa blog."

"Trabaho po yun?"

"Oo naman! Basta may bayad, trabaho yun."

"Pero hindi mukhang trabaho yung trabaho niyo!"

And there, my dear friends, lies the secret of my charmed life.


Just a few years ago, I'd never have believed that I can do what I love, earn from it, and do it from home, too. So much of my life is so different from what I thought it would be, and far better than what my parents dreamed it to be, because of technology. With just a computer, a smart phone and an internet connection, I can work, I can play, I can entertain, I can learn, I can teach, I can keep in touch, I can go places. My life really changed when I chose to change it with technology.

I'm grateful that SMART helped change my life. The new gadgets I got (available with their gadget plans) like the iPad Mini and the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 have made it easier for me to live a lifestyle that isn't parked behind a desk—even though I write for a living. I Uber everywhere and I work from everywhere because my iPhone and my SMART LTE connection allows me to reply to important emails and messages while stuck in traffic. That's also when I update my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with sponsored posts. No time is wasted in traffic at all. Speaking of traffic, it hardly figures in my life because I work from home most of the time anyway. I can be a working woman and a mommy at the same time—Googling recipes for my blog sponsor Jolly canned food while teaching my son to cook is just one example.

Even though I love this work-at-home arrangement, I do have plans on going back to the corporate world, especially now that I have two boys in school—I'll have more time and I'll have a regular income. Through social media, I'm already sending out feelers, tapping and making connections, just in case! And just in case I do go back to working in an office, I can rely on calls and messages with my family to keep us connected throughout the day.

What a huge change this is from just a few years ago! And the world keeps changing. Sometimes I think my kids wouldn't need to go to school anymore because all the knowledge in the world is at their fingertips. I just need to guide them to love learning and to know what to search for. In fact, I know a lot of parents who homeschool their kids and every time I look at the traffic outside my window, I see why this is an option that gets more attractive each day.

Hi everyone! I'll just do a review of each Physiogel Calming Relief product today because I keep getting questions from readers and I sometimes find myself staying up way too late just chatting with my dear readers about Physiogel. So I'll do a big review so that every time a reader asks me about Calming Relief, I'll just send them this link!


If you're new to this blog, then let me just explain why the questions about this line. I started using Physiogel Calming Relief when I was invited to be part of the Physiogel Inner Circle and attend the launch at Bangkok. Then I showed my readers the huge improvement in my skin after just 14 days of use, and then I explained how the new skincare line works using BioMimic Technology.

Apparently, my scary no-makeup/no-filter photos impressed quite a bit of my readers. Some have told me they bought Physiogel Calming Relief immediately (yey!), but there are some readers who still want a thorough product review. So here it is!

Physiogel Calming Relief Cream Cleanser, P850

This cream cleanser has a milky texture and goes on smooth. While there's no fragrance in the ingredients, this smells a bit like fresh coconut. It's really faint but I'm sensitive to smells. It's a good thing I find the scent pleasant.

This is a no-suds cleanser so it doesn't foam up when you cleanse your face. I'm not used to that since I like bubbles, but I'm trying to get used to this because I recently found out that bubbles means detergent. You don't want to use detergent on your face!

This is also a no-rinse cleanser. You just wipe it off gently with tissue. I'm also trying to get used to this. I like washing the dirt off my face and seeing it go down the drain. Wiping off the day's makeup and grime feels unsatisfactory. What I do is use this cleanser in the morning or when I just stayed home all day. But when I was out that day, exposed to sweat, oil and pollution, with a full face of makeup, too, I use this cleanser as a makeup remover then I use the soap from my acne treatment regimen for extra measure.

My face does feel clean when I use this cream cleanser. Plus, it's soft and smooth. It doesn't feel tight and dry and raw, which means it's gentle and moisturizing.

Physiogel Calming Relief Face Cream Rich, P850

I got this tube and the cream cleanser at the Bangkok event so I only got to use the cleanser 12 days after using just the face cream and the Face Cream Rich after a month of using the normal variant. That's because the Rich variant is for very dry skin and I don't have dry skin. In fact, my skin is really oily and sensitive so I didn't think I needed this product. But one time, my toddler played with my beauty products and I couldn't find my Face Cream so I used the Rich cream and I woke up with super supple, soft skin!

So now I use the Face Cream Rich, but only at night or if I'll be home all day. Why? It's really very moisturizing so my face looks and feels oily after using this cream. For just an hour really and then it gets absorbed. I think this is specific to me because I'm really super oily. At first, I was worried I'd become oilier and break out, but that didn't happen at all. In fact, my skin just became super supple. My skin feels younger, I think!

So I really love and recommend Physiogel Calming Relief face products. 

Just a few more notes based on the FAQs of my readers:

• The Physiogel Calming Relief is not an acne treatment. This skincare line is to make skin strong and healthy. I am still getting pimples but they appear less and are fewer. Plus, I noticed that my pimples, the few that do pop up, they get "hinog" faster. Unlike before, my pimples used to take a week to even two weeks to get "hinog." So the pimples get redder and bigger and more painful over such a long period of time, resulting to deep acne scars or dark pigmentation because the skin suffered trauma. Now, my pimples are "hinog" in three days, they don't get very big, they're not painful, and they dry up quickly. 
• You can use other skincare treatments with the Physiogel Calming Relief products. As mentioned, the main purpose of the line is to make skin strong and healthy via its remarkable BioMimic Technology. But if you have other skin concerns like sun protection, lines, acne, pigmentation, you can still use them with the Calming Relief products. I find that it's made my acne treatment more effective, for example. 
• You can use the Physiogel Calming Relief products under makeup. I thought the creamy texture will make my makeup slide around. But I feel it makes my makeup easier to apply and makes my makeup last longer. The cream acts as a hydrating base, plus since flaky skin is reduced, the finish of the makeup looks better. 
• Anyone can use Physiogel Calming Relief products. It's safe, gentle and hypoallergenic. It's free from fragrances and ingredients that can irritate skin. It's so safe, even people with eczema and dermatitis can use these products. My skin is very sensitive. I flare up, get rashes, get really itchy and develop acne if the face products I use are not safe. But my skin has never reacted adversely to this line at all. I'm also really oily so I was afraid of the emollient oils in the products but my skin has not gotten oilier and more pimply. Just better!

Oh, and additional info for the photos above: every product has a dispenser. I love that! I really hate products that come in jars because every time I dip my finger into the cream, I contaminate it. The active ingredients also evaporate every time you unscrew the cap. Then you never really know if you're putting enough or too much product. But the Physiogel Calming Relief products are tubes with dispensers so every pump delivers the right amount of product every time. The product doesn't dry up or gets contaminated so it lasts longer and is safer. I love it!

The Physiogel Calming Relief range is available at Mercury Drug and Watsons. Here are my affiliate links to the Physiogel Calming Relief products: