sayartillero.blogspot.com

Day Out with The Girls, Red Luggage, Kate Spade Knock-off

2012-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Finally, my last entry. No more chasing after backlogs! 4:38AM Let’s do this!

February 19, 2012—Scheduled day out with my high school friends Pia and Pauline.

Used this beautiful Lancome palette I received as a gift from my gorgeous friend April (thanks Pril!!! Love you forever) I used Optic, The New Blue and Camisole; such gorgeous shades. Photo effect from this app called “Phototreats” Effect is called “Magic Hour”

What I wore. The printed top that was sent to me by Stop, Look and Buy (thanks Mavi!) What I did was wear a black cami underneath, unbuttoned all the buttons, and just tied the ‘scarf’ part. Looked pretty good. Well the reason why I didn’t button it is that it was pretty snug on the chest area. On the brighter side, it looks great as a cover-up! Apparently, this top is all over Divisoria! So I know I have a lot of twinsies! LOL

The quote that was on the placemat at the French Baker…

Lunch of the day: iced mocha and fettuccini carbonara

Bought a luggage today!!! It was a total steal at PHP 1,199.75 (on sale) I’ll be going to Cebu for 5 days in 41 days and I am pretty stoked about everything! What better way to start planning than with a red luggage?

Look at this pretty thing. It’s a Kate Spade phone case knock-off!!! Got it for PHP 149.75 at SM Department Store. After being naked for a couple of weeks, my phone is now fully dressed again.

It’s 4:47AM, I have to get up at 9 to run errands and film (hopefully it doesn’t rain!)

Now that wasn’t so bad. 8 blog posts in about 6 hours.

Hope you enjoyed reading. You made my day.

Funny Books, TopShop Fitting, Sigma, How I Shoot Products

2012-02-19T12:24:00.001-08:00

Was invited to the premiere showing of The Vow last February 12 (thanks to Carmex, ZoyaManila and of course, Shen!) Had plenty of time to kill since the organizers of the event were super genius to set the time the Filipino time Filipino time! (Did you get that?) The movie started at 5, and everyone was asked to arrive at 4! Found it pretty clever! (I’m not even being sarcastic here. I really found it clever!) Nobody was late, and the movie started on time!

So while killing time, my sisters and I went to Fully Booked (or was it Powerbooks? I don’t remember) I saw this!

Just HOW funny do you find this? Hahaha! The one’s obviously a positive book as opposed to the other one. They contain quotes, basically. I just found them super amusing, so I put them beside each other, and took a snapshot!

It was a Sunday! SO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS RIGHT?! Fitting day!!!

Went to TopShop and found a couple of cute clothes I wanted to try out (and eventually buy but then again successfully resisted—thank goodness) Okay, the bag’s from Greenhills (borrowed it from my sister Iza).

Damn this baby’s on fire!!! Faux leather jacket. It’s called a “Clean PU Biker Jacket” according to TopShop online. Costs about 2,000++ How badass can you look in this?!

Are you even surprised I loved this one?! I’m not gonna explain… Hong se hong se hong se!

This is tooooo pretty! I freaking love how flowy the skirt is! (Pardon my wrist, I just had to flick it up like that. LOL)

VIP seats to the The Vow premiere!

Arrived at the post mail last Monday!!! Thank you Sigma!!! I earned this.

If there’s one thing I dread the most, it would be CLEANING ALL MY MAKEUP BRUSHES!!! I cleaned a total of 44 brushes in one sitting the other night! I freaking dreaaad it. And I know I’m not the only one.

What I’ve been loving to death the past few days! I haven’t worn lipstick for 4 days now because of this!

The palette I’ve been using for school everyday! I don’t want this to sound like a promotion, but damn, the Sigma Bare Palette is so finnnnnne.

A snapshot after filming another Tagalog tutorial for all my fellow Pinays

And…the usual post workout shot. It’s my way of tracking my progress, really. No headshot because I always look like a mess after a session. But nothing beats the rejuvenating feeling of 300 squats, 600 reps of 10 exercises and all the possible body muscle torture you could think of…(this, coming from a masochistic workout-er)

Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering where I do my product shoots and how I do it…

Cybershot W130 on a tripod, our clean marble floor, an authentic Filipino hand seat, and the sunlight!

Now wasn’t that interesting?

Fitting, Nutella Crepe ala Mode, Lipsticks, and Rameon

2012-02-19T11:44:00.000-08:00

So I developed this weird routine of trying on clothes every Sunday. Fortunately, I successfully resisted getting this gorgeous cropped blazer (or whatever you wanna call it) from Maldita. Doesn’t it look nice? Look at that gorgeous V-neck and sleek buttons. I love how puffed up the sleeves are. Perfect ooze of attitude.

The red flats I so wanted to buy. (Payless) Again, successfully resisted. I was being rational. I wanted these. But I don’t really need them. (Arrrrg…but I am coming back for you baby red!) Oh yeah I have feet veins! (just for the sake of people who want to point it out/ask about it) I get them from all the torture workouts I do at night.

We get the best view of sunsets right outside our window. Lovely, isn’t it? I never miss to post on Instagram whenever I get to catch beautiful scenes like this.

Just what I need after a long week… Nutella Crepe ala Mode! PHP 115.00 The French Baker. It’s heaven on earth.

Another tutorial I did a few days ago…

I finally have my own Lime Crime lipstick!!! And the best thing about it?! It’s RED!!! “Retrofuturist”

An angel sent me these. (A reader of my blog) She refuses to be named though! But damn, I LOVE everything she sent me. She knows how much I love red lip colors so she sent me 4 new ones!!! How thoughtful and just doggone sweet.

She also included a lipstick rack! I swear I have the sweetest readers ever. Thank you!!! You know who you are!

Ahh…nothing beats having rameon after a long, hard day. Thank goodness for Hanayo right outside UST!

(3:45AM and I’m still not stopping…These are backlog entries, people!!!)

Thank you for reading me.

Boyfriend Mug, Pho Bo Kho, Blog Shoot Sneak Peek

2012-02-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, 2:44AM and still blogging! Just a couple of Instagram photos that have stories behind ‘em…

This mug set arrived at my doorstep 4 weeks ago. Of course, I’m a huge fan of Slipknot! (You just can’t use sarcasm in blog posts, can ya?) I ordered from an online shop in Great Britain especially for Paulo. If you know know who Paulo is, he’s my boyfriend for almost 4 years now. I was thinking of the perfect (Christmas) gift for him, so I searched online. He liked this one (I let him choose so as to not waste money on something he wouldn’t like!) It was my first time to order something from eBay! It was a huge relief when it arrived safe and sound! It reached Cebu safe and sound as well. I felt so happy because I know this made Paulo happy. Can’t wait to see him! (Did I mention we’re in a long distance relationship? Haven’t seen him for over a year now!)

Random photo of myself before leaving for school. (I just had to add this here, didn’t I?) Oh now I remember! I did braids because I was to solve math problems that day! Now, there’s a reason.

Lovely combination. Models Own nail polish in Bubblegum Pink and of course Revlon’s Quick Dry Top Coat!

My skin at its best. Thanks to Krave Minerale’s skin care line, water, and a hell lot of sleep!

One of the looks I filmed on the spot. Didn’t have any idea what to do…and ended up with it!

Another generous loot from Sarah (Make Up Hub by Naturele Collezione) I love this line!

Favorite snack ever: mashed squash on tortilla wrap!

The look I wore to a Marketing Seminar held at SMX. Filmed the process for my “Get Ready with Me” tag video in YouTube. Pretty fun! I love this top I’m wearing. It’s from Blanc et Noir.

The yogurt with mangoes and cheesecake I had before the seminar! Red Mango all the way. The cashier lady said “Bye Miss Say!” as I left the venue! How sweet. I met her during the IJT Meet & Greet! So cool of her to still remember me after a week!

Had dinner along at Pho Hoa after the Marketing seminar. Heck, I love having dinner alone!!! I had a tall glass of lemonade, Pho Bo Kho with Sriracha! It was one of the best dinners I’ve ever had.

Annual blog shoot (year 2012) What I workout for…fitting into body-hugging dresses.

Separate blog post on this shoot, though! It’s too late to continue.

3:12AM

Signing out.

Healthy Blending & Drinking + be-Buff + Working Out

2012-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

It’s 1:36 in the morning and I’m picking up where I left off. If only I could get rid of this obsessive compulsive need to blog about all the past photos I’ve taken using Instagram…Anyhoo, next up is: Blending! (I should’ve typed in “juicing” but that would make me a liar) You all know how I’m a big IJT and BenjiManTV fan. Throw in the gorgeous RissRose2, too! They all juice! And by juice I mean, use a juicer and juice fruits and veggies to drink! Being a loyal subscriber to those three beautiful people, of course I jumped in the idea. Numero uno problemo—I don’t have a juicer! (Like, damn, woman. How can you juice without a juicer?!) I looked up online and even in appliance centers and I could totally buy myself one! Breville is non-existent in my area, but I’ve found good alternatives! I still haven’t found the right time to buy one so for the meantime, I use our blender! (Like, damn, woman, how can you juice with a blender?) You DON’T! You simply blend! Let me show you what I whip up for myself from time to time…

Here’s what I had for breakfast a couple of days ago. A huge chunk of watermelon + 1 scoop of GNC Live Well’s be-Buff Protein and Fiber Mix. This tastes soooo damn good. Might tend to be too sweet, so I add water to dilute (did I use that correctly?) the mixture. Fills up my tummy in no time!

I freaking love my Blender Bottle from GNC Live Well! See here, it comes with this cute Blender Ball which you drop inside (obviously) and you can pretty much mix by shaking the bottle (closed, of course) Read more about this ingenious product here: http://blenderbottle.com/

Here we have a potent mixture that I experimented with and forced myself to drink up… I blended pechay (lol!!!) mango, and papaya in this! Let me just say one thing… Pechay (I don’t know the English term for this veggie), when blended, smells AND tastes bad!!! My mom told me right after I blended how pechay gives this aftertaste! She was right! Moms will always be right!!! I only made half a bottle, and felt this need to drink it all up!

So I did the usual way of drinking something you don’t really want to: pinch nose, drink up!

This is the reason why juicing has recipes! Don’t copy me and just buy whatever you feel like blending/juicing together! Hahaha!

Now this part would be yummy.

BEST mixture I’ve made: watermelon, mangoes, (I think I threw in papaya, too) + be-Buff Protein and Fiber Mix. This made the best drink ever!!!

Mmmm…

Did these make any changes to my body? Of course it did! The be-Buff, even alone, did, too! Perfect digestion, stronger, leaner muscles and basically this overall feeling of healthiness!

Why don’t you try it?

Can’t wait till I get my juicer. It will definitely everything.

What exactly does GNC Live Well’s be-Buff Protein and Fiber Complex Mix do to my body?

I drink 12oz of this baby every morning and after I workout at night. I feel stronger while working out—which is what’s supposed to happen.

supports lean muscle tone
enhances your workout
increases metabolism
supports beautiful hair, skin, and nails
includes a clinically proven fiber to improve regularity and help you feel full longer
with digestive enzymes to reduce bloating
great-tasting, low fat, and low calorie

I’m down to my 3rd pack as of this moment. I love drinking the Vanilla Bean and most especially the Chocolate Chunk flavor!

One pack costs PHP1,000++ (GNC went on sale about a few weeks ago, so I was able to buy 2 for the price of 1)

Yes, it’s very expensive, so if you’re not that serious about toning your muscles, please, do not waste your money!

I’m not sponsored by GNC to make a blog post about this (although I wish they would LOL!!!) I just merely want to share what I take for my workouts!

The thing is, I get fat so easily! So working out is something that cannot be phased out of my life. Good heavens, no.

One more thing, I workout in the comfort of our own living room. People have been asking… And I still am yet to do my fourth workout video! Have you seen the first three?

Here you go:

Shopping 01-26-12 “Loose All the Way”

2012-02-14T04:22:00.000-08:00

I went shopping about a week ago! I promised myself I’d shop more often this year. I deserve it after all the hard work, anyway.

So if you read my super long entry about the three days I spent with Judy and Benji, you’d notice that Judy wore this beautiful sheer navy blue loose-fitting top during our Chinatown tour. For some apparent reason, 3 days after, when I went shopping, I found myself reaching for tops of the same type! I ended up buying these:

1. Woman Philosophy PHP 549.45

2. Blanc et Noir PHP 699.75 (black camisole inside)

3. Classics at SM Original Price PHP 749.75, got it on sale for PHP 450.00 (white camisole inside)

I’ll be sharing more fashion hauls in the next weeks! Hope you enjoyed that!

What do you think about loose-fitting tops?

Neutrogena Lunch @ Chef Jessie (Rockwell Club)

2012-02-07T08:07:00.001-08:00

I had lunch with the Neutrogena team and fellow bloggers last January 27 at Chef Jessie, Rockwell Club. It is definitely one of the best places I’ve dined in.

Had mango shake as always—tasted so delicious and all natural!

Cream of Carrot & Pumpkin Soup—I am such a fan of anything squash/pumpkin, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed this!

Pan Fried Apahap Fillet in Grenobloisse Sauce—I loved this stuff. The apahap fillet was definitely scrumptious! The mashed potato was mashed to perfection. It’s amazing.

And for dessert… Demitasse of Chocolate-Coffee Soufflé—this was purely orgasm in the mouth. I have never tasted anything better than this soufflé. All I could say was, “oh my goodness” while I drowned in its flavors.

With crème-anglaise

To end the meal, I had some tea!

The water looked so inviting at the venue.

I definitely had the best time. Thank you Neutrogena Philippines!

Spending Time with Judy, Benji & the Family (January 21-23)

2012-02-05T16:00:00.001-08:00

I am finally almost done catching up with all the backlog entries and I know you know what this post is going to be all about… I met Judy and Benji way back in February 2011. It was their first Meet and Greet. I was a total fan girl back then and I believe I still am now! I never expected that we’d be friends like, in real life kind of friends. I was extremely delighted when, at the end of the year, they told me they wanted to do the Meet & Greet in 2012 with my help, hang out with me, and film a video together with Judy. That was definitely one of the best news I received in 2011. I felt extremely happy.

So we planned everything months before. I searched for places we could all hang out in and stuff like that. Everything went smoothly! It all boiled down to Red Mango in the Mall of Asia. Everything definitely went well.

Now this is the part where I start telling you all about it with the help of photos!

So, let’s get started…

January 21, 2011 (Saturday)—I arrived at Red Mango at 6:00PM, talked to the manager and started having all the seats reserved. The place was actually packed and I got worried and prayed all the customers leave on time! Haha! Luckily, they did! Benji came at around 6:30—it was soooo good to see him again! People started coming in 6:50PM onwards. It was so much fun. Everything went really well! When Judy came in she gave me a hug! She looked totally gorgeous!

The meet and greet blogged here: http://saytiocoartillero.blogspot.com/2012/01/itsjudytime-meet-and-greet-in-manila.html

This photo was during the picture taking! Everyone went cray cray! I didn’t get to take that much photos with people because my huge satchel was such a burden to carry and sweet darlings took photos with me!!! It was so surreal. I wish I took duplicates on my cam to share…

All the men taking photos for their women!

Don’t be deceived, this is just HALF of the people that came to the event. More people were scattered around! It was impossible to get everyone in the frame.

This is such a lovely photo! Judy called me to join in the shot and I didn’t realize it was all family in the picture! <3 They are all Judy’s cousins! There’s Avriel, Jann, Jet, Kaye, Kuya Randy, and Jhed!

Judy, myself, Achi Char, and Benji

Look who I finally met that night! Teena!!! She really is a funny person. I can’t wait to hang out with her more in the future!

After the Meet and Greet, I had dinner with Judy’s family! It was sooo cool! I sat together with Judy and Kaye! Kaye was soooo sweet to me! I love her! She has the most prettiest face ever. They made me feel like family! I actually felt like I’ve known Kaye for so long even though it was only our first time to meet!

Here’s a shot of Judy and I!

A photo of us that Judy took using Benji’s phone!

I had to take this shot for Instagram

After dinner! Caught up with Tita Nini!!! It was really touching when we saw each other at the Meet and Greet! She said “Say” in a really excited manner!!! Of course I hugged her! Judy told me Tita Nini loves my videos! How flattering is that?!?! No wonder Judy is such an amazing person. She got it from her Momma!!! <3

Oh yeah, see that framed photo of Judy and Benji? That’s my gift to them! It was actually the photo I took of Judy and Benji back in FEB 2011!

This was the place we had dinner in. Xin Wang Hong Kong Café—muy bien! The food was great.

After dinner, I hugged everybody good bye and went home. I was totally excited for the next day! Why? Read on…

January 22, 2012 (Sunday)—Oh baby I woke up pretty late! 11:30 to be exact! Benji called up and asked me what time I’d be over at the hotel. In a very calm manner I said about 30 minutes. After I put the phone down, I made a mad dash to the shower!!! I wasn’t able to curl my hair :( I didn’t even have the perfect outfit prepared! I just had to rush! I arrived at the hotel at 2:00PM sharp!

Benji and Kuya Randy fetched me at the lobby and led me to the hotel room.

Look who greeted me!!! The beautiful Judy!

Benji taught me A LOT!!! Thank you so much Benji!!!

Kuya Randy gave me chocolates—these tasted yummy!

My outfit that day!

After a few minutes, we headed out to the mall to go shopping! I am sooo glad I brought my card with me! I spent a lot. It was crazzzzzy! Benji and Kuya Randy came along with us—and waited while Judy and I checked out all the stalls one by one.

Here we are at the In2it counter.

What I bought! Cost me about 1,800++

Back at the hotel, we went to the room that Benji and Judy reserved for us to film in. Look at the view!

I had soooo much fun filming with Judy! She is the most down-to-earth person everrr. I love her!!!

After filming, we hung out in the hotel room! Judy ordered food to eat. Yummy pizza

Had dinner at Judy’s cousin’s place that night! The food was amazing! Don’t you just love how Filipinos prepare food? I love how tight Judy’s family is! They are all soooo sweet and soooo welcoming!

Back at the hotel!

This is KAYE!!! Isn’t she sooo pretty?! I am sooo glad I met her! She’s one of Judy’s cousins!

I had the best night with Judy, Benji, and Judy’s cousins. It was so much fun to spend the night with them!

January 23, 2012 Monday—Woke up at around 9AM, had to go home to shower!

I brought hopia for Tita Nini, Judy and Benji when I went back to the hotel! Tita Nini and her friends LOVED IT! They actually know Master Hopia (which my mom’s family’s business)

Judy’s mom and cousins had to go back to Batangas and this was our group photo before they left. I got teary eyed while saying bye to them! They’re really great people. After they left, Judy told me she hates goodbyes! I do, too!

We went back to the hotel and Benji and I watched Inglorious Basterds on the TV while Judy re-did her makeup. It was sooo cool watching Judy apply makeup! I was able to ask her a lot! Live makeup tutorial from ItsJudyTime, heeeeyyy!!!

We headed out after a few minutes! It was the day I toured them to Chinatown! Coincidentally, the 23rd is the day of the Chinese New Year!

Judy and I inside the cab

And there’s Benji!

First stop: The President’s Tea House

Bird’s Nest Soup

ItsJudysLife vlogs!

Beef Hofan—they loved this!

Crispy Chili Prawns—Benji went crazy over this

Still pretty even after all the walking!

I look weird in this photo…and so does Benji! Haha!

Enjoying the tea!

Second stop: Wai Ying for the best asado siopao ever!

Benji approves!

Next stop: Ling Nam for the best mami and siomai ever!

Definitely the bessssst ever

One of the best beef mami ever!

A piece of siomai costs 30.00! It’s sooo good. You have to try it.

Took them to 168!

Next stop was Wellmansons!

My mom and sisters got to see Judy and Benji too!!!

Last stop at Master Hopia! Benji wanted to take some hopia to Japan!

After that, we walked back to our place and called a cab to go back to the hotel!

I accompanied Judy to the mall coz she wanted to have her nails done. She also did some shopping. Judy has really good taste in clothes! I definitely loved spending every minute with her! We talked about a lotta stuff!

If there’s one thing I discovered about Judy, SHE WALKS SOOOOOO FAST!!! Hahaha! I had to keep up with her pace! She reminded me of the way my mom walks!

After all that, we went back to hotel and I said my goodbyes to Benji and Judy!

I wanted to cry when I hugged them goodbye!!! But I held the tears back! I just felt so happy and sad.

The days I spent with them were just beyond AWESOME. I will never forget this!

Christmas Lunch at Tempura Japanese Grill

2012-02-05T15:35:00.001-08:00

It was delighting to get together with my high school barkada last December and have Christmas lunch at Tempura Japanese Grill (Banawe).

We all had the PHP 495.00 eat all you can meal! Sue me! Sue me!!! Oh come one, we all know how people make the Yuletide season an excuse to eat a whole lotta food. So I cheated. No big deal! (My inner Jillian Michaels did kick my butt, though)

Look at this. Raw meat in all its goodness!

We ate all of this raw…

…just kidding!

We cooked them over this grill! How I wish they put 2 grills in one table so that cooking would be much faster!

Everybody enjoying the chow!

The only shot I took while they were cooking! All blurry, but you know how it works!

Christmas Dinner | Cyma+TGIF| with Volleyball Teammates

2012-02-05T03:13:00.001-08:00

It has always been a tradition for myself and my high school volleyball teammates to meet up once/twice a year and celebrate occasions together! Last year, we had Christmas dinner at Cyma.

Cyma is a Greek restaurant. A very interesting one. I haven’t tried dining in there before so you could imagine how the loud once in a while shouts of the word “OPA!” from the waiters startled me! *you’d get this when you eat there! The place was almost packed when we arrived, fortunately, we were still able to get a table of 6.

Their menus were ridiculously HUGE! I literally had to stretch out my hands to open it up and took about 5-8 minutes to browse through everything—even more!

I ordered Chicken Gyro for myself. It is basically tomatoes, red onions and tzatziki wrapped in pita. I don’t know what the hell tzatziki is. All I know is I at pita with chicken in it.

Look at this! They wrote all of that down in chalk!

And of course, my drink as always—lemonade.

My Chicken Gyro! Looks appetizing huh? Oh by the way, the sauce was fuuuhreaking spicy!

Here are my lovely teammates! We’ve known each other for more than 7/8 years! Love them to death! (L: Lareina, R: Jill)

(L-R: Danika, Tiffany, Agnes)

So, since Jill came in late, AND we wanted to score free dessert, Agnes (as always) asked the waiter that we were celebrating a birthday! (Which wasn’t true!!!) Hahaha! After dinner, the waiters all sang!

Hahahah Jill definitely look embarrassed!

But she blew the candle anyway!

This has got to be the worse dessert I ever tasted!!! I don’t know what it is! All I know is I never want to have it ever again.

I love these girls! We are incomplete, actually! The others were not able to make it! Our lives has totally changed. Imagine, we started out as little kids playing volleyball. And NOW, some of us are already working! How time flies!

After dining in at Cyma and doing some walking around the mall, we went to TGIF for some last minute finger food and chicka. We actually stayed in there till closing time.

I never laughed so hard in my life. We played this little game called “Shit Shit” and damn was it funny!

Here’s what we had while chattering the night away….

Pretty tasty nachos. I’m sure Paulo’s jealous as hell! (He loves this stuff!)

And to cap off the night, another group photo!

Meeting & Greeting My Readers December 2011

2012-02-01T07:11:00.001-08:00

It is always so nice to meet the people behind all the comments and messages in Facebook/Twitter/YouTube! I’ve hosted quite a number of small meet and greet dates already and last December, I hosted another one. It was a Christmas Meet & Greet which we held at Red Mango, Mall of Asia.

I blogged about this in my beauty channel — you can read the post here: http://saytiocoartillero.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-meet-and-greet.html I included a lot of photos of the lovely girls I met that day.

I tried this Green Tea yogurt with Special K as topping! I liked it!

And as always, I have the best sisters in the world. They came to support me! My sister’s friend, Gwen, also came! I’m lucky to have them.

After the meet and greet we decided to have late lunch at The Pancake House.

Shopped at Watsons, too! Bought myself the FX Blow Out (heat protectant cream) and the FX Curl Booster! PHP 299.00 each!

Lastly, dessert at Crepes and Crème!

Hoping to meet more of my readers in person this 2012!

Hair and Makeup Gig at Blue Gardens

2012-02-01T05:22:00.001-08:00

Last December, I had the privilege to work with one of my beautiful clients, Elaine, for her prenuptial shoot at this beautiful place called Blue Gardens. Everything was beautiful—and even though this post is very late, I still have to blog about it.

Being the Instagram junkie that I am, I will talk about this day through IG photos… (You can find me under the username “saytioco” in Instagram)

Arrived on time despite getting lost for almost 25 minutes!

Would you look at how pretty this staircase is? Reminds me so much of Xia Xue because of the floral embellishment.

Oh, hi! Waiting for my client and I saw this huge ass mirror! Wore my trusty blazer from GBC, minimal makeup on, I slept for only 3 hours that night!

Inside the bridal room after setting up. Another gorgeous vanity I took a photo of my reflection from.

Pretty set-up, don’t you think?

My client, Elaine!

Elaine and I after the first look

Everything you need to know about Blue Gardens

Elaine’s beautiful cracked nails!!!

Look how pretty!

This pathway was pretty difficult to walk on, but Elaine walked effortlessly with her heels!

Xia Xue inspired staircase

The beautiful couple

I wanted to take this home. How gorgeous!

Meal of the day: Amazing Tapa King’s Tapa Queen! I never thought I’d love this as much as I did that day.

I went home really tired, but happy.

Thank you Elaine and Anthony for the wonderful day! I wish you all the best. Congratulations on the engagement!

Read my post on Elaine’s Pre-Nuptial Look on my beauty blog.

Skin DeTox: Tea Talk

2012-02-01T04:49:00.001-08:00

If you are a watcher of the awesome BenjiManTV on YouTube, you would know about his Tea Tuesdays videos. I am an occasional tea drinker—meaning, I drink tea whenever we dine in at Chinese restaurants and stuff like that. Seeing Benji’s videos made everything much more exciting to try out! It’s amazing how many variants there are of tea.

I started looking around for tea to try out in December, and of course the first place I landed on was my favorite Healthy Options! They have this whole shelf full of tea! I think there are over 50 types of tea in there.

I picked up the Skin DeTox by this brand called Yogi.

Skin DeTox—Helps Purify the Skin | 100% Natural/Herbal Tea | Contains 16 tea bags

“Our skin reflects our diet and lifestyle choices: it’s the mirror to internal health. It’s just as essential to cleanse from the inside; by reducing internal impurities, you can have clearer, glowing skin. Yogi Skin DeTox was formulated to support a healthy skin care regimen by shedding impurities. Fragrant Rose Petal and Hibiscus, used in Ayurveda to cool and soothe the skin, entice the senses with a fresh, floral scent. Traditional liver-cleansers Burdock and Yellow Dock combined with ancient “blood-cleansing” Red Clover help purify the skin, and Organic Green Tea rejuvenates with an antioxidant boost. Discover beauty from within in a deliciously cleansing tea.”

I’d drink this tea twice a day, one in the morning, and another cup before I go to bed. I haven’t really seen drastic changes on my skin, given that I tend to work really late at night and go to bed at around 3AM/4AM/5AM. Nevertheless, drinking this tea played a huge role in calming my nerves and giving me an overall sense of relaxation. I don’t think any other beverage would give me the same feeling.

Another think I love the most about my Yogi tea? They have quotes on the tea bag handles!!!

A box of this tea cost me PHP 240++ for 16 tea bags. I haven’t repurchased from Healthy Options because for the past month I have been drinking tea from Chinatown—the kind which you really have to brew [tea leaves] before drinking them (without the tea bags).

Drinking tea is really something everyone should make a habit of. The benefits of tea are endless! I still have a lot to try out.

What kind of tea do you drink?

Alternative for Jewelmint in the Philippines

2012-01-31T08:07:00.001-08:00

Have you heard of Jewelmint www.jewelmint.com? I’ve been seeing so many gurus in YouTube rave about their pieces since the previous year and I really wanted to sign up for it! Unfortunately, they don’t ship to the Philippines!

Nothing to worry about, though!

Do you know the brand WWW *What Women Want* of SM Department Stores? Well, baby, they have it all! Last December I went shopping and got myself these gorgeous pieces from WWW. I told myself, they may not be from Jewelmint, but they can definitely compensate!

The prices may be a bit expensive for some, but I personally think that WWW pieces are of quality. Let me show you the stuff I picked up from that line. Gold looks better on me than silver. (This is a huge factor, so might as well check what looks better on your skin color)

Ring cluster—I really can’t remember the price, but I’m pretty sure this was PHP 299.00 You get 7 rings all in all. I’m not a fan of the ones with the huge fake jewels but the regular gold ones and the ones with the pearls are my favorite!

Bracelet cluster—I don’t remember the price of this one as well, but it ranges from 200-300++ I love these! I’ve always seen Heart Defensor and Anne Di layer their bracelets on Instagram—this is almost as good as a Jewelmint piece.

I promised myself I’d start collecting more stuff this 2012. (Shoes, jewelries, clothes…etc.) And I know with the jewelries category, What Women Want got me covered!

Check out their pieces in any SM Department Store branch!

This Little Heaven Called ‘The Pit’

2012-01-31T05:50:00.001-08:00

My blockmate Trizia introduced me to this place near UST called “The Pit” last December. I’ve never dined in there before but when I did, I went back every week and it was cray cray! I just want to share a few of my favorite dishes from there:

The BlueBerry Cheesecake—ahh…the cherry on top of the icing. This seals the deal after every meal! It’s never bad to indulge once in a while!

Shrimp Cocktail—I honestly think this is one of the best appetizers they have in there! Scrumptious is the word for this baby.

Sweet and Sour Pork on Rice—yeah, I eat rice once in a while! This is one of my favorite dishes from The Pit. The pork is just cooked to perfection. Creamy. Saucy. Crunchy. The flavors just celebrate in your taste buds!

Fish Fillet—one of the best dishes I’ve tried! Perfect for people on a diet, even. Tastes very light, yet filling. The garlic and sauce jive well!

Calamares Meal with Coleslaw—I tried this one because I saw a customer in another table who seemed to enjoy it so much. I understood when I tasted it! The coleslaw was perfect, the calamares were crunchy and chewy—everything was muy bien!

Those are just few of my favorites from The Pit!

If you’re from UST, you’d probably already know this place. If not, you should drop by! It’s located along Asturias Street, right across Jollibee, Dapitan.

Are you hungry now?

Love, Say

December 4, 2011 Live Blogging from the Trinket Town Bazaar

2011-12-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

It’s 12:10PM December 4, 2011. This should be fun. I’m actually live-blogging from the Trinket Bazaar here at Il Terrazzo. But since this place has no Wi-fi, I won’t be able to publish this post till I get back home. Anyway, I just thought it would be fun to live-blog about what’s happening.

Right now I’m back in our booth after a couple minutes of shopping. I slept super late last night because after I published my collaboration video with Roseanne Tang, I watched Easy A on HBO! When I went to bed it was 3:00AM already and while I was zapping away, Easy A went on! I tweeted “How could I possibly sleep now?!” I knew about this movie from my sisters. Didn’t think I’d love it this much. Took me about 2 viewings before finally getting hooked! You should watch it!

Anyhoo, I woke up at around 8AM, had breakfast, showered, and cried my eyes out when I put my lenses on. Lens-wearers would feel me when I how painful it is to put lenses on eyes that lack sleep! When the tears fall, that’s actually when I tell myself, “I knew I should’ve gotten more sleep!”

I didn’t have the time to make myself look bongga anymore. I just did my usual concealing, foundation, and brow routine, got hold of my favorite black pencil from Nichido, lined my eyes, curled my lashes, applied mascara, blush, and finished off with my current favorite lip color, Mirrored Mocha by Ever Bilena. The color is just to die for. Perfect neutral color talaga.

Anyhoo, I didn’t have the time to even pack my stuff, so like I always do when I’m running outta time, I open my bag and stuff all my things in it. My 15-inch satchel actually looked like it was gonna burst! But it didn’t! Quite a proof on how sturdy my 15-inch satchel is! It can withstand anything! (Knocks on wood)

We got to Il Terrazzo in about 15 minutes. No traffic kasi eh! It was raining though. I carried my huge box containing all the lashes to be sold. Quite heavy since I had the satchel on my left shoulder, my laptop and tripod on my left arm, and the box on the other arm. Thank goodness for my sister who held the umbrella for me—but I still got wet since she was trying to not get her stuff wet! Hahaha.

This is actually their second day here at the bazaar. Mine, first. The place looks cozy. I’m sitting here right now, looking around, and quite a number of people are already visiting. We set up our booth and my sister dropped my mirror—the other side cracked!!! Guess this means I have to buy the sturdier one I found at Ace Hardware the other week.

When this booth right across ours (GBC “GELIBEAN COUTURE) finished setting up, I just had to stand up and look at their clothes! I was looking through the rack and I hit jackpot. It was the perfect blazer. I swear I died a little. It was priced at PHP 700 but you wouldn’t believe how much I got it for. FREAAAAKING PHP 300.00!!! Like what the heck baby! I just love it when the seller is lan nang (fellow Chinese). I was actually their first customer today! That’s why super discounted daw. But come on that’s super duper big! PHP 500.00 taken off the price. She told me it was missing a button that’s why she’s lowering the price. I couldn’t care less about the damned button. It doesn’t even show! Like, it’s not obvious that there was a button there in the first place. I totally LOVE IT. I failed to take a photo before buying it but I’ll be going back there to take a photo for Instagram sharing later on.

Anyhoo, after that I ran outta cash. I mean, I still had cash in my wallet but it wasn’t enough. My sister Iza accompanied me downstairs (we’re at the PentHouse) to look for an ATM machine. Turns out, there’s none here at Il Terrazzo. We even went out in the rain (to look at the basement) we didn’t have any umbrella but this kind man held one for us while we walked. My sister was bugging me all the while kasi usually we have to give tip or something like that right? So when we didn’t find any ATM down there, we had no choice but to go back up and get our own umbrella. There was an ATM right across across the street. So we went there.

When I got the money (which I ought to NOT spend) my sister dragged me to Starbucks to buy a drink for her. I was able to momentarily tweet since the whole place has Wi-fi. Alam mo, Wi-fi should be available EVERYWHERE! So funny ‘coz I remember Olive’s favorite professor’s quote in the movie Easy A, “I don’t know what it is about your generation about documenting all your thoughts—it’s not all good!”

Anyhoo we just got back here a few minutes ago. Since my other sister, Lady’s birthday is coming up, Iza and I agreed on buying her the dress that she was eyeing on since yesterday. Same booth where I got my beautiful blazer! It’s this beautiful dress with (okay I suck at describing dresses) Okay so let’s leave it at that. It’s a beautiful dress. I have a photo right there!

She had a choice between an anchor-printed one and a polkadot printed one. She chose the latter. It looked great on her ha. We got PHP 50.00 discount on it. GBC’s owner is Alexis Go’s sister! I freaking forgot her name, but my sister thinks it’s Geli (hence the name of her shop) I know Alexis through Achi KC. I saw her when they went to the Chinatown Pageant before (if I got that correctly). Geli (assuming her name is Geli) is super accommodating! She even changes outfits every few minutes! She’s a student at FIP! And most of the clothes she’s selling are her own designs! She’s from ICA, by the way. The connection talaga is different when you’re from Chinese schools.

Anyhoo I went around the place again and right beside ours is Ysh’s Boutique. Daaaamn how could I not spend and buy? They are freaking selling MAKEUP. Not just any other makeup. They have NYX, Stile, Sonia Kashuk, a bunch of EOS lip balms, Suesh brushes and a whole lot lot lot more. I’m actually gonna go back to get the nail polish and lip color I eyed on awhile ago.

In the other booth, I found gorgeous Nike shorts perfect for my workouts! They only sell them for PHP 150.00 so I’m assuming they’re not authentic but the seller did say something about having Nike make them or something like that. I’m gonna go back for the pink shorts later on. I actually put it down down down below so that no one would be able to buy it. LOL! It’s the only pink one eh!

It’s 12:49PM already as I am typing this. We haven’t had lunch yet. I still have a piece of this yummy cheesecake we got from the other booth. It’s incredibly yummy.

Still no customers. But I already received online reservations! I love my readers talaga. Have I mentioned how supportive they are? 2 years ago, I never pictured myself to be in this situation. I am honestly loving it. I’m still getting there. It’s taking a lot of work, but it will be super worthwhile. I just know it.

So… let’s make a quick list on the things I’ll be buying before we leave later:

GBC nerd glasses for PHP 100 (I need help! Should I buy the lens-less ones or the ones with lenses? Geli (assuming her name is Geli) told me the lens-less ones allow no glare when taking photos. On the other hand, the ones with lenses look good when you go out. So I’m in a bit of a dilemma here. But I’m sure I’ll be able to decide later. Maybe just buy both?
Nike shorts for PHP 150 (I actually think I should buy two or three—but the inner thrifty in me tells me I wouldn’t wanna look in my bank account right after, so I’m guessing just the pink one)
NYX glitter polish for PHP 100 (It looks so beautiful! Perfect for the holidays! We’ll see!)
NYX Matte Lipsticks for PHP 280 each (I think I’m gonna pick the red one—which Judy of ItsJudyTime loves!
Sonia Kashuk Brush for PHP 400 (I probably won’t be buying this but it looks soooooo high-quality! Dulce loves Sonia Kashuk brushes so maybe, just maybe, I’d buy them later on)

It’s 12:59PM. We haven’t had lunch yet. But we know where to eat! BONCHON BABY!

A customer just bought from me! She’s super sweeeet! She told me my lashes is the only reason she came to the bazaar! I regret not getting her name!!! Whoever you are, thank you so so much! And I’d love if you leave a comment here! :)

It’s 1:04PM. I just sat back down after taking photos for this blog entry. How fun is this? Are you enjoying my live blogging? Well, technically it’s not live, but you get what I mean.

They’re playing “What the Hell” by Avril Lavigne over the speakers. I love this song! Anyhoo, I’m gonna stand back up and take photos for this entry.

It’s 1:18PM and I just sat back down. Went around and took photos. So this little girl just left our booth. She had chunky pink glasses on. So cute! She’s also one of the exemptions. Coz if you know me, I hate kids. But I don’t hate that one.

Are there any misopedists out there? I consider myself one, but not entirely! I mean, I get annoyed by some kids. But there are exemptions! So does that still make me a misopedist? Methinks not. Or maybe yes.

I don’t feel hungry pa rin but I can’t wait for Bonchon!

It’s 1:43 right now. I feel sleepy. I’m gonna go ahead and plan some stuff and I’ll get back to this entry later on. Can’t believe I’ve already written 1,678 words. Now 1680.

Okay hold on, looks like I won’t be able to get back to this till later. Only 26% of battery remaining. Bye for now!

3:14PM on the clock and 24% battery life remaining.

I just had lunch! My sister Iza and I went downstairs to buy lunch @ BonChon Chicken. I ordered Chops Rice Box, Iza had the Fish Rice Box and Dichi had a Chicken Burger. We cam-whored for a while while waiting for our orders. I actually almost dropped my iPhone over the ledge—thank God I had a good grip!

After BonChon we went to Banapple to buy something for our other sister, Luzelle. While ordering, I heard a “Say.” from behind. When I looked back, it was Rianne and Kim!

Oh heeeey! It’s 9:53PM right now! I’m finally back home. Now let’s pick up where we left off…

As I was saying, when I looked back, it was Rianne and Kim! Old friends from high school! Carla, Kim’s friend was there, too. I believe they dined in Banapple. I invited them to the bazaar, though!

We had our lunch but I wasn’t super satisfied with my BonChon Chops. Tasted pretty bland on the inside. It was okay though.

Rianne, Kim and Carla arrived after a few minutes! We had a super fun chat! Took us about 25 minutes or so. It was super great to catch up with them. Thanks guys for visiting our booth!

After my friends left, I just sat down since my laptop died on me already. Every few minutes, I would stand up and look around.

I went back to GBC and bought the nerdy glasses with lenses for only PHP 100.00! My sisters and I camwhored afterwards! I love how they look on me. I’ve always seen them on other people; never thought I’d love it on myself too!

For some reason, my phone detected Wi-fi in the area and I uploaded all the photos that I had on queue in my Instagram account! I know I flooded all my followers’ timeline—but come on, I posted interesting photos! The beautiful Marissa of RissRose on YT even commented on one of them!

Anyhoo…(trying to remember what happened next) Oh yeah, I went back to the Ysh’s Booth (the one that sells all kinds of makeup) and I freaaaaking bought makeup. I gave in!!! I tweeted earlier asking what palette I should get between these two:

I ended up buying Ocean Breeze—which was the very first one to catch my attention because of the middle E/S! How unique, right? Think about all the looks I can make with this baby. I got it for PHP 300.00

Anyhoo, with that palette I got myself a NYX Matte Lipstick in Perfect Red. I saw this on Judy of ItsJudyTime, and I bought it without no doubt because it’s freaking red! They sold it for 280.

I didn’t buy this beautiful nail polish anymore!!! But look how pretty!

After buying makeup I told myself, “SAY STOP BUYING. NO MORE SPENDING!!!” But then my sister took me to the other booth and we rummaged through the clothes rack. I ended up spending 300.00 more! I got THE perfect white trench coat and THE perfect black turtleneck top. The trench coat is from HongKong! Gosh, I totally loveeeee that booth!

That was the end of my purchase for today. I spent WAY too much.

So happy that I got customers! Thank you to everyone who came and bought lashes! Special shout-out to Dianne Go! Thank you for buying Achi Dianne!

By 6:15PM I was super tired already. Had about 10% energy left. I just sat there and computed my earnings and expenses—obviously the latter was MORE than the first one! But it was all worth it! I can’t wait to make a vlog about all this tomorrow!

Now it’s 10:12PM. I have not removed my makeup yet. I just published my lashes for sale online! (Keep the texts coming!!!) Go to my fan page to find out how to order from me.

I have a bunch of stuff to finish tonight. Although I feel very very tired.

I’m working on this entry just to have something to share to my readers! I totally had fun. Everything went great! I had a lovely first time at the Trinket Town Bazaar. Hopefully, all my “projects” pushes through! I’m really excited for a lot of things. But we can’t just broadcast everything, can we? I just want to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone—everyone who is making my dreams come to life.

Now time to wrap this entry up and publish!

I hope you had fun reading what went through my day!

11:15PM and I just finished adding photos. I am squinting now. Gotta get all this makeup and lenses off while this post gets published.

Ciao ciao!

I Lived to Tell About It

2011-12-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Unless I’m super super drained and tired, I see to it that I work my ass out every night. Obviously, I am writing this post at 2:08AM. I’m still up getting work done! I love days when I feel so inspired and productive! Anyhoo, the workout that I did yesterday (December 1) actually just hours ago, was the “It Will Rain Sweat” 1000 Reps Workout by BodyRock.tv. I don’t know what it is about me, but I always take challenges even though I know it’s going to be deadly. Challenges in workouts, particularly. BodyRockTV has changed my life in so many ways. People have been asking me to talk about my weight loss journey via YouTube, and I have yet to make that one, so for now, I hope blog entries would suffice.

Let’s talk about the workout!

I usually post a photo of my record via Instagram in Twitter but I didn’t do that tonight since this wasn’t a max rep workout. It was simple a timed workout—no pressure! I was hesitant to share the record on the paper since it had a lotta figures.

Basically there are 10 exercises which you will do 10 REPS of each for 10 ROUNDS.

Freddy’s brother and Kyla did an awesome explanation on the exercises so you might as well watch this video:

The first round totally heightened my heart rate. In the third round I was panting like a dog. I slowed down by the 5th round. Gained energy back through the 7th and 8th round, and basically super sped up by the 9th and 10th round.

It took me 53 minutes and 05 seconds to complete the whole 1000 reps.

I felt sooooo accomplished when I finished it! I could’ve easily given up halfway but I didn’t—I told you, it’s not really my nature to cheat on my workouts. Cheating will never get you anywhere.

The photo above is one of the shots I took right after the workout. You can’t really see, but I was drenched in sweat. It really did rain sweat, huh?

I love how working out makes me happy. I was feeling a bit blah before this and look at me now. After a torturous workout and a refreshing bath—I’m still awake at 2:30AM! I’ll be sleeping in a few minutes, though! Just had to upload a new video and put up a couple of blog entries (including this one which is the last for today).

My only advice to women/men out there who want to lose weight—YOU HAVE TO START. WANT IT. BADLY. Nothing and no one is going to do it for you.

Cheers to BodyRockers!!!

P.S. I’ve never met a Filipino BodyRocker before…if you are, I would LOVE to meet you!

The Ultimate Update/Top Favorites

2011-11-28T05:58:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I know it’s been almost a month since I last updated this blog, and I’m back to share my Top Favorites!

1. Meeting Krysha—I finally met my girl! This year feels extremely almost complete since we finally finally met. Read about our meet up here.

2. Su Zhou’s Xiao Long Bao—I’ve been craving like crazy for these bad boys, finally had my fix at Su Zhou! Have you tried these? They’re like heaven in the mouth.

3. Kisses from doggies—I swear, at the end of the day, all my stress goes away when I cuddle with them babies.

4. Sunsets outside our window—We always get the best view. Such majestic wonders of nature.

5. Hot Pink Lips—I am totally loving Sleek Makeup’s Pout Paint in Pinkini! Such a beautiful color that makes you stand out from the crowd.

6. Sleek Makeup Palettes—I can’t stop raving about these palettes ever since Sarah of Makeup Hub by Naturele Collezione gave them to me!

7. Lotion Overload—I have a year’s supply of lotion already!!! Latest additions are the Lemon and Coconut from Bath & Body Works from Krysha (thanks Kryshaaa!!!)

8. MAC Satin Lipstick in RED—thanks to my wonderful reader Ashley for giving me this wonderful lip color all the way from Dubai!

9. Chocolate Milk Shake from Café Breton—had this during my meet-up with Krysha and her mom! It tasted soooooooooo good but it’s a shame how I only drank like 1/4 of the whole glass.

10. La Pinay Crepe from Café Breton—Krysha and Mrs. Mallari suggested I try this, and so I did! Tasted really yummy! Such a perfect guilty pleasure.

11. My work—Always gonna be part of the list!

12. Working out—Was, still, and will always be my favorite!!! It’s one of the most perfect stress-busters! I workout when I’m stressed, angry, sad—and I instantly feel perked up after a few reps! You’ve got nothing to lose but stress and pounds!

13. Sigma F80 Brush—I’ve been using this brush everyday since I got it. Definitely replaced my Marionnaud N32 Blush Brush (but I still love it!) You have till the 30th to enter my F80 Giveaway. Click here for the mechanics.

14. Makeup Books—I am learning so so much from these. Definitely buying more books in the next months!

15. Dolly International Cosmetic Lenses—Super excited to use these in my next tutorials. Thanks to Dolly International for contacting me and actually sending (5) lenses!!! I was only expecting 1 pair. Super grateful.

16. Nutella—Come on, now. There is absolutely NOTHING that Nutella CAN’T fix on a bad day.

There you have it! My top favorites this month. Hope you had fun reading! I’ll be seeing you in my next post (which is tomorrow because my goal is to update my blogs daily now) I honestly find it tedious to balance school, my blogs, and my YouTube channel—but heck I love it!

Halloween HMU Gig @ the Tan’s and Cute Little Keisha

2011-11-06T04:19:00.001-08:00

Achi KC booked a hair and makeup appointment for a Halloween party last October 29th. (Read about the gig here) I gladly accepted the offer, of course. I’ve known her for a couple of years now! I actually knew Achi KC through Ady who is one of my best friends. You know how Chinese schools are interconnected! It’s really cool since I also met Achi KC’s sister, KK—online, but we never met all these years. I was actually happy & expected to see her that night! Achi KC’s family is pretty cool. I think I know them all (thanks to the internet!)

I filmed a makeup tutorial prior to heading out and going to Achi KC’s place. I arrived at around 8, if I remember correctly. I had a little trouble finding the gate number, and for a second there I thought mysterious beings (engkanto) were playing a trick on me. (You know how superstitious I can get!) Anyway, I was led into the house and was greeted by this beautiful dog named Tyra. As usual, all I could utter was “Ang cutttttteeee!”

I was led upstairs in Achi KC room and I finally met Ahia Arvin. Again, I only know him through photos! I did Achi KC’s makeup after setting up. I won’t talk about what I used because all that I have posted an in-depth entry about it in my beauty blog already. It was so much fun chatting with Achi KC. She’s always been like a sister to me!

KK came in a few minutes! It was soooo great to see her, finally! We used to chat a lot over the internet! Multiply days pa ‘yon! So cool, noh? The cutest part of the night was when Keisha came in! I know you all know how I hate little kids, but daaaamn, Keisha is totally an exception. She’s 3 years old (if I remember correctly), and man, she can operate an iPhone/iPad! How cool huh? We even took photos together. She’s so chubby I wanted to squeeeeeeeze her. But I didn’t. Haha!

I also did Ahia Arvin’s makeup after a few hours. I fell in love with his Kryolan makeup. The concealer he uses is just so damn great. I’m totally going to purchase one. Thanks Ahia Arvin for telling me where I can buy it!

Here are some photos that little Keisha took with my phone:

It was really nice to meet Achi Stephanie in person, too! She won the Miss Earth (Fire) title back in year (*I forgot*). She looked as beautiful as she does on photos!

The one thing I was afraid of happened that night—I forgot to put the battery in my digital camera. How utterly stupid, huh? Thank God for my phone. I was able to take a few shots! And the rest that I used for my feature in my beauty blog all came from Achi KC. Thanks for letting me use them Achi KC!

Sweet little Keisha even walked me to the car afterwards! How can I not love the little cutie pie?

Thanks to the Tan family for such a warm welcome! It didn’t seem like a hair and makeup gig to me! Such a fun night!

P.S. Achi KC’s a food blogger and you might wanna check her blog out—I always get hungry when I do: http://kaiserschmarren.tumblr.com/

Workout with Say 11/03/11 (300 Squats + 480 Reps Workout)

2011-11-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

On the last day of October, I vowed to never miss a workout in the next 2 months. I’m going to be greeting 2012 with a tighter, leaner body; still hoping to get semi-Zuzana abs.

Today is my third day, and so far, so good. I worked out at midnight the past two nights—slept at 4AM on both days, but today I did it earlier because I wanted to put up another workout video for my YouTube channel. I filmed today’s workout, and it was damn tiring. I had to do additional reps just to get a good footage! Initially, I was gonna share a video of myself doing the 300 squats under time pressure, but unfortunately, there is no beautiful way to film it. I looked horrible towards the end.

I ended up filming a 1.5 hour long workout in almost 3 hours, and then compressed the whole thing into a 4-minute video. I was absolutely drenched in sweat. I think I bathed in sweat, even! One of the best workouts yet.

Let me just go through the exercises one by one:

300 full, unsupported squats—this is my secret in keeping those buns strong and tight. Make sure you squeeze them together as you go up. You butt muscles should work as much as your leg muscles. I normally do 300 everyday, but you can always modify—I don’t want you to force yourself to finish the reps.
+Ball Crunches—lie back on your gym ball and do crunches. No stopping! Do 60 reps continuously. And when you reach the 60th, that’s when you’ll feel the torturous burn. Do regular crunches if you don’t have a gym ball.
Fat Burn Plank Jump—do this move with precaution. Complete 60 reps. Keep your balance. This will strengthen your arms like crazy. It’s like doing a momentary hand stand. Really fun, although it can be a bit risky as well. So don’t do it at all if you don’t think you can! Here’s a little still shot of this exercise:
Side Crunches—do 60 reps on both sides; perfect way to sculpt the ab muscles
+Ball Push-ups—you don’t know how much I was screaming inside while doing this. My arms were just too tired already. But I managed to finish 60 reps. And then collapse. (naaah, just kidding)
Lunges—do 30 reps on each leg. Regular lunges that’ll strengthen your legs.
Leg Work—do 20 per exercise on each leg. So you’ll be having a total of 60 reps per leg.

Watch the video here:

White Feathered Necklace from Girl Shoppe

2011-11-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

If you watched my Day in the Life of Say 10-22-11, you would’ve already seen me wearing this white feathered necklace. Many thought that this is one of my sister Iza’s wonderful works (The Style Prodigy Shop) but truth is, as I mentioned in the video, I purchased this necklace from Girl Shoppe at 50th Avenue, Robinson’s Galleria.

I love how this necklace adds statement to any outfit. I think it’s a perfect accessory if you’re wearing something very plain or monotonous in color.

The feathers are obviously fake. I put the necklace in my satchel once and when I pulled it out, some of the feathers have separated in tiny strips. I kinda like the effect, though.

I bought this necklace for only PHP 150.00 from Girl Shoppe at 50th Avenue, Robinson’s Galleria. They also come in other colors such as pink, blue, and purple.

Watch this video to see me wearing the feather necklace:

Latest Purchased Workout Equipment: Gym Ball

2011-11-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve always worked out using only my body weight. This means performing exercises with the help of your own weight. Not only does it help build up muscles, it also saves you a lotta moolah (money). I’ve learned bodyweight exercises from Shaun T. of Hip Hop Abs and Zuzana & Freddy of BodyRock.TV. There are endless of combos of bodyweight exercises you can try!

Last Sunday, I went to Toby’s and bought myself a gym ball. Why a gym ball when I mentioned in the first paragraph how I love doing bodyweight exercises? Well, with the gym ball, you can do countless of exercises as well! I personally love doing crunches with the ball since it gives me this feeling of “Okay I wanna give up now, but I can’t, I have to keep going”. It gives less tension on my back as it rests comfortably on the curve of the ball.

If you still haven’t, check out my Workout Video #2 wherein I performed exercises with the gym ball.

Not only do I use this ball for exercises, I also love to sit on it while I blog/film videos and at times when I just wanna bounce around. It’s a multi-functional ball which will really be a great help to everyone who want to lose weight.

I bought this ball from Toby’s for only PHP 750.00. It only comes in blue, but how I wish they come out with red ones. The set contains a pump, so you don’t have to buy a separate one. You will have so much fun pumping. I know I did!

Next target: Kettlebell!

Ears & A Tail for My iPhone 4

2011-11-01T03:31:00.000-07:00

Why I love my iPhone 4 better now…

After endless changes of different iPhone cases (all in red) for my phone, I finally found the one. I broke the chain of red and got this Rabito Case in a pink shade. Well, the main reason is that the red they had was more of an orangey type of red—which is a huge blech to me. I don’t even own anything in orange! (Except my can of Tony Moly hairspray)

Ever since my iPhone wore ears and a tail, I found myself loving it so much better now than before. I guess there’s something adorably irresistible about bunny ears and so much more for the furry bunny tail.

How did I find it?

Do you know Heart Defensor? The Youtuber? We are Instagram buddies and she posted a photo of her phone with the bunny get up. Of course, I was like, “Damn, I gotta have one of those for mine. How cute is that?!”

Where did I get it?

I was roaming around SM City Manila as usual during one fine Sunday when I passed by this booth at the Cyberzone area (Lower Ground Floor). In Marketing, we learned how display could affect the purchase decision of consumers (which includes impulse buying) Funny how my eyes got drawn to their lower shelf! And with widened eyes I was like, “I finally found you!” Some people in Twitter have told me how I can get the case at Cellboy—but unfortunately, the branch at SM Manila doesn’t have it.

The booth’s name is called “FireWyre”. It’s right across SamSung.

How much did I pay for it?

I only paid PHP 150.00. Can you believe it? Other stores (not booths) were selling it for PHP 450.00!

Colors available

Pink (the one I got), purple, orangey-red. (Available during my visit)

What is the function of the furry tail?

The tail is actually detachable. It acts as a stand (see: photo above) and according to the pamphlet, you can also wrap your earphone cords around it.

I am getting the purple one in my next visit! This is, by far, the best phone case I’ve ever bought for my iPhone 4.

Day in The Life of Say: Photoshoot @ Rouge Studio, Bon Chon Chicken and a Whole Lot of Vlogging

2011-10-25T11:31:00.001-07:00

October 22, 2011 (Saturday)

I got up earlier than usual for a photoshoot with my sisters and her friends. We ran a little late so I went out of the house with unkempt hair which I tied into a huge bun and only my foundation and brows on. No eye makeup, no blush, no lip color. They picked us up at a nearby mall and we headed to Ortigas.

So I was sitting and thinking…thinking…

Suddenly I remembered.

I forgot all my freaking makeup brushes.

Great! Just great.

So I sat there for about 15 minutes thinking, ‘okay what should I do now? I don’t have eye brushes with me.’ I only had my Marionnaud N32 Blush Brush (which, as you all know, is my multipurpose brush) and the brow brush that comes with the brow pencil. My sister Iza suddenly told me. “How about cotton buds? Dala mo?” Oh yes. PERFECT. I have a whole stash of Q-tips in my traincase! Again, it’s Mally Roncal’s beauty tips to the rescue!

So there I was, inside a moving car. I got hold of a Q-tip and my MAC Beauty Marked E/S and started working on my eyes. I wanted to have full makeup on by the time we arrive at the studio. It was pretty difficult at first. Especially building the color up! Blending was a bit easier, though. Imagine, I put on false lashes while the car was moooooving—I really gave myself a pat in the back for successfully finishing a simple smoky eye look.We parked at Robinson’s Galleria and walked to the studio. It was right across Galleria. We passed by Girl Shoppe at 50th Avenue and I spotted this beautiful feather necklace! I bought it for only 150.00. I love it. Love at first sight.

Rouge Studio is really cozy. It has limited space, but I really loved it in there. Our work station was lovely. A huge table and bright lights—I can already do with. I worked on my sister Iza first, gave her a sexy, smoky eye look—much similar to mine. It definitely suited her outfit. She was first up. I did my sister, Lady’s makeup next. And then next was her friend’s brows. After all the work, I vlogged for my Day in the Life video. Oh yeah. It went great! You can actually watch the video embedded at the end of this post. I am really warming up to all this vlogging stuff. I am very comfortable doing it now compared to my first Day in the Life (when I didn’t speak at all) Someone in my channel actually commented on why I filmed myself in the mirror when I could film myself directly daw. Heck, what is so wrong with filming myself in the mirror?! I liked the lighting, so what? Some people really make big issues out of small things. And that makes me laugh. I was like, “What?!” Hahaha!

Anyway. I didn’t get the chance to do my hair at all. So I went in to have my photos taken and oh good gosh my hair was a mess. Oh the downside of having past-waist length hair.We wrapped up the shoot at around 4:30PM and headed back to the car to leave our heavy stuff before having dinner all together.Mark Bradford, my sister’s classmate’s brother, and our photographer, is really cool! He treated us at Bon Chon Chicken. And damn, Bon Chon definitely killed all the other chickens. I fucken looooved it. Not to mention the kimchi coleslaw. Good stuff, baby.So after eating, we walked around 50th Avenue. I was able to get tips and pointers from Mark regarding lighting stuff and all that camera shizzle. It was so cool how he knew a hell lot of stuff about filming and stuff. I didn’t do it literally, but I took notes in my head. 56-57k (oh yeah I definitely remembered that—something about luminescence [okay, I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure that’s it] LOL I’m not even gonna try to remember anymore. I can always ask Mark again.

So we headed home. I fell asleep—I felt sooooo tired. Traffic was terrible on the way home.

When I got home, I worked out. I guess my little nap energized the bunny inside of me. I did BodyRock.tv’s Set Fire Workout. It was a killer, but definitely do-able. My thighs screamed in pain since they still haven’t recovered from my torture workout the other day and there I was pushing myself over and over.

So I’m a little masochistic.

No harm!

If you wanna watch how my day went…click on the video below!

P.S. Mark Bradford’s coolness didn’t end that day. He posted the photos about a day after and I was blown away. I think I found the perfect photographer for my blog photos! (Especially now that my bestfriend/photographer Krizel is in California) Looking forward to working with him in the next months! Thanks Mark!

Wanna see the photos? Here are some!

Workout Video #2 (+Gym Ball)

2011-10-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my second workout video. We'll be working out with a gym ball this time.

I’ve been using my own bodyweight for my workouts for the longest time, and in this video, I tried something new. I never thought working out with a gym ball would be just as challenging & tiring.

I am not entirely familiar with the exercises you can perform using the gym ball so I had to research. After all, there is nothing that Google can’t answer. I stumbled upon this site called Ask Men.com You might ask me, “Men?” So what?! Anything they can do, we can do it too!

You can see the exercises I did in this video here:
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness_top_ten/36b_fitness_list.html

As usual, I used my 60 reps per exercise rule. Always modify if you think you can’t handle it.

The Biggest Loser Exercise Ball from:
Toby's (PHP 750.00; includes a pump)

First Workout Video

2011-10-25T05:14:00.001-07:00

I’m not all about the makeup, nor am I all about disguising my natural look with loads of cosmetics. My skills in makeup application and hair styling are two things; my health & fitness, another. Here’s another side of me I have officially shown the world through my channel in YouTube.

I’ve been receiving a lot of requests on doing workout videos for the longest time and I have finally put up my very first one. Just for the record, I know I’m not model-thin, nor will I ever be a size 0; but am very happy with my body right now. I have a 37-27-37 vital statistics—proportion and all, and I have muscles in the right places. I was born to be curvy and I have learned to embrace it. I have worked very hard for this body. If you know me 2 years ago, I was huge. 170 pounds huge. And now I’m almost 40 pounds lighter. Nothing makes me more happier than being fit and healthy.

Now this first video is just an excerpt from a 1.5 hour long workout that I usually do. I call this my 300 squats + 600 Reps Killer Workout. Most exercises are from www.BodyRock.tv the site that changed my lifestyle. If you follow me on Twitter, you’d know how much I am addicted to their torturous workouts.

The exercises I’ve shown in this video are:

Commando Push-ups—my favorite kind of arm torture. It shrinks your belly, too! I have to say this is one of the exercises that really tones my abdominal muscles; not to mention, your arms, baby! Do 60 repetitions of this exercise.
Lifted Knee Hugs—another move that is a surefire way to burn those belly fat! Do 60 continuous reps without stopping. Feel the burn all the way.
Triple Leg Work—this move is from Hip Hop Abs. Perfect exercise to tone the legs! Believe me. Keep your balance and just hold it in! Keep yourself strong. Do 20/20/20 per leg. (3 exercises per leg, 20 repetitions per exercise. 20x3=60 per leg)
Fat Burn Plank Jump—one of my favorite moves! Oh yeah the fat burn plank jump. You have to be careful, okay? Don’t force yourself if you think you can’t handle it. You basically jump and make a momentary handstand. All the weight is shifted to the arms—which explains why my arms are this bulky. ***Once, I was doing this move and I literally did a handstand. I felt scared because it took about 3 seconds before I could balance myself back down safely. SO BE CAREFUL AND ALWAYS LAND ON BOTH FEET WITH BENDED KNEES!*** Do 60 reps with a short break half-point.
Side Crunch—this move really toned my abs. Watch the video to believe me! Do 60 reps on the left and 60 reps on the right.
Monkey Push-ups—this is another surefire way to tone the arms. All the weight is shifted to the arms since we are on the tip of our toes. Do 60 reps. Push really hard.
Leg Lift—another ab exercise that will surely give you abs in no time. Do 60 reps. Push your hardest.

The last part is a little something something that I love to do—back-bending. Again, DON’T FORCE YOURSELF TO DO IT IF YOU CAN’T! I don’t want any cases filed against me. Haha! But seriously, I just want to show you guys what I do to lose weight & tone up. Do these with precaution.

I hope you enjoy the video & remember that beauty is nothing if you forget about your health.

P.S. If you’re wondering why I can do such difficult workouts, it’s because I’ve been a volleyball player for 8 years when I was in gradeschool-highschool. So I pretty much started building muscles at an early age.

My Top 10

2011-10-24T05:47:00.001-07:00

1. Brownish Blonde Bob—well, obviously I haven’t cut my hair yet! These are my fully grown bangs we are looking at. And thanks to the wonderful sunlight + Instagram effect, they made my hair color look blondish. What do you think? I love the whole new look, but I’m still having second thoughts. It is true what they say about having a deep connection with one’s own hair. I know people will say, “Cut it! It looks bagay!” But when I actually do it, I just know I’ll regret it. So until I’m 100% sure that I really want this, I will stick to my almost-Rapunzel-like hair.2. Human Nature Cleanser and Makeup Remover—this is no way an advertisement/promotion, but I was sent this product along with a few more Human Nature stuff and I freaking love it. Hey, it’s made in the Philippines, it’s 100% organic, it’s affordable, and it works! Just perfect.3. Bath & Body Works Secret Wonderland Lotion—Krysha gave this to me if you remember my haul, and ohhhh my goodness, the scent of this thing just blows me away.4. View outside our window—I look outside our window every sunset. And a beautiful scene greets me every time.5. Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual—I finally bought the book! I was gonna save it for Christmas, but I couldn’t resist. It’s really a great book. It’s the perfect book for everyone who wants to become a freelance makeup artist. 6. 15” Red Satchel—oh yeah this baby & I have been together since I got her. I’ve been taking her out in every event that I go to. I love how roomy it is; yet I know I have to be careful not to go overboard as the whole thing might break apart! Fortunately, this satchel is made of strong materials. Imagine, it can hold ALL my stuff. And if you know me personally, you would totally know how much stuff I carry.7. Jemma Kidd Makeup Masterclass—#2 makeup book that is on my to-buy list. Books are great investments! Target purchase date would be Christmas 2011.8. Mike Posner—he’s coming to Manila, bitches! I think his concert would be the first & the last I’d be attending to. Can’t get over how sexxxxy he is. His voice too! His songs are AWESOME! I can dance to his songs all day everyday. 9. Begging doggies—it’s the same scene every time I eat here @ home. Baby Jackson just lays his head on my lap and looks at me with this kawawa face. So damn cute.10. My Rabito iPhone Case—I love everything about it. I love my phone more now than before when it didn’t have ears & tails.

Day in The Life of Say 10-18-11

2011-10-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

My sister tagged me along to the Freeway X Manansala event she was invited to. Since I don’t really care that much about the event (so this post is not gonna highlight it), I decided to just blog about how the day went. So it was a Tuesday. We had to take the cab from the house to Glorietta because of color coding. I had so much fun with my sister! She filmed me inside the cab while I did my “What’s in My Bag?” video. I had to tell the driver to shut the radio off so as to not interfere with my vlogging. Hahaha! Good thing Manong didn’t mind—he seemed pretty sleepy and just had no care at all. We arrived about 2 hour early so my sister and I decided to eat first. We passed by Luk Yuen and had a sudden craving for xiao long bao. The restaurant looked pretty neat—I was pretty happy that it was not crowded at all (well, of course, since I wanted to vlog without nosy eyes on me) Although, the waitresses were kind wondering why I was talking to the cam. This is one thing I don’t like about this whole vlogging in the Philippines. I mean, come on. If it’s not your business, wag na lang maki-alam. I love how people in other countries have all the freedom with all this stuff—and not get silly, unwanted attention from people around. Yes I’m talking about Timothydelaghetto, Judy, Benji, and all the other famous vloggers in YouTube! Anyway, here is my sister. I believe I’ve already told you guys that she’s the one who owns The Style Prodigy Shop—which explains the wonderful earcuff.And here I am! Nothing much to say about this photo—except that I love what Etude House’s Easy Brow pencil is doing to my brows! Oh yeah, and blazers are lovely!While waiting for our orders, they served us complimentary chips and bowls of soup. The chips tasted like chicharon—tasty, but you know it' ain’t healthy!My sister order radish cake which tasted soooo good (and I regret not taking a photo of it! I was too busy vlogging! But you’ll see it in the video!)I ordered Dumplings in Chili Sauce but had the chili sauce separated (the dumplings were supposed to be submerged in it, but I don’t think I can handle that!) YOU GUYS SHOULD TRY THIS OUT!!! The dumplings tasted soooooooo good! I know I said we wanted xiao long bao, but they don’t have it on the menu. THESE definitely compensated. Ang sarap!So after eating, my sister and I headed to the venue. And as usual, Filipino time. The event did not start until like 1.5 hours. We signed up, had our photo taken and just chilled. My sister went ahead and took photos for her blog. I told you this wasn’t my cup of tea. I mean, beauty I can take. But fashion, not too much.

Freeway gave us these goody bags! And how thoughtful it is for them to personalize each with the names! Thank you Freeway!If you don’t know Manansala and you’re a Filipino, better brush up on your…literature, perhaps. I honestly don’t know much about him, but Google! And you shall discover how great of an artist he was. And his works, now, on apparels! The buffet served the CREAMIEST CARBONARA everrrr! I really loved it. They also served crepes and appetizers which, obviously, I don’t have photos of. Anyway, while waiting, I met a fellow beauty blogger! Her name is Bec. It was so sweet of her to approach me and recognize me. Hope I meet her again, because we were not really about to chat that long.National Bookstore was two stores away from Freeway, and since I was kinda getting tired of waiting for the event to start, I went in the bookstore to look for books na lang muna. Come on, they had a lot of makeup books available! I was either Jemma Kidd’s or Bobbi Brown’s. I was contemplating and in the end, I got myself the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual. This is not the hardbound one, so it was only priced at PHP 735.00. I’ve been meaning to get this book for the longest time—and I can say that Christmas came a little early because of this. Thanks to all my hardwork! Haha I paid for it, and if you’re wondering, I was feeling thrifty so went for the softbound edition. So the event was taking too long to start so my sister and I left the venue and went downstairs where all the artists were like doing their stuff. We had the opportunity to take photos with Divine Lee! She was so lovely. Oh and if you are wondering again, I was wearing flats (which explains how midget-y I look next to her)—and she was wearing Kermin Tesoro shoes! Look at this cute little boy right hereeeee…..I wanted to squeeeeeze him! Adorabbbble!So we left the venue earlier than expected, and walked to Glorietta 4 to get some coffee. We went to this place called McCafe. I loved how cozy it was in there. And I enjoyed my Iced Mocha—strong, but definitely worth my hundred bucks.And for the last photo of the day—me & my sister. And yes, I know my hair is messed up. Haha! Hope you had fun reading! The Day in the Life of Say video is embedded below. Watch it if you want!

The Look I Fell In Love With + Updates

2011-10-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

It’s 4:04AM as I am typing this blog entry. Yesterday was vlogging day for me and it literally took me hours to finish editing the first video scheduled to go up today. You should’ve seen me laugh at myself—I compiled quite a handful of bloopers from that one. Made a separate video for that since I hate long ass videos. Week 7 is 14 minutes long, dude. Another 4 would hurt.

Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I fell madly in love with Cher Lloyd’s look. I made a tutorial on it about 2 days ago and for some reason I find myself always wearing the look. I wore it to the mall on the 13th, and I wore it yesterday for my vlogging session! I guess I got bitten bad.

The only difference in the photo (see: above) is the lip color—which is Tea Rose by NYX. Revlon’s Nude Attitude is not really something I love, but it totally rocked the Cher Lloyd tutorial.

Oh yeah, this reminds me, I have to pick up new black eye pencils tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be letting go of this look soon. It’s all about the smudging and the lashes, baby.

So right now, it’s 4:14AM and I have 379 minutes left on Week 7 (roughly a million years). I have things to do in the morning. I also still haven’t blogged nor shared photos from my 3-day gig with High Sierra. Well, that one’s gonna be a long-ass post. I’m happy I’ve stocked up on ready-to-be-edited videos—puts less pressure on me!

I love my work. I am proud that I’m earning with my YouTube videos, my blog, makeup gigs, and my faux lash business with Paulo. Heck this is what they don’t call “work”. If it’s too much fun and you love doing it, baby—you’re blessed!

Grades were released about a few hours ago, and man, I fucking passed everything! That just puts the cherry on the icing.

Good news every.single.day. Scary, huh? You know how Yin & Yang can be. I definitely do.

See you in the morning!

Instagr.am for iPhone

2011-10-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve always used TwitPic/Lockerz before I had my iPhone 4. At first glance, I did not like how aged the photos looked like with the effects from Instagr.am; my sister was the one who introduced me to it. Well, as you can obviously see (if you follow me on Twitter, that is) I am now an avid user of the application. I love how I see the world in it. Why? Well I follow a lot of interesting people in Instagr.am from all over the world—they upload wonderful photos, I tell ya. It’s a completely non-stalkish way of peeping into a stranger’s life. I don’t mind sharing my photos at all. I’ve been out in the open since I’ve joined Blogger, let alone, YouTube. I have over 500 photos in my account—which is quite enough proof how much I’ve been using this. Instagr.am constantly have upgrades to basically enhance the features available. Just hours ago, I had mine upgraded to the 2.2 version, if I’m not mistaken.

To cut this whole entry short, you can find me on Instagram under “saytioco”.

I definitely love meeting strangers—this world is full of interesting people!

Basic Workout Moves I Swear By

2011-10-10T08:30:00.001-07:00

Just because my left hand is still swollen as hell, I still can’t film workout vlogs—but I guess this can jumpstart all my interested viewers’ own workouts. They have been requested for workout videos for the longest time—and I promise I’ll put my first one up as soon as my hand gets better.

Here are just some of the basic non-torturous workout moves I swear by (if you follow me on Twitter, you’d know how difficult the workouts I perform are, so when I say it’s non-torturous, it means you can always modify. But if you’re a masochist like I am, go torture yourself and aim for maximum, timed reps (repetitions)!1. We all have tummy fat, and getting rock hard abs is hard—mine still need a hell lot of work, but I’m glad to have reached this point that I am in right now.

Exercises I do:

Side crunches: 60 repetitions on each side (my trick is—the moment you wanna give up “because it hurts”—THAT’S when you keep on going. Push for 60, baby. You can do it! No stopping. (Unless you have asthma, or lung problems!)
Commando Push-ups: now this is a BodyRock exercise term which will require a deeper explanation. Basically you lie on your tummy, push up from under your arms. So all your weight is on your palms while your……okay you’re probably not getting me, so watch this video from BodyRock instead: http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/12/23/commando-exercise-challenge/ I push for 60 every time. This is my favorite move. It will kill your arms, abs and legs. You will have abs in no time.

2. Who wouldn’t love buns of steel? I think this can be the best asset of most women—other than breasts.

Exercise I do:

You know how much I love squats. Killer squats tone everything from butt down to the legs. It works on the abs as well. You just basically stand with your feet apart and start squatting—your weight on the heel. Exhale and squeeze the butt muscles as you come up—the two most important things in the move. I normally do 300 squats under time pressure. My fastest was 10 minutes and 48 seconds. It’s a challenge from BodyRock that I conquered after 4 tries. Don’t put yourself under time pressure if you know you can’t handle it—always modify.

3. Who loves saggy arms? I don’t! I’m not against people who have it (I still do!) But it’s always nice to get rid of them.

Exercise I do:

Commando Push-ups (see link above in #1)

Those are just a few of the intense workout moves I swear by, stay tuned for another post about the other ones and my diet—hopefully with the videos!

Things I Failed To Blog About

2011-10-05T21:22:00.001-07:00

My obsessive-compulsive self just won’t shut up until I get these photos blogged.

1. Mrs. Field’s Comfy Red Couch—I swear I’d fill my future house with this comfy thing. I could sit on it for hours!2. Sony Cybershot W130—my reliable and first ever point-and-shoot camera. Remember my old YT videos? I used this to film them! Those were the days…HD wasn’t in my vocab yet.3. With the ever so gorgois Janica Buhain—this was taken during our Sunday lunch @ Omakase. Read her blog! http://www.dianejanica.blogspot.com. 4. RIBBON HEAVEN—SCORE!!! I’ve been trying to find bows since forever! They’re available at Connecticut Arcade, GH, in this store called “Style On Air”.Everything just screams XiaXue (http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.com) 5. Batch 4 of my faux lash business with Paulo—has SOLD OUT in a span of only a week! New lashes will be coming out in our fifth batch. 6. Hamster Ball—a fun, new app I downloaded in my iPhone. The hamster is just tooo cute when he balloons up. 7. YouTube Awards—the first time I saw this, I thought it was really cool! Thanks to everyone who’s been there through the years!8. Reached #18 on TopBlogs—I know TopBlogs constantly changes, but this is an accomplishment for me.9. Mary Kay Timewise Matte Wear Foundation—Jhia of Red Jhelli Shop sent this together with the lenses she wanted me to review. I have yet to try it, but it looks very promising. Thank you Jhia!10. Out of Food—when Pedring happened, we had no food stocked at home. So Mama and I had to go to the mall and buy food! Including dog food!I also had to satisfy my craving for popcorn! Chef Tony’s is my favorite.And here’s my beautiful Mama :)11. Circle Lenses—got me falling in love. I am totally getting more circle lenses soon! These are the Super Angel Gray Lenses that Jhia of Red Jhelli Shop sent to me.More posts soon! :x

Blogging Inside the Cab, Terrible Traffic, Hairstyling Gig at Makati Shangri-la

2011-10-05T19:22:00.001-07:00

Last week was nothing but showers of blessing. Achi Char contacted me and asked if I could assist her in hair styling for a gig. It’s not totally my forte, but hairstyling is one of the areas I love to experiment and work on. I gladly accepted since my schedule permitted. I woke up at 8:30 on a Friday. I knew I would be battling traffic. I left the house at 10. And after 6 cabs who don’t want to accept rides to Makati, I finally got in one that was willing. Aren’t drivers supposed to accept all destinations? I find it really stupid how they choose where they want to go. Like what the heck, man?

I luckily breezed through traffic and the meter ticked at 130.00 just as I arrived the hotel entrance. I paid 150.00 to the driver—just because. I went up to the Rizal Ballroom where I immediately spotted Achi Char. We were led to a beautiful hotel room.All the work started. Achi Char worked on Margaret’s makeup while I did Cheenee’s hair. We were chitchatting and I learned that the girls we were dolling up are millionaires! They won The Voice of McDonald’s last year and they were gonna be interviewed by Rated K that day. It was really cool!

If you want to see what hairstyles I did for Margaret and Cheenee, go to my beauty blog.

After all the work, we were able to sneak in a few shots together!The Rated K team went in and set up after a few minutes, and Margaret’s and Cheenee’s interview started. Achi Char and I walked to Glorietta to have lunch and dessert @ Tutti Fruitti. It was fun to talk to Achi Char about personal and career-wise things. I really think that she’s my blood related sister, although she’s not. I don’t want to blog about this, but Tutti Fruitti in Glorietta is a bit unsanitary. Let’s just say, I saw creepy crawlies in their fruit selection… Major down points. Never going back there. *No, I did not eat the creepy crawlies…I had to leave right after lunch because I still had a 3PM class to attend to. We went back to the hotel and I changed into my uniform right away. Before leaving, Achi Char, myself and the amazing singers were able to take a few snapshots together! And…Margaret and Cheenee sang for us!!! Goosebumps all the way.I scored a cab right away thanks to Makati Shang’s hotel service. Traffic was horrible. I tried blogging inside the cab, but then I had to stop because I felt dizzy!

I was 30 minutes late for my first class. I felt exhausted. But it was all worth it.

Blog Shoot @ Camera Cart

2011-10-02T07:11:00.001-07:00

Continuous blessings bring about continuous progress and improvements. My blogs play a vital role in my life because they’re one of my sources of income. I am proud of myself for being able to earn through my passions—I think I speak for every artist out there. As the saying goes, “Make your passion your work, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

One of my bestfriends was scheduled to leave for California on the 30th of September, and she won’t be back in three years. She’s a photographer and we always planned on doing a shoot together; we finally found the right time to do it. Since I needed new shots for my header and blog layout, I scheduled Camera Cart for a shoot last September 18th. It was my second time to use Camera Cart’s studio services. If you can remember, our LuLu Makeup shoot was also held there.

It was just basically me and my photographer, Krizel. Everything went smoothly—the #1 reason why working with people you’re comfortable with works all the time.

All my new header shots that are displayed now and will be displayed in the coming months are all taken from this shoot. I am very happy about how the photos turned out. Of course, if it wasn’t for my Beef, this wouldn’t have been possible.

Here are just some of the photos that I already posted via Instagram:Please stay tuned for the other header photos! Everything is still in progress but what you see now in my beauty blog and in this personal blog are basically the first looks. I want to thank Camera Cart for the great assistance on the set up and the lights. Camera Cart is definitely a great studio to work in. Affordable rates, not to mention. Click here for the website.After the shoot, Beef and I went to SM City Manila and had brunch at The French Baker. I had Chicken Croissant and she devoured a yummy plate of Chicken Cordon Bleu. We also shared a bread bowl of hot soup! I’m so sad that these are the only photos I’ve taken with Beef!!! We won’t be able to camwhore in the next 3 years. Booohooo….So after lunch, Beef had to leave since she still needed to shop for luggage bags and stuff. Saying good bye to her on that day was fairly simple since I was looking forward to a despedida of some sort. But the thought of saying good bye for real just chokes me up!

I went on a little shopping spree and rested my feet @ Tutti Fruitti to have some yogurt. I’ve neglected my yogurt addiction ever since milk tea came along. But Tutti Fruitti reminded me why frozen yogurt was my first favorite. Have you tried Tutti Fruitti? Mine summed up to 60.00+ and it wasn’t bad at all. You just have to control how much you put in your cup since everything is weighed—including the toppings!I visited Broadway Gems and just had the craziest idea of buying headband hats! This one I’m holding in this photo is the one I used for my Wedding Hair and Makeup tutorial for a bride on a budget. Have you seen that? Click here if you haven’t already.

It just screams Kate Middleton, don’t you think? It cost me PHP 200.00.And I couldn’t resist this little thing. I have a growing affection for bows!!! I bought a few more stuff before finally heading home—including lint free towels for my makeup brushes and tools, grip pads, ballpens and markers, doggy treats and toiletries! Watsons and Ace Hardware are the best places to shop at! I didn’t think it was proper to make a vlog about all of it because none of my haul is beauty related!

It was definitely a fulfilling day.

P.S. Thank you so much to Krizel Corpuz for all the photos! I love you Beef!

Crazy School, Crazy Traffic, FLAWLESS Bloggers’ Night @ Borough, Podium

2011-09-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

After two days of suspension of classes, we are now bombarded with a hell lot of school work. School was very stressful today. We have to meet a lot of deadlines, and we’re really running out of time! One thing I looked forward to today was the bloggers event for FLAWLESS, a well-known aesthetic clinic. I luckily got out of school at 6:45PM. Reached home at exactly 7:00PM. I had to change before heading to Podium. I wore something casual since the event did not really call for fancy attires. I wore a tank top, skinny jeans from Reborn, a gray cover up, and my sister’s 5-inch pumps from Parisian. Thank goodness it did not rain tonight.

Coming from Manila, Podium is really far. Plus, the traffic was el terible! I left home at 7:30 and arrived at the venue at around 8:15 or so. I waited for Janica at the Podium lobby while I tried to get internet access. I didn’t freaking know Podium is owned by SM! So there I was…tweeting. Janica arrived a few minutes later, Ira drove her. Janica looked stunning as always! She wore a green dress which complemented her long, brown hair.

We both walked to Borough, and I believe we were the only latecomers. Achi Char arrived ahead of us and it was definitely great to spend time with LuLu ladies again! I love attending events with Janica and Achi Char! They bring a lot of positive vibes in my life! Borough looked really cozy. The only thing that scared me was the stairs! My legs were shaking as I went up and back down by the end of the event. Nevertheless, the atmosphere of Borough was so warm. They had all these paintings on the wall, and the couches were floral-printed.

The food they served was amazing! Now, I don’t know what they’re called but I can tell you how they tasted like. Janica and I tried out the buffalo(?) wings (were they buffalo wings?) And it was hella funny when she whispered “Say, sobrang spicy, umuusok na ilong ko!” Hahaha! I tried it myself, and maaaaan it really was spicy! The kind of spiciness that rises to your sinuses! Definitely not Shin Ramyun-spicy. Good thing we had our drinks! I particularly liked the fish chops. They tasted really delicious. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Muy bien, muy bien. We also tried this appetizer with…beef (?) on top of the toasts—very tasty and crunchy! I had to eat the toast and the topping separately so as to not burden myself with thinking of ways on how to eat it as gracefully as possible. The tomato soup was exquisite. The pasta we were served was drenched in real tomato sauce! The taste was really fresh and natural. When the waitresses served some shot glasses, I thought we were going to be drinking alcohol or something. Imagine my delight when they brought in mini cookies and….MILK! We had cookies and milk for dessert! Like, how cute is that! The milk was served to us in shot glasses—it was cold and really creamy. The cookies were fresh out of the oven—warm and soft. We tried dipping the cookie in the milk and eating it—WOW. The angels just started singing.The whole event was basically an introduction on what FLAWLESS does, and the products and services that it offers. My beauty blog would provide more information on this so I hope you stay tuned for my upcoming posts in there! http://www.saytiocoartillero.blogspot.com I had a lot of fun hearing the other bloggers talk. Especially Shen of shensaddiction. I am really happy to have met her in person—she talked really adorably! Isa Fabregas, the one who invited me to the event, was very accommodating and friendly. We didn’t fee out of place at all! It was great to meet the people behind the blogs that I am subscribed to! There’s Brigitte, for example; and then there’s Regina who looked totally familiar to me! She is really gorgois in person and in photos!

I loved taking photos with everyone. My favorite has got to be the Vanity Fair-ish group shot we had. It was indeed a great night! In other news, my weekend is packed—and I am very thankful. Will blog more in the next hours. Now I have to get some sleep. Hope you enjoyed this photo-heavy blog post!Please go to this link to read about this event on my beauty blog.

Visit FLAWLESS at http://www.flawless.com.ph

Check out the blogs of the people I had dinner with tonight:

Charlene of http://www.yellowyum.blogspot.com

Janica of http://www.dianejanica.blogspot.com

Shen of http://shensaddiction.com

Belle of http://whats-in-thebag.tumblr.com

Josh of http://leroisanscouronne.tumblr.com

Brigitte of http://www.iambrigitte.com/

Regina of http://vivatregina.tumblr.com/

Lush of http://lushangel.com

Isa of http://www.spiffy.me/

Sunday with LuLu Makeup Partners: Omakase & Happy Lemon

2011-09-25T05:44:00.001-07:00

Lunch with Janica and Achi finally pushed through after a lot of postponements due to hectic and conflicting schedules. We agreed to meet up at noontime today, at Greenhills to have lunch together and just basically catch up with each other. My sisters & I went straight to Greenhills from Saint Jude Archdiocesan Shrine where we always hear Sunday masses. We reached GH in less than 30 minutes—making us too early! Our chosen restaurant was Omakase. It serves Japanese cuisine, obviously. While waiting for Janica and Achi Char, I went around the restaurant and took photos to blog about.

Omakase is located at the Connecticut Arcade. The ambiance of the whole place was definitely cozy and warm. Upon entering the restaurant, you will be greeted by a koi pond teeming with beautiful creatures! They all looked so plump and healthy! It was fun to watch them swim around. We were led upstairs for a table for 5; I found the interior walls really pretty!They also have huge Japanese doll figurines displayed all over the place. They all looked really adorable and I just had to take a snapshot.Moving on to the food… Omakase’s menu is simple yet elegant. Table setting was basically chopsticks, and a heavy ceramic plate.They had Kikoman Soy Sauce on the tables as condiment.

And here are the food we ordered:

Kani Tempura—flour coated crabs; definitely tasted delicioso!I had the Panama Orange (Wild Raspberry) as beverage; it tasted fine, nothing too extraordinaryKatsudonChicken Bento BoxTeka Maki—(tuna sushi) First I have tried and I almost threw up…Katsu-Curry—which did not taste like curry at all. And yes, that’s a heavenly cup of Japanese white rice. (wouldn’t hurt to cheat once in a while) This dish could feed 5 kids!I don’t know what this is (Achi Char, what is this?) Looks special!My sisters Iza and Lady tagged along with me. It was definitely fun to have them around! And yes, that’s my sister (Iza) who makes the fabulous earcuffs from The Style Prodigy.The restroom had a beautiful mirror and an interesting-looking sink! I couldn’t figure out whether it was made out of bamboo or not.A quick FOTD:

NYX Tea Rose, Lancome “Optic” on my lids, Fanny Serrano Gel Liner, Folio Faux Lashes, Lenses from AigooShoppe, Roseflower Blush 02, Nichido Brown Eye Pencil for the brows and Maybelline HyperCurl Mascara

Now for the photo roll:

With Achi Char of www.yellowyum.blogspot.com wearing her CoverGirl Lip Perfection Lipstick in Hot Passion! Doesn’t she look blooming?Blessed to have such wonderful people as partners for LuLu Makeup. They’re almost like my sisters! Janica of www.dianejanica.blogspot.com and Char of www.yellowyum.blogspot.com With Janica, Achi Char, and my sister Iza and LadyBlooming Achi Char! She is wearing her mink lashes.With gorgeous ladiesI call her a goddess because she looks like one! Janica of www.dianejanica.blogspot.com I super loved her makeup today! I can’t wait for the tutorial, Jan!We were wondering who has the longer hair! Hahaha! After a lot of catching up at Omakase, we headed to Happy Lemon and picked up our drinks! It was heavenly to have my Oreo Milk Tea again after months! Meeting up with Janica and Achi Char definitely pumped a lot of positivity in my day! They are beautiful people inside out.

Looking forward to our next LuLu Girls meeting!

Check out their YouTube channels:

Charlene Lu-Tan: http://www.youtube.com/msyellowyum

Janica Buhain: http://www.youtube.com/dianejanica

My Top 5

2011-09-17T04:09:00.001-07:00

1. Curly/Wavy Hairstyle—It’s a tedious task to do, but I always love spending time curling my hair (which is super long, as we all know) The hairstyles are infinite! Thanks to my Babyliss iPRO200 Sol Gel Titanium Iron.2. Luminess Air Brush Cosmetics System—I received this in the mail a few days ago and I just can’t contain my excitement on using this awesome system! Sent by Luminess Air, USA. The perks of being a beauty blogger. Oh yeah, and it’s PINK!3. Going back to working out—I experience exercise-related amenorrhea so I had to stop a full 2-weeks of working out (NOT FUN, but I enjoyed the resting period) Now that everything’s alright, I’m back to ~~torturing myself~~ enjoying my BodyRockTV workouts! 4. Killer squats—Thanks to 300 full squats everyday, my thighs, buns and legs are at their strongest. And modesty aside, no visible cellulite, either! 5. DAILY VIDEOS IN YOUTUBE—You read that right! I now upload a new video EVERY DAY in my beauty channel—it would be lovely if you drop by sometime: http://www.youtube.com/saytiocoartillero

Taxes & A Series of Good News

2011-09-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

Why, hello there! I’ve been MIA in Je m’appelle Say for quite a while; been really busy keeping up with a lot of deadlines, reports, videos, and the likes. Let me just fill you in about what happened the past few days.

September 13th greeted me with a great great news… No spilling of beans but I guess this tweet says it all. I cannot wait to see Judy & Benji again!

After the incident mentioned above, Air21 came to our doorstep and delivered something addressed to my name. I wasn’t really sure from whom the package came from. My sister handed me the paper of the bills I have to pay for before receiving the package, and holy moly, everything summed up to 1,747.00! Where the heck will this all go?! Taxes and duties…yada yada yada. I was pretty annoyed that I had to shell out moolah (since I am on a break from spending). But guess what the package contains…The Luminess AirBrush System Kit! Luminess Air contacted me a few weeks back and told me they wanted me to review their starter kit; I think I screamed and died a little bit inside. It’s an airbrush system, for goodness sake! This costs $169—I definitely cannot wait to do a video about this baby. And guess what…IT’S PINK! When I opened the box, I was quite a bit overwhelmed, so I decided to close the package again and save it for another box-opening day. Another great news is that I received my first payment from StyleHaul/Youtube for the month of August 2011! Could this get any better? Lastly, this is good news to me since after almost 2 weeks of not working out because of exercise-related amenorrhea, I am now safe to go back! Same routine. Same torture. But the feeling of working out is the best in the world. P.S. Thank you, God. You are the reason and the answer for everything.

My Top 5: Korean Food, Goooood Burger, Hair Wax, Heaven in a Jar, Benefit

2011-09-05T06:35:00.001-07:00

1. Korean Noodles and Seaweed in Packs—last Saturday, I had dinner with two (2) of my readers, Raisa (winner of my Korean Lunch Giveaway) and Mhakkie, @ Hanayo. All of this stuff came from Mhakkie! She’s been one of the most genuine people I’ve interacted with in Twitter, so it’s not a surprise that I gave her free lunch! She gave me (3) packs of Ramyun and (4) packs of seaweed. I know the spiciness of Shin Ramyun can be intolerable most of the time, but I don’t know why I’m still crazy addicted to it. A pack has 510 kcal, so I don’t really eat it on a daily basis. If I do, however, I compensate with torture squats. The seaweed tasted yummy! I loved the saltiness of it. Surprisingly, my friends Roxanne and Christian did not like it! Neverthless, thank you so much Mhakkie! I hope you’re reading this. 2. Jollibee’s Champ with TLC Burger—the other day we were watching this video for our Distribution Management class and it all revolved around this fastfood chain in America that sells HUMONGOUS BURGERS that they claimed MAY actually kill their customers. It contains OVER A THOUSAND CALORIES per serving! I can’t remember the name of the chain, but I’m quite positive it has the words “Heart Attack” in it. Well, after that mouth-watering (okay, I admit) video-watching, I started craving for burger. So after hearing mass last Sunday, I ordered a burger @ Jollibee. I rarely eat burgers—but for the sake of satisfying an unnecessary craving, I did. Jollibee has yummy burgers. Not crazy yummy, but they can do! I was imaging the 4-pound whopper in the video while I ate my Jollibee burger. Craving satisfied? Most definitely.3. L’Oreal Base Magique Transforming Smoothing Primer—this may be a premature post about this product and I may leave you hanging; but I just couldn’t NOT include it in my current Top 5. This product is HEAVEN IN A JAR. I first heard about it in PurseBuzz’ video and since then I was curious to try it out. The weekend came and the mall was on it’s last day of ultimate sale. Oh baby, I failed. I failed miserably. I gave in and bought a lot of stuff! Including this darling…which was, by far, the most expensive at PHP 803.00. In my defense, it's regular price is PHP 945.00, and it’s a great investment as well. My beauty blog will be the one to do all the explaining on why I love this hot stuff.4. Bench Fix Professional Agent Bond Styling Gum—since I still haven’t found the perfect hairspray that would hold my curls for infinite hours, I decided to try another hair product. Here, we enter the world of wax. “Ui, Say! Nakawax ka!” said my blockmate Martin earlier today. Well, of course, he knew I used wax because of the texture and feel of it (my hair) & the fact that he’s a guy. I had this misconception that wax’s are only for men. But over the weekend, I bought one. I chose the yellow one since I thought, I’m gonna be using it for my curls, so I need something that wouldn’t make my locks stiff. This was the perfect choice since it “shapes hair without losing its softness and luster”. And behold, I used it today—and all I can say is I FOUND THE ONE.

5. Benefit Posie Tint, High Beam and BeneTint—I meet a lot of people all over the world, and I think I’ve mentioned Krysha so many times before. She’s one of the people whom I told you guys is the sister I never had. She sent me a box of great stuff about a few days ago and my favorite among the bunch is this! I’ve seen these in her video (haul) and I remember myself saying, man—I’d love to try those out. So I was completely stoked to see it inside the box that she sent me! Krysha is really something. See here, I’ve never met her. I’ve never talked to her (actual communication); we just communicate through YouTube and Twitter but I really feel like she’s someone I’ve known all my life!!! I love her like a sister! Stay tuned about the post on the rest of the things that she sent me. Thank you so much Krysha! Oh, and check her blog out! One of my favorites: http://www.helloysha.com The most genuine & not at all pretentious person I’ve ever met online.