kira's world

 Hand painted necklaces hung from 27" black ball chains:

Handmade spiral-bound mini notebooks:

Discover a treasure trove of handmade and handcrafted items at our EarthlyDelights booth! Visit us at the:

ASSUMPTION BAZAAR

November 22, 2009 at the NORTH FUNCTION ROOM

Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City, Philippines

9:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Visit my site at http://earthlydelights.multiply.com for more info.

See you there! :D

The most refreshing, dreamiest and prettiest off-white dress I have ever seen in my entire life.

I know I've made numerous reviews on toners in this blog, but this toner takes the cake! I've read about it on blogs and forums both locally and internationally, and they say this is a really good toner for combi/oily/blemished skin. I got so curious especially since I needed an interim toner at that time as my dermatologist was at a convention.

I've seen this several times at Healthy Options but never got around to buying one, so off I was one Saturday afternoon to Trinoma. I got the smallest yellow bottle in the 59ml size which cost only Php 60 (about $1.25). Dickinson's Witch Hazel comes in yellow (for the face) and blue (face & body).

The good thing about this toner aside from being all-natural, is it contains natural alcohol. For someone who has oily skin, this ingredient greatly help reduce the oilies (as compared to other natural / organic toners without alcohol).

The packaging is simple, which is great cos I'm starting to gravitate towards products that use as little packaging as possible in order to lessen environmental pollution or waste.

I think the only thing that might bother some people is its scent. Some say it smells too medicinal, some say it reminds them of liquor. But having been raised in a "hospital environment" (my Dad, Grandma, Uncles, etc. are all doctors), I've somehow gotten used to the smell.

Overall, I like this toner very much. I'm on my 3rd week and I use it in conjunction with my VMV Id Monolaurin Gel and VMV Armada Sunblock. If you are curious to what Witch Hazel can do for you, troop over to Healthy Options and grab a small bottle of this really amazing product. After all, it's only Php 60 --- so affordable that it won't even create a dent in your wallet ;)

This is a long overdue post! I've been meaning to blog about this ever since I started using it last September.

I declare, that this has to be the cheapest and most reliable hair remover ever. A tub (I threw away the box so I don't know the exact weight) costs only Php 299.75 --- that's under $7.00 people! It's a washable sugar wax that's UNSCENTED and has Mangosteen extract which is an antibacterial and an anti-inflammatory ingredient.

When I say UNSCENTED, I meant it --- there is no traceable sugar nor mangosteen smell here. And the wax (as shown below) has a clear gorgeous caramel color. The consistency is thick and there is no need to heat because you need only to apply a thin layer of the product for it go grab both fine and coarse hair.

The only thing I can say to describe it is: it is very sticky (to hair) and yet not messy. So hair beware! This unassuming wax grabs even very fine hair (provided it is long enough for waxing, FYI) in one go, so I rarely need to wax the same spot twice.

This is hands-down, better than my Sally Hansen waxes. It's available in Landmark Trinoma, you have to go to the part where they sell natural and medicinal soaps way out back, and as I mentioned above, costs only Php 299.75.

A box includes a plastic spatula and paper-like cloth strips. I personally DO NOT use the strips included but use real washable cloth strips from The Body Shop. I find that the wax and the hairs adhere to this more than the ones included in the box ;)

Probably one of my favorite products from The Face Shop. The Premier Essence line replaced the now defunct Phytogenic line (which I was a huge fan of *sniff*) a few months ago, which I only discovered while desparately trying to match my phased out Maybelline foundation.

Here's a short background on the Premier Essence Two Way Cake:

Concept
Premiere make-up products contain Coenzyme Q10 with essential moisturizing ingredients to give nutrition and hydration while wearing make–up.

Description
Powder foundation with essential moisturizing ingredients covers up flaws to perfection while providing skin caring benefits. 
- Long-lasting moisturizing effect 
- Healthy looking system 
- Even & Defined look effect 
-  SPF 20 

Coverage: Medium 

Finish: Matte

The Premier two-way cake foundation features a mirror-like silver case with a dark red bottom, and includes 2 sponges -- 1 for dry application (shown) and 1 for wet. As usual, TFS provides a separate container for their puffs to minimize bacterial growth.

They offer 2 shades only: NB21 and NB23. I have always been considered an NB21 because I have fair skin. You'd notice that this foundation looks dark in the compact, but upon application I realized that it actually matches my skintone to a T!

It is a moisturizing foundation that's meant for Normal to Dry skin, but I find that it does not aggravate my blemishes (if I have any), does not make my skin look cakey, does a decent job in controlling oilies, has a very pretty girly scent and has SPF 20 to boot! I am always outdoors so any makeup product that protects my skin from UV rays is good :)  

The Premier Two Way Cake Foundation retails for Php 795 (11g), which is about $17.00.

For more info you can visit http://www.thefaceshopen.com ;)

PS: I've only used this as a dry foundation, I have yet to test its staying power when used wet.

While waiting for Ish to arrive, I decided to take a beeline to my favorite ukay store in Cubao and found this gorgey blue/gray dress and a fab top for Mom.

Micki is as curious as ever.

I thought the tiered dress was too cute to pass up, I don't know yet if I should sell it on my site or save it for myself. I love the dress' princess sleeves with the crochet details --- must post a close up pic that and Mom's top soon. The items are currently in the wash so I will update this entry as soon as they are clean and ready.

The dress and Mom's top cost only Php 170 or $3.54 each ;D I swear if I had more time, I would've brought more stuff home! I promise to come back next week (or sometime this week if I really couldn't help it)!!!

I am sooo into vintage dresses now. Here's crossing my fingers for more ukay finds soon! :)

After waiting a year for 2012, Tish, Mark and I went to Galleria yesterday albeit the strong rains to watch this much-awaited movie. The movie started at 3:50pm but we finished at 6:50pm because (surprise!) the movie kept stopping midway several times due to loss of power (aka brownout). How timely.

Anyway, just a little background first. My day started with me watching "9/11 NYC Archives" on The History channel. Watching amateur footage of how 9/11 started, ended and how it affected the lives of thousands of Americans was both devastating and scary. I most affected by thte "jumpers" who jumped off the WTC in desperation :(

So imagine that as my morning greeting, then afer a few hours I was off to watching 2012. I had a pretty eye-opening, scary day wouldn't you agree?

I love watching disaster movies and every year they get better and better, sometimes the special effects suck and sometimes they look so REAL, you'd have to think twice about it being CG. 2012 is that kind of movie, it was done in a way that you couldn't tell which ones were computer-generated and which ones were live action scenes. Overall,  I found it be very entertaining, it wasn't the typical "star saves the world" plot because every character had a meaty and substantial part to play.

This movie is definitely worth seeing. It is waaay better than "The Day After Tomorrow." I am a John Cusack fan after all, and I love his movies even from "Gross-Pointe Blank" days.

Now let's not think about disaster movies too much, head on over to this blog to find out why.

This dress was from my previous blog entry. I wore my Aldo sandals and kitschy necklace. It was a bit rainy today, and so I brought my purple cardigan :)

Which one should I get? I need a brand new Nativity Set:

This retails for Php 1200 ($25)

This retails for Php 650 ($14)

Everyone knows that when custom printing bags, clothes or shirts, one mostly turns to silkscreening. The boyfriend and I wanted to explore other [more affordable and faster] options [that we can operate ourselves] so we bought a Robo-Cutter and a heatpress almost 2 years ago, which proved to be very useful to our business.

But is there a better, more modern way to print, you ask? Enter the new age of shirt printers --- yup, a huge machine that prints on shirts directly! How cool is that??

The boyfriend and I visited the company that imported and brought the machine here to Manila and here are some pictures:

With the hefty price tag of almost Php 2M ($42,000), I wonder who will lend me the money so I can bring this home with me? *wink*