Month: October 2012

happiness in a box

Due to my impatience (and because I was going home that weekend), I decided to just order Human Nature products online instead of going to Shopwise Makati (which may not carry the big sizes anyway).

I ordered: Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner (Lush Vanilla), Wild Berry Lip Balm, and Rosy Cheeks Pressed Blush. Everything cost me around PhP 580, including taxes and shipping.

It arrived the next day, all bubble-wrapped inside a cute box.

I’ve used the hair care products and I am very impressed. I love the scent, and the products left my hair smooth and silky. Not to mention that these products are cheaper than the brands I usually buy and use. Definitely worth your money. I wished the blush came with a brush, though.

If you’re in the US, click here to shop.

In other non-hair-related news: I’m now reading Broken Harbour by Tana French. It’s really good. I wish I could just go home and read and read and read. I’ve also ordered Catherynne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Excited.

I vaguely remember saying that I won’t buy any more books, but the memory is faulty and the flesh is weak.

organic shampoo?

I was told by the stylist not to wash my hair for three days following treatment. I managed to stop myself from pouring water on my head for 48 hours. No more. I couldn’t take it. It’s disgusting.

But I did decide to try out gentler hair products. Found these at Healthy Options.

Healthy stuff make your wallets sick – these cost around PhP 150 per 62 ml. bottle, much much more expensive than the regular 200 ml. shampoos like Palmolive that cost less than PhP 100.

They smell good, though. And my hair’s still straight and manageable, so hooray, not a waste of 3K.

I’ll look for Human Nature products next time. Those are way cheaper. Any recos? :)

gpoy/new hair

Boom. Here’s my face, taken this morning before heading to work. I had Permanent Blow-dry (also known as  Brazilian Blowout, or Keratin Treatment) done on my hair on Tuesday night in this little-known salon, B&W Beauty Salon, inside Kingswood Condominium in Makati. They currently have a 50-percent-off promo, so instead of a staggering 6000 pesos (my hair is long and thick; treatment for shorter hair is cheaper), I paid 3K or around 72 US dollars. Still staggering, but think of it as an investment. Permanent Blow-dry is not a straightening treatment, it just makes your hair more manageable. Recommended for frizzy or damaged hair and during humid months.

Hair still looks nice and shiny two days after the treatment, but I’m not sure if this will be the case after I give my head a proper wash on Saturday. We’ll see.

What have you done to your hair lately?

lauriat: a filipino-chinese speculative fiction anthology

Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction AnthologyLauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology by Charles Tan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the stories in this anthology, with Kristine Ong Muslim’s “Chinese Zodiac” (a series of flash fiction pieces directly or indirectly connected to each sign of the Chinese Zodiac) and Crystal Koo’s “The Perpetual Day” (a story of a Binondo that literally cannot sleep) as my definite favorites. These are the stories that I wanted to discuss with everyone immediately after I read them.

There are a lot of weird/horror tales in this collection. Other stories that I liked: Andrew Drilon’s “Two Women Worth Watching”, Isabel Yap’s “Pure”, Tin Lao’s “Dimsum”, Fidelis Tan’s “The Stranger at my Grandmother’s Wake”, and Erin Chupeco’s “Ho-We”.

PS I really love the cover.

View all my reviews

back from the bug

Hello all. I don’t know what it was that got me, but for two and a half days, everything I ate I just threw back up. Horrible. I hope I lost some weight from that ordeal because then what’s the point?

My thanks to J of course for buying me bananas and Gatorade and nursing me back to health.

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I was able to check my mail/Twitter/Facebook yesterday (and we were able to livestream the Obama-Romney debate), but not my blog, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a message from blogger Nancy Cudis, who wrote a bit about A Bottle of Storm Clouds here.

Have you experienced buying a book for what you thought it is but it pleasantly turned into something else? A Bottle of Storm Clouds by Eliza Victoria is like that with me. I thought it is a short story collection about, given the cover, Philippine folklore flawlessly interspersed in a contemporary setting. It turns out to be what its title says—16 stories about individuals with bottled-up storms that change them in so many ways.

The storms come in different disturbing forms but oftentimes, the ending is the same: death. I have already read eight of these stories and so far, I have gotten the drift of Victoria’s admirable writing style—simple yet powerful words, short yet intense sentences, suspenseful flashbacks, and lots of dramatic dialogue. Each story evokes similar yet different emotions—do you understand? All stories I have encountered so far are sad ones subtly, others directly, covering a multitude of personal issues—abandonment, death of a loved one, fear of being left, fear of the future, and inability to move one. But the degree of sadness of the story can only be determined by how relevant it is in the life of the reader.

In my case, my heart was very heavy—still is—when I finished reading Earthset, the eighth story I have read (and mostly accounts for the reason that I could not move on to the ninth story yet).

Read more here. She says the collection is “highly recommended”. Thank you very much, Nancy!

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Cloud Atlas also accompanied me during my illness. And lookie, another book!

It’s a big-ass book.