Chicnova '85' tee | NastyGal contrast leather biker jacket | Forever21 mesh pencil skirt | Charles and Keith flared gusset bag

It's wonderful to see a surge of Filipino human interest stories in international films lately. Everywhere you go, there's a Filipino story waiting to be told; our country a cornucopia of the most  fascinating people, backgrounds, and tales. Our culture is just brimming with so much color and its always a treat to see great movies give it the justice it deserves!

What I've been dying to see lately are the two international films gaining a lot of steam in the film fest circuit lately-- two distinct stories of the Filipino, but shot almost entirely by foreign directors and crew! One of them is the much talked-about "ILOILO", a heartwarming feature film debut from Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen. After travelling and collecting awards from all over the world, this much talked-about feature is set to make its special Cebu premiere this November 30 at Ayala Cinema 3!

Inspired by his true life experiences with his former nanny Teresita Sajonia, Chen's "Iloilo" tells of the relationship between a family of three and their newly arrived Filipino maid, Teresa, who has come like many other Filipino women in search of a better life. The title refers to the home province of Teresita. The Chen brothers and Teresita (fondly known as Auntie Terry) had not seen each other since 1997 until Cebu-based PR consultant Charles Lim helped find her and reunited the former nanny and her wards for the first time in July this year with the assistance of Cebu Pacific.

I really do wish Celine would leave me alone. Heck, I wish Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim and all of them would leave me alone, too! Hehehe... there isn't one internet moment where I'm not drooling over their new releases and thinking to myself, "I'll save up so I can get that next year for sure". Then "next year" rolls over, and again, I'll be like, "next year for sure"! Seeing from the dire lack of designer shit in this blog, I'm sure you can tell that that hasn't really materialized yet. Well... we'll always have next year! Lol. Seriously though, I'm still liking parody tees. They're just a tad bit more of a convo piece than your plain tees, right? 

I have to be perfectly honest with you. Aside from regular worries like paying for monthly bills, getting back into shape, and other usual suspects, I constantly think about ways of battling and reversing visible signs of skin aging. I always wake up with a slight fear of seeing new wrinkling and sagging when I check my face out in the mirror. Heaven forbid! Can't blame me though--I just turned 27, and I'm teetering between the fine line of "yeah, I still look like I'm in my twenties" to "oh Lord, I'm almost 30:((" . Being constantly under blinding sunlight, pollution, and other urban elements certainly doesn't help!

I was certainly more than glad and relieved to have received an invite from Elizabeth Arden and Rustans Cebu to spend a day with them to discuss their highly buzzed-about skincare line, the Elizabeth Arden Prevage. Firstly though, how awesome is Elizabeth Arden? Despite the surge of trendier brands, Arden stays ahead of the curve with their best-selling mix of classic staples (like the Red Door and the Eight-Hour Cream, to name a few) and exciting new formulations to keep up with the needs of their modern clientele. Being in business for over a century is certainly proof of the brand's amazing reputation!

Elizabeth Arden products in lovely jewel tones! Their packaging is too pretty to be ignored

Full-sized display of the Elizabeth Arden Prevage line

The lovely ladies of Rustans Marketing Corporation: Division Manager for Fragrances Ms Audrey Canta, Elizabeth Arden Brand Manager Gemma de Costa, and Marketing Communications Head Aireen Mayol

Gizelle, Yves and yours truly with the ladies of Rustans/Elizabeth Arden

with my two favorite event companions! :)

Sample sizes of Elizabeth Arden's best-selling lines, and a full-sized jar of Gold Ultra Restorative Capsules as our take home loot:)

Boasting of several powerful products under its belt, Prevage is Elizabeth Arden's revolutionary new anti-aging line that specifically targets many skin problems and free radicals contributing to premature aging. The flagship product in this line is the Prevage Anti-Aging + Intensive Daily Repair Serum, one of the very few items on the market containing Idebenone, found to be the most powerful anti-oxidant available. Compared to other popular other anti-oxidants like Vit. E, kinetin, Vit.C, CoQ10 and alpha-lipoic acid, Idebenone was found to be the most effective ingredient with an Environmental Protection factor of 95 over 100. It rapidly improves skin elasticity and luminosity in as little as four weeks. And the women have spoken-- studies have shown that 94% of those that have used the Anti-Aging Daily Serum saw dramatic results over a short span of time. 

It is a tad bit pricey, (SRP of the serum is as $159.00 for a full-size bottle) but I'm sure it'll be worth saving up your money for. The ladies of Elizabeth Arden were awesome enough to let us take home sample sizes of their best-selling Visible Whitening and Visible Difference ranges, the Prevage line, and a full-sized jar of their famous gold capsules. We were definitely happy campers!

Happy Sunday, loves!

Elizabeth Arden Prevage and other Elizabeth Arden products are exclusively sold in Rustans branches nationwide.

I've never really been the type of person who freely drops the words "forever" and "soulmate" in a statement, but yes. I'm pretty sure I've found that elusive, all-encompassing love, which I'm all too lucky to have enjoyed (and sometimes suffered) for the past three years. It's not always a walk in the park, just like all long-term relationships go, but it's definitely something that has proved worth holding on to.

 So when the opportunity (a.k.a crazy good friends/collaborators all too keen in putting this together) presented itself, we got to "immortalize" this love through a series of "couple" photographs that may have no flowers, but perfectly captures our spirit.

Hello, lovers! Guess what? I've finally figured out how to blog with an Ipad, hahaha. I know. Hello, 21st century! Technological ignorance aside, though, it's quite a gamechanger for me--I might actually be getting rid of my backlogs faster than I thought. Crossing my fingers!

A lot of ladies know that the brand Laura Mercier sets the bar high when it comes to all things beauty-related and enhancing women features naturally. Though it may be on the tier of what could be considered "pricey" , or "high-end" I think the brand has long proven that the customers get their money's worth. Some friends sing high praises have been singing praises about the brands wonders.

I had the opportunity to check out Laura Mercier during their "Flawless Hits Cebu" mini-event in Rustan's Cebu to celebrate one of their banner products: the Laura Mercier Foundation Primer.

As an advocate of foundation myself, I've always wondered if a primer is an absolute necessity and if it actually makes a lot of difference. Laura Mercier, herself a makeup artist, had these things to say about the importance of foundation primers:

Tadaaaaaa (as if the signs in Ayala are hard to miss hehe)!!

After quite an arduous wait, Topman is finally coming to Cebuano shores, very much to the glee of stylish boys all over the island. I personally find Topman more relatable sometimes, to be honest-- I love their easy tees, urban/edgy accessories and headpieces. As much of a fan as I am of Topshop, I cannot friggin wait for the stylish brother to get here! The store space is being revamped and is expected to resume its operations come October.

I didn't think that this blog was ever going to be one of those that posts about topics like "here's what I thought of this lipstick" or "unboxing x face product"-- I mean don't get me wrong, I do read my friend's makeup blogs and reviews with a passion, but I just don't think that I'm personally that knowledgeable or authoritative when it comes to reviewing beauty products. I may not have blogged about beauty in the past, but thing is, I'm very much a junkie to all things make-up, skincare, hair products, and everything in between. So yeah... I think I'll give my two cents worth whenever I can, so yay, more Eden-ish beauty posts in the future!:)

To start with, I'll talk about something super popular these days: subscription boxes. I've been voraciously craving/hoping to try out a subscription box for many months now after stalking my friend Toni's posts (she has a monthly subscription to these things), and finally, after a lot of thinking over if this sh*t is really all its hyped up to be, I signed on for the July 2013 BDJ Box. 

I'm glad that my box arrived in good shape and had pleasant surprises here and there. July was also particularly chocked full of stuff so yay, plus points in my book. Here's the items I received from this box: