Domesticity Moments: My First Day in Sydney

I loved this outfit so, so much.

Taken at the lovely Holiday Inn Potts Point in Kings Cross. 

The sweater and the scarf is from Giordano; the black pants are from Gap. Look closely in the back and you'll see the black tote that I scored from Just Jeans in NZ. (And also the fact that I, uh, forgot to make my bed before stepping out of the house in this outfit. Lame.) 

I wanted to step out of the hotel wearing this whole thing, but it had been quite cold outside and I had to wear a jacket over this anyway. My plan that day was to walk all the way from Kings Cross to the Royal Botanical Gardens (the full story on that will be posted in a future edition of Domestic Travel), so I threw the jacket on and kept myself as warm as possible. Then I got to the Gardens, and the weather shifted back to "warm." D'oh! If it weren't for the fact that I had to walk home before the Gardens closed their gates for the evening, I would have been way past upset then. 

Upside: At least I had comfortable shoes. 

The Case for Your Dermatologist, Part 2

Dear members of the male species - and especially every single member of The List, because we all know that you need to hear this:

It has come to my attention that there has been a lot of speculation about certain habits and predilections that you prefer to keep in secrecy. We know that you have not, and will continue to refuse, to address these matters in public when pressed for comment. We also understand that you need your privacy, and you in turn would understand that, in a fair and just world, we ladies would never judge you at all for being up front about this matter, so to speak. In fact, after all these years of waiting and wondering, we may even applaud you for your refreshing candor.

But seriously, we just want to know...

Are you really, truly, honest-to-Dog taking care of your ACNE????


Dudes, we're not telling you to take your cues from Justin Bieber; that would be creepy. But let's be honest here: it's one thing to figure out why your hormones are betraying you at 17... and another matter altogether to get past your 30th birthday by refusing to acknowledge your ongoing love/hate relationship with those angry red spots on your face.

What we're trying to tell you here is that none of you - repeat, NONE OF YOU - are too macho to deal with your own damn pimples. Acne, in other words, is God's way of telling you that you are NOT Chuck Norris.

Last Song Syndrome: Full Swoon Mode

I've said it before and I'll say it again: When I heard "Not Over You" on the radio for the first time, I honestly thought that Prince just came out with a new song.



The only thing more shocking than finding out that this is the first single from the new Gavin DeGraw album is learning that he co-wrote this with Ryan Tedder... though I will admit that all bets will be automatically off as soon as Prince decides to do his own version anyway.

But really, it's good - as in "stop the car, I need to finish this" good - which I rarely do for many of the songs played on my local indie-music station, and even less so for songs that are so blatantly "poppy." This makes me feel like I'm 18 again... and who doesn't want that?

Face Time

An update on "the procedure": My face is actually healing quite nicely - not a lot of scabbing now, but I still need to put cream on to get the remaining red marks under control. Still trying to stay away from the sun, though (not that hard to do with typhoon season underway) and makeup - apart from a little lip gloss - won't be an option just yet.

Other than that, I'm actually back at work: my actual job has started up again with less stress (finally), my fiction-writing hobby is more manageable, and even my blogging is now up and running with a vengeance.

So, since I'm back on my feet (but not with my usual face), I've decided to share a few YouTube makeup tutorials with you.

The Case for The Basics: Your Dermatologist

The story started back in mid-April, when I went to the friendly neighborhood dermatologist's office to get myself a facial for the first time. My skin had been bothering me a lot in the last few years, but - healthcare expenses being what they are - I decided that this would be a good time for me to get checked at The Derma.

Right away the assistants knew that something was horribly, terribly wrong with my skin.

The signs of sun damage, while not entirely visible, were manifesting in gross and disgusting ways. My skin was getting rough, and the spots that I thought were sties in my undereye area were, in fact, a manifestation of something more insidious.

I can't go into much detail here, because I know that there are medical terms here in the Philippines that are always questioned Stateside... but I do know that our family has a history of invisible, age-related benign growths that practically have to be burned and/or lasered off before they start spreading all over the body.

That's what prompted me to get an estimate for the procedure from the dermatologist herself, right before I was due to leave for New Zealand. She concluded that the growths have already started spreading around my face, especially in the under-eye area. It wasn't urgent - in fact, she wasn't taking any patients until June - but I knew that I had to have this done when I got back, just so I could get it out of the way.

Finally, I got the "procedure" done yesterday, and... well, details after the jump.

(Warning: The rest of this entry is not for the faint of heart. Proceed to read at your own risk. Also, we do not recommend reading the hot-guy sections of this blog after the jump, for the same about-to-be-obvious reasons.)

Bang On

Right before I left for Auckland, my Mom handed me her round brush and a bottle of Finesse hair spray, telling me to curl my hair under because my hair looked limp and flat. Since that moment, I'd resolved that I would remedy that situation in any way possible.

Unfortunately, "any way possible" was not possible in the Southern Hemisphere, where I spent most of my time in New Zealand with hat head. Things were a lot better in Sydney, since I was able to use a blowdryer and shine serum (and a visit to Bondi Beach) to their best advantage... but it still did not give me the desired touchable, bouncy look.

Since I still wanted to volumize my hair without pulling my shoulders out by blowdrying it on my own with a round brush, I went for the next best thing: A curling iron.



This is the look that I'm currently trying to master with my existing curling iron (part of the Rowenta Imagin8 set) - the only difference being that I use the smaller iron because my bangs are much shorter and finer. I still need practice, to be honest, but it's definitely a step towards de-frumpifying myself for the coming months.

Pictures of this experiment are forthcoming.

Domesticity Retail Mini-Roundup: The Most Wanted Shoes in Metro Manila

The sales clerk at Payless Shoes in Festival Supermall was totally not kidding.

She told me that these shoes used to come in every color - not just purple, but black, blue, and red - but eventually they sold out at every single branch. Then Payless brought it back again, by popular demand, and it sold out so quickly that buyers at the SM Megamall branch were practically fighting over the last few pairs. Agawan po, ma'm, she said, conjuring up images of women snatching shoes out of each other's clutches.

And, she also added, this was the last pair in my size.

Payless, people. Not Prada, not YSL, not Marc Jacobs, not even Kenneth Cole. Payless.

I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. PhP 1,150 for a pair of purple stiletto platforms that are destined to drive my parents crazy, just for the impracticality alone.

The saleslady asked me if the local shoe merchants have tried to make their own version of these babies. I told her, sadly, "No."