Hi girls, hope you can grab Manila Bulletin's Style Weekend issue today! Aside from its the excellent cover story on our homegrown international supermodels, there's a great article on BB creams by Pierra Labrador. A couple of weeks back, she asked me for a quote about my fave BB creams, to which I wrote down an 890-word treatise. MY GOODNESS. 

What can I say, I got carried away. Pierra expertly cut it down to some two paragraphs. Whew. Here's the ish, plus my quote. :D Hope you like it!

I usually politely decline whenever PR companies and brand managers invite me to events about products unrelated to Project Vanity's niche. But last week, I made an exception for two events hosted by PLDT MyDSL! You see, Marco is crazy and I mean crazy about cars right now. Most of his free time is spent tinkering with his race car, watching car films, and reading car websites. It's quite irritating (to put it mildly).

In his favorite talyer (auto garage) in Fairview. Fairview! The things I do for love.

He watched the last four films of The Fast and the Furious franchise because, while he thought the story sucked, the fast cars alone are enough to make up for it. So when PLDT myDSL invited me to the exclusive movie premier of Fast Five last week, I knew he'd love to come! I do like seeing him happy.

I'm in our house in Cavite for the Holy Week. You can imagine how extremely boring it is, so I've taken it upon myself to explore some papers stashed away in cabinets and boxes. Like my mother, I had a tendency of being a pack rat. I'd keep all my stuff, especially papers, since I can't let go of this idea that they'll be useful someday. I became a different person when I started living in a condo so I don't hoard everything anymore - at least, not as much as I used to.

While rummaging through notebooks, test papers, and school projects from as far back as seven years ago, I found treasure. It's a stapled-together sheaf of paper where my high school classmates wrote down all their dreams and ambitions.

The first skincare product I EVER reviewed was the Pond's White Beauty cream. That was in 2008! I loved it, and I used it for two years until I switched to the Flawless White variant (more potent and slightly more expensive than White Beauty, but almost the same thing). I switched moisturizers again - I found awesome, expensive ones in the course of trying out so many things for this blog - but at the back of my head I sometimes wonder if they're better than my first love, Pond's.

Best skin ever with Pond's: A few pounds lighter, two years younger

I encourage you to click the links above because they document my long-time affair with Pond's, and maybe you'll also understand why I work with the brand. :) If you read beauty blogs, I'm sure you've already seen that there is a Pond's Flawless White Blogger Contest where bloggers and their friends document their 14-day experience using the Flawless White line exclusively.

It's a contest with a prize, so of course everyone wants to win. I think that fact may make you think that the point of the contest is undermined. You may think that our "reviews" are already compromised because of the campaign. There's a high probability that you'll be reading raves for Flawless White from all the contestants, and it may also be difficult to believe 100%.

As a beauty blogger, the only thing I can really be proud of is credibility

Trivia: Project Vanity has received 3,395 comments since it went live last year. I don't get to reply to every comment (I try though) but I read each one and I do appreciate them. I don't really earn anything significant from blogging - sometimes it's grueling, sometimes I even wonder why I keep pouring so much time on this. But when I get a comment saying this small project of mine is useful to someone, it's all worth the work.

To thank Project Vanity followers, I run contests (check out the current one for Inches Off shapewear) but winning contests are too chancy. So, I thought of setting aside a personal thank you gift to readers who follow this website regularly.

I was thinking of putting this off since I have a few looong overdue beauty posts, but I figured, if I don't write this down now, I'll never get around to it. It will probably suffer the same fate as my Boracay trip last year - I have dozens of photos, even a video of us helmet diving, but I never blogged about it. And now I just have a hazy memory of a vacation to show for it since I left all the photos in my old Macbook.

So! Last weekend, Marco, Luis, Vanessa, and I went to Marinduque to visit Elefante Island. The solitary island houses a beautiful, Satorini-inspired resort called Bellarocca. To say that I enjoyed my stay there is an understatement! The place was breathtaking, private, warm (in terms of service), and just perfect. I am obviously running out of adjectives so it's time for a photo dump.

The only airline service that flies to Marinduque is Zest Air. It's a 40-50 minute flight from Manila.

We're here!

Bellarocca provides a 40-minute van transfer to their jetty

Eeeeek! The article I wrote for OK! magazine is out! This is the first time I've ever been published on print. I've been featured a couple of times, but I've never actually written anything. OMG.

Okay, okay, I'll calm down. The article is about fragrances - how to pick one that suits your personality, great perfumes to try, and how to properly wear that hard-earned bottle of goodness.

So yesterday Marco and I went to Makati. He attended a meeting, while I, well, I just tagged along and decided to work outside for a change. 

Marco recently bought a car and he's crazy about it. That's the first thing he'd think about in the morning and the last thing he'd think about at night. It's a Toyota Starlet GT, a rally car with a turbo engine. Yes I know that because he won't stop talking about it. It's supposed to be a rare car, which is why he chose it over a new car, but I don't get it. Men and cars. I just don't get it.

It's a beautiful Saturday morning! You best get up and spend it outside, lol. I just came from Mercato Centrale with Marco, where we took our car out for the first time. All went well. Whew. Anyway, I was disappointed when I didn't find this mushroom and artichoke dip that I bought a few weeks back. It was quite memorably delish with bread or crackers.

Moving on, I just want to share some great reads from the Beauty & Fashion channel at thePOC! I love the topics we've been publishing lately.

Danica Flores Magpantay wins first place in Ford Supermodel of the World 2011  A Pinay makes it to the top of the most prestigious modeling competition in the planet!

Professional and theater makeup in the Philippines  There's makeup, and then there's Makeup. Find out what the pro makeup brands are and where you can find them locally.

Do men hate what you're wearing? Guys are animals from another planet. What are the things we wear that they just don't get?

A study of trends: The Longchamp Le Pliage bag  Why are Longchamps so popular, and should they even be?

10 common beauty blunders  We never even notice them!

Tête-à-tête with Jot Losa  Here's an interview

I don't use planners, but I can see a lot of ladies (and gentlemen) loving this planner by Sunlife, in cooperation with actor Piolo Pascual, called Sunpiology. This stands out because it's a planner that encourages you to help save the environment as well as accomplish your goals every month. There's none of that pretentious crap that planners seem to promote these days (e.g "this planner will change someone's life"? O rly?)

It also features Piolo's photos from all over the world. It's all about nature, to show us what we'll lose if we aren't more careful of our environment.

More photos of the planner inside!

I have terrible memory, which is one of the reasons I started keeping notebook diaries, and then eventually, blogs. I want to be able to remember the things I've done and thought. However, since I stopped personal blogging, I only have what little this beauty blog has on my personal life.

Now, I want to capture the year that was in one post, just for posterity, you see. I mentioned earlier that 2010 was an awesome year for me. I had so, so much fun! Let's do a review, shall we?

Press Mentions

April. I was given a half-page feature on The Philippine Star! I talked about (what else) blogging. My mind was blown. I still keep a copy of this page in a special folder, lol.

Unexpected packages are always a joy to receive. It's nice to know that someone is thinking of you out there, right? So imagine my glee when this package arrived on my doorstep just yesterday:

I know the message is generic, and Avon probably had their media agency send dozens of these out to the press, but I really appreciate that Avon remembered me and of course, Project Vanity!

Click after the jump to see what's inside!

The reason I haven't been blogging is because I have been reading. A lot. I used to read dozens of book every month when I was younger, but all that changed when I started working. I've marathoned a few books, but always in spurts. Tis' the perfect season to devour books along with the tastiest food! Hehe. 

Yesterday, Christmas day, my dad, mom, and I visited Tagaytay. It seems as if we weren't the only ones who had that brilliant idea. It was traffic-fest as carloads of families poured into restaurants and tourist spots! It feels as if we spent most of our day trip there mucking in traffic. Still, it was fun, and I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend the day.

Now, what I'm really waiting for is New Year.

So yesterday one of the maintenance personnel in our condo knocked on the door and said that the power will be out from 11pm to 6am. As we had things to finish, Marco and I thought to stay in a hotel overnight. After calling up at least four hotels, we decided to settle on Marriott Manila since it's the nearest one (albeit not as affordable as I might like).

from the Marriott Manila website

I guess we just wanted to relax and break the routine for even just one day. Anyway, for those who are looking for a place to stay (especially Balikbayans, it's just right in front of NAIA 3) Mariott is a good choice. I wouldn't say the best since I expected a bigger room and at least a free breakfast because the rate is not cheap, but I am very happy with the service. I also loved the gorgeous pool area, which I sadly forgot to take a picture of before my 7am swim.

Food from the restaurant is just so-so for the price. We ordered spaghetti bolognese and kare-kare, which tasted rather bland. I think it cost P1,700 for the dinner, including drinks.

Last week, I received a beauty loot from Anne, a friend who lives in Canada! You remember that I swapped with her last September. This is our picture with Noemz, another friend I met online, who kindly shipped the package to me even amidst her busy schedule!

me, Anne, Noemz

These two girls are the sweetest. We only met online, eventually met in person, and, thanks to the Internet, we manage to keep in touch! I can't wait for Anne to visit the Philippines again so we can have a proper dinner or something. 

Anyhoo, this is what Anne sent me:

I'm not a foodie, but I love good food (who doesn't?). We eat out a lot but the bulk of our meals are cooked by me! Therefore, it's important that I always find new flavors and new sources of ingredients. The healthier and more natural, the better. Location is also important!

So when I heard that a new weekend market is opening behind Bonifacio High Street, I immediately rushed to the opening this morning. Take note, I wasn't invited as part of the media. I was there to see what the place, called Mercato Centrale, had to offer. I admit though that the biggest draw for me was the location; it was near our condo, plus I love the atmosphere and crowd at High Street.

There are quite a lot of suppliers (three huge tents) so I wasn't able to take a picture of everything, but I did take photos of the few I bought from.

This is the first tent you'll see upon entrance. Opening day was packed with people! The first tent had a lot of pastries, cookies, and other sweet desserts. There were also vegetables, herbs, free-range organic chicken, and cooked meals. Leyende was there as well as this line of baby products.

Organic produce straight from the ground

Granola bars. I bought a sugar-free Chips Ahoy-flavored pack.

I was just settling down to write about some cheap lipstick I found at the drugstore. But then I thought what the hell, I don't want to talk about lipstick. When you do what you love and you get either pressured or paid to do it, well, it stops being something you love, but just something you do.

Let's take a break from makeup and clothes today, shall we? I'd just like to share my newest toy!

It's true what they say: once you go Mac, you can't go back. Okay that doesn't really apply to everyone but it does to me and Marco. We love Apple computers because of the functionality and design. We love that Apple thinks of computers differently and encourages other people to do the same.

Tools of the trade: 16-gig iPad, Macbook, 32-gig iPod Touch, 4-gig iPod Shuffle

When I first got my Macbook I had no idea how to use it.