Choco Pie, Baby!

Choco Pie is arguably Korea’s favorite sweet snack. Invented by Orion Confectionery in the 70s , it is often described as a variation of the American Moon Pie, albeit smaller and with a bit of twist on the flavor. It is now oh-so popular all over the world. I guess there is something about milk chocolate covered soft crumbly cookies with a marshmallow cream center that satiates the sweets-lovin’ kid in us.

Orion, Lotte (Carrying the Ghana and Gold brands), and Crown make most of the Choco Pies here in Korea. Most kids love the Ghana brand most because it’s sweeter than the rest, but I personally don’t have much love for choco pies. Of the three Choco Pie brands, it is the original Orion brand that I like. Though not enough for me to buy the stuff myself. I only buy them to send to the store or as per request by my choco pie lovin’ brother.

While I do not really care for the traditional Korean Choco Pie, I do love the fusion choco pie in Korea called Charlteok Choco Pie. It is basically a Chocolate covered rice cake (pie) with a filling of either ground peanut, dark chocolate or black sesame. They are relatively smaller than the usual choco pies.

(From Left: Orion Choco Pie, Lotte Charlteok Choco Pie, Homeplus Charlteok Choco Pie)

Why do I like these rice cake choco pies? It’s because of the play in texture and flavor that the traditional choco pie lacks. The usual choco pie is basically just chocolate and cream, and since the cookie is soft and crumbly, it doesn’t exactly have texture play, it’s just sweet.

The Charlteok Choco Pie on the other hand is smooth, chewy and has that complexity that I like --- a mild sweetness from the chocolate cover, the bite and flavor of chewy rice cake, and the strong flavors of the filling.

Among the various Charlteok Choco Pies in the market, these are the two flavors I like best:

Home Plus’ Peanut-filled Choco Charlteok Pie – It has a strong peanut center that’s not really sweet, just peanuty with a hint of sesame flavor. The chocolate is sweet but mild too which
makes it easier to eat a lot of these in one sitting ~ definitely no umay factor!

Lotte’s Chocolate –filled Choco Charlteok Pie – I am not exactly a chocolate person, but this one, despite the grandslam of chocolate flavors in the pie, I really like. Why? Mainly because the chocolate center used is not the usual sweet milk chocolate thing, instead it’s a bit on the dark chocolate spectrum—not sweet at all , just , well, chocolatey. The rice cake really is a good foil for the sweetness and the strong chocolate flavors.

So that’s my mini-review of Korea’s Choco Pies. Have you tried a Choco Pie? :-)

Penta Serum's Osory Promise

Osory Oil is a big thing in Korea. It is so big that it has spawned a successful beauty brand, Beauty Innovation which in turn has won a national consumer award in 2007. All of Beauty Innovation's products hinge on the supposedly amazing properties of Osory oil-- heals damaged skin, helps acne, reverses scars.


You can google osory oil and find nothing haha! It's because osory oil is really badger oil. Badger? Yes, Badger, as in that furry animal which looks like a cross between a beaver and a squirrel with a long black and white stripe running through its back. The oil from Badgers are what is known as osory oil in Korea.

I don't know if badgers are harmed in producing osory oil haha,this is a blog dedicated to my personal narcissism, so if you'd like to raise a point about animal rights, go to the WWF site :-)

Last November, at the beginning of the winter season, to combat the dryness and the breakouts caused by the weather, I bought myself a bottle of this:

It's known as Penta Serum and is manufactured by MB Skin, a high-end organic cosmeceutical company in Korea. And yes, the main ingredient of the penta-serum is Osory Oil. This small 15 ml bottle is about 32 USD.

And though it's small, this bottle will last you months. One only needs a drop or two of the oil to cover the whole face and neck area.

It's for reviving dry and damaged skin. It is supposedly good for acne-prone skin and those with scars or redness because as its name implies, the serum is full of penta-peptides, a recent breakthrough in skincare that signals the skin to rebuild skincells. It does seem like hype right? Except big brands have jumped into the penta-peptide
hype too (Olay has it's super sought-after penta-peptide formulation too).

Aside from Osory Oil (where the penta-peptides are from), the serum has olive oil, sunflower oil, argan oil and bulgarian rose oil as ingredients. All of these oils together in one formulation supposedly provide the much vaunted all-in-one care: hydrating, acne control, and skin repair.

The bottle comes with a dropper applicator. You use only one to two drops then massage it to your face and neck area. The serum itself is---well, like a very watery oil. It has a clear yellowish tint with a distinctive smell. I have to say it does smell like it's from an animal hahaha. It's something you can use only at night, and with that smell, I think nobody in her right mind will use this outside the house.

I was really hopeful about this product,it's all natural with no preservatives and it did help ease the red flaky winter skin but it broke me out! Big, angry zits! I tried this serum straight for two weeks to see if my skin will adjust to it but to no avail. And then I checked the ingredient list again. There is the culprit -- the serum has alpha tocopherol (aka Vitamin E). I am one of the unlucky people who cannot tolerate Vitamin E in whatever form --- as part of vitamins, or in creams. Though alpha tocopherol is supposed to be the newer and better ingested forms of vitamin E, I still react to it.


This review does feel empty for me. I don't know Osory would have worked for me if it did not have Vitamin E at all, but I'll never know. If any of you want to try this Penta Serum (it still has about 90% left in the bottle), let me know by commenting below and leaving your email address.

I'm giving it away so that whoever gets it will be able to try the product and see if it'll work for her. One Caveat, if you have Vit. E sensitivity, don't even try this serum :-) I'll give away the Penta Serum for free, but you have to pick up the item at our store in Davao/House in Paranaque/or pay for the shipping.

Good luck!

Sugar n' Spice and Everything Nice = TOPOKKI!

I love Topokki! In fact, I almost always alternate this with kimbap for my afternoon snack at our office caf.

What is Topokki? It’s basically fat tubes of rice cakes and fish cakes in a sweet, spicy red sauce. Add a hardboiled egg and it’s the perfect merienda for me. ☺

Topokki is such a common streetfood in Seoul that most street corners have at least one vendor selling topokki and other usual streetfoods such as odeng (boiled seafood cakes to be eaten with soup) or fried stuffs.

It is the one Korean snack that I love and can eat almost everyday. And because Koreans have a penchant for turning everything they love into junkfoods, is it any wonder that we have Topoki “chips”?

(Or for that matter, Curry Curls, which I also love!)

This is my favorite brand of Topoki Curls. It’s by Kim’s Club. Some Topoki Curls are pretty sweet, so sweet that the hot pepper kick is lost. But this brand has more heat than sweetness! Which is just the way I like it!

To be honest about it, it doesn’t really taste too much as the real topokki, it lacks the slightly seafood-y taste but it’s sweet, extremely crunchy and really spicy! The perfect combination for addicting snack foods for me.

Oh and because I took a picture of my stash of junkfood for the weekend, and since I am too lazy to post them in another entry, haha, here are my favorite junkfoods in Korea:

Melon Popsicle – tastes like honeydew melon + milk.Really creamy with no artificial aftertaste!

Rich Potato Chips- my second ultimate favorite potato chips ( next to Ruffles Texas Style BBQ Chips!). It’s actually labeled as Cheese flavored, but you can't detect the cheese, instead it tastes as if it has been fried in Butter. Really rich and full of umami!

Market-O Real Chocolate Choco Crispy – Basically these are almond toffee chips coated in dark chocolate. The toffee is surprisingly salty, which bodes well with the deep flavor of the chocolate. The good thing about this Crispy Chocolate is that the chocs are in bite-sized individual wrappers. A box contains about 16 bitesizes which, I have to admit, I finished in a day haha!


These are my fave chichirya in Seoul, what’s your ultimate comfort (junk)food?

Lava: A Cheapskate's Lipstick Nirvana

There's been a bit of a buzz about these lipsticks in Seoul. First, they are impossibly cheap (about 200 pesos each). Second, reviews have compared the finish and wear of these lippies to MAC lipsticks.

I've seen them more than a year ago while browsing through the famous korean internet marketplace, but I never got interested enough to buy. I loved Nature Republic's petit cherry lipsticks, and because they are almost the same price, there was no incentive for me to try a brand that's a bit hard to get (You can only buy these lava lipsticks at wholesale cosmetics shops or online).

However, a client asked about this lipstick line a couple of months ago, so off I went looking for them again and reading the korean reviews (thank you google translate!). Turns out, these lipsticks are quite popular to the younger set. Plus the color range is unbelievable! 70 effing shades! I also learned that it is manufactured only for the domestic market by Samsung's Home & Healthcare division.

Suffice to say, that I was piqued enough to order three lippies for myself, haha! I'm trying hard to convince myself that this is in the name of "product research". Anyhow, 600 pesos for three lipsticks is a steal.


First, here's the Lava Lipstick Palette. 70 colors. At such a cheap price. It's unbelievable.

I ordered Shade 1 which is a bright red color, Shade 10 which is in magenta, and Shade 8 which is a dark pink.

First thing I noticed is that the lipsticks were packed in a no-nonsense way. No frills, no outer boxes. Just three lipsticks in a transparent paper and bubble wrap.

The lipstick cases themselves are a minimalist black. And the Lipstick Colors are just denoted by number.

The lippies are actually very pretty and really value for money. Each fullsized lippy is about 4 grams.

I tried the #10 and I noticed that it was very creamy and practically scentless except for a hint of something cocoa-y, perhaps shea butter? The shades I choose are as is shown in the catalogue so I'm happy with that. As for staying power, I haven't tried them yet at the office, but I suppose they'll be just like most Korean lipsticks which stay only about 3-4 hours.

For the price and considering the creamy finish and the unbelievable range of colors, I think Lava is still a cheapskate's possible source of lipstick nirvana.

Takoyaki and Twinings: Balms for A Sick Day

I blame it on the weather. I’d like to confront Spring and tell her, You’re such a wuzz! What’s wrong with you! Why can’t you confront Winter and tell him ”Enoooouughhhh! You’ve had your time! It’s my dance now!”

Mid-march and it’s still freaking freezing in Seoul. And I know, I know, this is such a little inconvenience when you look at what’s happening on the other side of the Korean straits.

But indulge me as I took a sick leave today. Mainly because the past week I’ve had really terrible colds and have just recently gotten a full-blown case of pink-eye (i.e. sore eyes or conjunctivitis). Last night I felt the beginning of a fever and decided, hell, better be safe than sicker.

So here I am at home. Too tired and too snotty to do anything but stare at my monitor and drum my fingers on the keyboard. I needed something to balm me over my itchy, bloodshot eyes and over-worked nose so I went to my neighborhood Japanese fastfood to buy some comfort grub for lunch.

I love authentic Japanese-style Takoyaki. No ifs no buts. Just because it makes me happy to gobble up these brown balls of sweet-salty-seafood-y delights.

What’s not to like? Crispy outer crust, soft fluffy innards, a solid cube of tako (octopus) bit inside, some pickled ginger, a mysterious brown sweetish sauce offset by creamy mayonnaise. And those wispy bonito flakes and green specks of seaweeds topping the balls.

It is my absolute favorite snack in the world. And today is the most perfect time to eat something that makes me happy ☺

Because I need a lot of liquids to make up for all those liquidy stuffs running through my nose and to flush out the remaining bad guys that’s causing me to be sick, I’ve gone to taking Vitamin C drinks and getting a lot of liquids.

But we can only drink so much water, right? I turn to Twinings to make it far easier. You can say anything about Twinings (Overhyped! Too expensive for so-so teas), but I love their fruit infusion teas. These are basically not teas in that they don’t contain any tea leaves at all. The flavor of the teas are derived from the fruit leaves/peels/ dried flowers/dried fruits in the teas.

I brought a few boxes of Twinings from the Philippines because they are much cheaper there. Of the five variants I have: Raspberry & Echinacea / Strawberry & Mango/ Peach & Passion Fruit/ Blackcurrant Ginseng & Vanilla/ Lemon Twist, my favorite is the Blackcurrant Ginseng & Vanilla. It has a bold taste with a very gentle undertone of vanilla. I like the deep, spicy kick of this tea.

Takoyaki and a whole lot of Twinings. These are my balms for these sickly days. Oh that, and a serving of GLEE ;-)

MaMa Lotion, I Hope You Do Me Right!

There is a new all-in-one skin solution that’s been making the buzz in various beauty fora. The original formulation was called MaMa Lotion, but now it is known as M2 Refinish.

M2 (or MaMa) basically stands for Mandelic and Malic Acids, the main ingredients of the lotion. These are AHA acids that are both strong and non-irritating to the skin. The lotion also has Algae Extract to protect skin from dryness.

M2 Refinish is a clinical-grade product ( Read: formulated to be dispensed by dermatologists ) which supposedly does wonders to skin affected by aging, fine lines, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, acne or acne scarring. For a Lotion with so much hype, it does seem like it might well turn out to be a dud! Except that most of the reviews have been good to great, which gives me hope. (Yeah, Hope is beautiful! :-))

I have problematic skin: dry during winter, normal in spring and oily in summer. Plus I have some marks from old acne. Years ago, I used Obagi Nu-derm and it did give that beautiful glow, except that after a few years of use, I found my skin getting irritated by the harsh AHA+Tret+Hydroquinone combo. Not to mention how expensive the Obagi regimen is.

It does seem as if this M2 Lotion will be the answer to my search for a medical grade, all-in-one potion. I need the anti-acne part, I want any marks to fade fast just like with Obagi plus I need something to combat ageing and wrinkles. Unfortunately M2 is not available in Korea. And I considered asking someone to buy it for me in Pinas but then I found out that if you buy this from a derma in Pinas, the selling price is about 4k a bottle. Too Expensive! Good thing there’s the US-based Skincarerx.com which offers the exact same product for only $48.00 (plus shipping fees) and they deliver to Korea via FEDEX! All in all, with my discount coupon, I just spent $100 for two big bottles inclusive of the shipping.


I ordered my two bottles of M2 Skin Refinish 20% last Sunday and got the items just now. Now that’s fast service!

My loot from SkincareRx.com: 2 bottles of M2 Refinish 20%, samplers from DHC and SkinMedica plus Apothica's new catalogue.

*Fingers crossed* that this will work on my skin! Will give a full review after a month’s use.

BTW, I have a 20% Coupon from SkincareRx.com so if any of you would like to get the coupon, just send me a message or comment with your email address so I can forward it to you.

Cheers!

FOR FULL DETAILS OF M2 SKIN REFINISH 20%, click THIS.

My Lovely Bath

Taking my time at the shower at the end of the work day is my surefire way of relaxing, combating stress. There is nothing as soothing as a light lovely scent lingering as you towel off. Or waking up in the morning with a faint fruity scent. I like my bath stuffs to be delicately scented yet I want them to stick to my skin. Where I can still take a whiff of them hours after bathing.


Lush, a famous bath brand, and Soap & Glory, are great brands but they are prohibitively expensive in Seoul. So I do not even attempt to buy them here. Thankfully, there are so many Beauty Brands in Korea, so trying out bath stuffs is pretty fun!


For being pretty affordable, and really, really delicately scented, I stick with Happy Bath. :-)

My happy bath is made up of Happy Bath's All Natural Body Cleanser (Fruits) , Body Milk (Fruits) and the ever-famous Italy Towel.

Happy Bath is Amore Pacific's drugstore brand of bath and body items. They actually have a wide range of variants (Lime, Rose, Lavender, Grains, and some seasonal ones) but I like the Fruits variant the most. It's fruity with a milky undertone. And after a few hours, the milky undertone rises. It smells like really yummy fruit yoghurt :-)


You might wonder what the heck is an Italy Towel?

The Italy Towel Up Close.

It's basically an exfoliating towel with really rough, viscous fibre (See the picture above) Koreans love to use this on both their faces (they use a finer kind) and their bodies. I learned about this from a Korean friend. At first it's a bit disconcerting, because it is rougher than our common face towel or loofah. But I've come to love using an Italy towel. Somehow, It's become therapeutic rubbing the towel off your body to slough off dead skin and dirt!


This is my idea of a lovely bath, what's yours? :-)

Lobe Love

I admit I love earrings, most especially dangling ones The way they frame one’s face, how they can easily change my look - how a flashy pair on my lobes can reinvent a drab black office wear, how a funky pair can give a bit of zaniness to an otherwise typical jeans and shirt ensemble. Like any other piece of fashion, earrings hav the power to transform.

I don’t wear expensive earrings. I prefer cheap yet pretty pieces. It’s always a fun challenge to find a pair that showcases my personality. More importantly, I’m always off in search of bargains. These four pairs of drop earrings are my recent purchases.

While it is true that fashion earring shops are a dime a dozen in Seoul, you’d be surprised to note that the four earrings above are stuffs I purchased in the Philippines when I was on vacation last month. The best part is, none of the earrings above cost me more than a hundred pesos a pair. Cheap right? The cheapest one (the green drop earrings) cost me only 10 pesos ☺

MY IOPE ~ Or how to indulge without splurging~

Like any other girl, I secretly want to indulge in luxe skincare that really works. I've learned from bad experience using the much vaunted SKII brand that "pricey" does not exactly mean "effective". It could turn out to mean red rashes and more sensitized skin. That was 5,000 pesos down the drain. A very expensive lesson, but at least I now know that SKII and my skin is a match made in hell.

But then I got to try IOPE, and I finally found that luxe brand I love. IOPE is a premium brand from Amore Pacific, the gargantuan beauty empire in Korea which owns brands such as Etude, Innisfree, Laneige, Hera, Happy Bath and Sulwhasoo. I do not like Laneige much. I feel it's too pricey for a midlevel brand so it surprised me that I found IOPE to be good for my skin. Only problem is, it's such an expensive brand. A face cream costs 3,000 pesos, their eye creams cost 2,000. Pretty much all of IOPE's products are on the 2000+++ pesos price mark.

So what's a girl to do when she can't exactly afford to spend 3k on a face cream and still want to indulge? Well, as they say, When in Rome do what the Romans do. Or actually, my korean friend taught me about the art of buying manufacturers samplers of highend cosmetics such as IOPE. Apparently a lot of young office girls in Korea do this.


These are the IOPE Products I use:

IOPE RETINOL TX CREAM - The 45 ml costs PHP 3100.00 . It's an anti-wrinkle cream in a hydrating base so it doesn't cause flakiness or rough skin. Unlike other retinol formulations, this doesn't sting or make my face red.

IOPE V-FIT LIFT EYE CREAM - The 25 ml jar costs about PHP2000.00. I love this eye cream. It's a contour eye cream to combat droopy skin/wrinkles/laugh lines around the eye area. I also noticed that it helps in preventing dark circles. ( I have super chinky eyes so I cannot afford to have dark circles or puffy undereye lines. Panda eyes are never in, right?)


These two items are waaaay expensive and honestly I cannot take spending more than 5k for these products.

Luckily, I've found a really consistent, honest and reasonably priced supplier of manufacturer's samples for these products. The supplier places the manufacture date of the samplers so at least I'm aware of the expiration date of the goodies.

The Retinol RX are in 5 ml tubes while the V-Fit Eye Creams come in 10 ml tubes. My stash above would last me close to 3-4 months and it cost me only a little over 1k pesos. That's big savings on my part!

So there, sometimes it doesn't follow that you have to splurge to indulge. ;-)

The Purple Cow and... (Part II of II)

2. Interpreter of Maladies + Unaccustomed Ground by Jhumpa Lahiri

These are two different books. (So yes, I’m cheating haha.) But they are from the same author and both are swoon-worthy. These are the most lyrical, sigh-worthy, and easy to read collection of short stories I’ve read. Jhumpa’s first book, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for short stories. But that shouldn’t discourage you from reading it. It is not weighed down by heavy language at all. And if by the time you’re done with Interpreter of Maladies, you’re still hungry for Ms. Lahiri’s lush words, then move on to her most recent work, Unnacustomed Earth. As much as I enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies, I love this second book more.

The beauty of Jhumpa’s characters are that they are ordinary. They are mostly people like us with seemingly normal lives and ticks, which is why one gets drawn to the tales so easily. Emphatise, that’s the word. Reading these stories, you can’t help but emphatise,



3. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

'I'd pretended it was about academics, but it never had been. . . . I imagined that if I left South Bend, I would meet a melancholy, athletic boy who liked to read as much as I did and on overcast Sundays we would take walks together wearing wool sweaters.'

I thought I’ve had it with coming-of-age novels. I come from the generation who loved Caulden Haulfield (Catcher in The Rye) . So it surprised me that I liked, no, loved Prep.
Prep is a breezy read. It is a perfect summer book. One you can bring on vacation. A title to read while basking in the sun (or in my case, keeping warm while the temperature drops to freezing outside).

It is about life at Ault, a boarding school in Mass. told from the point of view of Lee, a bright, albeit confused scholarship student.
It traces four years of her life at Ault. From being a naïve and utterly uptight freshman, to her first brush with sex, to realizations about the rich, the pedigreed and making peace with her roots.

It is not so much the things that happen in the book that lifts this out of the usual heap of teen/chick lits, it’s how Lee’s voice seems so real, raw even, sometimes bordering on naïve. And as a reader, there are times I wanted to bop her in the head for her cowardness, but that’s the beauty of this small gem. It transports you wholly, to Ault.

Book Love: The Purple Cow Plus..(Part I of II)

..Two other books for which I’d willingly stake my reputation as a book nerd. Or to put it simply, three books I’d give away to people who like me, love reading. None of these of are old or pretty thick, though one is what others may call a breezy read, some are not even novels, but all three of these titles surprised me in that they somehow made me stop and (weep/cry/woop) errrr, reflect about my personal task of living and thriving.

1. The Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Yes, I am a Seth Godin groupie. In my opinion, he and Malcolm Gladwell are the guardians, the true purveyors of business books for wannabe-entrepreneurs. I have read most of his books (though I have to say, I don’t exactly like his latest offering, Tribes). His books are primarily geared for enterprising people (read: those who are in or planning to go into business), but I strongly believe that the stuffs he shares are things we can apply in our everyday life. Among his books, I love the Purple Cow best. What is the purple cow? In the words of Seth himself:

Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring. They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow -- the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows -- is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible.

The world is full of boring stuff -- brown cows -- which is why so few people pay attention. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. Not just slapping on the marketing function as a last-minute add-on, but also understanding from the outset that if your offering itself isn't remarkable, then it's invisible -- no matter how much you spend on well-crafted advertising.

This book is a call to arms to throw out the “good enough” attitude in favor of the more difficult task of being/ becoming R-E-M-A-R-K-A-B-L-E. Because Seth Godin is a marketer/entrepreneur, the stories and examples are usually business-centered but he also emphasizes how imbibing this idea, this quest, on a personal level leads to success.
Seth Godin actually wrote an article in 2003 about the Purple Cow. I guess it is the inspiration that led him to writing a whole book about it. Here’s the link to that article, for those who are interested: In Praise of The Purple Cow.

Five From Skinfood

I have something to say to those who have yet to see the light about Skinfood. I’m sorry but despite what some would tell you, Skinfood is not a high-end cosmetics line in Korea. In fact, it’s not even mid-level (mid-level brands are Missha, Laneige and Hanskin). It is, as what my Korean friend /workmate would tell me, “something for the college students”. (Of course, one reason why it’s considered high-end in Pinas is the outrageous markups on Skinfood products.)

But it being inexpensive and readily available in Korea doesn’t make this brand of lower quality. On the contrary, it is a testament to this brand’s popularity that one is most likely to see a Skinfood Store anywhere you go in Seoul. (I’ve lived in three different apartments , in three different locations in and at the outskirts of Seoul since 2005 and in every apartment (or officetel, as Koreans would point out) there ‘s always a Skinfood nearby. And the fact that this brand never goes on Sale. Ever. That says a lot about a brand’s confidence, right?

Like any other brand, Skinfood has its good and weak points. For one, I hate SF’s eye shadows. They suck. Very light color pay-off. At the same price (and they are pretty cheap, I admit), I can get great shadows from Innisfree or Lioele.

But I have also my favorites. Here are five Skinfood products I’ve used again and again . As you can see there are no new releases from this list. These are products I’ve used for at least a year.

Skinfood Shea Butter Lip Care in Raspberry

Natural rosy, pinkish lips in lightly scented reaaaaallyyyy moisturizing lip balm! It is so good, I sometimes use it on its own (without lipstick!) even at work.

Skinfood Black Sugar Mask Wash-off

The name is a misnomer. It’s actually a scrub not a mask. As the name implies, it has sugar granules and some supposedly mineral and vitamin rich softeners . But what I really like about this “mask” is how good it is as an exfoliant. The sugar beads are fine enough not to feel too abrasive, but you do feel like you are exfoliating when you rub the sugar mask on your skin. And the best part is, after rinsing off the mask, your skin really feels soft! It’s supposed to be used about twice a week, but I often use it at the end of the day to remove any debris and stress (Haha, yes, scrubbing your face can relieve stress!).

Skinfood Cappucino Wash Body Scrub (Phased Out~ Sad)

It’s like slathering a Starbucks Frap all over your body. It smells that good! Plus the beads are also great for exfoliating. (Apparently, the beads are real coffee nibs). However, since January this has been off all Skinfood stores. The SF clerks I’ve asked confirmed that it’s been discontinued. I wonder why though, as this has always been a bestseller. Now where do I find a yummy flavored body scrub at the same reasonable price? 

Skinfood Rose Cheek Chalk in Peach

The cheapest and most cost –effective blush I’ve used. Ever. The finish is matte. And it is amazingly long lasting. Twelve hours at the office with no blush retouch and there’s still color to my cheeks. I love this blush. (I tried a comparable product from TFS and the pink sank into my skin in just a few hours!).

Peach Sake Silky Finish Powder

It is a lightly scented loose powder with silica(to refract the light and provide a bit of illusion of smoothness) and oil-absorbing ingredients. Though most of my clients rave about Skinfood’s Buckwheat Loose Powder (which comes in two shades), I like the Peach Sake Powder precisely because it has no shade and is very very light on the skin. More importantly, it really works as a mattifier for BB creams/liquid foundation.

These are my top five picks from Skinfood. How about you? What’s yours?

(All the images shown above are from the official Skinfood website)

The Little Drugstore (HAIR) Brand That Rocks

Beauty Credit is a Korean cosmetics brand whose image model is Go Hye Sun, of Boys Over Flowers fame. While I don’t particularly like the Beauty Credit brand for anything cosmetics, I think the company (Somang Cosmetics) makes great, affordable hair products.
Here are the two Somang HAIR products that I really love:

Beauty Credit Silk Protein Hair Aqua Essence: It’s basically a nutrient hair mist containing silk protein/ceramide that you spray on your wet or dry hair . It supposedly helps for healthy, softer hair. In my case, I have extremely dry, rebonded hair and since I hate using any kind of sticky leave-on goop to give my hair some shine, this works well for me. Just a couple of sprays before going out and my hair is somehow tamed. It also has a very mild powdery scent, which is a plus for those who have sensitive noses (i.e. rhinitis sufferers). The spray bottle shown in the picture is about 250ml and it is really,really, really cheap. I cannot reveal the price haha, but we used to sell this at the shop for roughly 270 Pesos.

Somang Coenzyme Q10 Treatment Rinse: It’s basically a Conditioner and works wonders for my brittle as hell hair. For the price roughly 500 pesos for the 500 ml bottle), it works way better than the more expensive branded Conditioners (Hello Skinfood!). I do have to admit that I use this conditioner with Loreal Professionel Treatments (which I buy in Pinas when I go home). But because my hair is so dry that I need to condition everyday, this works as a cost-effective and good preventive measure for my hair. (Yes preventive, because as with any other girl with rebonded hair, the goal is to prevent the hair from growing into its natural frizzy state :P )

Another good thing about Somang Hair Products is that you can usually find them at big grocery stores, that's a big plus for convenience.


[Sidenote: The price difference for Loreal hair products here and in Pinas is smirk-inducing! The Loreal Professionel Treatment which I buy at my Davao neighborhood salon for PHP 800.00 is about 2.5x more expensive in Seoul (and you have to get them at the Salons too.)]

A Slightly Unlikely Bag Affair with Longchamp

Almost three years ago, an officemate who was sent to Florence for a business meeting came back to Seoul excited to show off the bag he bought for his sister. It was a Lonchamp Paris shopping bag in navy blue. Not to be a snoot, but I kind of wrinkled at the thought of him buying a tote made of what was obviously polyvinyl fiber for a whooping one hundred Euros.

Fast forward to 2010, and Longchamp Paris, at least in Pinas, is the current rage in bags. And in typical Pinoy fashion, what usually costs about 100 USD in Seoul (and this is not from Duty Free Shops but the regular Longchamp store in Seoul’s Lotte Department Store) is priced at 7k in Pinas. Is it just me, or do retailers in Pinas intentionally jack up their prices to make their items more “high-end” thus more desirable? ( Another case in point, a friend bought an LV wallet in Greenbelt during his vacation. When he came back to Seoul, we checked the price at the local LV shop, and we were surprised that the wallet was actually 3k pesos cheaper in Seoul !)

Anyway, on my recent trip home to Pinas, I had to purchase a few LC bags for some clients (Apparently, what I sold for about 5.7k in Pinas was 9k in a Department Store in Manila). And the God of Bags and Sneakery played a trick on me, a decidedly non-fan of LC.

I saw the bag and I know I had to buy it.

There is no model written at the back though. It just says “ Modele Depose” so I don’t actually know the exact model , but it’s a medium, long handle LC with fabric (thick canvass?) material. It’s pretty neutral-looking with its stripes, which is fine by me as I use it both for work and play.I like how it looks small when the sides are folded but it's big enough to be my trusty shopping bag on weekends .

Not a bad deal for a $130.00 bag.


And though I still don’t particularly like LC’s regular mono-colored shopping bags ( I find them overpriced considering they’re made of PVC material), come May, on my way back to Pinas for a short break, I am now sure I’d make time for a short detour to the Longchamp DFS for my LC fix ;-)