A Lush Day

It’s payday weekend, and what do I reward myself for a month of productive activities?

A little yellow package of scented happiness!

I have been sleeping late the past weeks. And it shows on my utterly dry and dull body skin. So today as I tittered around at the mall buying the week’s grocery, I gave in to indulgence and bought these:

Lush bars (Fresh Handmade Cosmetics) are not something I buy on a regular basis. For one, they are incredibly overpriced where I am (2x the US prices), plus I ordinarily get by with the affordable Happy Bath Products. When I do think of indulgent shower affairs, nothing comes close to using Lush products for that A-mazing, uplifting and ultra-fragrant bathing experience.

Dry skin and payday are my alibis for Lush.

The task of deciding what to buy at Lush is a fun and totally confusing experience. One spends minutes sniffing through the soap, testing out creams and jelly soaps. Lush is a girl’s version of the chocolate factory – endless products of yummy soaps and natural cosmetics.
In the end, I settled for the good old standbys:

Honey I Washed the Kids – the creamy bar with caramel topping. This might just be everyone’s favorite Lush bar. And what’s not to like? It looks like a slice of caramel flan, smells like caramel and honey and is amazingly moisturizing. I love sweet, vanilla scents so this is always on top of my Lush list.

Rockstar – the candy pink bar. I am trying this soap for the first time. It honestly didn’t smell that good at the store, at least in comparison to Honey I Washed The Kids, but it had sweet undertones and I have read reviews of this soap settling into a nice subtle candy scent on the skin. How does it fare? We’ll I was doing some business stuff last night until midnight and there was this lingering scent of sweet, musky smell, at first I was wondering where that came from, but then I realized, It was me! It was the Rockstar on my skin!


There are so many things to love about Lush: they use the least amount of preservatives and chemicals on their products. The scents of Lush products are often complex - like perfumes, the soap scents dry into the skin and become slightly different, almost like they have fragrance top and bottom notes. The scent lasts on the skin for quite a while –at least a couple of hours. So these might well take the place of one’s light cologne during the hot summer season .

Only thing is they are expensive. And then there’s the thing that is impossibly difficult to avoid with Lush Soaps : they melt fast, like utterly fast. Do not make the mistake of leaving your Lush soap in an open soap holder where water can seep, or else your pricey Lush soap will in turn into goop in a day’s time.

What I personally do to make these Lush bars last longer is cut small portions off the bars for use. Then I stash the big bars in a cool, dry place ( like in your clothes drawer! The bonus is that our clothes would be infused with the delectable scents!)

How about you, what have you indulged in lately? Have a lush week ahead!

Save vs. Splurge: Facial Scrubs

I’ve been using two facial scrubs alternately the past month. One is a staple, what for me is the better, more cost effective alternative of the overhyped Cure Aqua Gel. And just to be upfront about it, yep, we used to sell Cure Aqua Gel, and I used a whole bottle myself. I still think it is too expensive and overhyped.

My review of the Cure Aqua Gel: http://thelittlecoolshop.multiply.com/recipes/item/3/CURE_NATURAL_AQUA_GEL_Japanese_Product .

Skin79 Crystal Peeling Gel ( Retails at PHP 660.00 at TLCShop) basically works exactly the same as the Cure Aqua Gel. It’s a cellulose based exfoliant. You wash your face, dry it completely, then apply the Peeling Gel ( I use about three squirts for the whole face). Then scrub away, and after few minutes, rinse out with warm water. You’ll notice that as you scrub, little bits of what seems to be dead skin and debris form. Die-hard Cure Aqua Gel users kept yelping about the amazing ability of the gel to remove these “dead skin”. Ermm, it’s 90% cellulose dear, those tiny bits are cellulose mixed with dead skin, not purely dead skin. There’s a mild acid in the gel, super mild you won’t notice it really but when I apply my M2 Skin Refinish after using this as an exfoliant, my face gets a bit red, I think it’s because of the combination of the peels’ apple enzyme and the M2 acids. The Crystal Peeling Gel is supposedly also formulated with Hyaluronic Acid to provide moisture to the skin, though I have not noticed any plumping effect.

Peeling Gels in Korea are actually mislabeled. Or maybe it’s because I am used to associating peeling to really flaky sheets of skin on my face. Peeling Gels here are really just cellulose-based exfoliants which basically scrubs dead cells but will not really cause any noticeable peeling.

What stops me from using the Skin79 Crystal Peeling Gel is the time I have to spend to dry my skin completely before using it. Sometimes I really just want to wash my face and exfoliate in one go.

I got a jar of Dr. Goldfaden Daily Scrub as part of my SkinCareRX Beauty Cache Loot a month ago. And I’ve been using it almost every other day. This scrub is supposed to be formulated for everyday use. The creator, Dr. Goldfaden is supposedly a well-known Florida dermatologist famous for his anti-aging line and this is one of his banner products. The scrub contains ruby crystals which act as exfoliators. For the anti-aging part, the scrub has red tea (anti-oxidant), hyaluronic acid and seaweed extract.

Well, because this is a scrub, I don’t really think the red tea or the anti-aging stuff would do anything exceptional. First because the scrub is washed off after a few minutes, so, in the parlance of my day job, there is not enough residence time for the skin to absorb these.

What I love about it is how fine the crystals are. You can scrub all you want without feeling any redness or irritation. And the smell, to be honest, it’s the smell that’s gotten me hooked. It smells like Yakult, only yummier! It’s like scrubbing a milk based yummy product on your face. You know how some stuff make you feel indulgent and lifts your day just because it smells incredibly delicious? This is one of those. And I love it. Except a full size costs $65. Add tax and shipping fees and hmmmm, I don’t think I can afford to splurge that much on a daily scrub yet. Thankfully, you need very little to use this scrub, a small pea-sized amount is really enough (maybe even less) so I think my tiny jar can last me another month. Plus I will start alternating this with my now-neglected Skin79 Crystal Peeling Gel.

So that’s it. Both the Skin79 Crystal Peeling Gel and the Dr. Goldfaden Daily Scrub are pretty good based on my experience. One is pretty reasonable and straightforward to use (no indulgent, yummy scent though but it doesn’t exactly smell bad) while the other is a good physical (i.e. grain) exfoliator with a yummy scent and a prohibitive price. I am not sure if I will ever splurge enough to buy a facial scrub for $65 dollars. Maybe if I win the lotto? Haha, but as of the moment, while my jar lasts, I shall enjoy scrubbing indulgently each time.

Cheap Eats in Seoul: Pizza, Korean-style

I admit, Seoul is an expensive city. Almost all things here are 2x – 3x the prices in my home country, the Philippines. I say almost, because there are a few things that are way cheaper here --- like Korean cosmetics and pizza.

Yes, Pizza. Not the western fastfood brands (Papa John’s, Pizza Hut) because they are still pricey here, but homegrown Korean brands such as Pizza School and Borysoo Pizza. For price and quality, they are pretty cheap, much cheaper than the pizzas in Manila.

After shipping the EMS package for the shop's new stocks today, I dropped by the Borysoo Pizza shop near my flat to get a regular (12”) pizza all for me. Bwahaha!

With the sweltering heat and so many tasks to do this weekend, I decided to stay
home today and finish all that needs to be finished so I can go out tomorrow. And pizza, delicious and comforting slices of deliciousness, is for me the perfect food to eat when working on a weekend at home --- cheap, delicious and so easy to eat. (I eat while typing up invoices, ordering stocks etc. which is why my keyboard have crumbs all over haha. )

For 5000 won (about PHP 220.00), I got a 12” Combination Pizza (8 pieces).

Mozza Cheese, ham, olives, onions, red sauce, beef bits and a circle of
Creamy mashed sweet potato on the outer crust!



This is one thing that makes Korean pizzas different. They love mashed sweet potato on their pizzas. Personally I don’t think it adds anything special on the already good pizza, but hey at least the outer crust is flavorful (kamote flavorful!).

The crust is thin but not exactly cracker thin. It’s said to be a New York style crust – much thinner than the normal pan pizza but still is chewy and substantial enough to hold a pretty thick mound of toppings. I like it this way , a nice balance of bread (the crust) and flavors (the toppings). I ate 3 for my lunch, the rest for dinner (glutton!).

I have to say though that the flavors of the pizza is a lot milder than what we usually get at a typical Pizza Hut or Shakey’s. The saltiness is less than what I am used to, so I pepper it up with red pepper flakes, ketchup, and parmesan cheese.

Still, it’s nice to buy something worth 220 PHP and make a whole day’s meal out of it ☺ So there, if you know where to look, there are some things that’s way cheaper in Seoul.

Food Love: Best Roast Chicken in Myeongdong

Most people think of Myeongdong as Seoul’s premier fashion street. And truly, Myeongdong provides miles and miles of shopping therapy. From western brands to Korean high-end stores, beauty stores, souvenir shops, to indie brands, and street vendors, Myeongdong has them all.

I admit, I go there at least once a week. Mostly to pickup my product orders from the stores. Sometimes, to shop or just hangout with a friend. But if there’s one thing that is almost certain when I go to Myeongdong, it is that I almost always end up eating at this restaurant:

YongYang Nutrition Center , established in 1960, is the oldest restaurant in Myeongdong. To say that it is an amazing feat is an understatement. Especially considering the fact that it only offers two dishes --- Roast Chicken and Samgyetang (Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup).

This is my favorite eatery in Seoul. It’s cheap, consistently yummy, and the place is clean. (This was such a grotty place when I first ate here in 2006, but they’ve renovated and cleaned it up).

The Menu

( TIP: They offer a great, value-for-money lunch set from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. As pictured on the menu above-- it has salad, 1/4 roasted chicken, soup, dinner roll and butter. Perfect for hungry tourists!)

The free refillable appetizers (Banchans)

White and Kimchi’d Radishes

Our order of Roast Chicken

This is a chicken with a delicious identity crisis. Because while it is roasted, it tastes like Fried Chicken! Think Max Fried Chicken, only 100x better.

The roast chicken comes in 3 sizes: Large, medium, and spring. The one above is the large one. Good enough to be shared by two people.

Rice is provided upon request only! ☺ Do not be surprised if your chicken does not come with rice ☺ You have to ask them sweetly for bap (rice) ☺

Prices are pretty affordable by Korean standards. Dinner costs an average of PHP 400.00 per person.


When you’re in Myeongdong, do try eating here ☺

YONGYANG NUTRITION CENTER
Myeongdong, Seoul, South Korea
(Near SPAO and Uniqlo)

Shopping High at H&M

Forgive me for this narcissistic entry, but I just have to blog about my shopping high at H&M and Uniqlo today.

Do not misunderstand, I am no Becky Bloomwood.

For the record, I do not spend much on clothes. I am a true-blue Ukay girl, I buy most of my officewear at my Ukay Suki in Tagaytay ( There’s a building near the Tagaytay Rotonda that’s full of Ukay finds! I bought my DKNY black dress there for PHP 50.00 and a Zara winter jacket for PHP 120!!). My Maxi dresses, I buy in Uyanguren or from a little stall in Damosa Gateway, both in Davao City. Because I come home to Pinas at least twice a year, I wait for my trip to Pinas to get my fix from my favorite Ukay and bargain outlets. On the infrequent times when I buy brand new clothes, I almost always get them at discounted prices so I eagerly wait for season sales.

Well, what do you know, Seoul is having its annual Summer Sale! So shoot me. For the past three weeks, everytime I go out of the house and visit Myeongdong, I find myself carrying a shopping bag from either H&M , Forever21 or Uniqlo. I tell myself, it’s worth it, because I bought stuff that I wouldn’t even consider purchasing at their normal prices.

Today, I met up with a girl friend in Myeongdong. As always, our meeting place was at H&M Jr. ( I call this branch Jr. because it’s the smallest of the 3 H&M shops in Myeongdong. All within walking distance from each other!)

About 70% of the items at the store were on Sale! The Sale discounts were unbelievable! These are what I bought at H&M today:

An orange camisole top and a striped tube top for 3000 won (PHP 140) each. Regular price for the Camisole and Tubetop is 10000 (PHP 450) each.

A golden brown Maxi Dress. I have been eyeing this Maxi Dress since May! The original price is 79,000 won ( PHP 3555.00) but I got it for the unbelievable price of 15000 won ( PHP 675.00)!!! I could not believe it myself!

But the best buy for me was this:

A red tube top which I can use in the evenings for snazzy affairs and is classy enough that I can pair it with a blazer and use it at the office. The original price: 99000 won ( PHP 4455.00). I snagged this for only 15000 won (PHP 675.00)!!! It looks short and unshapely on the hanger. But I tried it on and lookie-lookie!

Forgive me for my excess fats, haha! But to my mind, it does look acceptable enough and with a bit of exercising and Pilates, I think I’ll own this dress, haha! Fighting!


After H&M, we also dropped by the Japanese casual clothing shop, Uniqlo. It was also on sale , but the discounts were not even close to what we got at H&M ☹ I did buy a pair of jeans because they were cheap and because I only have two good pairs of Jeans here in Seoul.

It’s a pair of boyfriend cut cropped jeans. Regular price is 39000 won (PHP 1755.00) but I bought this for only 10000 won (PHP 450.00). Definitely a good buy in my book. ☺

That’s it for my Shopping High Saturday! The Summer Sale is until the end of July. So help me God! Please give me the strength to curb my bargain hunting instincts and kill my incessant rationalizations (I saved almost 3k pesos! Great Bargain!). Please, please help me keep away from these stores until the sale ends.

Join TLC Shop's First Giveaway!

Hi! As you know, I own a specialty shop in the Philippines, The Little Cool Shop Davao.

Well, we're having our first giveaway loot!!

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THE LITTLE COOL SHOP DAVAO GIVEAWAY NO. 1

This is our shop’s first ever giveaway!! Reasons for this giveaway:

1. To celebrate our Davao retail store ‘s 10 months of operation (Yes, we’re turning one in Sept ! Which will call for another celebration!)

2. Our FB friends/clients have exceeded 1,000! But of course, we’d love to have more friends, so do tell your friends about us!

3. For clients such as you who treat us like friends! For being true to our vision of our store—to go beyond just selling products, but really trying to do our best to find great products and be nice. We value our client’s trust above everything else!

***ALL ITEMS ARE SEALED AND NEW except the Hanskin Control BB Cream which I (Joeanne) swatched to check the shade.****

CONTENTS OF GIVEAWAY NO. 1:

The Face Shop Face it Extreme Brush Pen Eyeliner
Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Toner
Burt’s Bees Super Glossy Natural Lip Shine in Sweet Pink
Cosme de Corte White Protection SPF27 Fluid
Hanskin Acne Control BB Cream
Amore Pacific Premium Hanwol Massage Essence
Grey Flower Head Band (Hand Made in Korea)

Plus Samplers of:
Benefit Girl Meets Pearl
Benefit The Porefessional
Jan Marini Protect Step 5 AntiOxidant Daily Face Protectant SPF50
DHC Deep Cleansing Oil, Eye Bright, Velvet Skin Coat, Extra Nighttime Moisture

MECHANICS:
1.You have to be our friend in Facebook to join this contest. If you’re still not one, add us up! (Our FB email: davaotlcshop@thelittlecoolshop.com). Details of the Giveaway Mechanics is posted there. It is super easy to join! So do tell your friends!

SHIPPING WITHIN THE PHILIPPINES IS FREE. TLC SHOP WILL SHOULDER THIS. ☺ But Clients joining fom overseas will have to shoulder the cost of shipping from Pinas.

Good Luck!! We hope you'll love our first giveaway loot!

The Coconut Cookie Post

Just like the first time, the delight begins with breaking wide the aluminum package encasing these precious nibbles. There's a hit of something familiar, something of home. If I close my eyes, I could picture my late lola at the stove top, turning cocomilk into oil and those brown, nubby bits of deliciousness I so loved as a kid.

The smell is the essence of coconut. The kind of aroma one gets by reducing pure unadulterated coconut cream into coconut oil and latik.

Last week, I saw this cookie pack at the grocery, but I stopped myself from buying one. See, all the stuff I've tried from this brand (DARE) have been fantastic. I even dared to declare one variant as the Best Cookies Ever! But this other variant of what is supposedly the ultimate cookie line, this one's different. It was coconut flavored, and I hesitated because, hell, this is a flavor Dare can easily screw up. I have never tasted coconut biscuits worthy of their label. That and because I am from the Philippines, where the flavor of coconut is so familiar, so ingrained.

Coconut is our country's version of the giving tree--each part is used for something --for firewood, for baskets, for soap, for food. So for a Canadian based company to offer a coconut flavored cookie, well, it's almost blasphemous, something I viewed with suspicion. How can a country where there are no coconuts produce something deliciously coconutty?

But last Monday, on the grocery aisle, these coconut cookies were on sale. The prices were slashed by half! A box of cookies for merely 50 pesos! I could not fight the urge and got myself a box.

Describing the texture which is a lovely in-between state of crumbly, buttery yet chewy, and the pleasure of inhaling the scent of pure coco essence are not enough to do justice to this cookie's beauty.

One bite and the first thing that popped in my mind was, OMG, it's like eating Macapuno in cookie form! I don't know how they distilled the flavor of full-on natural coconut, how they blended it with cream and milk to get that almost macapuno pastillas-like flavor of the creme filling, I just know that these cookies are amazing. Truly, deliriously delicious.

If you ask me now which one I'll choose -- the Maple Creme or the Coconut Creme, I'll get the latter. Because while the Maple Creme is exquisite. It is still sweet. Whereas my Coconut Cremes are a touch shy of being considered sweet as per my tastebuds. Instead of sugar, what dominates is a creamy, coconut flavor.

I could never have imagined myself singing praises for a Coconut Cookie made by a manufacturer in Canada (where there are no coconuts!) but maybe because back then, I have yet to try these Dare Ultimate Cookies.

Now, all I want is to try the other Ultimate Cookies! Only question is, will the Chocolate, Blueberry, or Raspberry flavors of the Dare Ultimate Cookie line ever reach Seoul? :-(


P.S. A confession: the box you're seeing, the one in the photo above. Well, this was not the box I bought last Monday. When I opened and tasted the cookie, the monster in me growled. And I finished the box of eight coconut creme cookies in one sitting. *glutton*

It helped though because now I know that my delirious joy caused by eating this coconut cookies was not a fluke: Last night, I bought two more boxes of these Coconut cookies, opened one and wham! It is still, to my mind, like eating a luscious macapuno pastillas, in cookie form.

A Cache to Remember

I arrived home at fifteen to midnight, tired from work, and found this waiting for me:

It's my much awaited FEDEX box!

It’s the beauty cache I ordered from SkincareRX.com!


First, what’s a beauty cache? To put it simply, it’s a beauty loot bag with mysterious contents ☺ When I ordered this cache the only thing I was sure of getting was the blue cache bag. I had no idea what the exact products were. The only promise I got was that this will contain samples and full sizes of upscale skincare items. I guess, though they have a loose template of what the contents are, it varies from bag to bag. I however have so much faith in SkincareRX.com (This is where I get my M2 Skin Refinish!) and have long wanted to try other brands in its line-up, except, well, because SkinCareRX offers mostly doctor-formulated and premium skincare products, these were pretty expensive (some items cost $200 a tube!) and I am just not the type to spend loads of money on these when I am happy enough with my M2 regimen.
Anyway, it turns out that SkincareRX releases a beauty cache every quarter. The cache is basically a sampler of brands and products offered at the site. It’s a mishmash of full-sized items, mid-sized samplers, and travel sized products from premium skincare brands. The bargain hunter in me just couldn't resist!

I paid $30.00 for this 14 piece cache.

Was it worth it? At one glance, I know, you’d say yes, but let us check the items more closely:



The Cleansers

OBAGI NU-DERM FOAMING GEL 60 ml ( I used to be an Obagi user, so I’ve used this before)
DR. GOLDFADEN RED TEA INFUSED DAILY EXFOLIANT 15 ml

The Moisturizers

PETER THOMAS ROTH INSTANT FIRMx TEMPORARY FACE TIGHTENER 15 ml
KINERASE PHOTOFACIALS SUN DAMAGE REVERSAL SYSTEM Step 3 NIGHT MOISTURIZER 28 g
SKIN MEDICA ULTRA SHEER MOISTURIZER 10 ml

Special Skincare

LA ROCHE-POSAY EFFACLAR AI INTENSIVE ACNE SPOT TREATMENT 15 ml
EPIONCE RENEWAL FACIAL LOTION 15 ml


Eye Cream and Dry Oil

ASCODERM RESTORE EYE CREAM 15 g
NUXE MULTI-USAGE DRY OIL 10 ml

Sun Care

SKINCEUTICALS PHYSICAL FUSION UV DEFENSE SPF 50 50 ml

Special Care

LA ROCHE-POSAY TOLERAINE ULTRA 3 ml x 3

To say that it was worth the price is like stating that the ocean is merely big. A vast understatement! The brand mix is staggering—Peter Thomas Roth, Kinerase, Dr. Goldfaden, Obagi, Skinceuticals. Most of the brands here are doctor formulated ones! From the looks of it, the actual price tag of the cache is at least 4x the 30$ I paid for it!

Of all the items in the bag, I have only managed to open two:

The Skinceuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense SPF 50 - a paraben free, chemical-filter free, water and sweat resistant sunblock that’s surprisingly light on the skin. It amazingly feels weightless and is dubbed as a universal tint, meaning, the neutral beige color will fit everyone. I have used this only once but if it’s any indication, this might well be the lightest, most delightful suncare cream I’ve ever tried. I checked the price online, and this 50 ml full size tube costs $30!

The Dr. Goldfaden Daily Scrub supposedly contains pure Ruby Crystals as exfoliant plus red tea essence which acts as an anti-oxidant and anti-ageing component for the scrub. It’s actually a very yummy –smelling and very fine facial scrub. The scrub grains are pretty fine and I feel it will really work well for those with sensitive skin. The downside is that it’s pretty darn expensive! The full size of this scrub ( 60 ml) is $65!

So far, so good! I checked the expiration dates of the items in the cache, and the earliest expiry date is 2013. So, haaa! Still have more than a year to go through the cache. ☺ Will blog product reviews as I go along using the products from my beauty loot ☺

Oh, and before I forget, let me show you the icing on the cake. The beautiful cache bag:

There’s a compartment for liquid containers/cylinders plus lots of pockets. I’d say this is a perfect toiletries travel bag. ☺


And they gave me samplers too!

Isn’t SkincareRX.com just amazing?! Am now eagerly awaiting the next beauty cache which, rumor has it, will be released by fall . Would you like one too? :-)

DARE: Best Cookies Ever

Screw Oreos and Choco Chip cookies. At least for me, these are the best cookies ever:

The experience begins when you open the package. That scent – sweet, musky, slightly buttery hits you head on. It is the unmistakable sweet essence of real Canadian maple. I pick a cookie:

A beautiful, ornate, lightly yellow maple leaf shaped cookie.

The cookie itself is a bit of a paradox: Its texture is similar to a shortbread, buttery and crumbly, and yet it is not grainy and is moist enough that it’s softer than normal cream cookies such as Oreos. And yep, the maple flavor is baked in the cookie –soft, lingering and not too sweet.

And just like Oreos, the best part is in the middle. The filling:

The maple flavored, golden brown crème is sweet but not sickeningly so. How do I describe the deliciousness of eating this? It’s just, well, maple love. I used to associate maple with nothing but pancakes (maple syrup,yes?) but a bite of this cookie has made me a convert. Maple is best in cookies, Dare Cookies to be exact.

These Ultimate Maple Creme Cookies are made by a company in Canada called Dare. It does make sense, since Maple is Canada’s most famous embelm and symbol, so they ought to know how to make amazing goodies from one of their famous products, aight?

I’ll say it again, Screw Chips Ahoy, Famous Amos, or even Pepperidge Farm. There's nothing like Dare Maple Cremes. Even though they are pretty expensive in Seoul and are pretty hard to get outside of Canada. A seven piece cookie pack here normally sells for about 2,200 KRW (100 pesos). But last week, Kim’s Club, a grocery near my flat held a sale of Dare Cookies at 50% off! The catch is that the cookies are expiring by mid-August. But I don’t care haha. I know that the four boxes of cookies I bought will barely last me until next week. I just ate the one whole box at the office yesterday, nibbling my precious maple cookies during my mini-breaks from work.

Dare makes a variety of Ultimate Crème cookies but the only variants I’ve seen aside from the Maple ones are Coconut and Lemon. I also bought the Lemon Cremes which were on sale too and just like the Maple ones, these are brimming with bright lemon flavor --- tart and sweet and deliciously citrusy.

If you ever come across these cookies, grab them. I dare say, you’ll love them too!