My 'little makeup adventures' these past few months have led me to the conclusion that if I am to be better at makeup application, I need to find myself a proper makeup brush set. I spent countless hours trying to find the right set. Right now I'm not the type who'd do makeup gigs for a living. This is more of a hobby so I wasn't all out for getting something  that cost 3,000 Philippine bucks per set. However, I also wouldn't want to get something sub-par in quality. So that was the dilema that I had to settle: quality and affordability. My search brought straight into the arms of Suesh. More after the jump!

Hello and welcome back to my blog! 

I'd like to give you a virtual hug and cheek to cheek air kisses 'coz it's so sweet of you to drop by. :) Maybe just to give some warmth because it's cold cold cold. December's finally here but sad to say there's another juggernaut of a typhoon that's threatening our country. I wish all typhoons would just melt upon entering the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). Sorry to start on such a grim note but let's accept the fact that stronger typhoons are a reality in this day and age. And as stewards of the Earth we have to endure and weather it with a lot of preparation and prayers. Moreover, there's still a lot to be thankful for. And that's where I divert from the topic at hand :)

But I have experienced none of that with Keringkeri Store.

Those two Maybelline products: the BB White and the Baby Skin Pore Eraser, I got them at lower prices than in malls. For added measure I checked the expiry dates when they arrived and they were certainly freshly manufactured and definitely authentic. The Palgantong Powder and the Naturactor Concealer are now my makeup kit staples. And the MUA Eye Primer, Eunice the owner was nice to inform me that it's like a dupe for Benefit Lemonaid.

That's how nice she is. She always replies promptly even on Sundays. With just one text I can settle my ordered goodies and in like 3 days I get the package. Very hassle-free.

The store has a website which is so much better than those who only have Facebook Accounts. It is easier to search for the products that you want. 

Keringkeri Store

Eunice even sends some freebies sometimes.:)

So, I hope that with this simple blog post I was able to show my appreciation. I have found some other online stores but I keep coming back even if I've gone astray. In the end, hassle-free and good service matters in the face of thousands of sellers who compete for the buyer's attention.

How about you, have you shopped with Keringkeri Store before? Share your experience.

...Wait. What year is it? It's 2014 now, isn't this post a bit late?

Way too late actually, I would concede. But first things first. The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show which is a televised event in the US is always something I look forward to year after year. More than the beautiful long-legged ladies strutting their stuff on the runway, the production itself is just amazing. You will see that everyone behind this show really gives attention to detail. Anybody who's seen it would agree with me. Anybody who has not seen it would take about 20 seconds to like it.

However, 2013 was a different game and something bigger than Victoria happened. Her name was Yolanda and well, we didn't have electricity for four (yes! four!) months so please cut me some slack. I was only able to watch this show very recently and it still made me giddy. This is pure appreciation sans any drop of insecurity. These are my favorite moments/people/etc from the 2013 Show. 

1. Candice Swanepoel opening the Show with the Fantasy Bra. I actually don't know the deets about the underwear (gah!) but in general it's the centerpiece of the Show. It's supposed to cost millions of dollars because it is encrusted with real gemstones. You can't really guess when it will come out because it doesn't necessarily have to come first. Only the 'Victoria's Secret Angels' supermodels can wear it. Some of the previous wearers are Gisele Bundchen, Karolina Kurkova, Miranda Kerr, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio who are still currently part of the Show.

And now it's finally Candice. What better way to start the show than with this bombshell walking? I first saw her in the 2010 Show and I learned that she was actually just hired to be a fit model - models that are hired just to see how a dress with look like on an actual body; kinda like a live mannequin - but the organizers saw her potential and four years on and here she is!

2. The performers: Fall Out Boy and Taylor Swift. They  opened the show singing the anthemic "Light 'Em Up" Ooh Ooh Light Em Up Ooh Ooh I'm On Fiiiire (My songs know what you did in the dark)! And they literally set the stage ablaze. 'Nuff said. They're like one helluva deadly combination.

3. Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine (with his clique) sitting on the sidelines looking absolutely pleased. This pleased and we ask why.

4. Adriana Lima's heart-shaped wings. Back and Front.

Hard Candy can go by another name: eye candy! The packaging of this blusher is so cute it got me sold on first sight. The design is colorful, youthful and eye-catching. It's a square box about 2 x 2 x 1.5 inches in size. The material is made of cardboard and it closes with a magnetic lid. The design may be cute and travel-handy but you should be careful when putting this in your purse because the lid has a tendency to not close well enough and the next thing you know, the insides of your bag will be blushing. And if you are quiet rough, you could break the little cardboard box.

First of all, I am not from Tacloban City.

I'm from Burauen, Leyte. That puts me and my family at about 45 km from the center of this catastrope. The nearest beach from my town is about 30 km away. So when Yolanda ravaged Eastern Visayas on November 8, 2013, we were fairly safe from the storm surge. A blessing, yes. Nonetheless, the rain and wind were still capable of so much destruction.

Owing to our location, we were spared from the sight of death (bless their souls). Life after Yolie was hard. But when I learned about how harderrrrrr it was for people  in places such as Tanauan, Palo and Tacloban, I couldn't, wouldn't complain.

My mother is a born-and-bred Taclobanon and my 79-year old grandma still resides in the Diit area. We spent summers at a beach that has a view of the San Juanico Bridge when I was young so you probably get the idea. My uncles, aunts and about a dozen cousins live there too. We were worried sick about their safety but thankfully they were all alive and safe. Their stories of survival turn my heart into marshmallow and my knees in to Jell-O. Thank God forfor  that three-story unfinished building that they were able to climb to.

2. Stop, Look, Listen. Sunday after 'Y' was the first time that the sky cleared up. It was a beautiful night, perfect for sleeping. But NO! At about 11 pm I was roused from my sleep because there was too much noise coming from the street. Blaring headlights and blowing horns made me ask my brother to get up and check out what's happening. He learned that people were moving to higher ground because a tsunami was coming. I scooped up my baby and me and my siblings together with my grandparents decided to go home and join my parents.* In case there really was a tsunami at least we would all be together. But where was the water? And isn't an earthquake like a prerequisite to having a tsunami?? Apparently no one was thinking about that, including me. There was just pure panic. I don't know how many thousands of people were marching, driving motorcycles, cars and trucks. Wheel chairs, tricycles, name it! It was like the Exodus was coming to life. But where was the water? None. Nada. Waley. Whoever spread that lie must have had a hidden agenda. Or maybe there was a mother who was calling her daughters "Chona"and "Mae". Chona Mae. Tsunami. Someone must have heard it and sounded the alarm. But we learned to 'Stop, Look and Listen' first in Girl Scout. The rules have not changed.

3. Let it go. We love keeping knickknacks. High school notes, grade school grad programs, dried flowers, broken rubber duckies. Anything that reminds us of something. But when those anythings get drenched in wet and you try to sort things out, you would end up asking yourself "Why on earth have I been keeping this?" You would end up keeping just the most important things. What a wonderful way to clean up. Let it go, let it go. We did have a ticket to watch a Sarah Geronimo concert on 15 November, a week after 'Y'. Plane tickets and hotel reservations were set. But we decided to let it go because of other pressing and more important things at hand. :( Plus with our damaged house, we were just not in partey mood.





Where I spent high school: The Burauen Comprehensive National High School

Me and my baby. She's a joy in the midst of difficulties. I, on the other hand, am too dark and too haggard for obvious reasons :)

I've been picking my brain this whole November for a Yolanda anniversary post and these are some of the reflections I realized. The whole story has been recounted so many times, in the news, in papers. But in my heart I will always hold the personal lessons I learned in life because of this experience. You will never know what you are capable of until something as massive as this happens. You will never know how much charity a human heart is capable of until you are the one who is at the receiving end of it. I cry out of sadness when I hear sad stories in the news. But I smile too whenever there are stories of hope, love and charity. This whole thing is bittersweet.

What are your thoughts twelve months after super-typhoon Yolanda? Share your thoughts.


Thank you for visiting my blog today. XO

Carissa

*since our house was damaged, we moved every night to my grandparents' house to sleep
**you know how it clears up when the 'eye of the storm' passes by? There was a brief period of about 10 mins that the winds and the rains stopped so that's our reference for the two halves. Before the 'eye of the storm' passed by and after.