Here are a few knickknacks that I picked up at the local Mercury Drug. 
What do I say? Sachets are a perfect way to get familiar with a product without having to shelve out a big amount of money.
These iWhite Korea products caught my eye because of their cute and attractive packaging. Despite coming in sachets the manufacturers still poured in some good amount of creativity. They are made in Korea and I don't know about you but whenever I chance upon any K Beauty product, it's enough to spark my curiosity. 
I actually forgot if how much each of them cost but I paid a total amount of about Php 60.00 so I wager they're about Php 20.00 each.
Having sample products in sachets isn't enough to make a full review so I'm just giving my first impressions about these products.
Padayon!


iWhite Korea Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita
Price: 
The iWhite Whitening Vita Aqua Moisturizer: What is it and what does it do? Check the label hun.
In Action & My Take

A picture can paint a thousand words and I know that the effect of applying this Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita is very VERY VERY visible in these photos. The second photo has not been edited; I swear. My dark circles are very much in place in the second photo but everything else has smoothed like some sort of miracle just happened. Hello pores, where you at? Even the scarring has been minimized. This blue-tinged moisturizer is also very lightweight on the skin and it just melts upon contact. It's perfect for oily skinned gals like me. It's ideal for those "polbo and cheektint" days when you just want minimal stuff on your face. If there's a teensy bit of complaint that I have about this product, it would be the lack of Sun Protecting Factor (SPF).

iWhite Korea The Original Nose Pack
Price: 
iWhite Nose Pack: What is it? What does it do?
In Action & My Take
One a scale of one to 10, how excited are you to see if how many blackheads or whiteheads can a nose pack pull out from you nose? With bated breath I waited for 15 minutes just like the what the direction says. And voila! It was able to remove a few blackheads and whiteheads naman but not a monumental amount.


iWhite Korea Vitamin Sleeping Gel Mask
Price: 
iWhite Korea Vitamin Sleeping Gel Mask list of ingredients and other details.
My Take
This gel mask is packed with so many beneficial ingredients. I would love to be able to use it for a longer time to see the full results but as of now, even when I just used it once, I literally woke up with baby soft and smooth skin, and not the greasy type. 

To Cap Things
After using these three, I think I would be able to say that yet again I found some golden products in the drugstore aisle. Of the three though, I would most likely want to purchase the iWhite Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita and the iWhite Korea Vitamin Sleeping Gel Mask based on my experience. I'm also glad to say that none of these products broke me out. I checked Google and I saw that the full-sized version of the Aqua Moisturizer is less than Php 200.00 which is definitely a steal.  Two thumbs up! I hope to try other iWhite Korea products and I will definitely blog about it too.

XO,
Carissa

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored review. The views and statement above are my honest opinion and my personal experience using the product.
Here's a review of Ever Bilena's Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara.

Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara
Price: Php 185.00 
Where to Buy: Ever Bilena counters in department stores nationwide
Ever Bilena Volum Curl Mascara Wand
My favorite drugstore mascara: the Maybelline Hypercurl Volum' Express Mascara recently went beyond it's usable state so I knew I had to pick up a replacement. I was thinking of grabbing another tube  of it but then, while I was at the Watsons Store, I chanced upon an Ever Bilena kiosk and I saw their Volume Curl Mascara. With their black-pink packaging I thought they could be cousins - albeit EB's has a more magenta cap. They're at about the same price point, both *claim to be* waterproof and both are designed to add volume. In my playbook, running out of a certain product is a chance to try out another. So there, I picked up this Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof with hopes that like the Maybelline Hypercurl Volum' Express Mascara I will get a bang for my buck. It turns out, like most products it has its pros and cons. Here's the rundown.

In Action
The Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara in action: Without Mascara VS With Mascara
So I obviously love how this mascara curled my lashes. It brings volume, holds a curl and really opened up my eye. The big wand certainly helped in bringing the volume. It's also clump-free as you can see in the photo. I just didn't use it for my lower lashes because the wand is too big and I didn't want to end up with some mess. I also felt like I could poke my eye with it. LOL.

Look at this photo below. I took it at about 5 in the afternoon. That's about 8 hours of wear time already and my curls are still holding up, see? So I really have no complaints about its staying power or its lengthening or volumizing ability.


However, what I don't like about this product though is that there are times that I end up with dark, raccoon-like circles at the end of the day. It happens when the day is hot and my lids are sweaty.  When the weather isn't so humid, there are barely any issues.

This mascara also takes a while to dry up after application so try not to bat your lashes right away because you know what's bound to happen. Waiting a whole good minute will do.

Being a waterproof product it's stubborn to remove with my Micellar water.

Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara Rating
Packaging: 3/5
Performance: 4/5
Longevity : 4/5
Quality: 4/5
User Friendliness: 3/5
Price: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Have you tried this mascara from Ever Bilena?
Share you experience in the comment box below.

XO,
Carissa

PS. Here's a makeup look I created using this Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara, along with another Ever Bilena product. Light and simple makeup lang, ideal for the office.
Here's a list of the products I used. Click the fonts in bold if you want to read the review about the product.

Foundation: The Ordinary Serum Foundation in Shade 2.0 YG
Concealer: Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer (miraculous coz I have soo much to conceal!)
Powder: Maybelline Clear Smooth All In One UV+Lightening Oil-Control Two Way Cake
Brows: Maybelline Fashion Brow 3D Brow & Nose Palette in Dark Brown (also used the lighter shade in the palette as transition shade for eyeshadow)
Eye Palette: Zoeva En Taupe Eyeshadow Palette (Shade: Handmade - duo-chrome peach that shifts into a subtle gold when applied)
Mascara: Ever Bilena Volume Curl Waterproof Mascara
Blush: Laura Geller Beauty Baked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blush in Cantaloupe (also it doesn't seem so obvious here)
Contour: Ciate London Bamboo Bronzer in Palm Island 



What is Chocolate Moron?
A primer on Chocolate Moron - for those who are not familiar with it - it is a Filipino delicacy from the Samar-Leyte area. Chocolate moron is made up of ground glutinous rice also known as “malagkit” cooked in coconut milk, mixed with other ingredients such as milk, margarine, sugar and cocoa. It is wrapped in banana leaves and is mostly served during fiestas.

I have plenty of childhood memories watching the womenfolk make this delicacy but as a kid, I was never really involved in the whole process so I never really understood the magnitude of efforts you have to exert to make this. Well, surprise! It really is very tiring to make and like my title says, it literally takes an entire village to make chocolate moron. And it takes a whole day too! But is it worth it? Find out after the jump!

How To Make Chocolate Moron?
The Pre-Cooking Process
It all starts with soaking a mixture of ordinary rice and glutinous (sticky/malagkit) rice  in water, preferably overnight. Afterwards, it will go through a grinding process until the grainy stuff is gone and you get this creamy smooth consistency (see photo). Set it aside, 'coz you'll get busy with other stuff to do like...
...grating the coconuts. We have six pieces here. Then you have to add a small amount of water to the grated coconut meat so you can squeeze out the coconut milk. Set it aside because you also have to...
...prepare the banana leaves to be used for wrapping, along with the strings to tie it up. The banana leaves have to be passed over some flame to soften it up and to sort of clean it up too.

The Cooking Process
Once you have your ground malagkit/rice and coconut milk ready, you can move on with the cooking process. These are some of  the ingredients. 
First off, we cooked the white part.  You take about half of the rice/malagkit mixture and half of the coconut milk and set it over low fire until you get a thick consistency. Add about 1/4 cup of margarine and a dash of salt for flavor. Set aside and allow to cool.


Next off, you take the remaining malagkit/rice mixture and cook over low fire it with the remaining coconut milk. Add the sugar, margarine, condensed milk and cocoa powder and continue mixing until you get this think, lump-free consistency. Set aside and cool.

The Wrapping Process
While waiting for the chocolate mixture to cool down, you can start wrapping. You flatten out the white part, as shown in these photos. Afterwards, you can add the rolled chocolate part as the filling.  Adding cheese makes it even better. This is the trickiest part and definitely the most tiring. I myself had a hard time learning it and it took me more than ten tries to finally wrap a good one. Until the end I couldn't make uniform-sized morons. 🌝 While wrapping morons, you get all sorts of sad and depressing thoughts like, "how did I get myself into this kind of trouble?". But....when you start seeing all the morons piling up you get elated and excited. And nothing beats the feeling of scrapping the container for the chocolate morsel to wrap!

The Steaming Process
If you think that you're done just because you spent three hours wrapping them up, you're wrong. You need to put them in the steamer and wait for another 45 minutes to 1 hour cook them.

Bayanihan
Bayanihan is a Filipino tradition which is derived from the Filipino word "bayan" which means nation, town or community. Bayanihan is about a community coming together to help one another in difficult situation or just to achieve a certain task. Me and my friends were able to finish off this task because we helped each other out. We had at least six to 7 pairs of hands working out different assignments. And when the wrapping time came, we were gathered in one table talking about joke after joke (sometime green ones) just to entertain us while we were growing tired.

I wasn't able to take a photo of the finished product. What kind of blogger am I? Ha ha I was too excited to eat it probably. When you labor over a food for the whole day, you just kind of forget about picture taking and you go straight to gobbling up the food.

But it was yummy. Like I said, the best Chocoloate Moron I have ever tasted in years!

XO,
Carissa

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