I Have A New Blog! *drumroll* LIVING LUSCIOUSNESS

I decided that my soul-searching merited a new blog.



living lusciousness

 Mainly for my health, wellness and beauty rants, raves and food for the soul, this will also chronicle my very own personal journey to inner and outer beauty, self-acceptance and a positive self-image.

It was just a small topic that blossomed as my introspection grew. I guess after years of feeling ugly, and denying myself the affirmation of my own inner light, I'm done with feeling like a victim. I am moving from the backseat and taking control of my life.

Being a mom can really open up so many things for a woman.

Though I have gone through so much and really lived it up in my colorful youth, I want to be a good role model for my girls now that I'm a mother. Someday, I want them to be proud of the woman I am now and when they're old enough to actually be embarassable in school, I still want them to be able to say, "Yep, that's my Mom!"; my wild child youth included in that statement of pride.

So without further ado, please visit and leave some love at Living Lusciousness.

COCREATIONS



Sunsilk Co-Creations Hairfall Solution
Enriched with Soya Vitamin Complex
Co-created with Dr. Francesca Fusco
SRP: P89.00/200mL bottle

 This is the shampoo I'm using right now.

Sunsilk Co-creations, enriched with Soya Vitamin Complex to nourish and reinforce hair from the roots to the tips, it gently cleanses weakened, easily-broken hair without harming my scalp. Sunsilk teamed up with world-class dermatologist Dr. Francesca Fusco from NYC to come up with this formulation.

She believes that the delicate scalp should be treated as an extension of the skin on your face. For her, a woman's hair is truly her "crowning glory" and is dedicated to giving every girl the best head start possible to getting glorious hair through scalp care. “The secret to addressing hair fall,” shares Fusco, “is nourishing that first inch of hair that emerges from the scalp.”

Now why am I blogging about this?

I love my hair.

I love my long, curly, unruly, glorious, layered, colored hair.

And I'm a losing it.

I didn't use to even like it in my painful high school years when I was still searching for acceptance. I had naturally curly waves that were as awkward as the ugly duckling's feathers were. As a result, I kept it short as was the fad but hated that it made me look so unfeminine. Upon entering college, I finally decided to throw all caution to the wind and let my hair down, so to speak.

Growing out my hair was the most liberating experience I ever had among all the liberating experinces of college life. I layered it, colored it, moussed it but I never really got into the fad about straightening as I loved being unique in a sea of rebonded hair. I got it into my system that I wanted to refer to my full head of hair as "tresses" and "locks". I would have been in absolute hair nirvana if it were really thicker though. That's my only peeve.

When I gave birth to Oona, my hair started falling out big time. At first it was just when I brushed or ran my hand though my hair. Then I woke up to find my hair all over the pillows and falling by themselves as I walked. After the natural shedding that came after pregnancy, it never got any better. It got even worse when Olly came so I had no choice but to cut my hair really short for the very first time in 26 years. Yes, I had boy-short hair when I was around 5 years old.

Well, I can't say I don't like my hair now, but I'm not crazy about it either. Given that I'm as round as a dumpling, without my long hair, I look even rounder. Haha. I felt like a goddess with my long hair but with my short hair, I feel anything but pixieish.

No other help for it but for the body to catch up with the hair (read: lose the excess inches so the body can match the hair). Wrong "full-bodied" reference! :P

Meanwhile I would have to take extra care of the precious few I have so the search began for good hair care products THAT WOULD NOT EAT INTO MY BUDGET. Yes, all caps. I'm a mom so splurging on myself will be accompanied by days of shopper's guilt over what could have been used to buy my child's milk or diapers.

I used to buy this really great homemade purple hair soap and gugo/kalamansi extract shampoo that was mild on my hair and scalp. But I can't find it anymore *sob!* Other popular brands only gave me dandruff, scalp irritations and brittle, dry hair.

Then, like a bolt from the blue, the universe sent me a surprise package! Quite literally. My mom told me that a package arrived for me and that it was quite heavy. When we opened it (Oona buzzing around me in excitement over the "Supise, Mommy! Sur-pise!"), I was laughing so much because I saw that it was enough shampoo to last the entire household for months! And there was one type for everyone! Oona designated herself the "Official Arranger On The Shelf Of Shampoos" and Olly pounced on the bag so I appropriated it for her toys. :D

Meanwhile, the other shampoos went to the following:



ANTI-DANDRUFF

 ANTI-DANDRUFF for Daddy. He uses hair putty a lot so hair product + sweat + skin cells = build-up. Enriched with ZPT Citrus Complex, it thoroughly cleanses and refreshes while purifying the scalp from the first wash and protect the hair’s natural condition from dryness. Formulated by Dr. Francesca Fusco again :D I so love her now.

STRONG
AND LONG

STRONG AND LONG for my sister Diday. A student with a very active life since she works too, hair can get really stressed from all the commuting and stuff she puts on it. Enriched with Active Fruitamin Complex, the rich moisture formula gently cleanses and refreshes hair, while penetrating it and fortifying hair fibers so it becomes up to 10x stronger*+ and 3x smoother+ with boosted shine. Sunsilk teamed up with Paris-born Teddy Charles, creator of some of the world’s latest runway and premier fashion magazine looks, to co-create Sunsilk’s most advanced Strong & Long formulation for strong* and smoother hair. Well, she *does* look like a model, anyway. Or maybe it's just our genes! (Nuksnumuuuun! :D)



SOFT
AND SMOOTH

 SOFT AND SMOOTH for my Mom and Dad. Enriched with Ceramide Macadamia Complex, it gently cleanses and conditions even the driest and roughest hair, while acting as a softening agent to rebalance hair condition. Sunsilk teamed up with Bobsoho Salon, founded by Thomas Taw, famous for resuscitating dry hair, to co-create Sunsilk’s most advanced Soft&Smooth formulation for hair that is silky soft to the touch.

We still have the rest of the line to try out:

STRAIGHT
AND SWAY

STRAIGHT AND SWAY enriched with Amino Collagen Complex, it cleanses your straight hair and gently relaxes your hair bonds, providing softness and suppleness to give natural movement ++ to your artificially straightened hair. Sunsilk teamed up with Paris-born Teddy Charles, creator of the world’s latest runway and premier fashion magazine looks, to co-create Sunsilk’s most advanced Straight and Flowing formulation for ideally straighter hair full of natural movement.

DAMAGE REPAIR

DAMAGE REPAIR enriched with Olive Serum Nutri Complex, it gently cleanses and gives care to the most damaged hair, while reconstructing beneath the hair surface and filling damaged cracks deep inside – layer by layer, strand by strand. Sunsilk teamed up with Bobsoho Salon of London, founded by Thomas Taw, famous for resuscitating damaged hair, to co-create Sunsilk’s most advanced Damage Repair formulation to give back extreme smoothness and health to your damaged hair.

SMOOTH AND
MANAGEABLE

SMOOTH AND MANAGEABLE, enriched with Keratin Yogurt Nutri-Complex, it gently cleanses and coats hair strands to smoothen fluffy hair. Sunsilk teamed up with Yuko Yamashita from Japan, creator of YUKO Hair Straightening, turning hair from unruly to manageable, to co-create Sunsilk’s most advanced Smooth and Manageable formulation for extraordinarily smoother++ hair that stays beautifully in place all day long.

We also got Cream Silk Conditioners! Yay!

I can't wait til my hair grows long again! With the care I'm getting from what I'm using right now, I'm pretty sure, I'll have a full head of gorgeous hair again!
Now which ones are you going to try out for your crowning glory? :D
 

The OLAY Woman

Strong, resourceful, driven but never forgetting to be a lady, beautiful inside and out. That is the Olay woman to me.


My grandmother, apart from having a glass bottle of Oil of Olay on her vanity before I was even born, is a fighter, a survivor and above all, a lady in every sense of the word. She grew up during the Japanese Occupation, orphaned when her mother was shot crossing a river with wares she was to sell on the other side. Relatives brought her and her siblings up and educated her. She was also the local beauty queen until showing a streak of daring, she eloped with and married my grandfather. She said it was not much of a scandal in those days and that the elopement was prepared for by everyone. When my grandfather brought her to his mother's house, all she had to do was put on the prepared wedding gown and go to church in it!

My grandmother, the beauty queen!

She was also a true entrepreneur, holding a puwesto at the Monumento market selling dry goods and operating a canteen. She was a byahera, travelling by boat to buy premium items in Hong Kong, transporting them here and selling them. Clothes, fabric, make-up, perfumes, around the 60's I guess that was when she first picked up Oil of Olay, as it was known back then. She was able to send all her 7 children to school, help her husband, my grandfather, purchase land, build their house and live a life of modest, debt-free means.


Through long, grueling days and late nights at the palengke, my lola nevertheless kept herself fresh and beautiful. She may be tired or her surroundings weren't exactly glamorous, but I don't remember a time when she wasn't neatly dressed, powdered, smelling like flowers and smiling with painted lips. My lola was neat, simple and proper but always pustura. Even as she grew old and stopped travelling. Even as she gave up her spot in the market. Even as we would just visit her at home, she would always be simply dressed but powdered, lipsticked and smelling so nice and fresh.


I actually remember her when I think about Olay, as it is now simply known. She had a nightly beauty routine which included gently massaging her face with the pink beauty fluid. I was supposed to be writing about my Olay experience but I can't help writing about my grandmother or even my mother, for that matter, since my experience encompasses theirs.

My mother on my youngest sister's baptismal.

My mother naman is just as driven as my grandmother, her mom. To help augment my father's income while raising us five kids, she took a leaf from my grandmother's book and sold stuff as well. She did school bazaars, operated a school jeep, even sold jewelry for a time. I remember how tiring it must have been for her. But she must have inherited her strength from my grandmother along with her beauty routine!

Alas. I could not find a picture
of the old Oil of Olay bottles
so I'm making do with these.

Apart from being pustura like my grandmother, I noticed how every night, my mother would put Olay on her face. On heavy make up days, she might even use it to remove her make up. I remember, as a child, I'd be so curious about that glass bottle with the pink cream that I'd open and smell it every time my mom wasn't around. I really loved that smell. The bottle, pink beauty fluid, the scent, the Olay name became a symbol of womanhood as much as make up and high heels were. I knew I was continuing tradition and becoming a woman as soon as I had that bottle of moisturizing lotion on my adolescent vanity.


Feeling and being beautiful in these modern times is made even easier by technology. I'm glad that this time, tradition is easier to celebrate. Olay came out recently with a new line of truly luscious soap bars! Now, I can have the luxury of the Olay experience all over my body! I had understood that the lotion was a luxury for the face and hands so I carried the habit of using Olay sparingly. But now, I can literally bathe in it!


I still consider myself a new mother even if I'm on my 2nd child. I can't even begin to compare myself to veterans like my mother, let alone my grandmother. Even with help from family (because we don't have a nanny or a maid) I still feel like I'm drowning in babies, diapers and milk everyday! I seriously don't know how they did it. In lipstick, no less! And they were able to put in a beauty routine every night! I'm lucky if I get 10 seconds to go to the potty all by myself! So you can bet my beauty routine is non-existent by now.


That's why the new Olay soap bars are such a blessing. I can bathe, refresh myself and pamper my entire body with the Olay beauty routine simultaneously! Maybe someday I'll learn how the mothers before me achieved balance between caring for their families and caring for themselves. Until then, I'm only too glad to be able to indulge myself with the Olay soap bars. It's like I'm swimming in the Olay beauty fluid every time.

(1) Green OLAY Fresh Reviving. It goes beyond cleansing, delivering OLAY deep moisturizers to the skin while helping to wash away dry surface cells. So after you dry off, all that's left is skin that feels clean and revived.


(2)  Orange OLAY Ultra Moisture is specially formulated with creamy, OLAY lather and Shea Butter. It goes beyond cleansing, delivering OLAY deep moisturizers to the skin while helping to wash away dry surface cells. So after you dry off, all that's left is skin that feels clean and petal soft.

(3) Blue OLAY Age Defying Bar. Each bar is formulated with creamy, OLAY lather.

These OLAY soaps are gentle enough to use on your face.You can try everything and see which OLAY bar is for you. 


We all still use Olay. There are a lot out there to try but we keep coming back to this beauty fluid to keep our skin soft and beautiful.And with their full range of skin care, skin LOVE products, it's easier to be a strong, beautiful woman, inside and out.