THE MUSIC was different on every floor at the H&M launch in Cebu. At the ground floor entrance, DJ Tom alternated with Divine Muego Maitland-Smith. Upstairs, no less than Philippine rock royalty Ely Buendia and his band Pupil surprised those who stayed on until 11 p.m. with a performance.
Biggest H&M in the country opens in Cebu
HUGE fashion news in photos. After all, what better way to showcase one of the world’s coveted fast fashion brands than imagery? I, for one, cannot wait for the next designer collaboration. I lined up in Singapore for the Marni collection and Hong Kong for the Lanvin collab. Now it’s just literally a heartbeat away. I may have missed you, Balmain, but just you wait.
YSABEL GALANG-GATMAITAN introduced me to Faconnable and Chipie jeans in college when all I knew was Hanes and Levis. What a treat it was for me to experience the opening of the largest H&M store (all 3 floors of it in Ayala Center!) in the country with her. On a working vacation from her home base of Los Baños, also my second home, Mamabelz and I worked the fashion front for one night only.
THE STARS AT H&M: AJ Dee, Nikki Vero in a piece from the coveted BALMAIN X H&M collab, Melo Esguerra and Gerald Anderson. More posts on #HMlovesCebu
Biggest SHS-B Homecoming on December 29!
THE boys of SHS-B ‘90 are gearing up for a big one.
This December 29, a Tuesday, the Oakridge Pavilion gathers the biggest batch of Sacred Heart School Jesuit-Ateneo de Cebu alumni for the 60th anniversary of the school.
My batchmates have been doing an excellent job in gathering the most number of attendees for this, quite literally, once-in-a-lifetime event (how often can you say you were there as the school celebrates a milestone 60 years?).
The music of your youth fills the venue with legendary Pinoy rock gods The Dawn taking center stage together with today’s hottest homegrown DJs (also Hearters themselves) and Jennifer Lee spinning, our very own batchmate Chad Canares and his band UK Lily topbill the night.
Batch ‘90, the hosts this year, also offer a special cash prize for two categories: the most number of females (the school marked its first coed graduates in 2006) in a batch attending that night wins P20,000 for the batch and P10,000 for the runner-up; and the most number of batchmates (regardless of sex) wins P30,000 as well (P20,000 for 2nd place and P10,000 for 3rd place), a first for any homecoming.
(Register now to have your batch counted early by calling 0917-7216493 or your batch representatives)
BIG BEAUTY NEWS: I’m hairless for the holidays!
FOURTEEN months ago I was a skeptic.
The offered to try out Diode Hair.
Removal was on the table, and I hesitated. First, I had heard about the pain, after all you are essentially burning the hair follicles with concentrated bursts of light. My Star Wars frame of mind had me imagining tiny Sith Lords and Jedi Knights battling on my upper lip as each crackle meant vestiges of manhood were dying. I held on to that thought and smiled inside with every wince. Burn, baby. Burn.
In truth, the initial treatments hurt mostly because your body is unaccustomed to the pain. It has not, at this stage, gauged it and adjusted accordingly. The careful hands at Lohas understood this well so they had ice packs at the ready for the first three sessions, numbing my skin before applying a cooling gel that made the laser glide smoothly and negated the heat from the treatment. By the fourth session, I asked them to skip it entirely because it took too long to dab ice before every application of the laser, and I thought bearing a little bit of pain for as brief a period of time as possible was a better option. Eventually, the body did adjust and though I must be honest that I do not relish the slight discomfort it now presents every time, the results are worth it. I must also emphasize one thing: it is different for women, whose facial hair is naturally thinner than a man’s, therefore easier to remove and involves much lesser discomfort.
Photo by Kurt Diores Fick with makeup by Vanessa Gamus and hair by Nikki Gunda and Markie Bautista.
Let me set the after part up with telling you the before, to the time I shaved since puberty hit. Every single day. As a result, I had a roughness on the neck and nicks and cuts on my upper lip from the daily abrasion. For years I camouflaged them with a carefully blended combination of concealers and foundation, and even then they often showed a nasty dark green in photos. An unwanted shadow.
But as promised (and up to this point, I was still skeptical), by the fourth session (I came in once a month for the laser diode treatment), the hair on my upper lip began thinning, even growing back white and almost invisible. In between treatments, I had Pido (my makeup artist’s assistant) pluck out the ones that grew back, this time in distant patches mostly on the sides of the upper lip and in the middle of my neck. The ones that did grow back were thinner, and were easy to remove with tweezers.
By the end of the 10th session, and almost a year without shaving, my skin was visibly and—because it is a tactile thing—much smoother to the hand, which thrilled me no end. It was also about this time that the growth (yes, they still do grow back) came slower that I could come in just once every two months without looking unsightly. In fact, I had to purchase a magnifying mirror to make out the ones that did return, for they were thinner and virtually impossible to see in a regular mirror.
In between treatments, I could just pluck the ones that grew (stubbornly in the same patches) and be happy with that.
It took me a while to tell you this story because I wanted to be sure that the treatments worked before I raved about them. A year later, here’s my honest account of a dream come true for me.
The cost is no longer prohibitive, thankfully. At around only P1,300 per session, it’s an amazing deal for the level of customer service and the poshest clinic interiors (I love their tastefully done custom leather throw pillows in the company logo).
With new promos coming in, I’m tempted to try out the next frontier: the underarms! Just in time for swimsuit season. Miley Cyrus and her pit hair be damned.
(LOHAS SKIN+SLIMMING is at One Paseo Saturino, Ma. Luisa Road, Banilad, Cebu. Call (032) 520-1381 to make an appointment now! Promos for Diode Hair Removal this season are: Upper Lip (10 sessions, P13,000); Underarm area (5 sessions diode + 5 sessions underarm whitening, P8,000); Legs and thighs (5 sessions, P17,500); Arms (5 sessions, P12,500).