Sneak Peek | Tony Moly x Moschino Collection.

Beauty meets fashion in this exciting collaboration between Korean beauty brand Tony Moly and Italian fashion house Moschino!

And I say exciting because Tony Moly is a brand known (or should I say infamous) for its simple, no-fuss, at times 'ho-hum' packaging, and this team-up with Moschino and Jeremy Scott's fun, whimsical, at times eccentric fashion designs might just be the 'facelift' that Tony Moly needs. It's also worth mentioning that Jeremy Scott, the creative director of Moschino, was an early proponent of collaboration culture who loves mixing high fashion with street wear, and pop culture motifs with clothing.

Tony Moly x Moschino Collection.

I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

View the entire collection after the jump!

Spotlight | Sekaya Botanic Infusion.

I was once a heavy coffee drinker who would consume no less than two (tall) cups of coffee a day. It wasn't until last year, when I was diagnosed with pre-hypertension, that I had to minimize my coffee intake as per my doctor's orders.

Well, my doctor actually wanted me to stop drinking coffee altogether if possible, but that would be shooting for the moon (especially now that it's sticker season at Starbucks, lol). And so I made a compromise with my doctor that instead of having coffee for my night cap, I'll just drink tea instead. This trade-off introduced me to a variety of tea brands in the market and a plethora of tea flavors.

My latest tea discovery is this new tea brand which goes by the name of Sekaya. It's actually an acronym for 'Sentro ng Katutubong Yaman', an affiliate of the country's leading medical and pharmaceutical company, Unilab. Sekaya's goal is to develop natural medicinal products based on science by utilizing the country's rich diversity. And with that, an assortment of botanic infusions was born.

Blogger mail from Sekaya! :)

I had the opportunity to try one of these botanic infusions thanks our friends from Unilab. They sent me this Sekaya Christmas Gift Pack, housed in a huge, drawer-like box. Inside is a carafe with infuser and a bottle of the Sekaya Botanic Infusion Aftermeal Treat.

Unboxing the Sekaya Christmas Gift Pack!
This set sells for Php 1800.

Unlike ordinary tea bags which I have been accustomed to, Botanic Infusions come in loose form. And as you steep this mixture of leaves, flowers, roots, and barks, they absorb water and expand as they infuse. This allows the water to flow through the mixture and extract a wide range of vitamins, minerals, flavors and aromas from them. No bitter after-taste, too!

The tea bottle, infuser, metal stopper, and the carafe.

Having been used to merely dipping tea bags in hot water for so long, it was such a joy to actually infuse tea, and breath in a refreshing scent as you see the tea leaves dance in water.

The leaflet which contains usage instructions.

The Aftermeal Treat is a combination of peppermint, chamomile flowers, licorice root, and cinnamon bark. It’s fragrant, minty, and sweet, and does a handful of nice things to the digestive system like calming stomach muscles, breaking down fats, improving bile flow, and reducing acid secretions. And as its name suggests, this Botanic Infusion is truly a great way to end a meal.

Aftermeal Treat, retails at Php 400.

There are 21 other variants in the Botanic Infusion line, which offer a variety of health benefits to the body. I'm even more curious with the taste of the other variants, because this Aftermeal Treat tastes really, really good. Even my brother loved it, saying that this is the best peppermint-flavored tea that he's tried so far.

Loose leaf is love.

Ditto on that. Loose leaf is truly the best way to enjoy tea, and Sekaya Botanic Infusion takes tea time to a whole new level. 

To know more about Sekaya Botanic Infusion, visit their official website.
To purchase their products, visit the Sekaya official store on Lazada.

Sneak Peek | Missha x Line Friends On Air Collection.

Back in 2016, Korean beauty brand Missha teamed up with Line Friends (from the popular messaging app Line) and launched the Missha x Line Friends collection, which was made available to the Korean and overseas market for a limited time. This collaboration was one of my favorites for that year, and perhaps the cutest collection that Missha has ever released.

This year, the two brands joined forces once again for another wave of cuteness. Behold, the Missha x Line Friends On Air collection!

Missha x Line Friends On Air collection.

View the complete collection after the jump!

No More Rumbly in the Tumbly with Erceflora ProbiBears!

My son turns ten in a little over a week, and he's at that stage in life where he'd eat just about anything save for ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra, and liver. (I don't eat this stuff either, just so you guys know, lol.) He is quite a voracious eater despite his lanky frame, and it's his insatiable appetite that almost got us into trouble while we were vacationing in Korea last spring.

Yue had stomach flu on our final week in Seoul, which he probably got from all that eating that he (we) did during Father's Day. The next 36 hours had been very stressful for all of us, especially for Yue, who made frequent trips to the bathroom, had very little appetite, and threw up after a few spoonfuls of food. We were on the verge of bringing him to the hospital (it's like deja vu all over again), but thankfully, he got better after several doses of Loperamide and rehydrating him with water, sports drinks, and yogurt drinks.

Had I known early on about Erceflora ProbiBears, I would have packed them in my medical travel kit and brought them all the way to Korea. That way, I could have prevented Yue's nasty bout with stomach flu.

Erceflora Probi Bears.

Erceflora ProbiBears is a trans-free, gluten-free, kid-friendly food supplement that helps improve digestion. It comes in a vanilla-flavored, bear-shaped, chewable tablet, making it easy for even young kids to ingest.

Comes in a foil pack...

These cute, edible bears contain two strains of 'good bacteria' - Bifidobacterium lactis which helps boost your child's immune system and prevent gut problems, and Lactobacillus acidophilus which effectively improves your child's digestive health.

With four bears each.

Although the yogurt drinks that we know and love also contain good bacteria to aid in digestion, the amount of probiotics in them may not be not high enough to treat or prevent stomach problems such as diarrhea. And this is why the use of probiotics supplements such as the Erceflora ProbiBears is essential when the intestinal flora is out of balance. It can help regain that flora balance by fighting bad bacteria and other harmful microorganisms.

Nutritional value of Erceflora Probi Bears.

These chewable tablets are suitable for kids 3 years old and above. The recommended dose is one tablet a day, but the bears taste so good that your kids might ask for more, lol. Yue says they taste like Oreo cookies, but to me they taste more like the classic Nestle White Chocolate. (I had to try it for myself, of course!)

I deformed my bear, sorry! Apparently, they have to be stored in the freezer prior to consumption.

Erceflora ProbiBears are available at Mercury Drug and South Star Drug branches nationwide, and retail for Php 540 (around $10) per box of 20s - that's like Php 27 ($0.50) per bear. A bit pricey compared to a bottle of yogurt drink, but at least you're getting a chock-full of probiotics with just one dose.

Thank you, Erceflora and First Tier Brands!

Many thanks to our friends at Erceflora and First Tier Brands for sending these over! Yue's tummy has been responding positively since he started taking them. He has been pooping regularly, with no complaints of flatulence and constipation. He says he doesn't feel bloated either, even after a heavy meal - and believe me, this kid always eats a lot!

No more rumbly in the tumbly!

Popping one bear after breakfast is now part of his morning routine, and we'll make sure to bring these along whenever we travel. :)

Spotlight | Althea Petal Velvet Sunaway.

As we inch closer towards Christmas, the nights have become longer, the days a tad cooler, and the sunshine is not as scorching as it used to be in this tropical country of ours. But just because the weather has become nippy doesn't mean you can skip on the sunscreen.

It's a golden skincare rule to always, always wear sunscreen, regardless of the weather. So whether it's cloudy, or rainy, or maybe even snowy - for as long you're stepping outside, you need to wear sunscreen to protect your skin from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.

That being said, I could not be more excited to get first dibs on the Petal Velvet Sunaway - Althea's very own sunscreen. This new product came with my second Althea Angels box, which also contained a cute hologram pouch and all three of the Althea Petal Velvet Powders.

My second Althea Angels box, as seen on my Instagram. Thank you, Althea! :)

The Althea Petal Velvet Sunaway is an ultra lightweight, invisible sunscreen formulated with Damask rose extracts (yes, it's the same ingredient found in the Mamonde Rose Water Toner) and hyaluronic acid to soothe and moisturize the skin and make it look plump and healthy-looking. It also contains Geranium oil which not only heals troubled skin, but also gives it a radiant boost.

Althea Petal Velvet Sunaway.

This product also contains titanium oxide and zinc oxide which offer sun protection. Both ingredients are compliant to cosmetics standards, non-carcinogenic, and safe to use even on sensitive skin.

Nothing much to read here, as the text is mostly written in Hangul.

The Althea Petal Velvet Sunaway comes in a handy 55 mL plastic bottle. The packaging is sleek and handy, and the size is compliant with carry-on restrictions. (The wanderlust in me is just dying to add that last part, lol.) The bottle has a pointy nozzle which allows you to control the amount of product that you wish to squeeze out. 

SPF 50+ PA++++.

Take note of the instructions - shake well before usage.
Otherwise, this sunscreen will be watery when you squeeze it out.

The pointy nozzle.

This sunscreen has a milky texture which easily blends into the skin and gives it a nice, velvety finish. It does not leave a white cast despite the high sun protection factor, and it dries down matte which makes it good enough to be used as a makeup base. (I still wear a primer on top of it, though, before applying my foundation/cushion.)

A swatch of the Petal Velvet Sunaway on the back of my hand.

One particular thing that I love about this sunscreen is its hypoallergenic formula. Sunscreens with high SPF usually make my skin itch, and I'm so relieved that this one did not break my skin out nor gave me allergies.

Left, without sunscreen. Right, with sunscreen.

I also like its lovely rose fragrance (it's made with roses, after all), though I found it a bit too overwhelming when I first used this product. I eventually got used to it after almost two weeks of constant wear, lol. On that note, if your nose is a bit too sensitive, then the scent might be a bit of a turn-off.

Althea Petal Velvet Sunaway on my face. :)

The Petal Velvet Sunaway is exclusively available at the Althea website, and is currently sold at a special introductory price of Php 480 - that's 10% off its regular price. You can also purchase it as a set with any of the Petal Velvet Powders to get 20% off the regular retail price.

I'll be doing a separate review of the Petal Velvet Powders so please look forward to it! :)