Ever since I’ve become obsessed with everything organic, I felt more and more desperate over finding good organic products in this country. My options are severely limited. There’s A’Kin and Organic Pharmacy in Essenses, Juice Beauty in Beauty Bar and Lavera in Marionnaud. Most of them are out of the way and it’s depressing to find that these local stores don’t sell the good stuff that you find in their respective websites. To make matters worse, most of the credible online stores that have them don’t even ship internationally.

Abi Mapua, a colleage, told me that I should go to Healthy Options if I wanted to find organic products. Took me three weeks before I could actually schedule a visit to the Healthy Options branch in Rockwell. Goodness! The moment I entered it, I felt like a kid in a candy store! I went straight to the back and read every ingredient in nearly every bath and body care line.

Here’s the thing, though. There are some products on the shelves that would claim to be certified organic — some even listing as many as three third party certifiers — but when you look at the back, you’ll see parabens, sulfates, PEGs etc. Some would say that they’re paraben free, but you’d see sulfates. Some would say they’re paraben and sulfate free but then you’d see propylene glycol. Apparently, many “organic” companies actually just mean that some of their ingredients are certified organic, but the rest of their listing are synthetic chemicals. It’s nuts. And it’s deceiving. (Here, Snow White! Have an organic apple. It doesn’t matter that I coated it with poison since the apple itself is certified organic!)

There are, however, brands that differentiate between “natural” and “organic” and would not haphazardly use one term in reference to the other. One such brand is Jason. I also found some other interesting goodies that I had long been looking for, like rose-milled soap and that Kettle potato chips that my former student Hazel recommended. You can even pick up really bizarre products like Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. I couldn’t see the ingredients listing immediately because the bottle label was peppered with passages from the Bible, the Koran, and even Shakespeare’s plays.

What I like best about Healthy Options? Their loyalty card. You get it with a minimum purchase of PhP1,000 and you get a point for every PhP10 you spend. (SM Advantage people, are you reading this?) Accumulating a total of 1,500 points (PhP15,000) in three months nets you a discount card that opens the door to many more benefits. That’s still a far cry from SM’s measly PhP120 reward for the PhP24,000 you spent. What’s more, they handed me a Healthy Options rebate voucher that gives me a PhP50 discount for every PhP1,000 single receipt payment. Since I spent PhP2,000, they’re giving me a hundred peso discount on my next visit.

Lastly, I was automatically subscribed to their newsletter. The recent one gave me a lot of insight as to why my body has started reacting negatively to certain food and bath products. There were even diet recommendations for different behavioral problems like ADHD, which I suspect I am afflicted with. Seeing the list of food to avoid made me decide to live with ADHD, though. Heh.

I’ve definitely decided to be a regular Healthy Options visitor. I love the ambience, the variety and the overall atmosphere. Anyone who puts value on his health should, too.

I’ve already written about many of my favorite products, but I’ve never written a full blown review for my ultimate favorite brand, Japan-based Shu Uemura. Instead of doing a blow by blow account of how each item in my vanity bag works for me, I only have this to say: I am addicted to anything Shu Uemura. Whether it’s the UV Liquid Foundation, that’s best for sporty girls like me, or those mega-expensive Pressed Eyeshadows, I can never go wrong with this brand.

The Drawing Pencil glides like frosting on cake; the Precise Volume mascara makes your lashes thicker without clumping; the Sweet Lip Gloss makes you want to kiss yourself…I could go on and on and on. I tried downgrading my eyebrow pencil once, when I went to TheFaceShop’s counter, and not only was their pencil hard on the skin, it also broke while I was applying it. Shu Uemura is a wallet buster, but it already destroyed all other brands for me. I can’t go back.

My sister, again the recipient of all my attempts to downgrade (she inherited my TheFaceShop mascara when I realized it wasn’t as good as Shu Uemura’s), once told me: “Feh! I think the only reason why you buy Shu Uemura is that no matter how dumb at make-up you are, it still makes you look good.” She’s right. It is idiot-proof. Though I kind of stopped using the lash curler because I always end up crying. There is a limit to what it can do for beauty dunces, after all.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a huge fan of putting gunk on my skin. I’m all for the simplification of any boring ritual and actually enjoy my make-up-free days. It’s just that with all the pretty colors and possibilities Shu Uemura has to offer, you can’t help but find the application highly therapeutic. Also, what’s great about it is that you only have to dab a small amount to get a bit of color on an otherwise pale visage, making your jars/tubes/bottles last for more than a year. They’re also very light and gentle on your skin. Meaning, I don’t get allergic reactions, considering my skin isn’t very easy to please.

What’s keeping me from giving Shu Uemura a perfect 10? I had just begun going semi-organic recently — it’s a slow process that involves finishing up all my non-organic bath and beauty products — and I saw the words “paraben” and other synthetic stuff in their ingredients listing. It’s a good thing I don’t wear make-up that often so there’s not much to worry about.

What’s in my kikay kit (in this picture):
Sweet Lip Gloss in Nectarine Jam, Mark Cealer, Drawing Pencils in Metallic Black and Matte Brown, Precise Volume Mascara, Fiber Xtension Mascara Extra Black 01 (unused as of this writing), Limited Edition Color Mousse in Air Bronze, UV Liquid Protecting Water Resistant Foundation (SPF 25), Powder Foundation Natural Glow Finish 564, Pressed Eyeshadows.

Other Shu Uemura products I own that are not in the picture:
Silver Eyelash Curler - Rave reviews everywhere; it’s every girl’s not-so-secret weapon…only I don’t know how to wield it.
Skin Purifier in Fresh (Pink) - Totally removes all traces of dirt and grime on your face…even waterproof mascara.

Unlike my lips, which had not been very happy with Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1, my hair is a lot more cooperative. I’ve been a long time fan of coconut conditioners — ever since I discovered the wonders they could do for my temperamental scalp — and Kiehl’s Extra-Strength Conditioning Rinse for Dry or Damaged Hair (with added Coconut Oil) is by far the most effective I’ve ever used. Even when using a harsh anti-dandruff shampoo before it, it still manages to make my hair feel soft and pretty. Also, unlike other conditioners, it doesn’t leave my hair feeling limp and heavy. It doesn’t hurt that it has a scent that isn’t purely coconut. It smells more like milk-coconut-vanilla, which makes bathing extra fun as I absolutely adore dessert-oriented fragrances.

The only thing that I know will keep me from buying this again is that its price is a bit too steep for a bath product. As of this writing, a small 125ml bottle costs PhP875 (roughly $20), which is about $7 more expensive than its US counterpart. But don’t mind me. Right now, I’m already thinking of buying virgin coconut oil and using that as my conditioner instead. Crazy, huh?

“Why are you giving this to me,” my sister asked in bewilderment. “Didn’t Kiehl’s lip balm get rave reviews from all the magazines we own?”

See, my sister is always the recipient of my hand-me-downs. Whenever I buy something and end up not liking it, she reaps the benefits. Sometimes it irks me to see that a mascara that didn’t fit me would look so well on her or that she’d glow even if she’s using an ultra-cheap product that had just given me the hives.

Kiehl’s is not in any way cheap, though. It costs about twice as much as the last lip balm I used, which was TheFaceShop’s Plus+1 Lip Care Cream Vitamin. Unfortunately, unlike the many people who had given Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1 stellar reviews, I couldn’t see what the hype was all about. Then again, I probably am their one and only disappointed customer.

I saw the newly built Greenbelt 5 right across one of my banks and I was delighted to see that Kiehl’s is the only open store. I dropped by, of course, and found out that they had just opened the night before. I had, after all, waited for more than a month for them to hit the Philippines, seeing that every other beauty editor praised it to high heavens. I immediately bought Lip Balm #1 and Extra-Strength Conditioning Rinse for Dry or Damaged Hair (with added Coconut Oil).

I’ve been using the lip balm for more than a week now, but I noticed that it didn’t make my puckers supple as my previous balm did. Not only that, I was back to peeling my lips — a long-time habit that I had stopped about three months ago. My lips, though moisturized, were once again feeling sore. I couldn’t even exfoliate them properly (lip exfoliation is something that I had only learned to do when I first bought TheFaceShop balm), the surface becoming uneven.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that Kiehl’s is good. I’ve seen it make my lips rosier even without lipstick. It also feels very light and not very greasy. It cannot, however, provide me the kind of hydration that I actually need. Meaning, it’s not potent enough. Considering this costs twice as much as TheFaceShop’s, I was expecting spectacular results.

What happened next? I dropped by TheFaceShop yesterday, bought my favorite balm and then gave the Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1 to my sister. I’m sure she’s going to enjoy it far more than I ever did. She always does.

I have man feet (and hands).

I was born with ugly, veiny, dry, really masculine feet and hands (courtesy of my mom) and enjoying wall climbing didn’t make things better for them. Though I only climb leisurely — despite my trainer’s insistence that I can compete — I still need calluses for gripping. I also have extremely brittle nails, which would only look good for a day or two after a pedicure. After that, no amount of wallet-draining lotions would work on making my feet presentable. Believe me, I’ve tried the cheap, the mid ranged, and the expensive: Nivea, TheFaceShop, VMV Hypoallergenics, Crabtree and Evelyn and Clarins. None of them did the job.

I can’t do anything about my calluses, but I just found out recently — thanks to my sister’s shopping experimentations — that I can do something about my nails. No, it’s not about getting a pedicure every other day. That would drive me to the poor house faster than you can finish reading this.

I’m talking about Bobbie Cuticle Oil. It’s this little green ointment-like substance that makes your nail shine and softens the skin around them. When I borrowed my sister’s bottle, I found that it even made my feet look like I’ve just had a pedicure. The best part? As of this writing, only costs PhP26.75 (roughly US$0.60) and can be found in grocery stores. I picked my own bottle up at Watson’s in SM Makati.