When I was a teen, shopping for clothes was extremely hard being that I was underweight and short. I wasn’t the only one getting frustrated; my mom was having a hard time choosing outfits for me too. What was more embarrassing was seeing the retail assistants snicker. It was harmless, really. I wasn’t offended but...
I have been itching to hit the beach as of late. The weather’s perfect and getting baked in my own room is not my idea of a perfect summer. Except that I’m not equipped to head to the beach and soak up some Vitamin D just yet. I need to have the essentials. One of...
Manila, Philippines: Our relationship with food has evolved. It is no longer just for sustenance. The atmosphere is charged with excitement between man and chow and this love affair begins at the supermarket. We caress the fresh produce, picking out the best from the haul while thinking of endless possibilities of what can be done...
Most of us weren’t raised to be eco-conscious and particularly when it comes to our wardrobes. Same goes for ethics; it doesn’t seem a priority when we’re on a shopping spree. The hidden side of fast fashion – pollution, forced labor, exploitation, chemical exposure, health and safety concerns, low wages, waste – has been dwarfed...
Manila, Philippines: Historically, new fashion trends were introduced every season but this system has drastically changed. Nowadays, collections are produced and released to the market on a weekly basis; thus the birth of fast fashion. Fast fashion is the rapid production of inexpensive clothing by mass-market retailers. These collections are usually based on fashion trends,...
Manila, Philippines: It was pretty early for people to be flocking at the park on a work day but there we all were, checking out all the different booths that are selling plant-based products for a holistic lifestyle. The Veggie Fest 2019 is Maxicare‘s first bazaar, held at Legazpi Active Park in Makati on March...
From a young age, we women are taught how a ‘proper lady’ should behave. Whenever you go out with your hair in disarray or with nipples blazing through your shirt, clucking tongues are sure to follow. It’s not ‘ladylike’, we’re told. No matter how much our world has evolved, so many of us women still...
Manila, Philippines: Back in 2001, a new TV show aired on the travel channel here that changed the landscape of how I viewed traveling forever. The TV program originally called Lonely Planet later changed to Globe Trekker, featured different travelers trekking across the world (my favorite was Ian Wright), each toeing the line between tourism...
Manila, Philippines: Just thinking about going anywhere in the Metro Manila area gives me a headache; imagining how to deal with the heat, getting enveloped in black exhaust smoke and feeling the dirt slapping me in the face when a car zooms past me – it all just turns me off. Sometimes when I give...
Manila, Philippines: The home is a sanctuary. People discard trash from their residences that no longer fit in with its ‘flow’. The best case scenario is when people are responsible enough to segregate their junk in the correct way. The reality is though, that some recyclables end up in the non-recycling bin headed for landfills...
I know a lot of smokers who started young. It was the experimenting and all the sneaking around that made it fun. There’s sexiness associated with it too – whether you see it dangling loosely on James Dean’s lips in Rebel Without a Cause or when a cigarette is being shared by a couple on...