Taste Test: Hollywood Diet Brownie

weight loss fads are really becoming stranger and stranger by the day. from lemonades, to grass-fed butter, and now brownies? yep. for the sweet tooths out there fearing they have to cut off on sugar to get to their desired bodies, fear not and take refuge in Hollywood Diet Brownie's claim of a delicious way to lose weight!

let's see... according to the packaging:

Hollywood Diet -- The first delicious way to loose weight! (is it?). Each Hollywood Diet brownie is individually wrapped for eating on-the-go. Take a tasty meal with you to the office, on the plane, on the road, to the gym, or anywhere else you go.

Directions for use: Enjoy a combination of up to four brownies or cookies per day in place of breakfast and lunch. Alternatively, enjoy as a satisfying snack. 

Suggested schedule: One brownie for breakfast, midmorning snack, lunch, and midafternoon snack. Eat a sensible dinner (see suggested recipes on our website). Exercise regularly -- it's good for your heart and good for your figure. 

All right, off to the experience!

Taste Test

it's kindof dry, with a tangy fruitcake taste to it albeit without alcohol. but it does taste like your regular brownie. it's yummy!

Serving Size
is normal for a brownie but for a breakfast or lunch meal? NOPE. well i had my doubts, how could this small treat serve as an entire meal? turns out it curbs your appetite. i ate it slowly, drinking water in between some 2 or 3 small bites.

The Feels
did i feel hungry after eating it? did it really curb my appetite for hours? to be honest, not really. i ate it for breakfast at around 10am in the morning, and still got hungry during lunch at around 12nn. it's not the type of hunger that a brownie could satiate though, so i went on to eat a real lunch (i.e. my baon). i ate another brownie during snacktime around 4pm, and come dinner time (7-ish), i was hungry again so i ate what i would.

my feeling is that if i had followed the directions specifically, brownies only for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, i would've felt a considerable difference in my appetite. but i didn't, because seriously i don't feel comfortable eating brownies for lunch.

Would I recommend it?
i would recommend this if what's stalling your weight loss journey is your sugar intake. this could make a really good substitute for all the sweets you want to devour. it's sweet enough and tastes good!

Where to buy?
Hollywood Diet Brownies is available in all S&R Supermarkets (Alabang, The Fort, Congressional Ave. QC), Unimart Greenills, and Makati Supermart in Alabang.

For more information, call: 4100844 or 09228282267

[Review] Maybelline Clear Smooth Shine Free BB Stick

because i didn't want to keep powdering myself throughout the day, i decided to get a BB cream! kasi daw it works like a powder that you don't need to retouch often, true enough!

Here's a review of Maybelline Clear Smooth Shine Free BB Stick (SPF 21 PA+++) in Radiance (the 03 shade) because it's the cheapest i could get with a nice brand to it. lol

Php 280.00

How it looks:

looks like a concealer

ang saya sayaaaa

What I like:

• it spreads easily on the face. if you're always on the go and want something you can easily apply, go for this!
• the stick form is very economical. you can see exactly how much product you have. unlike tubes where you have to trust that 20ml means 20ml haha. plus you can't scrape the insides when it has puffed out of contents. i find this kind of packaging very sulit. haha
• it's pretty affordable at Php 280.00. most BB creams range from 500-1000++
• available almost everywhere: department stores, supermarkets, drugstores, etc.
• lightweight - doesn't look like you have too much on the face
• good coverage. my skin looks smooth and clear with this on! haha
• it doesn't really stay put for like 8 hours straight but it's enough to keep me from powdering myself ever so often. in fact, i only put it during the day and leave it be without any retouches. :D

What i didn't like:

• it smells horribly like dangerous plastic. i want to stress this out because it's really bothersome, and while it doesn't linger on the face, it makes me paranoid that i'm putting on some toxic smelling thing on my skin. >XS
• it only comes in 2 shades (at least here in the Philippines), Fresh and Radiance. the Radiance one is the darker shade but upon application, it comes off a shade lighter parin than my face. eventually though it starts to even out. thank the oils!
• i don't think my skin agrees with this makeup. it looks good on the face, but sometimes my cheeks would itch! pero not always. nyay. i have combination to normal skin btw. joke! i don't know but i'm not the oily type. 
• it's hard to wash off. parang if you splash water on your face, waterproof yung effect nya. naaaks. so make sure to use a good facial cleanser or an exfoliating facial wash to rid your face of this stuff especially when you're about to sleep. :)

Will i buy it again?

• NOPE. unless they reformulate it to remove the ugly scent, release a darker shade, and make it more hypoallergenic. until then, i'll finish the stick and will probably look for other BB creams and convince myself to increase my budget for it cos the truly good ones have overkill prices. T__T i really love the stick form tho. :(
• YES. i thought i wouldn't but there's really no better alternative yet. it does look oily, but once i put powder on top, it looks better! :D so much for using a BB stick no, but yeah, i can live with powdering it. :D

Have you tried this one? Any BB cream suggestions? :D

Qik or It Didn’t Happen!

Remember when everyone just used to take your word for it, but now they roll their eyes over your Sahara trip simply because it was undocumented and you never raved about it on facebook?

Pics or didn't happen, that's what they say. well pictures are kindof easy to edit nowadays so let's move to a more credible proof, Qik or it didn't happen!

Meet Skype Qik
The new mobile messenger for swapping videos with groups of friends.

Capture the moment. Share the laughs.
Send something that’s sure to make your friends laugh. All with one-touch record and sharing. Simply shoot it on your mobile and send a message to your friends.

Great for groups
Create groups easily from the contacts on your phone, and send messages to them privately.
Enjoy watching your chat movie grow as more people respond.

Qik Fliks
Pre-record up to 12 short videos for when you want to respond, fast. Just drop your Qik Fliks into the chat any time for a more personal smiley.

Create better conversations
Keep your chats in shape by deleting messages whenever you want – they’ll be removed from everyone else’s phone too.

(lifted from Skype)

--

So far it has enabled me and my sister to exchange funny faces and short greetings while in the house (cos it's our common wifi place haha). i would even qik her some utos like 'paki akyat yung hard disk ni daddy' while she's in the basement. sobrang tamad lang lol. so fun trying it out! i imagined the days our barkada was obsessed with WeChat! now this could be our next hangout place!

Download Skype Qik here and check it out for yourself! :D

Skype Qik is a quick video messaging/communication app that allows you to exchange instant and quick video messages for free. It enables you to capture videos that are up to 40 seconds long, and and send them to group of friends. Skype Qik is available on iPhone, Android, and Windows phones. More about Skype Qik here: http://www.skype.com/en/qik/

The Sunday Currently (vol. 4)

Happy Mothers' day everyone! :D

Currently

Reading
nothing. i'll stop saying HP4 cos i haven't really read much since last month, i'm on page 339 of 407 though! haha

Writing
this and a Skype Qik post!

Listening
to some faint retro loving from the radio and being comforted by the fan's humming. ang init!

Thinking
about apologizing to someone.

Smelling
Kusidong Isda

Wishing
i'll get part of my referral fee this coming payday so i could pay off a ton of liabilities!

Wearing
sando and shorts

Loving
this pusheen stuffed toy i bought from some guy from Ateneo Trade. i gifted it to my boyfriend who's supposed to fly to india tomorrow, but it got moved to next week... so yey? haha

genuine pusheen merch by Gund! IT'S THE CUTEST!!! i only bought the medium one cos the large one (which i prefer) is gonna cost some baggage daw but it's okay, i just have to look for a friend who's in the US who can buy it for me and deliver it here when he/she gets home. HAHA Amazon offers free shipping to a US address, aaargh.

i was thinking of getting a my-shoppingbox.com account to have the large pusheen delivered, but good thing i researched their charging details first cos i realized i'm gonna be paying a fortune for shipping because of the item's volume. according to their site, if item's volume weight (length x width x height / 166) is greater than the actual weight (in pounds), you will be charged by it's volume weight instead.

so... for that 1.4 pound stuffed toy (actual weight), i'll be charged 10 pounds (because 19 x 7.5 x 11.5 / 166)! holy mole. XS

anyway, still looking for that kind friend from the US. haha

Wanting
to get over this project soon so i could play with this baby!

hello piano! jeckie and i picked it up yesterday at makati and i'm excited to learn again. anyway, i'm so lost with the tons of buttons. HAHA i always thought manuals are for the weak but heck i just succumbed to downloading a pdf version of the manual because crap i'm getting old. i'm not used to tinkering around foreign buttons anymore. specially if they're not touchscreen. HAHA

it's 2 years old and is lacking a pedal and a music sheet holder but who cares? i was supposed to buy a sustain pedal earlier but held back. i decided that it has to be my reward for finishing the project... so, see you next week pedal! <3

grabe lang how i forgot everything i know already. so far i was only able to extract some 1/4 of the second movement from Bach's Minuet, and i had to piece it bit by bit. it was fascinating though, how some scores slipped by completely and that one stayed. haha

Needing
some vindication for hating on a lot of people lately. haha

Feeling
super full.

How was your week?

good listeners are hard to find

friends who will listen to you whine about work and your lovelife. people who will condone your incessant ramblings about seemingly un-adult things. honestly, i'm still looking for people like that. or better yet, I MISS THOSE PEOPLE. friends who genuinely listen. i've had it with friends who only listen to gossips, but dismiss you when you start talking about your boring struggles in picking up your trampled self-worth on the ground. saying, here she goes again sabay irap. i'm also very annoyed with people who constantly diss my drama and keep veering the subject to their lives like i have no right to complain because look at you, aren't you having it worse?

i'd like to believe we all deserve sympathy, sadly not everyone is wired to address that minute need. and when it comes to relating with my peers, i've had it with boys. they're totally on a different psychological track. it's true what they say that women whine not to extract a solution, but just to let it all out. yeah, i'm that simpleton who only wants to be heard and not preached to.

for now, i'm content that i have at least one person whom i can totally be open to about anything, and he's a guy on top of that HAHA i love my boyfriend <3 <3 <3 but he's flying to india next week and will be gone for a month and a half so i'm dreading the totally-friendless feeling. oh wait, my sister loves me and i could coerce her to listen to me whine about stuff!

or maybe my hormones are just kicking in. my bloody calendar says it's almost time.

seriously. i'm feeling so effing emotional right now, i could break down with just a 'kamusta?' and blab about how much life sucks as of. but i've learned enough not to wear the woman in me on my sleeves. lol. i'm not gonna bawl my eyes off an undeserving twerp who never really intend to listen.

this was supposed to be the 4th item in my forever-draft '5 hard truths we should learn to accept and live by' but oh well, i found it too harsh of me drop them all at the same time. haha

off to pack napkins.

The Sunday Currently (vol. 3)

new found love for wooden textures <3

Been eating a lot the past few days idk why.

Currently

Reading
Still Harry Potter, but not regularly cos i'm tamad.

Writing
beauty reviews. anoraw. i'm trying to round up a few products to recommend.

Listening
to the even louder humming of the fan because i just promoted it from the floor to my desk because ang inet!!!!

Thinking
of buying jeckie's officemate's piano before he leaves for india cos i don't want to wait a month and a half. plus i'm thinking of dedicating a few hours of my relatively free-er saturdays to learning scores just like the old times! <3

Smelling
nothing

Wishing
i had more VLs to spare! i just want to layout all day. lol

Wearing
singlet and shorts :)

Loving
the kids at church more than ever. i don't remember when i started teaching but awhile ago i realized how sad it would be once these kids graduate and move on to the youth service. i've grown so fond of them argh. haha teacher problems? now i know how it feels! mega advanced sepanx seeing that they won't be off to a new ground in 2 years pa haha! haaay life!

Wanting
to change this layout. AGAIN. see? that's why i don't believe in buying themes. i tend to change my layout a lot. :(

Needing
to buy a bike. srsly.

Feeling
excited for the saturdays to come. and also kindof indifferent to the recently concluded MayPac fight. ewan ko ba. the 9 and 11am church services were halved (as expected) haha! and as usual, the malls are unusually less crowded for a sunday XD

yesterday was the first day of this digital illustration class i enrolled in at CIIT (tomas morato). i was raving about the opportunity to study multimedia arts so i started with 1 module muna, just to see how it goes and to see if it's any good studying at CIIT haha.

i was so excited to attend class that i woke up 9am, 30 minutes past the start of lecture! i was so frkn panicking that i skipped taking a bath and a breakfast altogether. i brushed my teeth, washed my face, grabbed a shirt and leggings, put some make up (anything to look like i just woke up), tied my hair, put on my headband, and wore shades. i was at school at around 9:45am. it was kindof embarrassing. on the way i was hoping someone would arrive later than i will but haha, 1 hour late. oh yes.

it was fun! i learned a lot already! adobe illustrator is like magic! everything is so easy peasy if you know what to click. also, i figured i have to struggle unlearning a lot of techniques i use in photoshop cos they now seem manual as hell. and i thought i was already working smart?! uhm nope.

i made this on our first lecture! paki-bati yung watermelon please. i was looking for easy fruits to trace but that cute thing appeared on google images even when i specifically searched for grapes. you sweet ball. 

we're on to tracing objects using shapes and the pen tool so far and i'm frkn excited. sir says he's gonna teach us manual low-poly techniques. i was crying inside. i want to learn so bad. looking forward to next week!

How was your week? :D

[Review] Celeteque DermoScience Hydration Facial Moisturizer

naks naman bumu-beauty blogger. lololol.

in an attempt to step up my skincare regimen from nothing to something, i decided to start moisturizing daily. i actually used to put on moisturizer before when i was an active Mary Kay beauty consultant (shempre i have to be a convincing proof that my products work haha) but now that i'm out of the business, moisturizing became an irregular thing for me, as well as cleaning my face in general haha. i've grown quite loyal to MK that i didn't want to try anything else because it already works perfectly, but the weather is pushing me to try something more available lest my skin perishes along with my pride. haha

so here's an honest review of one of the most available and affordable moisturizers out there:

Celeteque DermoScience Hydration Facial Moisturizer

50 ml - Php 127.00 | 100 ml - Php 210.00

What i like:

• it's super available and affordable. 50ml tube is at Php 127.00, 100ml tube is at Php 210.00. you can find it in supermarkets, drugstores, and department stores. it's everywhere! <3
• works as a very good basic moisturizer. by that i mean, it keeps your skin moisturized enough especially during the night. it has a gel like consistency that spreads evenly on the skin, not too watery that it dries so fast, and not too sticky that you could feel the dust settling on your face. just right.
• it's water based, so it's really good for those with oily skin
• smells like nothing. which is great because i usually can't stand scented facial stuff.
• hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic. works on sensitive skin and doesn't clog your pores.
• the packaging looks legit. ewan ko ba it has a Cetaphil vibe to it diba. it looks trustworthy and clinically credible. alam mo ung packaging pa lang, mukang hypoallergenic na? haha meganon ba. 

What i didn't like:

• nothing much except that i wouldn't want to use it during the day because it doesn't have SPF (like i care about SPF daw lol), plus it doesn't really have a primer-finish to it. you know how other moisturizers dry off in a dewy texture that could sit perfectly under makeup? this dries off nice naman but it looks wet. i don't look pretty waking up in this at all. but at least i don't look oily! XD
• hindi, actually i'm not yet on that phase where i need to moisturize during the day. but when that time comes, i'll probably look for another moisturizer haha.

Will i buy again?

• YES. this is now my go-to moisturizer until i've found a better alternative! or until i've found a regular source of discounted MK stuff. haha

Packaging details:

CELETEQUE DermoScience™ Hydration Facial Moisturizer has Triple Moisturizing System that contains Glycerin, Provitamin B5 and Aloe Verathat work deep down to provide lasting relief from skin dryness. Its unique hydrogel formula provides the skin with optimum hydration without the greasy after-feel.

• Ingredients:
• Water, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Panthenol, Hexylene Glycol, Carbomer, Aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Disodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Citric Acid