Running From North To Center On An Event-full Friday

Can't complain my loves, can't complain. I didn't expect to have a full Friday, and normally, I'm quite apprehensive about leaving the comfort zone that is my home on a vehicle-full road of a payday Friday. Anyways, despite coming home almost 12 I was smiling from ear to ear and I'll tell you why.

Romina texted me if I would like to attend an Olay event at Robinson's Galleria. I had an event 6:30-ish and since the event in Galle was in the afternoon, I had some time to buy though, and I already put in my head that I'll be taking the MRT back to Makati after Galleria when the northbound EDSa traffic was getting me antsy. Anyhow, the event encouraged women and of course men to use Olay body bar by trading their empty soap bars for a bar of Olay to get the habit going. The bar of course, should cost at least Php 25.00. It was a very systematic procedure, from registering, liking the Olay Philippines page on Facebook, and there were even some fun stuff where participants get to do a 30-second video on why they decided to make the switch to Olay and have their pictures taken in the photobooth. If they're one of the first 50 participants though, they get their 1 minute of fame where they get to meet, greet, and have their picture taken with one of the Olay ambassadors, Angel Aquino.

Who doesn't remember Angel's performance as the feisty Vera Cruz in the recently-concluded Magkaribal? While her TV persona is mean and scheming with matching hurling of yards of fabric or screaming at her character's subordinates, Angel is actually a real down-to-earth Angel who gamely answered questions of women when it came to ageing. At the end, Angel encourages the audience, citing several examples from friends and colleagues and even herself, that it's never too late to make the change. If you're curious about an Olay body bar experience, you could read my review on it here.

After an early dinner, I dashed off and was glad to catch a train back to Makati. At that time, Yeoh was already calling me that he was already at the next event. It was quite cool that we were both in that same event, since his alagas (also my good friends) would be modelling at the event.

Proud itay Yeoh with his models.

This was the RIIR or Rags2Riches event where they unveil its Fashion/Holiday collection of signature bags and accesories. RIIR's premier designer is Amina Aranaz-Alunan, who's also the designer behind the luxury bag line Aranaz.

So let's check out the bags, shall we?

So proud of Jazel. I remember still her first-ever shoot where Nix did her makeup and I curled her hair. Jazel has gone so far and there's a lot of potential I see in her.

This assymetric white dress (by Rajo Laurel, who provided the clothes for this show) goes well with Kae's honey-colored skin tone.

Those colored woven fabrics are actually scrap fabric materials converted into usable accesories so there's minimal discarded materials that would just end up as trash and litter. Guess who makes these bags? The community of mothers from Payatas! It's just amazing and heartwarming how fashion houses like these extend all the way to Payatas so the mommies there also have a sustainable source of income. The fabrics are meticulously weaved and crochet-knitted into the designs I showed earlier. Aside from bags, these fabrics could also be made to belts and accessories.

I may not wear much accessories but I love statement pieces.

I think these ladies deserve a round of applause, don't you think? After all without them, there would be no bags. It's just too cute that they were there with us too so they saw how fierce and fasyon their handiworks are. You could check out the site at www.rags2riches.ph to view the collection and to know more about RIIR's products and social statement.

Yeoh and I of course in our obligatory wackiness. Why is this just the makeup on my face? I had a good ten minutes to change to my micro black dress which means skip a lot of stuff on the makeup department and whip out that red lipstick. That's one reason to love red. It cuts my makeup time in a total fraction.

Right after that, Yeoh dragged me to the Urban Athletics event since it was my butty Erika's event and we were there for moral support. Another cheerio and shoutout of support also to our model friends who ramped the catwalk in style.

Mary

Patrick

Arnie

Group shot!

Since our gastrocnemius muscles were giving way after teetering in heels, We traded the cocktail tables for comfy chairs at Coffee Bean, but wanting real comfort food, we walked over to McDonalds for happy junk food and kwentos. Seeing my friends in person instead of updating via Facebook and SMS is totally different. Definitely worth the painful calves, speedy makeup, and jampacked train. :)