Cousins Amiel and Arriane had made scents named and inspired by their childhood heroines to re-introduce the age-old technique of solidifying perfumes. Did you know that solid perfumes were used from the Renaissance period and were even used all the way back to the Ancient Roman and Egyptian times? Now ANA Classica is bringing solid perfumes to the Philippines!

These homemade solid perfumes have been meticulously selected and sourced from all-natural and organic ingredients. No alcohol, preservatives nor petroleum!

This means that solid perfumes tend to be better than liquid perfumes in the sense that:

• There’s no spillage!
• Easy to use to apply to specific points of your body.
• Scent is mild–neither offensive nor suffocating to other people.
• Moisturizing and non-comedogenic.

The five vintage locket necklaces include a collaboration with Sining Seleste, a local artist who hand-paints one of the lockets. These lockets are made of stainless steel and are hypoallergenic and non-tarnish. They can even be worn by acidic people! Each locket contains 1.5 ml of solid perfume, and when worn, gives off a hint of the scent it encases.

The mini diamonds meanwhile contain 5ml of golden caramel solid perfume. The golden caramel coloring leaves a hint of sparkle on your skin–so it also doubles as a highlighter!

The scents

Victoria – Inspired by Queen Victoria, this classy scent is fresh and fruity–it has a fantastic pear note with a hint of rose.

Shelley – Inspired by author Marie Shelley, this scent is a chronicle of sweet and fruity with cherry, plum and vanilla notes.

Cleo – Inspired by Egyptian queen Cleopatra, this scent is an alluring composition of jasmine and vanilla notes.

Marie – Inspired by Marie Curie, this scent is a complex mix of rose and citrus notes.

Frida – Inspired by artist Frida Kahlo, this scent is a warm blend of vanilla, cherry and amber with a hint of milk. <–This scent I personally love!

Quick review

PROS

• I like that it comes in a locket form–makes you smell good even when you’re not directly wearing perfume!
• Lasts long on my skin–up to 6 hours, but for some people it can last as long as 8.
• The scents are gorgeous–each one is perfect for every mood.
• Comes at a reasonable price.

CONS

• The solid perfume comes available in two sizes only- the locket which is 1.5 ml and the diamond which is 5 ml.
• Because of the shape, it would be hard to scrape off the solid perfume in the diamond as soon as it’s about to run out.

Price list

Solid perfume locket PHP 399

Mini Diamond PHP 150

Locket Refill (not yet available) PHP 49

Where to buy

FB: https://www.facebook.com/anaclassica.ph/

Shopee: https://shopee.ph/anaclassica.ph

A new year often marks a new beginning—and with it, a promise of hope, joy, and excitement. Goals are set and calendars are marked, whether it’s getting into shape, setting up a new business, or creating a travel destination bucket list.

It can be overwhelming when you’re faced with the reality of your decision. It isn’t as easy as you thought it would be.
Where do you start to make your dreams for the year come to pass? How do you ensure that you get to follow through on your commitments to yourself?

How do you get rid of being overwhelmed and stuck, fixing your eyes on the prize?

This October, Viviamo!, Inc., maker of the Belle de Jour Power Planner, is set to release a new line of products for their 2020 collection. Each planner is designed to fit different lifestyles and needs while helping its users achieve their goals for the year ahead.

Discover the Universe Within with the 2020 Belle de Jour Power Planner
Viviamo’s flagship offering, the Belle de Jour Power Planner, uses the theme “The Universe is in Me.” By discovering the universe within, you are opening up to the endless possibilities within your reach.
It features monthly activities that enable and challenge you to live life to the fullest. Also, weekly spreads provide enough space to write down lists, schedules, and even personal mantras.

The 2020 edition of the Belle de Jour Power Planner includes 2020 Goals Pages to ensure that you would stay focused, motivated, and on the right track. Other special pages include a Dream Board, a gratitude grid, and a daily Law of Attraction schedule.
The Belle de Jour Power Planner comes in four distinct and beautifully-designed covers.

Find Your Second Home with the Navi 2020 Planner
Built for the adventurer, the Navi 2020 includes stories from 12 travel bloggers who candidly talk about the places they consider their second home. These anecdotes are designed to inspire and invite veteran and newbie travelers to seek out their own adventures.
Navi 2020 includes a bucket list page, itinerary spread, and several checklists to make sure that you have everything you need to explore and discover a new or familiar destination.

Attract Abundance with the Everything is Possible 2020 Planner
Everything is Possible 2020 is equipped with special pages to help you set your goals, breaking them down into smaller chunks. The planner includes two 2020 Goals spreads, allowing you to list down tangible and actionable steps while setting deadlines for each.

Its cover features water-like elements, alluding to the ripple effect that one small action makes across a larger body of water.

Embrace Gratitude with the Focus 2020 Journal
The team at Viviamo believes that gratitude is one of the most important attributes to a life of success. The Focus 2020 Journal achieves just that, with monthly spreads that feature eye-catching and thought-provoking typography. Monthly check-ups allow you the space to reflect on different aspects of life that you’re grateful for. The spacious weekly layout is designed to help you maximize the space for schedules and other events.

Zero In on What is Essential with the Essentials Planner
Minimalists will enjoy using Viviamo’s Essentials Planner. Its clean and no-nonsense dotted spreads are specially designed for bullet journaling and creative journaling. The planner comes in two covers: classic and pattern.

Each Viviamo 2020 planner is equipped with a Life Declarations page, with the intention of igniting your goals, dreams, and passions for the year ahead.

Whatever your goals are for 2020, trust that Viviamo has a planner specially made for you. Get ready to set your goals and have a meaningful year ahead.

Viviamo’s 2020 collection is available at our one-stop shop for all things paper—Crazy About Paper. Shop for planners and journals at http://bit.ly/ReadySetGC starting October 12. The planners will also be sold at all major bookstores beginning October 2019.

Super Late Post! A lot of things have happened since my first ever Happy Days Club TV appearance– my baby accidentally fell off the bed , workload increased for the next few days, and all the stress piled up until I woke up one early morning with gastroenteritis. It was terrible. I’ve always been curious about what it felt like to have diarrhea, but I don’t think I would want to discover it the hard way. I was still sick the following day, but I knew nobody would be able to work on the stuff I need to finish in the office, so against my doctor’s advice I went back to work the next morning. I was pretty sure I was still dehydrated because I screwed up at work the entire week. (So please, if your doctor told you to rest, rest!) It was such a super stressful month!

Now that the stressful month is over, here’s hoping March gives me fun, happy vibes for four weeks! But first, let me share with you this long overdue post. Happy Days Club was generous enough to send me a box filled with goodies back in February. It arrived about a week after my Happy Days Club TV gig–and a week before my period–so I was over the moon.

There were lots of goodies that were sent to me, but on this post I’m sharing my top 5 favorites. If you’re interested, I made a quick post about the entire contents of the box in my IG here.

1. Leiana House of Beauty’s Organic Fresh Lady Bamboo Charcoal Anion Herbal Sanitary Pad – a mouthful to say, but each napkin is super thin (possibly the thinnest I’ve ever seen and used! The herbal scent for me was a little overpowering. I guess it takes a little getting used to, but I think it’s fine. I mean, the pad is super thin and absorbent–I don’t mind a little herbal scent down there if it means worry-free periods every month!

2. Aislin PH handmade earrings – Super intricately made, I love it! This pair looks like really cute statement pieces, though, so it makes me nervous. I mean, I love them, I just don’t know how to dress to match! I might probably throw on the oversized embroidered tunic my mom bought for me from Mexico.

3. I luuurve rose scents, so this is hands down a shoo-in. Con Scents Me Time Candle - As soon as you open the can, sweet rose wafts through the air, lifting my senses. I don’t need (nor plan) to light it up. I want to just take a whiff of the scent forever!

4. Himalaya Herbals Oil Control Facial Wash - I got a pair of these babies, one for me and probably one for my hubby. He prefers using his own bar of soap though, so weeee this means more goodies for me. This facial wash has a very mild lemon scent, that it almost smells like it’s meant for men. I don’t know how to explain the scent, other than it’s not citrusy at all, very mild, clean and almost musky. Or maybe it’s just me. What I love about this facial wash is that it does’t completely strip my face of moisture. I always end up having a clean face with no breakouts whatsoever.

5. Last, but definitely not the least on this list: Leiana House of Beauty’s The Flower Pot Fem Bar. The packaging might need a bit of work, since it was incredibly difficult for me to read all the fine print on the back of the soap. Once unwrapped, the soap showed off an embossed five-petal flower, and a nice herbal scent (like woody, citrusy herbs). I like this bar’s scent–it reminds me of Mukti Botanicals’ facial wash. Mukti is an Australian brand of organic skin care line, and I’ve tried some of its products several years ago. I enjoyed that brand, although I cannot afford it now. Whenever I use this bar, it brings back great memories of that time I was thinner and younger (haha!) I love how it cleans, and it’s versatile enough to use on my body. It’s a little too soft, though.

Final Love Notes

The Valentines Box from Happy Days Club is terrific! Aside from these five products, I also got goodies from Dermcare, CocoLine, Nyogi, Softex Hello Kitty and Ladouce–items I already got from previous boxes. I love that I get local brands to try. It’s terrific. I learn about local products, I discover how awesome and world-class they are, and I help ladies handle their periods better. Love it! Thanks so much, Happy Days Club!

Local brand Scent Swatch offers designer perfume scents at an affordable price. With designer scents being sold for at least php3,500 in malls, of course a quality “scent-alike” is a good alternative. (Shout out to my Happy Days Club fam for sharing this brand with me! #sponsored)

Here’s Pink Sherbet, a youthful fragrance inspired by Ferragamo’s Incanto Shine. It has a lot of fun fruity and floral notes–Fresh top notes of pineapple, bergamot, and passion fruit; middle notes of pink peony, freesia and peach; and rich base notes of cedar, amber, and musk. I’ve had different musky scents in the past, and I seldom go for citrusy scents because they don’t usually suit my body chemistry (except the original Clinique Happy!), so I was a little hesitant to try Pink Sherbet at first…

The scent is by no means overpowering–it’s nice to sniff every few minutes, and considering that I can be sensitive about strong scents, the Pink Sherbet is a real winner! If I spray at around 7 in the morning I find that by lunch time the scent has already faded a lot. On my skin, a faint fruity-musky scent remains.

Of course, picking perfumes online can be tricky, since our skin’s chemistry is widely varied. Beautiful scents from designer perfumes tend to smell terrible on me, because my skin reacts too much with the alcohol content. So yay, I love that Pink Sherbet suits my weird skin!

Overall, the Scent Swatch Pink Sherbet Eau de Parfum is highly recommended! The bottle come in different sizes –the largest being 60ml, costs Php 390, while the medium sized one (the one that I got) is a 30 ml bottle priced at Php 220. If you are still on the fence on the scents, you can get the trial size– 12ml at Php 125.00. If you calculate the prices, the 60 ml bottle is the best deal–just php6.50 per ml!

Check out the other scents at the Scent Swatch website. Alternatively you can reach out via the official Scent Swatch FB page. They sure are nice stocking stuffers this Christmas, aren’t they?