Bamboo Is The New Green

One of my favourite (fairly) recent purchases is a gray shawl from Country Road. It is made of 100% bamboo, as it says on the tag. Since I realised it is made of bamboo fabric, medyo naintriga ako ... I didn't know bamboo can be made into textile and a very soft one at that.

Bamboo fabric, it seems, is still relatively unknown. I asked my colleagues in the office if anyone of them is using sheets or towels made of bamboo and I got a really weird look from all of them. I suppose they, like me initially, were imagining the woody texture more than anything else. Very few "mainstream" shops that I know of carry items made of bamboo, but there's quite a few online shops that sell them.

I only have raves about my one-and-only bamboo item at the moment so I am pretty sure I'd like to get more - bamboo sheets, bamboo towels, and maybe another bamboo shawl. Here's some more stuff I found out about this wonder fabric:

1. It's comparable to cashmere, pero sabi nga ni Lumen, 'sing-lambot, pero di 'sing-mahal. And machine washable pa. (Obviously you shouldn't machine wash your cashmere. I did that with a jumper and nag-shrink. Kasya na kay Zoe ngayon.)
2. It's hypoallergenic.
3. It is 60% more absorbent that cotton. That makes it ideal for gym wear, among other things.
   
4. It is an environmentally-friendly fabric. Bamboos are easy to grow, and the fabric that's made out of them are 100% biodegradable.
   

Come on, anyone should be sold on this already! Buy na! :)

Shoes of The Month

A friend of mine has recently moved from Pinas to Sydney and when I spoke to her last time, she asked me what type of shoes she should buy. (Well we talked about other more important things of course.) She asked me if pointy shoes are still in and my answer was quite indirect (and was in in no way indicative of the actual trend when it comes to shoes) : my recent buys are all round and the torn-between-round-and-pointy type.

I was in some kind of shoe binge last month. (Yes, I cringe at the thought. I can still hear my dad's sentiment he told me many years back: "House deposit na yang mga ginastos mo sa shoes mo.") Back to the topic ... none of the shoes I bought were pointy, all fall in those two types that I mentioned.

Here's two of my most-used pair at the moment.

This is probably the best pair of flat shoes I ever had. Other than the obvious (nice leather, gorgeous colour, understated detail), these also happen to be the most comfortable not-so-flat flats. (The heels are about half an inch or just slightly less.) I think it's "inspired" by a Chloe pair, but these are from Robert Robert, which is an Australian shoe label. I love RR shoes. They fit my wide magsasaka-like feet very well. And their shoes last a really long time. I got these from Zomp Shoez.

The other one is kind of quirky, and it's not so me but I like this pair a lot. Very nice for spring.

I wear these with pants and dresses with tights. The stacked heels make them quite comfy to walk around town (except the downhill streets of Melbourne). The booty style is something I didn't think I'd wear but surprisingly, this one works quite well for me.

All my pointies are in their shoe boxes and hardly get taken out. The ones that I use to work are the roundies and the almond-toes. I wouldn't claim it's the trend, I think it's more a case of me being practical (comfort before anything else) and old. :P The other pair I wear to death are these:

(I wasn't going to mention this Witchery pair but I felt guilty as these have been used and abused for a while now. So yes, they deserve a mention.)

Shopping Fix

My Melbourne buddy complained about how I don't update this blog regularly anymore. I explained that I hardly shop recently so I haven't had much to write about. Since taking on the Melbourne project, I miss out on Sydney's late night shopping which is on Thursdays; Melbourne's, on the other hand, is on Fridays, which is when I fly back to Sydney. The weekends, for the most part, are spent catching up on chores and friends. (Catching up with the latter is an ideal weekend activity as it usually saves me from the trouble of having to cook. :P ) See? There's no time!

At least I can partly get my shopping fix from online stores. Not that I buy anything (apart from the Sephora loot I bought a few weeks ago) as I mostly just browse and sometimes even "add to my cart". I very rarely buy. Online shopping may be convenient and a lot of times more practical than buying stuff from the "proper" shops (particularly stores in Australia) but the experience of "proper" shopping is still the best. Nothing beats the thrill of going into a shop and scouring through the racks and finding something you like and trying something on in the change room and going out of the store with a bag or two and a smile on your face.

And then of course, there's airport shopping - not just duty free shopping, but also regular shops in airports that have traveller-friendly store hours and regular retail prices ... now, waiting for boarding time doesn't have to be so boring anymore! I am loving the fact that Witchery and French Connection are on Terminal 2, which is where I catch most of my flights from. There's also Mimco, Global Rags (which I have yet to explore), and Bonds.

Anyway, this morning, I managed to get these from FCUK.

Images from FCUK website

I got a pair of black ribbed tights as well to complete the outfit. (I was gonna wear my round toe suede wedge pumps to complete the look.) In theory, this would have been a perfect "Melbourne outfit" - top is a nice simple piece ideal for layering, the entire outfit is dark-coloured and has that "sophisticated" look. BUT nyek! ... when I tried on the skirt, it didn't turn out to be as nice on me. It was puffy in all the wrong places and I looked really frumpy. In theory lang sya maganda. (Of course the skirt is going back to the store on Thursday when I fly back.)

At least I'm going back Thursday this time. (Friday's a holiday, ANZAC Day.) I'll check out Witchery this time. I'm really liking these.

Images from Witchery website

Looks good in theory, let's see.

Time for a Night Cream

Because I've been working with my AFF again (as opposed to BFF) - Affluent and Fabulous Friend, J.L., as I like to label her, I began to notice how nice her skin looks. She smokes and drinks but somehow, those didn't seem do much damage to her skin. In fact, to me it looked like her skin's even more glowing and healthy this time compare to two years ago. (No offense, J.L.!)

One day, from a shopping lunch spree on her own, I found out her secret: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Protective Complex.

She got this plus a bunch of freebies as Estee is having a gift with purchase at the moment in Myer. The GWP is also actually quite good, so if you are in Oz, check it out at Myer.

I bought this as my aging face needs a night cream, I can tell. I've only started using it two nights ago but I am hoping I get fabulous results like my AFF-with-glowing-skin J.L. :)