NEW BEGINNINGS

FASHION WATCH QUARTET 2011 FEATURING LEN NEPOMUCENO

Standing as a creative avenue, Fashion Watch Quartet continues to be the much-awaited series that continues to bring to the forefront fresh new talent through an exciting fashion event. This year, 2011, marks the revival of Fashion Watch Quartet. The much raved about fashion series is back for good, amped up and better than ever!

With a roster of homegrown and international talents, fashion forward Filipino craftsmanship rises to the surface as renowned designer Len Nepomuceno brings forth new design inspirations for the season.

LEN NEPOMUCENO is a Filipino fashion designer who specializes in bridal gowns and evening wear. She is a member and currently the Vice-President of the prestigious Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines (FDCP). Len is one of the few top designers that were commissioned to create fashions for the iconic Barbie doll to raise funds for a Ballet Philippines auction for the benefit of their scholars. Len’s collection for Fashion Watch is about the early start of spring, where colors are starting to change from heavy fall-winter to light and airy spring-summer. Her design inspiration is NEW BEGINNINGS with colors such as honeysuckle for lifting spirits, peony as a romantic attachment and silver clouds for quintessential classics.

Fashion Watch 2011 is a project of the CFDP (Council of Fashion Designers of the Philippines). It will run from April to November, 2011. Each week will feature the collection of two designers in back-to-back format, who will have his/her creations unveiled to all through a fashion show held at the lobby area of the prestigious Shangri-La Makati Hotel.

The series will feature 19 of the country’s most notable designers, each showcasing a brand new collection. Each designer is exclusive to Fashion Watch Quartet; you won’t see their collections on any other fashion show series. Every designer will showcase their Holiday collection early on in the year and a Spring/Summer collection towards the latter part of the year, much like fashion timetables abroad.

Fashion Watch Quartet will also stage special shows as several internationally known ASEAN designers will be flown in to display their creations to the Filipino public.

Besides an A-list roster of designers, models, and media partners The Philippine Star, Preview, StyleBible, and StarWorld, Fashion Watch Quartet boasts of industry greats working behind-the-scenes as well, including Patrick Rosas and team as the force behind hair and makeup, Grace Molina as Project Coordinator and Director and Manila’s Prince of Fashion himself, Inno Sotto as Creative Director .

As Fashion Watch Quartet makes its comeback, it continues to raise the bar for how today’s fashion show series should be.

Fashion Watch 2011 is presented by Olay, Makati Shangri-la Hotel, Philippine Star, Preview Magazine, Starworld and Stylebible.ph in cooperation with major sponsors BMW and Metro Pacific Investments.

Improved Social Networking with new SAMSUNG Corby II

Samsung Electronics Philippines Corporation had just announced the arrival of the Corby II handset with an improved access to social networking sites and an enhanced touch screen display.

“We are building on the success of Samsung’s first Corby device with a colorful design, enhanced social networking capability, and an intuitive touch screen interface” said Glenn Glinoga, Director of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, SEPCO . He added: “The Corby II is designed perfectly for consumers looking to express their personality and stay connected.”

Samsung Corby II follows the spirit of the original Samsung Corby on colors. Available with a range of bold colors (Festival Yellow, Candy Pink and Chic White), the handset is an extension of the user’s lifestyle. The stylish design is slim at 11.7mm, equipped with a 3.14" display that provides the ideal viewing experience for staying connected. It is a functional and fashionable handset that allows users to express themselves in color.

Mobile users who are always on-the-go don’t have to sacrifice their social lives; instead, they can use the device’s integrated Social Hub to stay in touch with friends via SMS messaging, email or social networking services. The device also has mFluent built-in, allowing for instant messaging via a variety of platforms – including Facebook chat, Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk.

Aside from that, Facebook and Twitter platforms are preloaded on the device and other widgets can be easily downloaded. E-mail is also easy to set up and manage, while the platform synchronizes to ensure that the user’s most recent updates are on the device. Wi-Fi provides an always-on connection and fast data transfer for easy information sharing on-the-go.

Samsung Corby II’s enhanced touch interface will deliver a new, intuitive experience to Corby II users. TouchWiz enables multiple home screens and a smooth, easy-to-use menu that’s seamless to navigate. The device is a feature phone but it will feel like it has a smartphone interface since it allows users to read and reply to text messages without needing to quit a current task. The QuickType by t9 Trace is two to three times faster than standard typing and supports more than 75 languages, delivering a more convenient typing experience while reducing input error.

The Corby II handset will be available in mid April at all Authorized Samsung Mobile Dealers nationwide at very affordable price.

Love The Body Shop, Love Your Body, Love The Earth

Make a positive splash on the environment and start your day the earth lovers way. Inject some fun into your daily life by showering with the new eco-conscious* 100% biodegradable shower gel range from The Body Shop - the earth will thank you, and so will your body!

Earth Lovers™ is the second product range launched by The Body Shop to hold the new eco-conscious* label. As the original, natural ethical beauty company, The Body Shop is passionate about its “Protect the Planet” core value. Thanks to new Earth Lovers™ 100% biodegradable shower gels, you can have a blast in the shower with silky soft, soap-free, non-drying formulas that are gentle on your skin and the planet.

Earth Lovers™ shower gels are infused with goodness, featuring a blend of herb and fruit extracts and Community Fair Trade aloe vera to leave your skin naturally fragrant and super soft. Choose from a selection of six refreshing fragrances to keep your senses alive every day of the week:

Lemon and Thyme

Uplift your spirits with the clean, fresh scent of Lemon & Thyme. Known for its ability to brighten, cleanse and tone oily skin, zesty aromatic lemon is wonderfully invigorating and stimulating - ideal for an early morning wake-up call. Once celebrated as a symbol of bravery and credited with aphrodisiac powers, rejuvenating thyme is an astringent, toning, cleansing herb, which can benefit dull, tired looking skin.

Mint and Cucumber

Start your day refreshed and revived with Mint & Cucumber. An energizing herb, mint has been used extensively in Eastern and Western medicine for its antiseptic properties and to rejuvenate the skin. There’s a reason why we say ‘cool as a cucumber’; its cooling and soothing powers are often used externally

to treat minor skin complaints.

Watermelon and Eucalyptus

Give your skin some love with the unusual, yet perfect, pairing of Watermelon & Eucalyptus. One of nature’s best sources of anti-oxidants and rich in vitamins A, B and C, watermelon extract is known to nourish the skin. Not just for koalas, eucalyptus is a well-known stimulating, purifying and cleansing herb. Its leaves and extracts are used to tone, cleanse and help improve tired, dull, mature skin and hair.

Fig & Rosemary

For a fabulous fragrance boost, lather yourself in the gorgeous Fig & Rosemary blend. Treasured for their warm scent, figs have long been celebrated for their rich, sweetness. In Greece the fig tree is dedicated to Priapus, the god of fertility and gardens, and its Greek name - sykê - is the origin of the word sugar.

Rich in anti-oxidants, fig extracts are known to help remove dead skin cells, leaving skin soft and silky. Beautifully aromatic, rosemary is a cleansing, stimulating and restorative herb, widely used to tone and improve skin texture. It also has astringent properties, which help to reduce excess oil in skin and hair.

Pear and Lemongrass

Alternatively, envelop yourself in the fresh aromas of Pear & Lemongrass. Abundant in vitamin C, pear juice extract is known to soothe and rejuvenate the skin. Ideal in restoring radiance in dull, tired looking skin, pears are recommended for their exfoliating and toning properties. The sweetness of the pear fragrance is balanced by the clean, citrusy scent of lemongrass. Used for centuries in India as a medicinal herb and in perfumes, lemongrass essential oil is often used today to uplift the spirits and to balance oily skin.

Apricot and Basil

Wash away your worries with Apricot & Basil shower gel. Apricot fruit extracts are ideal for softening, nourishing, moisturising and regenerating the skin. Basil is considered a cooling herb, and is used as a tonic to relieve fatigue, to balance the mind and emotions, as well as improve and enhance the skin’s texture.

Fragrance Free

Earth Lovers™ also comes in a Fragrance-Free formula for those who prefer to wash without scent.

Clean Formula Gentle on Skin

The entire Earth Lovers™ range is made from a soap-free base, so it’s non-drying and suitable for sensitive skin. The formulas do not include any of the following common skin irritants:

No SULPHATES

We avoided using common sulphate based surfactants and have instead used more natural foaming agents in the eco-conscious Earth Lovers™ shower gels to produce a delicate lather.

No COLOURANTS

By avoiding the inclusion of colour ingredients, you can see the actual colour of the shower gel.

No PARABENS

The Body Shop recognises that some shoppers want to choose paraben-free products, so it has developed this range without any parabens.

What does the Eco-Conscious symbol mean to me and the environment?

The eco-conscious symbol was first introduced in the Rainforest Hair Care range in 2010. It is a promise that products carrying the symbol promise to:

· Respect the aquatic environment so the fish in the sea are protected

· Are made from biodegradable formulas. This means the foaming agents readily break down in the environment as soon they are washed down the plughole

· Use a minimum of packaging waste, and are made of post-consumer recyclate wherever possible

Every product in the Earth Lovers™ shower gel range contains Community Fair Trade organic aloe vera from Guatemala. Aloe vera extract has long been used for its healing benefits and contains over 75 beneficial nutrients and 200 active compounds. It is used extensively for soothing burn treatments, stimulating new skin cell growth and as a natural skin balm.

Up to 15 farmers from the El Progreso state in Guatemala grow and harvest The Body Shop Community Fair Trade organic aloe vera. They grow it without the use of pesticides or fertilisers, then hand-harvest, hand-wash and hand-fillet it within 12 hours to preserve the freshness of the gel. Trading with The Body Shop provides an income for the farmers and directly benefits members of the community.

The Body Shop is working hard to help protect the planet. Together we can make a difference.

PONDS:POWER OVER PRESTIGE

Pond’s Flawless White, unbeaten for lighter beautiful skin

Lately as women have more and more skin care products to choose from, they are having a difficult time deciding which product will give them the flawless white skin they dream of. With the right product, they know that fair, beautiful skin can be possible. However, time and time again, certain products fail to produce the results women hope for. Pond’s, however, does otherwise. Pond’s promises every woman that it can and will do just that. It continues to be unbeaten by others.

Attesting once again what Pond’s Flawless White promises in seven days, see your skin become visibly lighter and dark spots reduced. With VAO-B3 complex, it has been clinically proven to be unbeaten when tested against prestige whitening creams. Pond’s Flawless White offers superior lightening properties against dark spots and blemishes as opposed to expensive brands. Its unique VAO-B3 complex offers maximum whitening performance by working towards the root of the problem, reducing the production and transfer of melanin at its source. Women can finally have the confidence to achieve radiant and flawless white skin, and maintain the beauty and romance in their lives without it having to be expensive.

Showcasing the unrivaled power of Pond’s Flawless White, Pond’s presents “The Unbeaten Whitening Experience.” Pond’s invited today’s top beauty bloggers to handpick a premium-brand-conscious friend who subscribes to the idea of “more expensive means more effective” when it comes to their skin lightening regimen. This friend took on the challenge to use the entire Pond’s Flawless White range and proved that expensive doesn’t always mean better for fairer, flawless and radiant skin.

With the bloggers tasked to chronicle the effects of Pond’s Flawless White, these women observed and compared the results of their Pond’s experience with their previous skin care regimen experience. Throughout the three weeks, bloggers posted exciting revelations about her partner as her friend’s face visibly became fairer and flawlessly radiant with Pond’s. Because updates were posted in the Pond’s website, readers discovered that they too can have a flawless face without having to spend too much. Readers were also invited to vote until April 10, 2011 for their favorite team on the Pond’s website so that their chosen pair gets the chance to win the Grand Prize – a two-page Pond’s Flawless White magazine feature in the June 2011 issue of the country’s top publications. The nine teams was also judged by the most prestigious magazines’ editors-in-chief – Mega’s Sari Yap, Cosmopolitan’s Zo Aguila, and Metro’s Michelle Torres, who will deem which team represented Pond’s the best.

The nine Pond’s bloggers and women handpicked for “The Unbeaten Whitening Experience” include Michelle Martinez and Cathleen Lao (The Queen of Talk and the Quirky Attorney), Rowena Lei and Catherine Gensolin (The Active Bloggermom and the Certified Mompreneur), Sophie Uy and Nikki Tiu (The Beauty Nerd and the Energizer Bunny), Jheng Santos-Baluyot and Shen Gee (The Artsy Techie and the Beauty Addict), Tara Cabullo and Dang Villanueva (The Beauty Advocate and the Chic Traveler), Lace Llanora and Earth Rullan (The Inventive Writer and the Fearless Pinay), Ginger Arboleda and Reena Sarmiento (The Multi-Role Player and The Happiness Magnet), Liz Lanuzo and Tanya Baldovino (The Make-Up Enthusiast and the Witty Fashionista), and Martha Sta. Barbara and Jill Sabitsana (The Art and Beauty Lover and The Social Guru.)

Learn more about “The Unbeaten Whitening Experience” at http://ponds.com.ph/unbeaten and hear the last say from your favorite bloggers that Pond’s Flawless White is the way for unbeatably fairer, flawless looking skin.