Love Chic

Guess who just dyed their own hair ombré?

The term is a French word which means “gradiation” or “shade.” Instead of one color throughout, you’ve got a darker shade on top that gradually goes lighter down the tips, usually ending in blonde.

We didn’t find any salons that offered this, so we thought we’d do it ourselves.

We’re glad we did; not only were we able to save money, we were also able to pick up a few self-reminders from the experience.

Lesson 1: Stand on your own two feet. We’re firm believers that nobody is self-made; whatever form of success we currently enjoy, people along the way helped us get to where we are. However, being dependent on others is a different story. If you always need people to do certain things for you, what happens when they leave, turn their back on you, or worse, demand repayment and rub in your face all the good they’ve done when things go sour? Do things yourself. If it works, you’ll have leveled up and won’t have to drown in debts of gratitude. If it doesn’t, you’ll still have learned and have no one to blame.

Lesson 2: Dare to be different. Just because everybody’s doing this or wearing that or getting hooked with this app or going to that hip-happening place doesn’t make it imperative that you should, too. Au contraire. Dare to be a starter, not a follower—and dare to stand by your own choices and preferences.

Lesson 3: Experiment. Take risks. Whenever hesitation or fear strikes, ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen. What have you got to lose? Will it matter in the greater scheme of things? Will it matter three, five, ten years from now? And even if the answers to these are bleak, well, sometimes the best way we can truly learn and grow is through our mistakes and failures.

Lesson 4: Be yourself, always. In this day and age more than ever, this seems to be one of the simplest yet most challenging things to practice. With everyone so inevitably connected and perennially updated, it seems to have become so important to be who we are expected to be: edited, curated, censor-approved versions of ourselves, rather than who we are happy to be: just ourselves! How can we be true to other people if the person we see everyday in the mirror is fake?

On Shai: Forever21 embroidered dress, Parisian at SM Department Store booties, SM Accessories bangle, Fidelity necklace and rings. Hype on Lookbook here.

On Seph: Forever21 blazer, Topman shirt, Bench jeans, Aldo socks, Adidas shoes, SM Accessories necklace and wristband, Timex watch. Hype on Lookbook here.

   
…All this from three tubs of hair color. Who knew? Haha. Tutorial, anyone? Tell us what you think—use that Reply button on your Tumblr dashboard or leave a Disqus comment :) Hope y’all had a good start for the new year!

Animal print on animal print, plus that peek-a-boo paw print.

On Shai: Top, Divisoria. Cover-up, SM Department Store. Shorts, Terranova. Socks, SM Accessories. Boots, Forever21. Necklace and bird ring from Bangkok. Studded bag, Susto. Hype this on Lookbook.

On Seph: Shirt and shoes, Adidas. Blazer and bag, Human. Jeans, Mossimo. Socks, Mossimo. Scarf, Terranova. Hype this on Lookbook.

Just thought we’d go for a “wild” look for the opening of Privado, the luxury sale by SM Accessories. Details here.

We went crazy over the watches at Timex. Some were on sale for more than half the original price! We just had to get these cute pairs.

Another cute pair we “spotted” (ooh pun, heh) was David Guison and Lissa Kahayon.

Tracy Ayson of Fashion Fangirl and Tin Iglesias of Fashion Ate the World. Seems everyone grabbed themselves some Timex watches!

With June, Noy and Diane of SM Accessories. Thanks for having us! We had a great “time” (heh, another pun). Privado is until this Sunday, so scoot over to the SMDC showroom in Mall of Asia and shop your heart out!

Oh, and speaking of shopping, tomorrow is the much-awaited Bloggers United Bazaar and we’ve got a booth. Details here. We’ll be selling not just accessories, but some of the clothes you see us wearing in our previous posts. See you there!

This video is up on the Nivea Philippines Fan Page! Watch, comment and share on your Facebook wall to win awesome prizes.

Our pretty media savvy Shai Lagarde of Love Chic reveals what she does, what she’s most passionate about and her secret to how she sparkles all day, everyday! Comment here HOW she sparkles and share the video for another goody bag!

Skin care by Nivea Sparkling White and makeup by Majolica Majorca.

Three looks from Forever21 using four pieces. Mixing and matching is always fun.
Hype this on Lookbook. If you want your own beauty booty, have a face affair with us! A sparkling you up close can also start here. Get a makeover and a chance to win P30k worth of NIVEA, Forever 21 and Majolica Majorca products. Click here to join.

Hi from Bangkok! We’re here with Shai’s mom to do a little bit of touring and a whole lot of shopping. It’s Seph’s first out-of-country trip and second plane ride.

We wore really casual outfits for this nighttime flight, as it’s a hassle taking off socks and accessories and layers of clothing for security checks in the airport. Not to mention that Bangkok is just as hot as in Manila. Adidas shirt, Ice Watch, Human shorts, blue and grey Sperry Topsiders, man-purse from a bazaar. Hype this on Lookbook!

Chemistry top, Human drop-crotch pants, silver Sperry Topsiders, SM Department Store hairband, Forever21 bracelets, and Charles & Keith shoulder bag. An outfit that takes five minutes to put on. Hype this on Lookbook!

Food. It might seem like a silly joke (“We came all the way from Manila to eat KFC”), but a country’s fast food says a lot about their culture as well—we found out for example that Thai fast food chains offer yummy chocolatey drinks like Milo, and seldom have anything on the menu that isn’t spicy or doesn’t taste like curry. Like these shicken strips.

Instead of gravy, this is what they have, other than ketchup (which they call tomato sauce). After dinner, we took a walk outside looking for dessert, because Bangkok’s street food has a strong reputation for being truly awesome. Alas, there weren’t any stalls open nearby and we ended up here.

The sandbags are for protection against unexpected flooding, as areas surrounding the city have been experiencing the past few days before we got there. Getting inside McDonald’s became an adventure in itself.

A tall glass of Ovaltine Swiss. Why don’t we have this here? If we did, we wouldn’t need to go to our coffee and tea places for our frap fix.

A seriously delicious drink that we ended up gulping down before we could take more decent pictures.

We’re glad we brought our Sperrys to this trip. Pretty handy and stylish for traveling, as we found out the next day.

On Shai: Blue Forever21 shirt with puffy cuffs, Landmark button-fly shorts, Charles & Keith purse, Topshop stockings, Sperry Topsiders. Hype this on Lookbook!

On Seph: Human blue on white patterned shirt, Bench jeans, Sperry Topsiders. Hype this on Lookbook!

We spent our first day in Bangkok on a tour to different Buddhist temples. This is the temple of the Reclining Buddha, a 200-year-old giant statue.

Which we found pretty awesome, considering we’re only used to seeing Buddha images seated like this.

As if being a massive statue wasn’t enough, the Reclining Buddha even has intricate designs on its feet.

These must make amazing footprints on the beach.

View from behind: Buddha’s got spiky hair

Souvenirs were being sold outside the temple, but we got a different kind of souvenir.

Some dude on the street randomly placed this giant snake on Seph’s shoulders and made us pose for the camera, then made us pay 360 baht. Can you say “holdap?” Lesson learned: Learn to say “No, thank you” when in a foreign country.

We went back to the hotel for brunch after a tiring and fulfilling morning.

Chili-filled rice meal with chicken, veggies, peanuts and special sauce for Seph.

Chicken fillet with crunchy bits of we don’t know what, and cucumbers in some sweet and spicy vinegar sauce for Shai.

In their food courts, you exchange your baht with coupons and use these to pay. We had some extra coupons left, and bought these.

Milk tea (won’t be the last time we’ll be having this, as you’ll soon see) and chocolate ice cream. Both tasted heavenly.

And then it was back to the city for round two of the temple tour.

Spotted: Reclining Buddha, now standing tall. Whoa.

Oh hi, how’s the weather up there?

On another note, we couldn’t help but marvel at the elaborately designed roofs and buildings on the temple grounds.

Other than taking pictures and goofing around, we spent some time reflecting and being thankful for our blessings inside one of the smaller temples. Day 1 has been wonderful so far, and we have a feeling it will keep getting better.