'Light-ening' strikes twice

Whitening, clarifying, lightening or brightening — it seems there’s no end to the way in which various beauty retail products will be marketed, all basically promising the same thing: a clearer, whiter complexion. And let’s face it, while we can rant and rave all we want about how it has created a stereotype for how beauty today is defined, we can’t escape the fact that this has evolved into a significant segment of the skin-care and beauty market; one that it would be foolhardy to ignore, if one is creating a niche or position within the industry.

Glupa, an antioxidant and skin whitening product line of Age Defying Solutions, Inc., is a relatively new player; an independent in the “forest” of multinationals and more established players in this market segment. Brainchild of Age Defying’s CEO and doting young mother to Nzo, Aiza Diuco-Soriano, the Glupa line of soap, lotion and cream, and food supplement, prides itself on a Eureka idea that this former product researcher and sales training supervisor stumbled upon, parlayed her work experience to play connect the dots with and transformed into the company’s unique selling point and foundation.

Back in 2009, an aunt of Aiza, who lived in Canada, would regularly ask Aiza to send her whitening products from here, and she would ask Aiza if papaya extract and Glutathione lived up to their claims, and which was more effective. Well, lightning can strike twice, and Aiza did the research, harnessed the expertise of medical doctors and pharmacists, and decided to create a new product by combining the two. While both had whitening properties, the exfoliating papain would help the Gluta absorption and repletion — the benzyl isothiocynanate found in papaya is a potent Gluta inducer. Each Glupa capsule has 500 mg of premium Glutathione (imported from Japan, and twice what other leading brands would use), 25 mg of papaya content (imported from Switzerland for purity and processing standards), 112 mg of Vitamin C (which helps recycle the Gluta) and 75 mg of alpha lipoid acid (an anti-aging source, that lowers blood sugar levels and helps in dissolving toxic substances in the liver). The capsules are packaged in light-resistant blister packs that help preserve the potency.

Novels that bring a twist to the concept of ‘East-West relations.’

The Glupa soap is cold-processed, with a fresh Cucumber-Melon scent; while the non-greasy lotion has a Passionate Love scent and can be used as a concealer. The cream is a facial moisturizer and sunblock, and can help lighten dark underarms, elbows, knees and thighs, and reduce age spots and freckles, while evening skin tone. The whole Glupa line is FDA-approved and has passed the Philippine Institute of Pure and Applied Chemistry assay test.

Aiza and Glupa take pride in being unique and unconventional, such that when she launched the line and sought an endorser/image model, she didn’t settle for a pretty face. Rather, and against the grain for a beauty product, she prioritized someone who was “trusted,” whose opinion mattered. She convinced Boy Abunda to try the product line and he assented to lend his name to the company, impressed by what Aiza was building up. It may be “early years” for Aiza and Glupa, but the word is spreading, with establishments such as Watson’s and Mercury happy to carry the line — all making first-grader Nzo extra proud of his entrepreneur Mommy.

(For best results, consult your doctor.)

East-West exchange

Two of the novels today are by Asian-American writers out to make a name for themselves in the West, while the third novel has a very unique Eastern hemisphere setting, and yet, is authored by an American. The common threads running with the three novels are the high quality standard of writing exhibited and the diversity of themes. Enjoy!

From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant by Alex Gilvarry (available at National Book Store). Think of a Filipino fashion designer living the American Dream and trying to make a name for himself in New York, and inadvertently getting caught up in the post 9/11 paranoia that gripped the United States. That in a nutshell is the premise behind the brilliant debut of Fil-American Alex Gilvarry. A graduate of the “Makati Fashion Institute,” Boy turns his dressing up and styling his mother for Sunday Mass here in Manila into a hop, skip and jump to Manhattan, where he works as a fashion assistant, while putting together his own collection. Financed by a shady Muslim, little does Boy know he’ll end up in Guantanamo. Fashion, the price of fame and shattered dreams make this a wonderful debut.

How to Live in a Science-Fictional Universe by Charles Wu (available at National Book Store). A celebrated science-fiction writer, Charles Wu reaches for the stars with this novel that fits into the SF genre while in possession of a lot of heart. There’s slick geek language and the premise of time travel as invented by the father of the book’s protagonist. Our “hero” repairs the machines and extricates travellers who don’t accept the theory of “onceness”; and the book takes flight as we discover how he’s on a quest to find his father who disappeared while “travelling” and attends to a mother who has opted to live in a Time Loop of better times. It’s a high wire act that Wu manages, and we’re impressed with how he suspends our disbelief, thanks to the humanity found within the pages.

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (available at National Book Store). You’re an American author and you elect to have North Korea as the setting for your novel, and you know you’ll either manage to utterly convince, or fall flat on your face. Protagonist Jun Do comes out from the mines where orphans are regularly farmed out as cheap labor, develops covert skills, kidnaps Japanese citizens when assigned to a trawler and becomes a hero on a blatant lie. But such is the need of this nation to regularly proclaim new heroes that he’s whisked to the United States on a diplomatic mission, and comes back obsessed to take over the life of a real life hero and Commander. The surreal and imagined, mixed with what we factually know of life in North Korea, make this yarn a compelling one.