Feel good beauty

Luxury made affordable. That’s what happened when L’Oreal had people over at the new and hot restaurant-gallery Museum Café at Greenbelt 4. A three-hour special sale for friends of L’Oreal had luxury products heavily discounted and had people shopping like mad.

Another reason for the party was to bid goodbye to outgoing L’Oreal country manager Paul Henri "PH" Duillet who is heading back to Paris and to welcome the new country manager David Ennes. The night was filled with drama and high spirits and a nice surprise was when the L’Oreal girls spelled out "Because you’re worth it, PH" and posed with their beloved outgoing boss.

"Because you’re worth it" was a tagline created in 1982 to Preference, L’Oreal’s most expensive home hair color in the US market. That night, it was meant for PH.

A video was also shown featuring L’Oreal spokespersons like Beyoncé Knowles, Natalia Vodianova, Laetitia Casta and Milla Jovovich along with local personalities like Celine Lopez, Tim Yap, Jenni Epperson and Tessa Prieto-Valdes, who talked about their views on beauty and well-being.

Guests enjoyed 14 different hors d’oeuvres and canapés ranging from smoked salmon to garlic escargot tartlets. They also enjoyed special berry and vanilla flavored Skyy vodka martinis, Bailey’s Tanqueray gin tonics, Smirnoff vodka tonics and bottomless red and white wine from South African Two Oceans. 

PH, you will be missed in Manila. Welcome to Manila, David!

Empowered women

Temple Bar was the venue for the VNC launch which had countless beautiful women around. Of course, women would be present if the word "shoes" was mentioned! The fashion show featured designers like Kate Torralba, Ivarluski Aseron and Louis Claparols, creating pieces inspired by icons who are also empowered women such as Imelda Marcos, Jackie Onassis and Eva "Evita" Peron. On hand to welcome guests were Amanda Griffin, Celine Gabriel and Bianca Zobel of Fatally Femme, the production company in charge of the launch. Lexi Schulze hosted the show and DJ Jon Herrera provided the music. Guests feasted on hors d’oeuvres, enjoyed the open bar courtesy of Premier Wines & Spirits, and took home makeup gift bags from Maybelline.

VNC originated in Malaysia and is marketed in its homeland as Vincci. The founders of VNC have been in the fashion business for more than 20 years and in 1986, they put up boutiques that specialize in trendy yet affordable ladies shoes and bags. Six years later, they became the number one ladies shoe brand in Malaysia.

At least 50 designs are released monthly by its vibrant in-house design team and European design house partner. VNC Philippines boasts of having the most frequent new designs. Prices are attractive, too! Shoes range from P880 to P2,000 while bags are from P1,400 to P2,400.

VNC shops utilize a unique and efficient "library" system wherein stocks are stored in recessed shelves on the wall, just like books in a library. It has 45 stores in Malaysia, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand. It is opening soon in Australia and has two branches in the Philippines (Robinsons Galleria and Glorietta 3).

Check them out, ladies!

Diadora is here

Italian sports brand Diadora is now in Manila. Diadora offers sporting clothes and a wide array of shoes, from soccer and running shoes to tennis and badminton shoes. It also has lifestyle shoes and an impressive football line. Diadora has been in Europe since 1948 and was launched in Manila in Max Brenner chocolate shop in Greenbelt 3. 

Diadora is distributed locally by Teamlink Marketing Company and has had celebrities wear its brand like Randy Santiago, Carlo Maceda and Zoren Legaspi.

Check out Diadora at all Robinsons Department Stores, Chocolate Clothing Company, Anonymous, Landmark, Olympic Village, Royal Sporting House and sporting goods stores.

Europe Day

Several Europeans and friends of Europe turned to art last Sept. 9 to celebrate Europe Day. Europe Day is actually celebrated on May 9 to mark the founding of Europe but for this year, it was held much later in the Philippines to coincide with Cine Europa held in Manila, Cebu and Baguio. 

The day started with a parade held by the European communities through Ayala and Makati Avenues. Later that day, head of the delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines, Ambassador Jan de Kok and other European ambassadors were joined by Pia Rivera, a Filipino artist, who studied in Instituto d’Arte de Medici in Florence, put their handprints using acrylic in various colors to come up with an artwork dubbed, United in Diversity – EU Enlargement – 2004. Representatives from the European Commission, French School, German School, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of the Philippines and European Chamber of Commerce also participated in the finger/hand imprint artwork. 

Last May 1 marked a bigger enlargement of the European Union with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia joining. 

Cool fashion

Busy models Isabel Roces, Rachel Soriano, Bianca Araneta and Marilen Faustino have discovered that one of the coolest ways to charge up and cool down from their grueling schedule is to drink a nice tall glass of Original, Vanilla or Mocha Nescafé Ice. 

Twenty-four-year-old Isabel sets aside three days a week for her pictorials and rehearsals leaving the rest of the week to indulge in her passion for interior designing. Her usual caffeine jolt came in the form of a latte or a cappuccino then jumped to Nescafé Ice for the same effect. Rachel is a young mother at 26 who juggles her career with taking care of her child. Twenty-five-year-old Bianca is a model, TV host, graphic designer, computer techie and a real coffee drinker. She finds Nescafé Ice a great change of pace and perfect for the hot weather. Marilen, 25, loves cold drinks and thinks Nescafé Ice easy and fun to prepare, a natural in this busy model’s drink diet. The four top models are the epitome of cool and opt for the cool goodness of Nescafé Ice!

Grab your Nescafé Ice in leading supermarkets nationwide or at any Café Nescafé near you.

Bond in Manila

The muses of classical crossover music lands in Manila as ultra-sexy string quartet Bond performs at the PICC Plenary Hall on Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. Comprised of Brits Eos Chater (second violin) and Gay-Yee Westerhoff (cello) and Aussies Haylie Ecker (first violin) and Tania Davis (viola), the London-based girl group offers a unique brand of classical music with a twist of pop.

 The group’s newest album Classified shows off their virtuoso talent and each track is laden with different musical influences as the album combines classical music with electronica, hip hop, Latin groove and even jazz. 

Tickets are available at Ticket World (call 750-4180 or 894-4429) and National Bookstore branches.

Bond Live in Manila is presented by Smart Gold and Sunlife Financial together with Rado Switzerland, Gloria Jean, Manila Hotel and media partners ETC Entertainment Central, USA Ultimate in Suspense and Action, MTV, Manila Bulletin, Fudge, Joey 92.3 and RJ100.

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