Blogapalooza - A Blogger Experience

When I started blogging, I didn't think that I'd be influencing people by my thoughts and opinions. I started blogging with the purpose of letting my voice be heard. All I knew was that I wanted to write and express myself online. And somehow that journey has led me here as a fashion/beauty/events/teaching blogger. When I applied to Blogapalooza, I really wanted to get in. I have been blogging for some time and have been quite grateful with the opportunities that has come by my way. But I knew that if I get in Blogapalooza, I would be diving in to a whole new world of opportunities. Thus the Blogapalooza event is indeed a boon for bloggers out there.

 "Blogapalooza hopes to bring these influencers to help them get their fix of the newest, latest, trendiest and coolest products / services / thingamajigs out in the market today." 

And boy did they DELIVER on their promise. So I'm really grateful that I got in. Many thanks to Vince Golangco and Team When in Manila for making all of this possible! I learned so much and met new people during the event.

Daily Fashionista and Brew of the Day

So first things first, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Daily Fashionista (Ms. D! lol!) for letting me, Jen, and Gel hitch a ride with her. I must say, her driving skills are impressive. Thank you for being SUPER and getting us to the venue almost just in time. Also, I really am super kilig that I finally met you. AND your wonderful CHANEL BAG. Haha. I saw Ms. D using her spy bag cam skills and I'm quite impressed.

Back to the event - The First Blogapalooza Event was held at FULLY BOOKED at The Fort. Not only is it  one of the most wonderful places of the world (kaisensei is a bookworm.. haha!) but they also have STARBUCKS on one of their floors. Its like a 3 - in - 1 treat -- Books, Starbucks, AND Blogapalooza. That's one slice of heaven right there. Unfortunately, I couldn't let myself wander around the store nor sip some much needed java at Starbucks coz I had an event to attend. So off we trotted to the 5th floor.

I'm number 67.  Taken by my cel cam. 

First things first is the REGISTRATION. Its very important that you register yourself coz the Blogapalooza event was by invite only. Also, you could only claim your loot bag with your name tag given at the event. The ID also has a number on it which serves as your raffle prize number. Cool noh? Unfortunately, I didn't win.

I'm a PROUD MEMBER of the Blogapalooza community!

Oh yeah, they had this huge tarp with all our blog urls posted on it. That was super cool. The first blog name that really caught my attention was Anagon's (lower right hand corner)! hihi. Then I found mine.

You can also see Daily Fashionista's url here. I think they posted everything in alphabetical order. 

Since it was around lunch time already, we were getting a bit hungry. Let me just again reiterate how awesome Blogapalooza is for also providing yummy food at the event! I was so hungry I completely forgot to take PHOTOS of the food. But it was from Italianni's and it was divine. We also had free drinks (which were delicious) care of Healthy First. I love it!

Photo credit: SHOPGIRL JEN

After eating, we roamed around a bit. And took photos of the place and some of the sponsors who had booths. I will be making a more specific post later on about the sponsors. :)

And here's the venue while the place wasn't still jam packed. Haha. Once the event started, I barely could the stage coz everyone was standing or trying the best to take photos of the stage. It was really exciting and awesome to finally meet everyone whom I only read online. So check out some of Blogapalooza's Influential Bloggers!

My seatmates! Jen and Gel and yes, thats Mar at the side. 

Jen, Gel, Earth, Me, and Mar
Photo credit: Mar from Notyourordinarybeautyqueen.blogspot.com

With Gel!
Photo credit: gelleesh.com

Jen, Daily Fashionista, Earth, Gel, and Me

Gel, Kai, Jen, and Charles

with ANA the FASHIONISTA COMMUTER!
(thanks for the grab dear! At parang ang sweet naman natin dito.. hehe!)

Me and Daily Fashionista.. AND YES, thats the CHANEL WHITE BAG!
Haha.. I wanted to try it on but I was a bit scared that I might mar it.
Kaya naki kunwari bitbit lang ako. haha!

with Gel trying the POLECATS pose. hihi. 

Obviously I had lots of fun meeting up with the dears. Then I got too engrossed listening to the wonderful sponsors of blogapalooza. I will be posting that in a separate post.

I'm excited to post all about this. Definitely you will read more of them from me! in the meantime, I leave you with this first installment of my blogapalooza experience. And for my OOTD:

Black Trench - Thrifted
Silver Gray Top - Thrifted
Black Skirt - Forever 21
Shoes - care of MANELS

See you at the next Blogapalooza!

Phil-Cosmetics Expo Loot, Bloggers Meetup, and OOTD

So last Saturday, I went to the 4th Phil-Cosmetics Expo at SM Megamall to take a look at all the awesome goodies and perhaps snag a few essentials. Since I was on a "tight" budget, I only bought very few items. So here's my Expo Haul!

Oleah Blossoms Whitening and Anti-Aging Soap.
I bought it at its "factory price" and all this soap was only around Php 55!

BK Purple Cracking Polish bought at Kairyu for only Php  90/

Chic Nail Polish - Regular Hush Plush at Php 23
Bobbie Cuticle Oil at Php 25
(badly need the cuticle oil.. hope it works!)

iWhite Aqua Moisturizing Cream Satchet at Php 18

FREEBIES THAT I GOT

Skin'n White Slimming Coffee and Slim'n White Whitening Capsule

Lactacyd in Satchet

Also Oleah Blossoms gave me two small sampler soaps which were included in the photo above.

Tiffie, Genn, and Yours Truly!

I also was able to meetup with some beauty bloggers at the Expo event! Yay for meetups!

With Tiffie!

Tiffie showing off her new Tassle Earrings made by Genn!

With Gie!

Met Gie's Bestfriend - Kerry
A kindred heart in the area of statio and post-it enthusiasts!

I LOVE HER SATCHEL!
*wipes drool*

Me with the two G's!

just had to feature Genn's awesome Fish ring! Super pretty! I LIKE!

Genn brought her Tassel Earrings for sale..
Soooo pretty earrings and it was sooo hard to choose which to buy.
Gie was able to snag the silver and bronze medium sized tassel earrings first..
Huhu..

So I bought this Multi-Colored Tassel Earrings instead! LOVE IT!
If you want to purchase Genn's Tassel Earrings, please do contact her by visiting her blog:
www.missgennd.blogspot.com

And here is what I wore during that day!

Red Trench Coat - Thrifted
Purple Top - Forever 21
Black Pants - Red Ant
Boots - Thrifted
Bag - Tomato

Loving my red trench coat. I have another one as well but the material is denim. I'm really "feeling" the weather and I love wearing my trench coats! Maybe next time I will post my various coats. In the meantime my dear coffeeholics, please do take care of yourself and your general well being.

So this is what I did during the weekend. How was yours dear coffeeholics? Did you buy anything? Do share!

Mwah,

OOTD - Boots and Tassels

 

Grey Top - Thrifted, Black Tank Top - H&M,
Black Denim Skirt -  Forever 21,  and  Black Boots - Thrifted

My white top is actually a "dress" that I found at a thrift shop. Yes, I love buying thrifted stuff. Especially if I get super awesome deals on fabulous looking clothes! Anyway when I saw this top, I knew it had potential despite the fact that some of the buttons were missing and it doesn't really fit me perfectly. 

It was cute and it looked a bit romantic coz it had ribbons on the side. So not knowing when or how I will wear it, I still bought it coz it only cost like Php 20! 

I hate seeing good material go to waste and be neglected. (an excuse that I use on myself to convince myself that its ok to buy! lol!) So I really did feel that I did help out in saving our environment by buying thrifted stuff. So anway,  I decided to wear it that day and I paired it off on the somewhat black ensemble I was going to wear. When I saw myself on the mirror I couldn't help grinning. Honestly, with the boots and gray top, I felt like my attire resembled one of the anime characters that I read/watch before. hihi. Anyway, I liked the look and am glad how it slightly accentuates the curves on my body. Ay laaaav eeet!

Bag -  care of TOMATO
photo credit here.

This new tomato bag that I havet right now is a bit small than my usual bags. I am really challenged by the minimal space that it offers. This is my second Tomato bag and I hope it will perform as good as the black studded one that I got during the tomato event. 

Tassel Earrings - from Eenah of LilBeautySecrets.com
Earrings were hand made by Miss Genn D

When I saw Eenah showing her Exchange Gift Item (which was the tassel she bought from Genn), I started

wishing that the name she would fish out of my handy pocket was MY NAME. 

The Tassel was VIOLET. I just knew I had to have it. AND YES! The violet tassels and I were meant to be!

I really jumped for joy when Eenah announced that the one getting her gift was me.

I was super happy. I absolutely loved the earrings and immediately removed the white feather earrings that I was wearing at that time. Hmmm.. looks like I need to add some more to my collection.

Can't wait for Genn to "officially" open shop so that I can buy some of her 

accessory creations. Naks!

Tassel Earrings Galore!
Genn (who made these tassel earrings!), Aya, and Yours truly

So coffeeholics, what's your favorite accessory right now? Have you ever experienced that kilig moment when you stumble upon an awesome find at an "ukay ukay" shop? Do share! 

Thanks dears! Mwah!

Bloggers Meet Up at Trinoma

Ever since me, Jen, and Gel met up one time at Trinoma and hanged out at SM North City Edsa, I wondered if we could meet up with other bloggers as well besides the usual "events" where we would bump into each other. So through the powers of twitter and texting, we were able to invite bloggers who would like to meet up with us here at Trinoma. Around almost 8-9 of us met up yesterday and had some fun bonding time and retail therapy (for some!) on the side.

Gie, Jen, Me, Aya, Gel, and Sweethestia
Sweethestia had to leave early so we had this first quick photo op muna.
Photo credit: Sweethestia's blog

Love our group photo here!

After the quick hi and bye with Sweethestia, we all went to my favorite place - The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at the third floor in Trinoma.f One of the main reasons we wanted to hang out there first is coz it was HOT in Trinoma. I dunno what was wrong with its a/c but we needed the extra coolness that day coz Trinoma was quite jam packed! A lot of families were out "malling" due to it being a holiday. So we "escaped" to CBTL which also had FREE wifi for Swirl Card Members. Here was my tweet pics while we were there:

Click photos to enlarge

With Gie from thirdworldfashion.wordpress.com

I had a buy 1 take 1 CBTL coupon for a Frozen Swirl and Gie was game to share it with me. We totally forgot to take pics (particularly me coz I was too absorbed in enjoying my Hazelnut frozen swirl!) but I had a lot of fun talking with Gie. She was pretty and sweet! I was happy to learn and know more about her through this event. I hope we do get to meet up again soon. After a few fun photos, we had our mini exchange gift. The gift that I got was from Eenah from BeautyLilSecrets. It was a pair of tassel earrings made by Miss Genn D. And yes, that's the purple earrings that I'm wearing at the photo above.

Eenah showing her gift! TY DEAR! I was super happy that I got it!
(Photo care of Gie)

Then it was my turn to give and the name that I drew out (we drew lots by the way to know who will receive our gift) and Miss Genn (aka Mis Tugz! LOL!) from missgennd.blogspot.com received my gift which was a set of SkinWhite Products. 

Miss Genn and Me!
Photo care of Gel

Others got awesome gifts as well and we really had fun! Even though our table was really small and we barely were able to be seated properly in our small corner at CBTL, we all enjoyed each other's company. Getting to know one another, exchanging ideas and opinions about certain products, and whatever we could talk about under the sun was such a refreshing experience. Reading each other's blogs and actually meeting the person behind the blog is a whole different experience. And I'm pretty much sure everyone agreed that it was something that we wanted to occur again.

Meet the bloggers - Gel, Eenah, Genn, Gie, Me, and Rache

Gie, Me, Rache, Aya, Sofi, and Jen

Gel and Aya in front
Ladies wearing black at the back is
Eenah, Me, and Genn!

Group Photo taken by Manong Guard of CBTL.
hihi.. ty kuya!
Photo care of Gie.

Then Eenah and Gie had to go home early and we had to bid goodbye to them. But the night wasn't even here yet and some of the other bloggers had a shopping expedition to fulfill. So off we went to Landmark Department Store and we were all distracted at first by the Accessories Selection at the 2nd Floor. Then down we went to the beauty and personal care section where most of the bloggers bought their stuff. I was nearly tempted to buy a dotting tool for nail art but I stopped myself coz I still haven't even used the nail art brush that I just bought from there the other week. I swore to myself that I WILL NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING. Did I keep my promise? Kind of. Will share about that for some other time and at a different post. Anyway last stop was at the makeup section where still some were able to make purchases.. I'm sure Aya and Gel have a lot to say on their blogs about their recent haul there. So watch out for that. Ended the day by having dinner at the Food Court with Genn, Aya, Sofi and Jen.

Aya, Rache, Me, Jen, Gel, and Genn at Landmark!

I truly enjoyed meeting up with you dears and I hope we can do this again soon!  If you wanna meet up with us, check out my post about the Phil-Cosmetics Expo. We will be there on Saturday afternoon. 

So Coffeeholics, how did you spend your extended weekend holiday? Let me know your thoughts and do comment below. Next post = outfit post that day.