Glow by Lady E

I was eyeing another shade. I fit both and I was surprised that this looked better on me.  That’s an advantage of shopping in person I enjoy browsing online shops. It’s convenient, I can compare products without leaving home, and there’s always something interesting to discover. But given the choice, I still prefer shopping in person. There’s something about being able to see a product with my own eyes that no amount of scrolling can quite replace. Colors, for one. A lipstick that looks like a beautiful rosy pink online might turn out to be much warmer in person. A blouse that appears lavender in a photograph might actually lean toward gray. Even the lighting in a store can change how a color looks, but at least I can examine it from different angles. Then there’s texture. I like being able to feel the fabric of a dress, examine the finish of a notebook cover, or see how substantial a bag really is. Sometimes a product looks wonderful in photographs, but the material tells a ...

I skipped these palettes. They’re very pretty, but won’t work on me There are colors I find absolutely beautiful but rarely wear. An eyeshadow palette might have the loveliest arrangement of shades. A lipstick might look irresistible in its packaging. A blouse might catch my attention simply because the color is gorgeous. But I’ve learned that admiring a color and actually using it are two very different things. Some shades look wonderful in the pan but don’t translate quite the same way on my skin. I was told coral would look lovely on my skin, but it just turns into a gaudy orange! 🙄 Others look beautiful on someone else but don’t flatter me in quite the same way. And sometimes, a color suits me perfectly but doesn’t work with anything else in my wardrobe. That’s the difference between a pretty color and a useful one. A useful color doesn’t necessarily have to be neutral or practical in the conventional sense. It can be bright, unusual, or wonderfully dramatic. It simply has to...

  I really liked this dress. Enough that I stood there looking at it for far longer than necessary, having that familiar little debate with myself. It was black. Simple. Very me. I could already imagine how I would wear it. There was only one problem. The fabric was thick. And perhaps in another climate, or another version of my life, that wouldn’t matter very much. But I live in the Philippines. We’re going through El Niño. Heat and I are already not particularly good friends, and my histamine sensitivity has made me even less willing to wear something that might leave me uncomfortable simply because it looks good. Still, I stood there. Because sometimes walking away from something we like is strangely difficult, even when we already know it isn’t right for us. We start negotiating. Maybe I’ll only wear it indoors. Maybe the fabric isn’t that thick. Maybe I’ll regret leaving it behind. Then I realized I was trying awfully hard to convince myself to buy something my body had alrea...

  We were on our way to Kinokuniya when we passed by Charles and Keith. I thought maybe I’d look around to see if their stock is any  different than Greenbelt’s.  And yes, very different. They had a lot of items that aren’t available in my local branch.  I have noticed that day that a lot of women were wearing this particular style of shoes. Not exactly this but something that resembles this. Found two women wearing them at Muji alone.  Look at the adorable strawberry heel!  But experience taught me not to trust C&K straps.  Did you read my post about my pretty pink shoes?  There’s a white version of this too, that I really liked.  Lately, I’ve been consciously looking for heeled shoes. It seems my lower back can’t handle flats anymore because of my scoliosis.  It sounds weird, I know, but that’s how I feel.  Such a nice structured bag! I love these bags, too, but they’re too big for me.  My shoulders and scapula can’t hand...

Sometimes I dress for where I’m going. Sometimes I dress for the weather. And sometimes, I dress because I bought a new skirt and I want to wear it.  Simple as that. 😏 This was one of those days. We were going to Power Plant, but first we had to stop at Greenbelt. I needed to pick up my shoes and get something for Mom at Dior before heading over. It was a warm day. Not unbearably hot, but warm enough that I didn’t want anything heavy clinging to me while we walked around. And I had this new skirt. It’s from the Uniqlo x Francesco Risso collaboration, and what first got me was the print. The flowers aren’t perfect flowers. They aren’t carefully drawn petals arranged exactly where petals are supposed to go. They’re an artist’s idea of flowers. Loose. Imperfect. A little abstract. They remind me of the way I paint. Maybe that’s why I liked them. I wanted to feel pretty. But not pretty-pretty . You know what I mean? I didn’t want to look particularly dressed up. I wasn’...