The New Department

November 21, 2010

High Contrast: One Hour with Raleene Cabrera

(Words & photos by Boo Umaly of The New Department)

I'm sitting inside T.G.I. Friday's, getting full off a salad and mozzarella sticks and tipsy from my beer. Even indoors, it's a scorching Saturday afternoon; the usual strange weather we've been experiencing as of late. Vern and I are waiting on Raleene. We've never met her before, but based on her blog, she's got the presence that demands a double take.

"Hey, it's Rihanna," my mom says. Actually, it's Raleene.

"I want to stress that my blog is not mainly about fashion. I consider myself a lifestyle blogger."

Scrolling through her blog, Raleene.com, you'll find that 95% of her posts are about food, events, daily life, work, architecture and design... Not her outfits. "That's why I have Chictopia and LookBook... My blog is my diary. I blog for myself. I love looking back at old entries and sometimes I literally laugh out loud. I try not to blog anything negative."

"I never smile in pictures." What a shame, I think. Her face lights up when she laughs, breaking the dark aura of her natural features that are all lines, corners and shadows. This girl is all high contrast. Case in point, she tells us of a time when she had "hair that was up to [her] knees." Her friends all told her that cutting her hair would be a waste of all the time she's spent growing the flowing locks. "..But once I lost weight, I cut it."

As my vision slowly steadies, we wrap up the conversation and head outside to shoot. True to character, even a smirk won't escape her lips as we shoot around High Street. What could have been an hour of, 'try this pose' and 'work with that light' was five minutes or less of non-stop camera snaps.

Black t-shirt to match the hair that matches the attitude. Edgy, dark, unpredictable. I can't put my finger on who this girl is and who she's trying to be.. Is that the point?

Raleene, who is half of the up-and-coming band, The Walkie Talkies, is also a photographer, model, ambassador for Powersnet ("a social networking style site"), is extremely active in her church, Church Simplified, and runs an extremely successful lifestyle blog, Raleene.com. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube,Lookbook, Chictopia, Dailybooth, Flickr, Multiply and DeviantArt.

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Thanks to The New Department for featuring me in your blog! Check out their newly-launched site, guys!

CBTL acoustic tour (2nd performance) + my bare-faced self

November 21, 2010

Robin Nievera played first. And ended with the best impromptu mash-up ever!

Robin brought his own mic- which is the same Shure mic that Riz uses for our videos... Coolio... You guys think Rob should cut his hair??? He was talking about doing that... LOL

I'll say it again and again- Julianne never fails to give me that giddy feeling when she starts singing!!!

Red's one of my best buds and we've been classmates since the first grade... I can't believe that I rarely get to see my best buddies nowadays... We live in the same city and yesterday was his first time to see me with my ~~not-so-new~~ hair!

Some of the guys from Audioclef

I painted her nails yesterday and Mewa placed small black dots on them the next day... Judging by the expression on her face, I think she's never been more excited to sport her nails.

If you're wondering why we sang at different Coffee Bean outlets, it's to promote the "Are You Listening" CD that's being sold at the CBTL branches for quite some time now... We're part of the upcoming Christmas album and it's packed with songs by AWESOME local artists, and most of them also attend Church Simplified with us...

We sang with Salamin on Friday at Ortigas Park, then got a call to join Robin and Julianne for the one on Saturday at Bonifacio High Street. We really enjoyed performing and eating tons at CBTL!!! And lemme just say... You'll prolly find us nommin' there for the next couple of weeks (yes, more than the usual amount of time we spend eating frozen swirls, sippin lattes and enjoying the free wifi).

Get a copy of the Are You Listening CD for only Php 250.00! The Christmas album will be out by December so watch out for it! Trust me, you'll love all the tracks!

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Obviously cheated on this first one... Added effects to hide the discolorations but that ended up emphasizing my pores. LOL. At least it in my head that made it look edgy. *whatevs!!!

Really thin brows

I have really big pores... But I don't care about them anymore as long as I don't get too many zits as I used to when I was younger. I literally had bumps and craters on my forehead and chin! Oh, and excuse the redness around the bridge of my nose. I wore glasses just before I popped my contacts on before leaving the house.

My brows are incredibly thin when I don't fill them in. I am happy with the arch, but I can't let it grow out totally since my natural brows are super straight.

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I was thinking of doing an updated beauty/makeup loot post but I thought posting photos of myself sans makeup would be better. I think it's rare that I post those types of photos here on my blog since I usually upload the ones of me during events, gigs and parties, which requires me to look a bit more presentable than the usual face I sport when I run errands, hit the gym or go to school.

As I'v mentioned in my older entries, I used to be troubled with acne when I was in grade school up until college. Tried a lot of things, and they would work really well until my skin would get immune to the chemicals. I won't mention the long list of products I used before any more...

What works for me now is the simplest skin cleanser out in the market, which is Cetaphil (the one for all skin types). I don't even use a facial scrub unless I go to my mom's place in Cebu and use whatever she has in her bathroom. That means I exfoliate at least thrice a month, but I think I have to do it regularly, like once or twice each week...

As for my maintenance/acne medication, I'm sticking to a simple one from my dermatologist (Dra. Nellie Yu). It's just Clindamycin lotion and Salicylic acid in the morning, then Erythromycin gel and 2 other creams at night. The liquid medications are in small dropper-like containers and the creams i use at night are in small plastic pots... They're very easy to pack when traveling since they're all so tiny and a little product goes a long way! Even if I get tempted to go to Dra. Yu for a monthly facial, this skin regimen keeps me from having the need to do that. I HATE facials but the one she gives me is super gentle and I think I'm never going to try any other facials out there after my first 2 traumatizing experiences. Do you ladies seriously endure the pain of having your pores extracted and pinched that way? I think your skin deserves to be treated gently, no matter what condition it's in. I used to poke at my zits or apply so much product on them before, and I think that's the biggest reason why my acne never went away. The more irritated your skin is, the more it'll try to produce oil/dry out/get filled with even more acne.

I have the combination skin type, by the way. I used to slather on moisturizer on the dry areas before, but I think I'm better off without that. I think it's mainly cos Cetaphil tries to balance the PH levels of your skin. Which is great for me!

My skin will never be zit-free on all days of the month, but I'm so happy that I don't suffer from a face full of craters, bumps and blemishes anymore... I do get the occasional breakout on that time of the month and when I don't get to sleep for how many days, but it's nothing major. The medication helps a lot to treat it overnight or in less than 3 days as well...

My advice to girls suffering from acne is to be gentle to your skin... Use products with the least amount of chemicals. Let your skin breathe (I've been trying to reduce the amount of "everyday makeup" I use, and only pile on or experiment during events) and make sure to invest on good quality makeup when buying any. You only have once face to work with! Cosmetic procedures will only make you look so unnatural. Aging gracefully is the only way to go, and the best way to look good when you're older is to be good to your skin now. That's the advice I always get when asking my older titas (who look awesome without any makeup)what their skin care regimen is.

Lastly, I think the change in my diet helped so much as well... Won't deny that I used to eat so much processed foods when I was younger, so I'm sure that contributed to my acne problem. As with beauty products, eating well helps since that would entail eating home-cooked/clean food. The less preservatives/chemicals, the better.

Nothing's easy, but remember- an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

♥♥♥

Where I get my acne medication:

Dra. NELLIE T. YU

Dermatology & Dermatologic Surgery

SKIN CLINIC (the one I frequent)

3rd floor, Mercury Drug Building

Glorietta 3, Ayala Center

Makati City

813-2429

Mon. & Sat. 2-7 PM

Wed. & Fri. 10-12 PM, 2-7 PM

-or-

627 Ayson Building, Ground Floor

Carvajal Street, Binondo, Manila

241-1071 / 242-0480

Tues. & Thurs. 10-6 PM

Sat. 10-1 PM

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Banchetto

November 20, 2010

*STILL UPLOADING THE VIDEO FOR THIS POST, please check back in a few hours :)

Our gig ended at 9 so we had so much time to kill before the Banchetto night market started. We decided to meet up with Pia at Starbucks.

Trixie gave me the Green With Envy Orly nail polish after our gig (thank you!!!) and I had quick-dry stuff (Sally Hansen Dry Kwik and Insta-Dry top coat) + O.P.I. cuticle oil in my bag (they're always in my bag cos I used to get regular mani-pedis done before running errands once a week), so the most logical thing to do was give Riz her first-ever rock-star method manicure.

The rock star method obviously entails no cleaning/nipping/trimming- just slap on some color, trying not to go outside the nail bed, then topping it off quickly with the insta-dry coat (okay the last part's something rock stars wouldn't do, but hey, who wouldn't want to save themselves from having to wait forever for their nails to dry? LOL).

Then came midnight and we decided to brave this sea of people! We totally didn't expect for the turnout to be this way. The 3 of us have never been there and we only frequent the Salcedo Market on saturday mornings which is never too jam-packed.

The crowd was a mix of call center agents, families and groups of friends. The later it gets, the more you'll see college students and yuppies arriving after a night of clubbing.

Balls of rice with sisig as a filling! Riz and Pia said that it could've been better if the sisig was still warm. Guess they got to buy the last sets already. They're positive that lots of people flocked towards this quickly so the ones left aren't as fresh anymore.

This was the night I had my first bite of kwek-kwek (the orange deep-fried quail eggs on skewers). In all my years of taking my minor subjects in Taft, I never braved to eat anything from the street food carts, simply because of my mom's voice constantly nagging inside my head saying "food poisoning is not a joke". So I just had to try some at the market since it looked clean compared to the street food carts... IT'S GOOD! I've been missing out--- on the calories. LOL!

Met two groups of girls who followed my blog that night... In my head, that was a hilarious experience-and it was caught on camera!!! HI GIRLS!!! :)

Damn, those packed dinners sure look delish! I just wish the vendors didn't use styrofoam and plastic, though... Is there anything we can do about this??? We ended up bringing home tons of plastic and food inside styrofoam packaging... I really wish they could find a green alternative.

People sat on sidewalks and on the facade of buildings.

Mac'n'cheese that looks like pizza? WIN!!!

For 20 Pesoroos you get some skewered marshmallows and you get to dip it in chocolate!

Screamed when I saw the pichi-pichi and buko pandan. Two of my faves!

The thing on the left is HELLA GOOD as well... It's a best seller and it's basically maja blanca with bico inside! Heavenly.

Riz took some footage of our foodtrip! Don't you just LOOOOVE her nails? LOL.

So much isaw! Heart attack, anyone?

Even more kwek-kwek!

They also had stalls of Sbarro and Dulcinea

Stage where we performed for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Are You Listening acoustic tour with Salamin from 7PM to 9PM... This area (Ortigas Park) was right across the Banchetto night market! Look at how full the stage is with people eating their foodums from the market.

My foodie buddies, Rizza and Pia

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Overall, the Banchetto food market was a different experience from the Salcedo Market. I'm always late with these food market things since I got interested with them just this year... Banchetto in Italian translates to "a feast". It's along Ortigas, opens at 12 midnight and lasts through 11AM on Saturday!

Call center agents fill up the entire place, as well as families and more yuppies with friends. Like the Salcedo Market, they have tables set up when you reach the end of the line of food tents, which I think is even longer than S.M.'s.

Quite frankly, my vegetarian self didn't enjoy the food choices as much because it's mostly Filipino food- meaning lots of grilled meat. There are a lot of vegetarian-friendly food that you can purchase, but it's nothing special. There's the typical cheesy baby potatoes, mashed potatoes, lots and lots of pasta (and none of the stalls don't seem to specialize in pasta/italian food), salads, and some street food (kwek-kwek). There were lots of desserts as well, both Filipino delicacies and non-Filipino specialties like cheesecake, fondue, meringue, cookies, etc. We sampled a couple of desserts but nothing stood out apart from this Filipino kakanin that involved maja blanca with bico inside.

I think we were just all overwhelmed with the amount of food available so it was a really fun experience! If you're looking for a place to pig out or buy a lot of food at reasonable prices, the Banchetto Emerald is great. Especially if you love street food, Filipino food, dessert/delicacies, and the usual food market finds (burgers, barbeques, sausages, crepes, rice with toppings, etc.).

We took some footage of our experience so I'm just waiting for the upload to finish!