MANILA, Philippines—Back from my 17-day honeymoon, I still could not shake off the thought of the beauty products I found there when I should have been basking in newlywed glory.

Most of the time there, I checked out the beauty boutiques in the streets, malls and department stores, taking mental notes what the women of all ages were crazy about.

So as not to cause frustration, I will feature only products that are locally available.

The Body Shop

Since I arrived soon after Chinese New Year, I saw body care products flying off the shelves as shoppers believed they influence people’s luck, feng shui wise.

The best-selling shower gels, lotions and home and body scents for cleansing negative energy and attracting good luck were:

Satsuma—also known as Kiat Kiat or mandarin oranges. These are believed to attract wealth.

Lime & Lemon—Lime mainly dispels the negativity coming from people who wish you ill. It helps one save money and attracts good opportunities.

Pink Grapefruit—which smells like pomelo, and this is exactly why they were the best sellers since the actual pomelo was the star of the moment, hanging by doorways and displayed at corners of houses and apartment buildings since the fruit is believed to remove or wash away bad luck.

Sandalwood home fragrance oils —the smell of these also wafted around shops to chase away the negative energy that were believed to be residuals from 2007.

Whitening products

Whitening ruled the billboards and giant banners on the sides of buildings. Probably due to the fact that every local in HK above 15 has freckles from the outdoor walking they have to do.
The prices might be scarily expensive, but I have road-tested and found them to be effective.

To save money and drag down the average cost per product, I have been using whitening facial washes like Mistine (P129.75, for all skin types); Belo Essentials Pore Refining (P132, 100-ml pink variant for oily skin or P126 for blue variant for normal, dry, sensitive skin); Godiva Licowhite face wash (P139 for 100 ml and Olay White Radiance P130).

Their high HK prices seemed not to dampen the women who crowded the counters of:

Guerlain for their Perfect White (PW) range with Pearl

Lily Complex. Guerlain’s research team has extracted the main essence that is responsible for the lily flower’s pristine whiteness initiating pigmentation shut down. Pearl Lily Complex acts on both direct and indirect causes of pigmentation so it prevents as well as cures existing skin discoloration. Key products are PW Refreshing Lotion (skin-whitening toner, P2,750 for 200 ml) ; PW Essence (P5,150 for 30 ml); PW Emulsion (P3,250 for 50 ml) and PW SPF30+ Make-up Base (P2,698).

Their eight-week test result with 30 women yielded improvements in faded dark spots, 90 percent; brighter complexion, 87 percent; lighter skin tone, 93 percent; new radiant glow, 87 percent. Applications were twice a day.

Lancôme Blanc Expert (BE) Neurowhite—This was my skincare line during my honeymoon and it did great in removing my pimples that broke out because of the drastic changes in temperature from warm Manila to very cold Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan.

My pimples went away and left no mark and my skin stayed moist, bright and silky smooth unlike my peers who were peeling like crazy.

No new pigmentation either, considering the sun’s rays during the cruise was pretty strong and we did an awful lot of walking for exercise.

I used the BE Lotion 2 (for combination skin); Neurowhite X3 Essence, third generation made more potent; and NW X3 Fluid Moist instead of the Night or Day Cream. BE smells clean, like florals. It zeroed in on my spots and marks by making the areas peel.

Fragrances

Since the temperature would go down to 10ºC/50ºF the fragrances were pretty sweet or vanilla-based. I smelled of Thierry Mugler’s Angel and Innocent, Marc Jacob’s Daisy, Lancôme’s Hypnose and Guerlain’s My Insolence a lot.

For home fragrances Crabtree & Evelyn’s exotic location-inspired fragrances seemed to be the favorite of shoppers. Wakaya (South Seas), a blend of orange blossoms, ginger flower, frangipani, coconut oil and driftwood, coming in home fragrance oil (P575) and in diffuser with wicking reeds, was my favorite.

But the preferred scents of the people were the Anakkara (India) amber, vanilla, rosewater, apricot and sandalwood, coming in candle (P1,350) and in diffuser with wicking reeds (P1,950).

E-mail the author at kinnysalas@yahoo.com