Trial: Three Facial Oils

I've always had a pretty good complexion. However, at my present age, I've noticed some dryness and peeling on the sides of my nose, around my lips and between my brows. I asked my dermatologist friend about it, and she said it was pretty common for one's skin quality to change as it matures. At one point the peeling became so bad I was prescribed applications of an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid cream on the problem areas. There were days my skin would remain moist and not peel, and there were days when the facial peeling looked downright embarrassing.

Like most women I've tried the mainstream moisturizers on the market: Brand O, Brand N, Brand P, Brand L. While they all worked reasonably well for me, I thought this time I'd try something more natural, and if possible, organic. For the past three weeks I've been trying a different natural facial oil for a week each: Argan Oil, Ilog Maria Royal Jelly Facial Oil, and cold-pressed, culinary grade Virgin Coconut Oil. It sounds counter-intuitive to put oil on one's face, but for me (and this is a subjective review) it works.

The most exotic of the three, Argan Oil, I found at a stall at Mercato Centrale. It cost PhP 1,500 for a 30ml dispenser bottle. A fair trade product that supports the women of the Berber tribes, this edible oil is imported from Morocco and repacked by local distributor The Souq International. While some people would balk at the price, consider that one application is only about 1-3 drops. On the site it is advertised as a hair-skin-nails moisturizer - "treatment for acne, pimples, scars/keloids, dark spots, large pores, psoriasis, eczema, wrinkles, split ends, weak nails, aging skin, lack-luster skin, etc." Since I had facial dryness and contact dermatitis on one finger and had the extra cash, I thought, why not? Some beauty/anti-aging products that I've tried (that actually worked) cost as much, if not a lot more.

I used the Argan Oil as a night moisturizer after washing my face, applied with the fingers and not with a cotton ball (at that price, would you lose the oil to the cotton ball?). It spreads easily, and has an initial natural scent of "sour forest floor", which disappears once the oil is absorbed on the skin. If you're not used to putting oil directly on your face, go with 1-2 dispenser drops (or the size of a 25-centavo coin). When I woke up the next day I was pleased to find no oil or scent on my pillows, my pores looked smaller and my problem areas looked moist but not oily/shiny. It helped my dermatitis-affected finger, too. Verdict: I loved it. On the last day of my week's trial I was lazy and forgot to moisturize. I woke up with the usual dry reddish areas on my face and peeling around the sides of my mouth.

The second week I used Ilog Maria's Royal Jelly Facial Oil. I had bought this on my last visit to Ilog Maria, Joel Magsaysay's bee farm, in Silang, Cavite. I couldn't remember how much I bought it for, but on the website it's currently PhP 121 for a 50ml bottle. I read on someone's blog that it retails for PhP 150 a bottle at a stall in Marikina Riverbanks. On the bottle it reads: "Handmade in our bee farm using rejuvenating royal jelly and a melange of tropical flower, fruit, nut and seed oils. Can be used as a night cream. Restores aging, dry and sensitive skin. Ingredients tend to separate; No emulsifiers, preservatives or thickeners used. Shake well before using."

The tropical flower must be ylang-ylang. I remember the scent was stronger when it was newly bought. A friend of mine declined using it because the added scent was too strong for her. Since I hadn't had a chance to use it since buying it I smelled it again and the ylang-ylang scent had mellowed. The oil must be a combination of edible oils I can only guess at (sweet almond and grapeseed? I really don't know). The oil didn't separate in the over-six-months it hadn't been used, so I figured it was ok. I used a similar amount as the Argan Oil. I find the texture of this oil to be a tad heavier or thicker, but it wasn't hard to spread it evenly on my skin. It smelled good. When I woke up in the morning the reddish areas on my face from the previous day's laziness disappeared. My skin was supple and the pores were small all week. Verdict: I loved it too.

On the third week I tried Cocowonder's cold-pressed, culinary grade Virgin Coconut Oil. It cost PhP 375/liter. Given the different kinds of VCO available, my sister and I decided on cold-pressed because extraction using heat would destroy the health benefits claimed. We chose culinary grade because it is also cosmetic grade. Our goal was to find a viable and cost-effective alternative to the Argan Oil. I transferred some C-VCO to a small cosmetic dispenser bottle I had repurposed.

I used the same amount of C-VCO as I used with the previous two facial oils. I also used about a tablespoon to massage into my hair an hour before shampooing, to see if it would help a dry scalp. C-VCO smells like nutty baked goods. I mention this because not many people like the heavy smell of bukayo, a cooked coconut candy. Many assume that VCO would smell like that, but it doesn't. The scent disappears once the oil has been absorbed by the skin. Like the argan oil, it left no residual smell on my pillows. In the mornings my skin had a lovely texture, and my hair was soft and my scalp had no flakes. I've done the hair conditioning several times since then. Verdict: I loved it as well.

My skin has never looked so good. I can't afford to be lazy, though, and forget to moisturize nightly. Not once have I broken out with a pimple. Not once.

Now while I love all three, Argan Oil is simply too expensive, in comparison to the other two oils. It is also the best for my finger that suffers from dermatitis (stays on, keeps moist longer). If I have a chance to go to Ilog Maria in Cavite, or even to Marikina Riverbanks, I'd buy the Royal Jelly Facial Oil again. But for everyday hair, skin, nails and internal needs, I think I can stick with VCO. While I've done my part helping the Berber women of Morocco, I think it's good (not to mention patriotic) to put the rest of my money in a Philippine product. (And oh, the lovely savings!)



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This blog is not affiliated with any of the enterprises mentioned. All products were purchased at full retail price.

Sheaffer vs. Mercury Retrograde, Sheaffer Wins!

A year and a half ago I bought one of my favorite pens, a Sheaffer PFM III, from a collector friend at the first anniversary party of Fountain Pen Network - Philippines. It's black plastic, with a fat barrel, and was missing the white dot on its clip. It was my first Snorkel filler , and it sported a beautiful, extra-fine inlaid nib, the kind only Sheaffer made. Here it is, in my photo album Sheaffer Love. I called the PFM the Pen For Mona. The Pen For Me.

Fast-forward to 2011. The Pen For Mona was in constant rotation, as it was one of my smoothest writers. One day I was going to fill the PFM with some Diamine Claret, a pink-magenta ink that I often use for editing and highlighting text. After only two pages of writing in my journal, it suddenly ran out. Something twisted in my gut. I ran to the bathroom sink and tried filling the pen with water. Yes, I heard the "whoosh" sound the internal latex sac makes when it sucks in ink. Problem was, it wasn't spitting out any when I depressed the Touchdown tube. Snorkels are those fountain pens naughty people used to use in the 1950s and '60s to shoot ink at annoying classmates. They should shoot out streams of ink. Or inky water, when you're cleaning it. Anyhow, something was very wrong. Maybe there were minute holes in the sac. I was afraid ink would get the metal innards wet and cause rust. I couldn't sleep.

I couldn't sleep, because I had to figure out how to send the pen to the US for repair. I'd decided on sending it to Danny Fudge, who has repaired pens for several of my FPN-P friends, among them Prof. Jose "Butch" Dalisay. The very next day I bought one of those Jiffy #00 padded envelopes, and a cheap, hard plastic toothbrush container. The pen, wrapped in Kleenex, went into the protective toothbrush container and into the padded envelope.

Problem was, someone at the main post office of our neighborhood didn't want to accept the package for mailing. They opened my envelope and read my letter requesting for repair. And then they insisted on not accepting it since "it may contain ink, and you know how strict the US Post Office is these days." Facepalm moment. Um. Hello. The letter specifically said it wouldn't load ink correctly, how could I send it filled with ink??? Fortunately I'd had some good coffee before this, and immediately tried sending it at another nearby PO, where it was accepted without any questions asked. I paid PhP 170. That seems like a lot, but when you think of a fountain pen as being something you'd like to pass on to your family later on, it's worth it.

And THEN I read another friend's post about the upcoming Mercury Retrograde. At one retrograde period four years ago, the monitor on my Powerbook G4 went kaput and I had to have it replaced. I had only one year's worth of Apple Care on it and had to find another Powerbook secondhand which I cannibalized for parts. Ever since then, I became apprehensive whenever someone mentioned the words "Mercury Retrograde." To me it meant Murphy's Law, even though planetary alignments seem like the strangest things to affect human day-to-day lives. The more people joked about it, the more I worried. I needed to think positively, but was failing.

Since Mercury Retrograde took up most of April, I worried that the PFM would get lost in the mail, on its way to Danny Fudge. Or that it would get lost in the mail on its way back to me. When the retrograde period ended, I immediately sent an email inquiring after my pen. "I already sent it, with an invoice," Danny wrote back. An invoice! Good! Then in case Customs people decide to charge any arbitrary fees I can always reason out that I only sent an old pen to be repaired! (That was another thing I worried about.)

It was an old pen. It had lots of scratches. It was missing its white dot. But it wrote wonderfully. That's the thing with acquiring vintage pens. It's 50 years old. It's been pre-loved. It may need a bit more maintenance, more TLC. There's some part of me that reminds me not to get too attached to physical objects, but I LOVE this pen.

During the two-week wait I muttered the affirmation, "I am receiving my pen back quickly, safely and easily," a million times. Well, what do you know. I only paid the PhP 40 handling fee. The pen came back to me in its original hard plastic toothbrush case. Polished! No white dot replacement, unfortunately (Danny didn't have any to fit), but that's only cosmetic. I rushed to the bathroom sink and tried filling it with water. Oh joy! It made that "whoosh" sound. It shot jetstreams of water again! I immediately filled it with Pilot Blue-Black ink and tested it. Danny Fudge has this policy about only paying for the pen when you're satisfied with his work. Boy, was I satisfied. I immediately went online and paid the guy, and spent the rest of the day feeling like I was floating on clouds.

(No, that's not Pilot Blue-Black. Old photo of writing sample with Waterman South Sea Blue.)

I feel sheepish about all the worrying I did during the Mercury Retrograde period. It was needless and irrational, but I'm human. The distrust of the postal system's efficiency is something I have to work on. What matters is, the Pen For Mona is back. It's a small thing, but I'm happy.

Rapture at Mercato, Cocowonder

While the world was supposed to be ending, Joy, Tristan and I were out hunting for organic and fair trade products at Cocowonder and the Mercato Centrale weekend market.

Cocowonder is an exporter of virgin coconut oil based in Makati. Joy was researching on VCO in an attempt to find cost-effective organic local or fair trade products for cosmetic and internal use (hair, face and body). She bought culinary grade and raw VCO (both cold-pressed), VCO hair conditioner and body wash, amino seasoning, nectar and cocoa tablea. Local sellers at various trade fairs don't label their products very carefully, and oftentimes can't answer detailed questions, so she found the Cocowonder site very useful.

I've tried VCO massage oils in the past, but this time I finally tried the culinary grade VCO as a facial night moisturizer (a tiny amount goes a long way) . It's only been a couple of days, but I notice it's absorbed quickly by my skin and it seems to be successful on my dry problem areas (more on this in a future blog entry). It doesn't have that off-putting bukayo smell, just an initial faint scent of nutty baked goods, which eventually fades. As a family we're trying to use more natural products, so this is right up our alley.

We arrived at Mercato just before noon, and decided to have lunch at the al fresco dining area. It's fun to walk around before deciding what to eat - there were so many yummy choices! We shared a quarter-pound burger from Monster Burger, delicious grilled sausages, some very tasty prawn-bacon and kani-bacon skewers, cheesy baby potatoes and stuffed tomatoes, washed down with icy cold cantaloupe juice. I don't have any pictures since we were so hungry we ate it all. Only then were we fortified enough to browse in the market.

Since our last visit was only 2 Saturdays ago, we didn't really buy a lot this time. I bought more different brands/varieties of whole coffee beans from the National Coffee Board stall. One was from the Mt. Apo area (Altura Blend, a Dizon Farms coffee). Continental Coffee is a CAFEX brand, which is a local coffee they serve at McCafe's nationwide. I was curious about Culinary Exchange's Embarcadero Blend, which has beans from Northern Luzon and the Visayas. There's coffee from Mt. Kanlaon which I mean to buy next time (I didn't get it because it was already ground) - I tried the coffee sample they served me and it was very good. Joy bought Ifugao Heirloom brown rice, and wasabi vinaigrette from Comida Rica. One day we'll go on a Sunday morning instead of a Saturday, bring our parents and have lunch.

"Fate could not harm us, for we have dined today." - Sidney Smith (1855)