Silventure: ELYUnNaNga

La Union is located in the Ilocos Region in the island of Luzon. It is known waves that are great for surfing. No, I did not surf. This is a blog is about things you can do if you are not going to surf. The first thing you need to do is to book a ticket to ElYu. We got ours from https://biyaheroes.com.

We stayed at Charlie's Hangar Surf Hostel, We stayed in a 4-dorm room. As this is a hostel, please noted that the bathrooms are shared with the other guests on your floor. Best to plan ahead when reserving for a hostel. Since we have no plans to surf it was nice to be there when Charlie's had an event called Sunset Series.

Let's go to the things most people love... Food! Since Charlie's is main for lodging, you will need to find a place to get food.  There are a lot of options in the area. I'm sure you have seen other recommendations. There are the ones I got to try, El Union Coffee, Amare La Cucina, Saboroso Elyu, and NakNak. The price range is pretty okay too.

sausage, pepperoni, mushroom pizza from Amare La Cucina

Chicken Skewer with Orzo

Saboroso's Pecho w/ Rice

If you want to take photos and timelapse videos best to do it in the morning. When other people are still asleep. You will have a view to yourself.

It was a fun weekend! I will try to do this again in the future, I do still want to try the chicken from Sabong Fried Chicken and surf as well. 

Food Tripping: SHOOT Japanese Restobar 酒都

If you are looking for a new place to try in Cavite City, Shoot has you covered. It is located beside KFC. They offer Japanese and Filipino cuisine and Milktea! Check their menu below!

They do have alcoholic beverages for people that want to party after a long a day or if they just want to relax. So drink moderately!

The food is delicious and affordable. They do have student and promo meals as well! They are open from 5PM to 3AM. They also sell anime figures and other Japanese goodies at a great price!

Visit and like their FB page to be up to date with their promos and prices!

Review: Hop Inn, Alabang

Hop Inn is located in Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa. I booked a room for one night so that Sherome and I can just crash on the bed after Color Run Blacklight Run. It was a lot cheaper than staying at Azumi Boutique Hotel even if there were the partner hotel of the organizer.

View from the window of our room

I have requested a corner room that's on a higher floor and far from the elevator. All were given to me. The room itself is what you see on their site. It is pretty simple and clean. I do love the color scheme they have, it is cool to the eyes. The room cost is 1,260 Php or roughly 25 USD.

Their staff is nice and very welcoming. It did not take long to check-in. The lobby was gorgeous and spacious as well. There is a 7/11 on the ground floor so if you're planning to just sleep and relax in the room, you can buy your snack from there.

The bed was okay it did have the leathery feel to it. I was able to sleep well and that is enough for me. I'm not sure if the walls are thin but I did hear some noise from maybe another room while trying to sleep... What the sound was I will leave it for you to guess.

I would admit though there was nothing to do at Hop Inn. They did not have a pool or gym. They do not have free breakfast. However, if you just want to explore Alabang and have a place to sleep after all the fun you had in other places in the area then, Hop Inn is a good place to stay!

Review: Pantone Beauty Buttercreme Lip Balm

Lip balms are the things you use to save your lips from being chapped. Unlike before lip balms now comes in different shades. I recently got the Pantone Beauty (PB) Buttercreme Lip/Cheek Balm online. Here is what I think about it.

Buttercreme's shade names may be derived from milk tea flavors. As you can see above the box has the brand, product and shade name. They smell like bubble gums and it is heavenly. I like bubble gum, so yap that might be a bit bias.

It's made in the Philippines, paraben-free and was not tested on animals. Each box shows the color of the tint, the social media accounts of PB and the ingredients. The container reminds me of ChapStick, although the label is different.

Each container has 6 grams of the product. Ingredients of this product are the following Virgin Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Sunflower Oil, Vitamin E, and Colorant. It comes in the following shade: Wintermelon, Brown Sugar, Thai Milk, Roasted, Raspberry, and Red Bean.

So I have used most of the shades, ever since I got them. Applying them is pretty easy, it glides on your lips. I'm just bad with putting color on my lips so sorry if it's uneven. After doing the swatch below, I have come to realize that I like Brown Sugar and Roasted the most because I don't usually use those colors but they look good on my lips.

I did have a hard time trying to cover the waterline of my lips or in the words of Safiya Nygaard the "butthole", Maybe because the balm was a bit buttery. Overall, 150 per shade is not bad. Plus the reseller from Batangas was really really nice! Support local everyone! :)

I just want to ask which shade would you want to try?

Review: Chula Organics

Chula is Spanish slang for "cute" or "a beautiful woman. This is the brand name of this shop that sells organically made beauty products. They have soap. shampoo, conditioner, toners, and lip colors.

I got to try their shampoo, conditioner and the activated charcoal soap. I liked the minty smell of the shampoo and conditioner, however, it may not be suited for my colored hair. It made my hair a bit dry that I would need to use a different conditioner to make it smoother. It did help with keeping the flakes out of my head.

I did love the soap! It has helped control the oil on my face. I knew it worked as when I was not able to use it for about 3 days the oil was just too much. It has helped clear my pimples as well due to oil and heat. See the before and after below:

The before photo was taken May 20 and the after photo was taken July 10. I use the soap only for my face and neck so it lasted long. As you can see the pimples are gone and my skin doesn't look oily at all. So I recommend the soap. As for the shampoo and conditioner, it will be best to try it for yourself as I have heard that people do like it has worked for them. 

You can order from the following sites: 

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chulaorganics/

Shopee: https://shopee.ph/chula.organics

IG: https://www.instagram.com/chula.organics/

Life Update: I bid good bye to my Gallbladder

This was my hospital bed

Late March of this year I was diagnosed with a stone in my gallbladder. I did not want to go under the knife for it so I try the medication first. Which was a bad choice if you did not want to change your diet. Long story short, I wasted 6 thousand pesos and I still had to go under the knife to get it removed.

The medicine did not work as according to the surgeon the type of stone orientals has are the type that can't be broken down as it is no just cholesterol but it is a mix of bile salt and sometimes calcium.

So it was set, June 29 I have to get it removed.

I was told to go for a second opinion but to be honest I did not want to. Once it will be a waste of credit from the HMO and two I know that if I don't get it removed now it might produce another stone in the future. I just want to get things over with.

It's now July 3 it has been two days since I got out of the hospital. I will feel weird and dizzy. I can only wash my hair and sponge bath myself. After all that I feel normal as if nothing was taken out of me. I'm only reminded that I'm missing my gallbladder when I feel my wounds aching.

There will be changes in my diet as I can't have pork, beef, dairies and fatty food. So, yah here is to be trying to be healthy for reals!

This is me a day before the surgery

#TaggedSilve: Birth month Randomness

Another year has passed in my life and here is another birth month randomness. To be honest I did not know what to do for this year. This idea was not really appealing to me too much as most of the time I'm the one with the photos to post. 

I did find some good ones so here we are! I have posted it on IG and shared it my random FB page.

It was fun looking at old photos. Yes, I grew width wise. haha. If I posted a photo that you took originally, let me know so I can credit you!

Nothing much happened during my birthday month, but I did get myself a new phone. That's about it. Till next maybe!

If you would like to check the previous things I did here are the links: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

Hairventure: a History

So to make this brief please read Girl with the Blue Braided Hair.

Ever since I started coloring my "happy" hair, I wanted more. In 2015, I gradually bleached my hair from tips to the roots within a year and a half.

Left to Right: 2011-2016

It took a while for me to get everything bleach as my mom did say that she will shave it all off if I did. This is why I did it gradually. I really wanted blue hair but since the lightness did not get to 9 or 10 it became green. The blue you see is my happy hair that has been bleach several times by then.

So at this point, my hair was safe from being shaved off so I took it to the next level. I bleached it half way. I still had some left over dye so I just finished that tub and the result was awesome! There was not enough to cover everything but it turned out good. I had moss hair around December of 2015.

Fast forward to April 2016, I went all out and bleached all of my hair. It stayed ash blonde for a while before going blue and purple, then purple and blue. I used Arctic fox for the first time. It smelled like grapes and I love it. Read more about Arctic fox dye here: Part 1 and Part 2

No, my hair is not super damage from breaching as I don't really do it often. After the colors above, it took another 5 months before I re-bleached and colored my hair. During the break, I made sure I was conditioning my hair and using coconut oil on it. After that, it took another year before I re-bleached.

We are almost done! 2018 I did one hair color then cut it and welcomed 2019 in red and orange! What's next for me? I'm not sure at this point. I still kind of want to create a photo with my hair in rainbow colors. So maybe next time I will just stick to one color. Maybe...

Need hair dye? Check out Funky Streak and Rainbow Head!

Hairventure: Sunset inspired hair

This was my hair for the last few months of 2018. Yes, it made me look a pale in some light. I took a while before I was able to go back to the parlor to have it recolored. It's been 3 weeks now since I got this done.

There was a need to re-bleach the top as my roots were showing photo above is the finished look. Then, Marjay needed to watch Youtube tutorial about how to do the ombre I was describing. I really trying to do the Guy Tang's Phoenix Neon Glowing Hair. However, I know that will be time-consuming and I did not want to stay too long at the parlor.

So the photo above is what it looks like during the application. It took about 4 hours to finish.  The hair dyes used are Manic Panic's Wildfire, Red Passion and Electric Banana. I was told that Wildfire did not glow under UV light but as you can see in the photo below it glows.

Overall, I like how the colors came together. I honestly thought that Wildfire will be a bit darker on the hair but I'm glad it was not.

I will update this once I hit 4 weeks so you know how the colors fade. Do you like it?

Food Tripping: Shadow and Flames

 This is Shadow and Flames Burger a small burger joint in Cavite City. Their menu is for people that like quarter pounder burgers, fries, and sausages. The price on their menu ranges from 60 to 250 Php for the burgers, 75 to 110 Php for the sausages and fries is from 35 to 85 Php.

Cheese Kreamer

Hobbit Burger

Hobbit Burger  (Meal 85 Php)

Cheeseburger with Pork strips (Meal 135Php)

They are open Tuesdays to Saturday between 4PM to 9PM. It will be best to check if they have posted that they are open on their FB page before going there. Plus if you like Lord of the Rings you will like dining here they have figures from the said movie on display.

Food Tripping: Wing Avenue

Wing Avenue is located at The Avenue, Lancaster New City, Bucandala-Alapan Rd, Imus, Cavite.

They offer unlimited chicken wings, rice, and drinks for 279 Php. You can also opt to just have one serving of chicken wings for 99.

Via Pollo (Garlic Parmesan) with Wing Ave (Classic)

Let's talk about the flavors they serve. There are 10 flavors on their menu namely; Via Pollo (Garlic Parmesan), Hapcheon (Korean Style Honey), Wing Ave (Classic), Shibuya (Teriyaki), Saigon (Sriracha), New York (American Style BBQ), Binondo (Hoisin), Calle Real (Galic Adobo), Luneta Park (Cheese), EDSA (Buffalo Style).

EDSA (Buffalo Style)

I think I have visited this place twice now. I'm still planning on going back. Among the 10 flavors, I like EDSA and Hapcheon. I have yet to try Calle Real and Luneta Park.

Via Pollo (Garlic Parmesan)

On both occasions, the place was not crowded so it was easy to get our orders. You can also advance call if you want to. You can get 2 flavors on your first order. That is a plus for me. I do recommend this place if you have a car or live near Lancaster.

Check out their FB page for more information: Wing Ave.