Just a secret: Asian Secrets Whitening Body Scrub and Bengkoang Soap

Oh, look what I've tried using for the last few months, the Solenn Heusaff endorsed Asian Secrets. I did not buy it to achieve the beauty and glowing skin of the French Filipino celebrity. It's something new from the usual Papaya-laden whitening products that we have available in supermarkets and drugstores for the past years. More on the curiosity of what a Lulur is -- a type of Indonesian beauty ritual that Indonesian brides go through in order to score a smooth, radiant and white skin before their wedding day. If it is really effective during those days, that is something we have to find out.

So far, these are the variants that I have tried:

The first one that I really used was the soap. I have not taken a picture of it but the packaging looks more like the orange box above. Again, the term Bengkoang tickled my vocabulary hungry brain. In English it is known as Yam Bean extract which is a popular whitening ingredient in Indonesia. Most probably synonymous to the so called whitening magic of our native kalamansi and papaya.

There are two soap variants which I have already used. One with moisturizing olive oil (green box) which protects the skin from dryness and the other kind is with Betel nut (orange box). Betel nut? What I know about betel nut is something that old people pop in their mouth as you would a chewing gum or bubble gum. The chewing gum gives you fresh breath while the betel nut will leave you depressed because of the reddish tint that will eventually stays in your teeth.  Ironically, I love using the betel nut variant of the soap. It prides itself with antiseptic and deodorizing properties. You have this cool menthol feeling in your skin after rinsing with water.

For the body scrubs, I favor the one in green tub  with Green Tea and Vitamin E. And the scent is so good which I can't really say with the purple tub that boasts of  Licorice and Mulberry Leaf Extract. I use it lavishly every bath in order to replace it sooner.

My curiosity with this product is already worn out having tried all the variants. I may or may not buy it again but definitely I won't use the body scrubs anymore. The little beads in the scrub is so little you hardly notice they're there. I actually add sugar each time I use it to feel that I am indeed exfoliating some dead skin. For the soap, I probably would go back to it from time to time especially the refreshing Bengkoang Betel Nut.

As for its whitening effect? I wonder how many tubs do I need to consume or how long will I use it in order for me to be as fair as Kris Aquino! I can't see it in Solenn because as far as I remember, the beauteous model-slash-singer-slash actress and all those slashes is a bit on the morena side.

Meet my summer friend: Pond's age miracle BB+

Finally, I found a friend that can protect my facial skin from the biting heat of the sun.
  

It costs only P499 in Mercury Drug. Way cheaper than the Korean BB cream brands that I previously used.
I really don't care anymore what other benefits it promises to do to my skin. All I care about is it has SPF 30 PA++ which I badly needed while walking under the sun!

Dressed up instant noodle

One thing I am proud of myself is my ability to cook up something from left overs.  I was thinking of doing fried rice with these ingredients but I decided to make soup instead. Look at my reinvented, enriched, fortified Lucky Me instant noodle.

 That's a left over lechon manok (roast chicken) from last night and a slice of fried SPAM this morning. I added a sunny side up too and a bit of veggie so that it would look like a five-star quality brunch. At least to my eyes. Burp.

Burgers by Design!

Burgers and pizzas are the least in my list when my tummy growls for something edible. This week I got no choice but to settle for a burger because everyone seems to be drooling over Brothers Burger.

The menu doesn't excite me at all. Those burger images are enticing only in pictures which is the best strategy to arouse consumers' cravings for something new in the fast food department. Here's part of their menu in case you would want to try what they have to offer.

Initially I thought of ordering Black Angus Burger but I settled for one of their designers burgers -- Blues Brothers. My brain painted an image of high quality bread and an impressively large patty with all the burger trimmings in it. Not to mention that I expected it to be divinely yummy. But it's not. It did not stimulate my rather picky taste buds. The hefty burger patty is its only justification of being pricey.

And so with the Crispy Fish Sandwich. The bread tasted like it was pure flour baked hastily. It also seemed to be consistent in the taste department.  The fish filling will not let you down I'm sure. It is twice larger than McDonalds' fish fillet sandwich. Still, it's not the size that counts, but it's the taste with a capital T.

Anyways, I so welcome the paper bag for take out. I liked the bright color combination.