I always look forward to MAC Cosmetics’ seasonal trend reports on beauty. They usually fly in senior stylists to do the demo. This season’s Autumn/Winter 2013 trend report brought MAC Senior artist Amber Dreadon to Manila. After the simpler minimalism that reigned last season, AW13 is “less straightforward, more moody. More mysterious and layered with feeling.” Think gothic, grunge and punk.

I’ll be posting the four trends in a separate future entry. For now, I wanted to point out the continued relevance of nail polish in the beauty industry. Here are highlights from the MAC event.

Hola Magazine’s Rorie Carlos with writer/model Isabel Roces.

MAC Brand General Manager Gay Lao with Summit editors Daryl Chang and Pauline Juan

The cosmetics counter.

Amber Dreadon with local models sporting the new AW13 looks.

Gay with columnist Mia Borromeo

More editors, including Agoo Bengson.

Amber working on one of the trends – Spiritual Eyes.

Here are some backstage images from AW13 runway shows in Paris, showing you some fabulous nail art.

Alberta Ferretti

Donna Karan

Gareth Pugh

Gareth Pugh

Just Cavalli

L Goldin

Ruffian

Hi everyone. I hope you and your families were okay throughout the floods. This is happening way too often and it is getting really scary. I hope things change…

There are so many things I want to update you with but I can’t. Since yesterday my internet broadband at home has been down. I don’t know why this has been happening. A few weeks ago we had to buy a new modem from the same company. These things aren’t cheap. I’ve reported the situation via phone and twitter. Still no help.

This has been a recurring thing the past couple of months. Because of my fear of having no internet, a few weeks ago I even bought a pocket wifi and it cost me like P3,000. It’s a prepaid thing. Now I don’t even know how to load the mobile wifi gadget. And the website of the company offers no help.

My cellphone can be a 3G hotspot, but my phone company’s 3G has been intermittent.

None of this is flood or storm related.

It’s a bit frustrating.

This is so pretty. Carissima Sheath at Anthropologie.

It’s not every day one gets an invitation from Store Specialists Inc. to visit and shop at the new Banana Republic shop at Shangri-La Plaza. So I braved the EDSA traffic last Friday because I wanted to see the Issa London Collection.

I had no idea that Shangri-La had this new wing. It’s gorgeous! Can’t wait to see it fully opened.

The Banana Republic shop at the East Wing of Shangri-La Plaza is huge.

Their beautiful window shows mannequins lined up wearing Issa London dresses. The one on the right was being changed because I tried on her dress (size).

They have the famous Kate Middleton dress. The original Issa dress retailed for $575. Banana Republic’s version has a $130 price tag. This is currently out of stock online.

Issa first made headlines when the Duchess of Cambridge wore its iconic blue dress for the royal engagement announcement. The Issa London x Banana Republic collaboration is “fit for a queen, but made for you.”

The Shangri-La branch still had almost all the sizes of the Issa London collection last Friday. The online shop sold out of the Kate Middleton dress within hours of launching on August 8. In fact when I started writing this post this afternoon, the online shop was all sold out then halfway through, some stocks came in. And within minutes, the Kate Middleton dress sold out again.

I love the prints and the figure flattering silhouettes of this line.

Other than Kate’s dress, this is the most prominent dress from the campaign.

Sorry for the no smile photo. I had tried on almost ALL the dresses. I got three dresses from Issa and one from the regular “preppy” line of Banana Republic. Look what I found on Google, Naomi Watts wearing this same dress also with yellow wedge clogs. Mine are Swedish Hasbeens.

I didn’t buy the Kate Middleton dress. But now I’m thinking… maybe I should have.

I’d love to tell you which ones I got but I won’t. Promise to post them on instagram once I wear them. They are so lovely.

In the Philippines, Banana Republic is at Bonifacio High Street Central, Greenbelt 5, Rustans Makati and the newly opened branch at Shangri-La Plaza.

First, thank you Stylebible for including me in this the Virtual Style Awards. Thank you to you my readers for nominating me!! I didn’t know I was still in Stylebible’s radar. Haha.

Second, we are in big trouble. It’s an online voting thing which I initially refused to be part of because of many reasons. This isn’t my first online competition. I’ve never been an active campaigner. But I accepted the nomination because online votes count for 50% of the criteria for winning. The other 50% is based on judges votes. I also accepted because it isn’t so much about Me-Me-Me as it is about my work. You all know how much time and effort I put into my blog. This is my beautiful space which I love to share with all of you. It’s my blog that’s getting recognized, not my style or whatever. So I’m joining the game and going for it. Please don’t hate me for asking for votes. Haha.

I refuse to stress out over this online voting thing. So let’s just have fun. There is actually still this ongoing/pending Celebrity Style Awards of ABS-CBN’s Style Studio Magazine, where I’m nominated as Most Stylish TV Host along side KC, Anne, Bianca and Toni. I didn’t announce that ’til after voting was over because I think style is totally subjective and can’t be judged. But again, being nominated was sweet. Thank you. Winners of that will be announced next month.

The initial landing page is www.stylebible.ph/virtual-style-awards/ then click on Celebrity Site to vote. You may vote 10 times a day. Please don’t let me die of public shame and give me some votes… every day.

Here are the other nominees in the Celebrity Site category. I don’t know how they came up with the stats, I’d never seen my numbers. And I don’t know what’s the logic of the layout. It certainly isn’t alphabetical. Haha.

One of my best friends, Ingrid Chua-Go of The BagHag Diaries is also nominated in the Online Reporter category. Please show her some love too.

Vote for Best Celebrity Site – 10 times a day here.