ACHEY MUSCLES, STUBBORN KNOTS. You’re sitting at your desk trying to get some work done, but your body is yearning for a massage. I feel you. Over here, the usual scenario is I call Anna, my years-long massage therapist with magic hands. An hour or so of her signature dry shiatsu massage and I am fixed. Other days, my husband and I go on a massage date to our favourite Chinese reflexology place on the other side of town. Either way, it’s the same massage, every single time. And every single time it works wonders. When you’ve found the right therapist or massage place, the rest is really up to you. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned on how to get the most out of your massage…

WHEN COCONUT OIL took the world by storm a few years ago, I remember feeling a bit of a fond indifference to the health trend. I’m from the Philippines, one of the world’s largest producers of coconuts and its byproducts. So I thought awesome, finally, but also, tell me something I didn’t know. I spent childhood weekends playing under those tall skinny trees, I grew up on food using coconut milk, and I knew the nutty scent of the oil by heart. The irony is, it was never really a conscious choice to make coconut oil a daily habit.

Well that’s changed, A LOT…

WHEN I THINK OF COCONUT OIL, I am reminded of my grandmother’s beauty ritual. Every month, before ‘cold-processed’ was the method of choice, her beloved hairdresser would come to extract the oil by heating fresh coconut milk, filling the house with that creamy, nutty scent, and then massaging it into my grandmother’s scalp. Though she kept it short, my grandmother’s hair was glossy and thick, and it stayed that way until her last days.

Today, I’m always looking for ways to use coconut oil at home. Recently, I tried three DIY beauty recipes that are not just easy, healthy, and fun to make—they actually do the job. My grandmother would have been proud…

That joyful sound we heard early this year was of a million beauty junkies gasping and shrieking because Sephora Philippines finally went online. I know, because I probably gasped louder than most. After years of stalking the US site, my beauty wishes finally came true, and here it is. Sephora is the online equivalent of me going on a beauty shopping binge with my sister like we did back in the day. I felt pretty, thoroughly broke, and also slightly doomed. Only now in the comfort of my pajamas, and with a thousand more awesome products to choose from. I found four things at Sephora recently, and they were all instant faves.

Somehow I remember all the watches I’ve ever had, like we were kindred at one point. I remember my first real pay check and buying my first real watch. I remember sitting in a dark theater with this boy and feeling like it was meant to be, because we had the same backlighting in our timepieces. I remember when my Mom gave me her vintage gold watch. The first time my husband gave me a watch while we were dating. The second time, after our daughter was born. And that one time, I was wearing a rather flashy gold watch and clumsily flushed it down the toilet of an airplane. Listen, those things can really suck.

A watch is my daily necessity, and I’ve had my eye on Ibarra Manila since its launch late last year. I am thrilled that there’s finally a local brand that I can wear everyday, no matter the time or place.