If it’s worth any consolation, 2020 has been such an inventive year for the beauty community. The beauty world has been constantly introducing big ingredient innovations we’ve never seen possible before. Just take a look at the micellar and collagen trends that were only thought to be beneficial for the skin but are now being sought after for hair. Who knows what’s next? And yet here we are again.
Armed with a promise to provide its consumers with a smarter way to watch, enjoy, and play without breaking the bank, ROWA enters the Philippine market through its official store in Lazada. Starting this November, Filipinos can now enjoy and experience the brand’s high-quality Smart Android TVs available at an affordable price. Established in Shenzhen, China’s most competitive and innovative city, ROWA is a consumer electronics and home appliance company known as a game player when it comes to high quality smart televisions and top of the line home devices. It has already set its footprint in different countries in Asia and continues to be on the game as it offers value for money products. Feature-packed but affordable Smart Android TVs Kick starting their launch in the Philippines, ROWA will introduce its very first series of Smart Android TVs that are feature-packed but are surely made affordable. Ranging from 32 inches to 55 inches with full-HD and 4K resolution, these TVs are built with more exciting features customized to fit the needs of the Filipino market. The ROWA L51 series will offer consumers a bang for the buck with all the goodness they can experience with a Smart Android TV. Equipped with the latest Android System certified by Google, consumers can enjoy all the smart features it offers with Google Assistant, Voice Control, and Google Chromecast. Moreover, it also comes with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HDMI, USB ports, and more. ROWA 32L51 – 32-inch Full HD Smart Android TV – P12,095 ROWA 40L51 – 40-inch Full HD Smart Android TV – P15,995 Engineered with the 4K resolution and QLED technology, the ROWA T61 series is for consumers with an extra budget for an upgrade. Now they can enjoy their usual Netflix and YouTube chill moments in a bigger and better viewing screen. Lastly, all ROWA TVs come with a two-year warranty with nationwide after-sales service. ROWA 43T61 – 43-inch 4K Smart Android TV – P20,695 ROWA 55T61 – 55-inch 4K Smart Android TV – P27,895
- Maintain connection with friends, family and loved ones. Leverage on technology.
- Develop coping skills.
- Seek medical and professional help when needed.

Sterling Bank of Asia (SBA) continues to strengthen its digitization efforts by improving its online banking platform with the implementation of the Sterling Bank QR Pay. Among the BSP-supervised financial institutions, SBA is one of the first thrift banks that has adopted the National Quick Response Code Standard (QRPh).
“The advantage of using QR code is that it facilitates instant payment or fund transfer without the need to manually key in the account details,” said Mr. Cecilio San Pedro, SBA's President and CEO. This lessens the errors and makes fund transfers and payments fast, safe, and convenient.
QRPh makes QR codes of different banks and e-wallets interoperable. Through Sterling Bank’s mobile app, the QR Pay is now accessible to clients -- offering a convenient alternative to sending funds to, or receiving funds from, other QRPh-compliant local banks and e-wallets.
"Now that our customers' financial needs are evolving and transactions are shifting more in favor of e-payments, we want to ensure that our digital platform addresses their banking requirements," added San Pedro. The bank’s online banking facility also allows fund transfers via Instapay and Pesonet. Fees for these transactions, including QR Pay, will remain free until December 31, 2020.
In November 2019, BSP and the payment industry participants launched the National Quick Response (QR) Code Standard. With the growing acceptance and use of contactless payments, it is also set to introduce the person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions via QRPh soon to complement the person-to-person (P2P) transactions.
For more information and updates about Sterling Bank of Asia, visit www.sterlingbankasia.com and download the Sterling Bank Online App to experience secure and convenient banking.
As attractive as they look like in a pot, aloe vera plants have been hailed as a natural ingredient with many positive skin benefits for thousands of years. Aloe vera leaves are full of gel-like texture that are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fatty acids.
Aloe Vera also contains enzymes that repair dead skin cells, while moisturizing the skin. It is rich in vitamins C and E which are nutrients that improve the skin's elasticity, for a firmer and youthful look.
Back in 2018, the rise of aloe vera gel tubs have taken over the Philippine beauty community. Aloe vera’s ability to soothe and provide hydration to the skin, boosted its popularity in the ever-humid country. And now aloe vera is proving to be an effective ingredient not only for the skin care world, but also the hair care industry.
Experience Plant Powered Showers with the Benefits of Aloe Vera
In its raw form, aloe vera can be used as a mild cleansing agent that gets rid of dirt and product build-up, while leaving hair smooth and with more volume. But if you're not into rubbing plant leaves on your hair, you can also experience #PlantPowerInEveryShower with Herbal Essences bio:renew blend shampoos that contain real aloe vera, kelp, and histidine. It hydrates each strand to provide frizz control, adds shine, and nourishes dry hair — making hair soft, manageable, and smelling great.
Herbal Essences bio:renew shampoos are crafted with an amino acid called histidine, which acts as superfood for the hair trapping and neutralizing the elements that can cause damage in the hair — such as pollution, sun exposure, and even shower water. With the power of aloe vera, and other plant based ingredients, Herbal Essences bio:renew shampoos are pH-balanced and free of parabens, silicone, and colorants which make it color-safe to use for color-treated hair to bring out it’s natural beauty.
Clean Beauty Transparency in Every Bottle
Transparency and sustainability are at the core of Herbal Essences bio:renew. As a catalyst for clean beauty, Herbal Essences continues with its mission to provide safe and non-toxic hair care options. And with the continued commitment to ingredient transparency in every bottle, all the high-quality botanicals and REAL plant extracts used are harvested sustainably and responsibly through various partners from all over the world. So, when they put a plant on our bottle label, it means it’s truly in there. Plus, all other plant and mineral ingredients undergo limited processing, which ensures a minimal blow on the carbon footprint.
It’s never too late to join the clean beauty community this holiday season. Treat your scalp and hair with the best of nature and science in a bottle.
Shop the Herbal Essences bio:renew range through Lazada or Shopee and experience #PlantPowerInEveryShower.
Two pesos a kilo for cabbage. Four pesos for cucumber.
After spending money to bring their produce to the nearest vegetable trading post in the last week of July, Cordilleran farmers were given a cruel rate, crushing their hope of raising cash to buy seeds for the next harvest.
A Sad Story for New-Gen Farmers
Shereen Umayat and Jessica Dapliyan, two young farmers from Sagada, had a cheaper option for their next maturing vegetables- let the plants rot in the farmland to stop having additional expenses.
Asked how much she has spent for her cucumber, Umayat computed it to be at least P40, 000.
While there are active programs like Sustainable Sagada and Rural Rising organized to help ease the situation, not all produce in the remote Mountain Province town can be accommodated.
Dapliyan, a former innkeeper who shifted to farming following travel bans, started giving away her cabbage produce for free in September after unsuccessful attempts to sell what her family has been working since community quarantine restrictions were implemented.
Trying the Metro Manila Market
For generations, farmers in Sagada and other towns of the Cordilleras have been trading in marketplaces within the mountainous region and going to the lowlands is not part of their regular routine. But as they run out of options, they are forced to seek help outside the highlands.
Tapping Metro Manila-based Cordillerans or Igorots was the first move. Upon learning about the crisis, Christian Aligo, a Marketing Communications practitioner living in Quezon City, started the “The Sagada Harvests Project” on Facebook.
With the assistance from Umayat, Menchie Buking of the Department of Agrarian Reform Mt. Province (DAR MP) and other concerned locals, The Sagada Harvests Project is able to sell out about three tons of produce in its first two runs.
Alongside Aligo are other Metro Manila-based Igorots including Luisa Gay Pugong, Jenny Lyn Likigan, Bing Podes Laguipen, and Hector Ngales who transformed themselves into vendors after their day job to help address the crisis.
Joining the force is the couple Atty. Pio and Noemie Jeanet Daoas who now spend their weekends on vegetables. With the help of dedicated riders, the couple deliver the goods within Taguig City at only P20.
A Trade Friendlier to Farmers
As agreed, it is the farmers who set the price of their produce. Currently in marketplaces, it is the multi-level middle-men who dictate the price and get a bigger portion of it.
When the rate at the La Trinidad trading post for cabbage was P2 per kilo, The Sagada Harvests Project purchased the vegetable at P20 per kilo-- as dictated by the farmers.
To further assist the Igorot vendors, DAR’s Sagada Linksfarmers Consolidation Center opened its doors to help screen quality produce prior to shipping.
Recently, the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) also offered transportation assistance to help lower expenses.
Meanwhile, local food producers Gabay Wines and Food Preserves and Masferre Country Inn & Restaurant have been doing experiments for delicate items like wild blueberry, wheat bread, and goat cheese products to check on the shelf-life of the products when offered in places with a warmer climate.
To know more about The Sagada Harvest Project and a list of Igorot vendors who directly source their goods from farmers, contact Aligo at 0956-174-8464 (Globe) or visit www.facebook.com/sagadaharvests now.
How to heal that lockdown brain one entry at a time, so you can power through.
2020 was a year of uncertainty and consecutive challenges. We spent most of our days in isolation that we’ve almost lost track of time. As we try to regain some balance and slowly recover from how the lockdown has affected our lives, we turn to building good habits that can help us cope and emerge stronger than before. One of them is through journaling.
Medical experts and psychologists have reminded us that keeping a journal may actually help us boost our mental health by helping us gain control of our emotions and plans. Here, we have listed down five more things that you can do better when you have a journal.
1. It helps you acknowledge and process your feelings better. We are coming from a time of emotional rollercoaster and situations that we are not really built for. Close interactions now scare us. We feel fear the moment we envision what the future holds for us. Some days, we feel grateful and moved by the possibility of caring from a distance. We miss the beach, we long for get-togethers.
It may sound like a lot of feelings, but there’s actually more – and it’s okay to admit that they’re quite difficult to absorb. Wring short notes per day can help you acknowledge and embrace those emotions as they come. Somehow, we don’t get too overwhelmed when we have a personal avenue to express ourselves, giving us more time to reflect and breathe.
We love how the The Belle De Jour Power Planner Earth concept and empowering designs remind us that we’re in the process of being whole again. It’s perfect for those who are still learning more about themselves, and eager to thrive amidst the chaos.
2. It helps you live in the present. A lot of thoughts and experiences from the past consume us, and sometimes they make us feel drained than inspired. Writing about your daily plans or stories allows you to live your life consciously, and Everything Is Possible planner’s breakthrough theme for the coming year goes well with this purpose.
It inspires you to think about what you can do now, instead of what you could have done. It can help lighten the burden on your shoulders and prepare you for what’s ahead. In the process of living in the moment, you can discover new skills, abilities, interests, and goals, too.
3. Journaling helps you keep track of your responsibilities and needs. Majority of our tasks are now done online. Whether your company has decided to extend the work-from-home setup, or you’re attending online classes, this virtual transition is quite hard to deal with. It’s more difficult to keep track of time, projects, and goals, and further envision how they would unfold in real life. But this is the part where planners can make the management of our day-to-day tasks easier.
We can quickly identify significant dates and update our progress from time to time. Our days can be quite full, so it is really nice to have a journal that leaves ample space for you to jot down ideas just like the Focus planner. Its pages are decorated with the sacred geometry of Icosahedron, a three-dimensional figure that is made of 20 triangle-shaped sides, to represent change, movement, and flow. Those on the minimalist side may appreciate the elegance of the Essentials planner’s Art Deco-inspired designs, too.
4. It helps you reconnect with people. Keeping a journal is not just about how you can hustle or manage your own life. It’s personal, and a huge part of our existence depends on people, relationships. Living more consciously means assessing our connections with our loved ones every now and then.
Maybe it’s time to catch-up with your friends or colleagues? Or maybe it’s time to schedule that talk with your boss? If you’re the type of person who keeps on forgetting the exact dates of your friends’ birthdays, then advanced journal entries can serve as your little reminders, too. The minimalist, portable Petit planner is just what we need for this purpose so we can see what matters in one glance. Now that we have fewer physical interactions or brunch dates, it’s important to find new ways to maintain our relationships.
5. Journaling makes you care for yourself even more. What many people don’t realize is that journals help you give yourself the complete care that it needs. Doctors emphasize that it is now more vital to monitor physical conditions on our own. You can maximize those blank pages by writing down how you’re feeling (a symptom tracker, maybe?), so you can also respond to what your body needs.
This also applies to our emotional and mental wellbeing. Expressing your emotions or sharing some experiences can help you identify the kind of self-care that works for you. The lighthouse-themed NAVI journal reminds us that we’re still trying to navigate this life, but eventually we’ll find the path that is meant for us.
Whether you want to keep a journal for growth, self-love, reconnecting with yourself, finding your light, or simply capturing your thoughts and feelings through words, Viviamo offers different styles and formats that could match any undertaking. Choose from their Belle de Jour Power Planner collection, NAVI, Everything Is Possible, Focus, Essentials, and Petit planners. Go to https://go.crazyaboutpaper.com/viviamoplanners to view their products, and power through 2021.






















-