Of Freebies and Future Prizes

Goody bags from Avon and Kotex! Check out what's inside them after the jump.

The Avon paper bag contained products from the Avon Solutions Refined White collection.The complete regimen is meant to take your dull and sallow skin, throw it out the window and transform it to a healthy and glowing white complexion.

The AM Day Cream has advanced UV defense technology to protect skin from the sun's damaging UV rays, while the PM Night Cream repairs and nourishes while you sleep for a clearer and more even toned complexion. The AM Day cream and PM Night cream retail for Php450 each and can be had through your suki Avon Lady.

For faster whitening action, Avon also came up with the Solutions Refined White Foaming cream Cleanser, Toner and Spot-Removing Essence.

Regular readers of this blog are probably aware that I am on the second month of a very strict skin care regimen so I will resist the urge to try out these products by raffling them off very, very soon. But I'll be keeping the Spot-Removing Essence since I still have those stubborn post-acne marks to contend with.

Next up is the Kotex bag and inside it were boxes of Kotex Luxe Ultrathin sanitary pads, panty liners and two bags of Purity cotton balls.

I'm actually not picky with my sanitary pads and I find that sanitary pads are all basically alike, they absorb menstrual flow and you have to chuck them out after a few hours for hygienic reasons, as well as to prevent nasty stains.

But recently, I've been more "extravagant" when it comes to my panty liners. From my usual Php1 per day brand (Php18 for a pack of 20 liners), I have now upgraded to the more expensive Php2 per day brand (Php40 for a pack of 20 liners) because there really is a difference. At the end of the day, the pricier brand has thicker cotton and so it hasn't disintegrated into a clumpy mess. Also, there's no need to change liners in the middle of the day.

Let's see if there will also be a difference with the Ultrathins and its sci-fi worthy breakthrough Fusion Technology. I'm just waiting for the Red Fairy to make her monthly visit to begin this very cutting edge experiment. By the way, I'll also be giving away some boxes of Ultrathins soon (contests are love!)

But the most welcome thing that was delivered these past few weeks were my birth certificate (Php315/copy) and certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR at Php415/copy) from  E-Census.

Getting those documents were so easy. I merely filled out the forms online, printed out two copies of the Notification and paid the fees in BDO (there's also an option to pay for the documents via credit card, but you'll be charged the overseas rate which is about 3x more expensive that the usual rate). The payment was posted 2 banking days later and 2-3 days after that, I received my documents. Easy-peasy.

Services like these renew my hope in an efficient Philippines.