Author: Layla

Long overdue: The skincare update!

Published by Layla

I’m a woman in my thirties, and if there’s anything I am investing in other than my education, life savings, stationery (more washi tape, more joy), and makeup (soz about that), it’s skincare. For many years, I’ve changed from one product to another, to address my needs. But through the years, I’ve had my favourites, my holy grails, and my ride-or-dies. But if there’s anything that I need to have in my skincare, it’s an anti-ageing product (more on that later). So, here are my mini-product reviews on the products I use.

Quarantine Diaries 3: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Published by Layla

Hi, how are you? No, really. How are YOU? Hope you’re holding up well. I hope that your physical condition is fit as a fiddle. I hope that your mental health is just as good, you’re not climbing on the walls, that you’re not silently going mad. I wish each one of you the very best in this so-called new normal. Manila is currently on Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine. Next week, we’re transitioning into General Community Quarantine. And the thought of that…well, it can cause an anxiety attack for some. (I know it’s going to cause me an anxiety attack, for sure.)

A year on: Graduate school, impostor syndrome, and all that jazz.

Published by Layla

This time last year, I was on the phone at work, asking for the entrance exam results for graduate school admissions. At first, I thought I heard it wrong, I had to ask the admissions staff to repeat the exam result to me, and I was told, “See you at the orientation.” That felt unreal. It still felt like it. Now, here I am, in my second semester of graduate school, trying to comply with requirements despite a pandemic, sitting in front of my desk bleary-eyed, trying to think of an objective for a certain topic for a research proposal.