When you say Negros, images from Oro, Plata, Mata by Negrense filmmaker Peque Gallaga flashes to my mind. I remember the doñas playing mahjong, the promiscuity of Joel Torre’s Miguel and Cherie Gil’s Trining, the majestic house, and the vast verdant lands of Negros. When you say Negros, I remember the thin crispy layers of Napoleones and the savory chicken Bacolod. Those are the images I, a person who hasn’t been to Negros, associate to the historic province.
We all know Negros for its namit cuisine and great craftsmanship, but the 32nd Negros Trade Fair also introduces us to Negros-based skincare products.
Mamabel’s Home Garden
Mamabel’s Home Garden turned a portion of Glorietta Activity Center into a mini indoor garden filled with fruit-bearing trees and other endemic plants. If you’re not curious enough, you won’t probably find tiny bottles of skincare products in display beside luscious greens.
Mamabel’s offers tea tree essential oil, which is normally used to heal acne. Since I still have a vial of tea tree oil, I opted to get Mamabel’s gotu kola balm. It’s an unfamiliar ingredient, but I still got it anyway. Apparently, it speeds up the healing process of wounds and other skin inflammation. I’ve been using it on my active acne for three nights already. While the acne isn’t gone or dry yet, it’s definitely calmer and less red now.
Mamabel’s Home Garden. 0949-9919230
Fresh Start
Freshly cooked piaya is the first thing you’ll notice at Fresh Start’s booth, but they also offer coffee beans, sugar, and various cosmetic products. Fresh Start has organic insect repellants and soaps. But instead of getting a bar of oatmeal soap, I got their wild honey.
Pure honey is readily available in Manila, but the nice thing about Fresh Start’s honey is its well detailed label that includes the provenance. The honey they brought here is from Negros Occidental. It’s harvested by the Ata tribe. The Apis brevilligula bee species made the honey from the pollen of 11 trees. Now, this will make for a great honey mask.
Fresh Start. 09985960871
Negros Silk
Scarves from Negros Silk can be used to protect your face from the harmful rays of the sun, but they offer something that’s greater than that. On the table, bags of strange silkworm cocoon abound. At first, you’d wonder why such thing exists. Is it for ornamental use? Does it have some mystical powers? Aptly called beauty cocoon, it’s used on the face to achieve a better skin.
The cocoon is first soaked in water before you put it on your finger. Then, you rub it on your skin as if it’s a cotton ball soaked in toner. According to Dailymail, silkworm cocoon is rich in sericin, a protein that contains 18 amino acids. It’s a little weird, but it’s a popular Asian skincare item.
Negros Silk Producers Association. 0920-3285410
Ata Negritos Tribal Miracle Oil
In this Korean skincare obsessed world, Negros Trade Fair reintroduces us to skincare products concocted by Ata Negritos herbalists. This line offers various oils for various ailments including acne.
Ata Negritos Tribal Miracle Oil. 0908-8867723
The 32nd Negros Trade Fair will run until Oct. 1 at Glorietta Activity Center.
Header image courtesy of Pixabay
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