Reporting from Blogapalooza 2013

I never knew blogging could bring so much in my life.

And by that I don’t just mean the financial gain or the freebies, loot bags or free passes I get because of my blog. There’s so much more to it than that. The reason why I started blogging was to, initially, promote an online business my friend and I put up. Eventually, my blog became bigger than our business and though the business hasn’t completely closed yet, I am focused more on my writing and blogging than it.

Starting out with a few friends from blogging I met thanks to Twitter, my circle of blogger friends and brands grew in numbers. And I am proud to say that each brand I have worked with, I have genuinely poured my love and emotions into writing about their products, services and other such related things to their businesses. I do the occasional blogging about things other than beauty and fashion but I always make sure that it is something I am genuinely interested with rather than accepting project, which (1) is not within my niche or (2) I’m not even interested or knowledgeable at.

I tried blogging about food. Man, I can’t say a shit.

I tried blogging about a cool earphone I bought... I was too scared to say some shits about it that may piss some smart-ass tech bloggers who will curse people who’d make a mistake during such things.

So, I’m sticking with where I am good at now, which is, Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle.

Being part of the Blogapalooza Community, since its first launch, has helped me create new connections to brands I am interested to working with for various blogging projects. The 1^st Blogapalooza was more into just brands presenting, not much on the interaction part, it was neatly done but didn’t fully meet its purpose; unlike the 2^nd Blogapalooza, which may be a bit crazy-looking, because of all the bloggers who have been coming in and out of the convention center, but it totally created an atmosphere for interaction, getting to know the blog and brand and just going around and choosing, which brand will fit perfectly to your blog. I must say, I only did approach brands, which I’m genuinely interested to.

During the event, I was able to meet my blogger friends, new blogger friends and new friends (not just contacts) from different brands and companies. Isn’t that awesome? I don’t know how to narrate and review the event more without showing you the pictures so, voila!

Brownbag Coffee Solutions. When I got to this booth I remember Enrico (the owner) asking me, “do you love coffee?” and I was like “I’m married to coffee!” I told him I actually prefer Arabica. Robusta tend to give me a headache at time, could be because of how far stronger it can be to Arabica? I will be blogging more about them in a separate post; but if you can’t wait, go Google them. They’re not hard to find. All I know is that I’m buying and trying their Arabica and would buy more as a gift to some family and friends who are as attached to coffee as I am.

Grab Taxi. It’s an application I was supposed to use to get a cab to SM aura; but unfortunately, my GPS was acting all nuts and I was in a hurry so I opted to just take a normal cab. If I used the Grab Taxi application, I could have had a refund of my fare. Sayang!

Gavino’s Japanese Donuts. OMG. I am definitely going to be buying a whole box of these donuts and have my mom and sisters get a taste of ‘em. It has a different feel to it upon biting and it isn’t throat-itching sweet. I will find a branch of this SOON.

Plato Wraps. I actually shared my other piece of Chunky Chicken with blogger friend, Arnel of MoneySoldiers.com, because he wasn’t able to get his free Plato Wraps. I have tried this before and. Well, not bad!

LazerXTreme. They were also in the first Blogapalooza event but I haven’t given it a try yet. Second chances rarely happen so I guess this is a sign. I’m definitely gonna drag a friend to try this out with me; but if someone would like to volunteer and get laser-killed, I mean tagged, by me, just say so. I’m not backing out! Haha!

Slenda. Okay. Slimming stuff. I don’t know how this works actually; but let’s give it a shot. I still need to lose more weight, anyway, so what’s the harm, right? Maybe I’m not just a big fan of taking in pills and the likes just to lose weight; but since everyone pretty much know about this, I guess it’s all safe no?

I have also dropped by the booth of BYS Cosmetics (had a freebie so expect a review soon about it), Chef’s Noodles (Thanks for the sushi, it was, right?), Ambient Digital (I’d be meeting up with them soon), The Mind Museum (which my sister and I will be checking out soon), PRC Inc., Richprime Global Inc. (Toys, man. Need I say more?), Tino (men’s suits and such), View Park Hotel (which followed my Twitter, Instagram and Liked my page faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpialiduuuuh whatever) and Wheatgrass International Inc. (I love wheatgrass and it’s not sarcasm. I often order one or buy the one in can at 7/11).

And I would also want to show you, guys, some Instagram photos I took related to Blogapalooza:

On the way to Blogapalooza and experiencing the annoying traffic while I’m looking at SM Aura, itself.  So near yet so far! Traffic, why you so BS at that time? Lol

Bag tag given by John Dang from Zipmatch.com; I had a good conversation with John and Rodel about various stuff that goes in Zipmatch. On the side, we were also talking about writing, blogging and real estate (which I only have a bit lesser than average knowledge of lol).

Stand up comedy act happening at Blogapalooza while Arnel (MoneySoldiers.com) and I were going around.

With Arnel Ariate of MoneySoldiers.com hanging out at the SM Aura Food court as we finish up the Sushi given by Chef’s Noodle.

With Angel Rodriguez of lilmiswonderwoman.com. It’s been a long time since I last saw her!

With Pinoy boy, Mikey Bustos. I just got to the event, saw blogger friend, Eyah of Eyahnism.com, and she just finished taking a #selfie photo with Mikey Bustos, who is going in my direction. So, I stopped him and said, “Hey can we take a picture?”

With fellow beauty bloggers!

It was, indeed, an awesome event. Kudos to WheninManila.com and OurAwesomePlanet.com for the successful event. See you on the next Blogapalooza, then?