Beautypreneur PH | Waves, Wis­dom, and New Begin­nings | Inquirer – Anew shift in my ener­getic field has set my life course in the right dir­ec­tion. Thanks to my three-week vaca­tion in Aus­tralia, I have gained so much clar­ity after being in sev­eral years of heal­ing. Some­how, being in the Land Down Under, where I was able to surf, enjoy the beach, and have hours of med­it­a­tion, has truly awakened my inner peace and joy.

Surf­ing Through Life

Surf­ing has taught me so many life les­sons. We don’t have to feel frus­trated if we miss those per­fect waves. The ocean will deliver and con­tinue to deliver all dif­fer­ent kinds of waves. The import­ant thing is not to dwell on what has passed; oth­er­wise, we will miss what’s still to come.

My fave surfer daugh­ter, Jordan Pri­eto, encour­aged me to try surf­ing in Siar­gao before, and I was so glad we got to do it together in the Gold Coast, too.

Just like in facing life’s tri­als, in surf­ing, we need patience, determ­in­a­tion, and resi­li­ence. I asked sev­eral friends who have been in sim­ilar life chal­lenges as me, and they all agree that after endur­ing much pain, we needed to find and develop our inner strength, so that we could get up and move for­ward.

For one, fel­low fash­ionista Salome Uy shares that she is done feel­ing guilty for not being nice to people who don’t deserve her friend­ship. She is hap­pily liv­ing her best life.

And I am grate­ful to be sur­roun­ded by empowered moth­ers who con­tinue to bal­ance all the roles they play, and still keep self-love as a pri­or­ity.

Find­ing Hope at The Hope Gala

Since I was away on hol­i­day, I missed so many events in Manila this month. One of those was the latest EPCALM event last May 17. The EPCALM Adult Leuk­emia Found­a­tion of the Phil­ip­pines suc­cess­fully staged its land­mark bene­fit din­ner-con­cert, “The Hope Gala 2026,” at Sol­aire Resort North, bring­ing together top enter­tain­ment per­son­al­it­ies, phil­an­throp­ists, and advoc­ates in sup­port of adult leuk­emia patients.

The sold-out event fea­tured inspir­ing per­form­ances from Mar­tin Niev­era, Jes­sica Sanc­hez, Pops Fernan­dez, Vina Mor­ales, and Jed Madela. PR guru Sunny Ku got all these tal­ents to share their time for a super worthy cause.

One of the even­ing’s most emo­tional high­lights came when leuk­emia patients ser­en­aded Niev­era with his hit song “You Are My Song” as a trib­ute to his long­stand­ing sup­port for the found­a­tion.

Hos­ted in part by Boy Abunda, the gala also spot­lighted EPCALM’s 21-year mis­sion of provid­ing med­ical, fin­an­cial, and emo­tional sup­port to adult leuk­emia patients and their fam­il­ies. Pro­ceeds from the event will help fund EPCALM’s patient assist­ance pro­grams, coun­sel­ing ini­ti­at­ives, and the EPCALM House facil­ity for tran­si­ent patients in New Manila.

Foun­ded over two dec­ades ago, EPCALM remains the coun­try’s only non­profit ded­ic­ated spe­cific­ally to adult leuk­emia sup­port and care.

A Thriv­ing Fash­ion Scene: Fer­ragamo and Maje

Another event I was sad to miss was the launch of Fer­ragamo’s latest col­lec­tion. This clas­sic brand is so time­less, and brings its own unique twist to “tra­di­tion into mod­ern­ity.”

No doubt the event was spec­tac­u­lar, as Fer­ragamo truly has a keen eye for aes­thet­ics. Two years ago, Fer­ragamo’s Green­belt 4 boutique reopened with a new 190-sqm space, metic­u­lously craf­ted to blend excel­lence and innov­a­tion. With a refreshed concept, the interior design incor­por­ates travertine, wal­nut, boucle fab­rics, and bronze accents, cre­at­ing a mod­ern and soph­ist­ic­ated ambi­ance. The over­all space show­cases a range of men’s and women’s cat­egor­ies, includ­ing iconic shoes, belts, bags, and small leather accessor­ies.

The recent Fer­ragamo event was atten­ded by my good friends, Drs. Vicki Belo and Hay­den Kho. It’s always a fun and laughter-filled time hanging out with them and, of course, shop­ping together! Belated happy birth­day to Hay­den, who just cel­eb­rated his birth­day last Wed­nes­day.

The fash­ion scene has really been thriv­ing in Manila. Paris sets the scene for Maje’s Spring/Sum­mer 2026 cam­paign, unfold­ing against a min­im­al­ist, raw back­drop, where real moments take cen­ter stage. Drawn from fash­ion, art, music, and night­life, this mul­ti­fa­ceted com­munity is rede­fin­ing the arche­type of the mod­ern Par­is­i­enne and expand­ing her cul­tural land­scape.

Think cool, con­fid­ent ward­robe that moves between airy roman­ti­cism and naut­ical inspir­a­tion.

In the Phil­ip­pines, both Fer­ragamo and Maje are exclus­ively dis­trib­uted by Stores Spe­cial­ists, Inc., or SSI. Fer­ragamo is loc­ated at Green­belt 4, Rus­tan’s Shangri-La, and Rus­tan’s Makati. Shop Fer­ragamo online at trunc.ph and rus­tans.com. Maje is loc­ated at Cent­ral Square in Bon­ifa­cio High Street Cent­ral, Green­belt 5, and Rus­tan’s Makati. Visit www.ssilife.com. ph for both Fer­ragamo and Maje brands.

Les­sons From the Land Down Under

It’s no news to any­one that I am an avid shop­per. While my trip to Aus­tralia was filled with shop­ping galore, it was also a magical time to reset my inner com­pass and regain my foot­ing. Each day there, I went to mass, walked around the neigh­bor­hood, prac­ticed morn­ing med­it­a­tions, and wrote in my journal.

This con­scien­tious time away from my phone and “doom­scrolling” helped me remem­ber how exactly I want to spend my time and this life.

While 21 days won’t magic­ally erase a habit, it’s enough to break the auto­pi­lot loop and build something new in its place. But pos­it­ive change won’t just magic­ally find us one day. We won’t sud­denly wake up to a suc­cess­ful busi­ness, a dream pod­cast, or a health­ier body. It is up to us to show up every day and do the work, even imper­fectly. Or rather, espe­cially imper­fectly.

The goal is con­sist­ency, not per­fec­tion. Even tak­ing baby steps for­ward is bet­ter than stag­na­tion. And the real shift hap­pens when we have a clear vis­ion of the life we want to lead, and do something each day that will get us there. This is what it means to be the best ver­sion of ourselves.

Learn­ing to surf taught me all this. Any­one who has tried to bal­ance on a mov­ing board can tell you that it’s really tough. You fall a lot. But con­stantly try­ing again and again will get you closer to being bet­ter than just sit­ting on the beach wish­ing you were good. So we must keep try­ing!

With my new chapter so clear, I am in my calm, stable life era. I am finally in con­trol and happy to see this bet­ter shift in all aspects of my life. And all I needed to do was catch some waves!

Watch beautypreneur Nikki Tang’s interview on TBM Insights. To learn more about Beautypreneur PH, check out Ms. Nikki Tang.