6. Beauty Secrets of Spain

While exploring some of Spain’s best luxury beauty products, Laura and Nalini  reveal that you don’t have to spend a fortune to stay looking good. With superb creams and cosmetics available from pharmacies, supermarkets and even chai -store ALE-HOP, the pair provide a rundown of the best bargains in the country. 

Continuing the theme of self-care, this episode’s Slice of Life segment is devoted to healthy food and drink. The ladies sample Nalini’s homemade juice and cucumber gazpacho soup, as well as knocking back shots of natural juice from Spanish brand Holistic. Meanwhile, the pair discuss multiculturalism in Spain and the bizarre reason why supermarket staff have been forced to take pineapples off the shelves at certain times of the day. 

Transcript

Introduction to Spanish Beauty

Speaker 1 0:08

when I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change, because you're amazing just the way you are. And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while because, girl, you're amazing just the way you are. Yeah, okay, so those are the lyrics from Bruno Mars just the way you are. And that is a little introduction to our episode on beauty so welcome everyone to Made in Spain.

Speaker 2 0:41

we're your co-host, Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior-Garcia, Super happy to be here with you discussing one of our favorite topics beauty, beauty products. I was just looking at this beautiful table in front of us thinking this looks like my nightstand. Yeah it does so.

Speaker 1 0:58

One of the interesting things here in Spain, as well as other European countries, is that the pharmacies are all sort of individual. You're not. You don't necessarily find chains the same way that we find chains in North America, where it's the same. You go into one drugstore pharmacy, it's the exact same thing you're finding in all of them across the country. Here it's a real. It's kind of like a treasure hunt in a way, because you'll go into a pharmacy and find a really interesting beauty product.

Speaker 2 1:27

Some are quite expensive, some are not and actually they talk about, like pharmacy, quality or pharmacy exactly great products because they're the ones that you would find, like la roche-posay, for example is a brand that you will find very commonly at pharmacies here, yeah, for example. So they do sell some of the filorga and like all these, like different brands that you won't find in other stores, but you'll find them at the pharmacy you'll find, but then you'll also find the brands that the pharmacy um they bring in or they make themselves exactly so.

Speaker 2 2:00

they even make sometimes the products, the composition from scratch, uh, the creams, and also sometimes they'll even make sometimes the products, the composition from scratch, the creams, and also sometimes they'll even make their own kind of vitamins or their own kind of like quote unquote remedies, you could say.

Speaker 1 2:14

Right, Do you want to? Should we get into the different types of all the stuff that we have here?

Spanish Pharmacy Beauty Products

Speaker 2 2:27

share with you today, with our community of the Spanish. Curious, you could say, is we wanted to share some different things that you can get here in Spain from a beauty product standpoint, be it creams, hair products, even some vitamins. That we'll get into, as well as the different price points. So we'll talk a little bit about first. We'll start, maybe, on the ones on the pharmacies and then we'll go to some of the ones that you can actually just buy at the supermarket. So maybe, nalini, if you want to open your beautiful Gema Herreria's box there I love the branding on this the branding is amazing.

Speaker 1 2:57

Now she's an actual. She's a pharmacist, I think in 2023,. She was named as one of the top beauty influencers in Spain, which I mean is. I mean that's nice, but she's a qualified pharmacist as well which?

Speaker 1 3:11

I think is more important. She's from Sevilla, educated at the University of Sevilla. She's written many books about beauty products and I think her research and her you know all of her information. It's kind of like a standard that they you know they refer to when manufacturing products. You bought me a set like this for Christmas, I think a year or two ago and.

Speaker 1 3:36

I really fell in love with it. Now, the packaging is really nice, but this, okay, for example, this set here you have an exfoliator, you have anti-aging, you have a cleaner, you have this is a sunscreen, you have a cream, a hydrating cream, and I forget which one this is.

Speaker 2 3:54

I think this may be. Oh, this is a key ring because she throws little trinkets in there. Oh yeah, I have that, yeah that's cute.

Speaker 1 4:02

And this here I oh, this is really good. This, the barrier cream. Oh, in there. Oh, yeah, I have that. Yeah, that's cute. And this here I oh, this is really good. This, uh, the barrier cream oh yeah, that was amazing, that's good, I still have some of this that I use and it's really nice under your makeup.

Speaker 1 4:12

It's a triple h um, basically hydrating yeah uh hydrating lotion triple hydration it's really nice, this one um and the one I really actually really like. She has a um facial cleanser. Yeah, that's oil-based, but I think you can use it in just with a pad or in the shower, and I like to use it in the shower because it takes off any residual makeup so this starts with the double cleansing.

Speaker 2 4:43

Yeah, and in the double cleansing you've got gel which kind of emulsifies a little bit, and then you've got an oil-based cleanser which is more, let's say, for your kind of when you've got eye makeup on or like mascara, so you kind of do the double cleansing that, I believe, is the mask.

Speaker 1 5:02

Yeah, this is very good and it comes with this little bowl and it has um this little brush, so you mix it with distilled water and you brush it on your face and you let it dry, and then I don't know what this is.

Speaker 2 5:13

These are um, oh the peeling, yeah, like a chemical peel yeah those are nice.

Speaker 1 5:19

And then this one here is the uh, it's an exfoliant, yeah, so there's, that's double exfoliation.

Speaker 2 5:26

So you start with double cleansing and the step number five actually. So it's pretty cool because she's got the little boxes on here with the different steps. Like it's step number one, step number two, step number three.

Speaker 1 5:38

I mean, the packaging is really nice, it's all labeled. The price point for this I paid about 80, I think, between anywhere from 80 to 90 euro for the whole box.

Speaker 2 5:50

And this will last you a while. So 80 to 90 euros for basically the whole routine, not a routine that you would do every day, because obviously you're not going to do a chemical peel every day. There's a couple of things in there that you'd only do like maybe once or twice a month, but I think it's a. You know it's a couple of things in there that you'd only do like maybe once or twice a month, but I think it's a. You know it's a higher end, but definitely very good pricing. And when I say higher end, it's not like super, super expensive, like, say, for example, some of the La Mer or some of these, like you know, 400 euro cream.

Speaker 2 6:17

Personally, I have a very hard time investing that kind of money in like a moisturizer, but I think this is definitely a a good price point and good products. Really, I really really like the toners that she's got in there.

Speaker 1 6:31

They do kind of make your feel, let your face feel, like super fresh and I think what you have to remember is that, I mean, it's a woman pharmacist and she's designed it with, you know, the best products that she spent years researching. So she's launched this in about 2017. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I just really like it. I'm not always married to one beauty product all the time.

Speaker 2 6:53

I'm actually terrible about that, you know my loyalty towards beauty products is about zero. Like, I always kind of like change, change, change, and I know sometimes they recommend not to do that. But I found that, you know, I kind of try something. It's like, oh, that change, and I know sometimes they recommend not to do that. But I found that, you know, I kind of try something. It's like, oh, that's nice, and you kind of go on this journey of trying all these little things. Yeah, so I think definitely we would both recommend this que may ready us, you know, great Spanish brand and, like you said, it's not like a massive corporation or anything like that. It's someone that started something very cool, you know, with very nice branding and really stands out.

Speaker 1 7:28

Yeah, really high quality products, for I mean it is a higher price point, but it's not like you said, it's not a la mer or you're not going to spend over 100 euro on it.

Gema Herrerias: Pharmacist-Created Beauty

Speaker 2 7:38

There's one Spanish brand that it's. We don't actually have any of it here because it didn't get to us on time for the episode. We don't actually have any of it here because it didn't get to us on time for the episode, but that a lot of people kind of like in our Loewe episode. I think a lot of people don't realize they're Spanish and it's a brand called Germaine de Cappuccini and I think I mentioned it to you. That price point is a little higher. Like their creams, like the basic cream sometimes goes for like 50 or 60 euros for the cream, but they are mainly focused on spas, so they do a lot of like. When you go to a spa here or to a beauty salon, a lot of times you're going to find this like Germaine de Cappuccini treatments.

Speaker 2 8:17

Now the interesting thing is Germaine de Cappuccini definitely does not sound Spanish. And I think it was very intentional from the brand. They wanted something that sounded fancy and high-end, and I think it was like a mixture of something that sounded French and Italian yeah and they're actually from Alcoy, where we went to get the olive oil from so that's just a fun little one there that I just found it like really interesting that they're not actually you know the name is not Spanish, but they're absolutely a Spanish brand and they sell in over 80 countries.

Speaker 2 8:51

Wow it's pretty, it's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 8:53

And they are great products, yeah.

Speaker 2 8:55

And I have to say that, in terms of face mask, one of the best face masks that you know I've ever tried was the Germaine de Cappuccini at a spa. So if you have the chance to try that, definitely recommend it. Okay.

Speaker 1 9:06

All right, let's get into some of the products that we have on the table and, um, okay, this is sort of I think it's kind of funny, but also I mean it's interesting because I definitely enjoy Mercadona products. Okay.

Speaker 2 9:21

So let's talk a little bit, just for some context for our audience, because a lot of people that are not from Spain or even from the Valencian community.

Speaker 2 9:31

Although Mercadona is national, you know, it really is from the Valencian community, and then it started getting bigger than that. So Mercadona is very unique supermarket we were trying to think about the other day. What do you compare it to Like? Do you compare it to a Walmart? No, because Walmart is like huge and has got everything, you know. Do you compare it to a kind of little store? No, but it's very unique. They have almost like a system that they figured out where most of the things that they sell they produce under their brand names not everything, but most of the things that they sell, most of them and you go in there for specific things. But it is an extremely popular supermarket here.

Speaker 1 10:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:12

A few years ago they started doing beauty products. Yeah, and you know I have to say that sometimes it's not even the price point. I just really like some of their stuff and some of their stuff is good, yeah, and some of their stuff. I stuff is good, yeah, and some of their stuff I actually use it on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 10:28

Me too.

Speaker 2 10:29

Now the fun thing if you look it up on social media as well and we'll probably do a challenge around that that you can check out on socials is that they have a lot of what they call dupes.

Speaker 1 10:41

Is that how you say it?

Speaker 2 10:42

Yeah, so I think they are the masters of copying without infringing copyright, or whatever you want to call it, because they um like, for example, charlotte tilbury is a very high-end makeup brand I use her um the bronzer lovely products, right, but a charlotte tilbury highlighter or a bronzer can come in at 50 plus. Yeah, it is a very expensive brand. So I saw on tiktok, all platforms. The one that we have here, which is the blush, is a kind of dupe from the.

Speaker 1 11:15

Charlotte.

Speaker 2 11:16

Tilbury. Yeah, and this is a five euros, exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 11:20

So you know, and it's actually really nice. No, this is the thing you can't. Um, I don't know you, you, you can't beat it. You can't beat their prices. They have some really good stuff. Okay, I'm going to open this Now.

Speaker 2 11:32

the legend is that. The kind of urban legend is that and I don't know if this is true they do produce and manufacture a lot of their beauty products in the same factory as, say, for example, garnier. So you know you're getting the quality of like a Garnier a much, much lower price point listen.

Speaker 1 11:51

I want to say that I feel like beauty products come out of a few manufacturing places and are just um, I mean, I don't know that for a fact, but I think we're very um, we're brand oriented we're brand oriented, it looks really pretty. I mean you get, you go in there and you just think, but when you go in Mercadona you think, oh it's, you know, supermarket, it's a supermarket, supermarket products. But they're really, they're really very nice and I think they've upped their packaging in the last few.

Speaker 2 12:21

Couple of years, the packaging has definitely gone up, sorry. The other one, that's an interesting, also so-called dupe from Mercadona, is they have the. What do you call the like concealer, slash, highlighter? Right, there's one that the they, they. Even the packaging looks a little bit like the yves saint laurent look at it.

Speaker 1 12:40

Oh, I know it's so pretty. It's so pretty. That's just for, like your face, like you just put it, like a little sparkle, isn't it pretty? It's beautiful.

Speaker 2 12:50

Yeah, exactly. And how much did this one cost? Five euro, yeah, it's like that price point there is very normal. So a couple of the ones we've got here, so this one, I think, is a life savior. This is the repair and nutrition for the hair, so you kind of shake it and then you just spray it. After you know, you come out of the shower and for me, I have super tangly hair this will actually allow you to detangle you like that one, this, a couple of people that I know as well, friends, they will swear by this.

Speaker 1 13:20

This is the um, the, the makeup remover yeah, this is good, this is a good one this is for when you have like a really waterproof mascara that you cannot take off with anything.

Speaker 2 13:31

This stuff will actually take it away. So this is like their, their pink packaging there if you happen to visit a mercadona in the next little while they've, or if you have a spanish friend that can send it to you, because I actually have quite a few friends in the us that get people from here to send it to them this is their new color, this green, this sort of it's not minty green, but those are their new brushes and that set cost uh six euro.

Speaker 1 13:58

Look at these like they're really nice for six euro how look at how soft those? Are yeah okay now look, these were some of the um. For the eye makeup yeah, and this is an older, they're a bit older. This is the pink. But for the eye makeup yeah, and this is an older, they're a bit older. This is the pink. But this here is kylie jenner no way let's see, so that's her lip liner, okay these two are her lip liners yes but it's the same yeah look at it.

Speaker 2 14:21

Yeah, I know, that's what I'm saying. They are the masters of the dupe.

Speaker 1 14:25

It's like market I mean, I understand they're two different products, but tell me this didn't come out of the same factory. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 14:30

Or the same marketing you know, yeah. So have you tried this one, that one? No, it's that one. Okay, try this on your hand. So, this is their kind of serum. Yeah, with the micro capsules. How good does that feel? Oh, it feels really nice. I know this is like day and night. Yeah, it's really really good. And then the one that I think is like a absolute must is corrector, or the hydrovital, the concealer. So this is for under eyes yeah it's super, super good.

Mercadona Beauty Products and Dupes

Speaker 2 15:01

So, and and this one, basically what I do with this is I use it as the foundation as well, so I have two different tones yeah, yeah and then I use like a lighter one for under the eyes and then use the rest for like the foundation. It's a fantastic uh product. So this one here, which is a hydrovital concealer, and the blush, uh, that comes in like the with a little stick oh, that's nice this is kind of uh, two of my favorite ones from mercadona this one I did um.

Speaker 2 15:31

This is the eye cream, which is I think pretty good, and the eye cream is great and yeah, by the way, if you keep this one in the refrigerator, yeah, like you know, because the little end part- is metal, yeah and you know it kind of because it's cool. It also kind of helps to depuff the sun is a lip, just a lip gloss.

Speaker 1 15:51

I bought, which I also from mercadona.

Speaker 2 15:53

Yeah, I couldn't resist and remember one time we were at your house and we were talking about something and you're like, oh, so tell me what's this. And you're like, oh, this is chanel. And then you kind of pull something out and said this is mercadona I was like that's what I'm saying people. It's like no I remember you.

Speaker 1 16:08

You're like oh, I really like your makeup and I said oh, it's Chanel and Mercadona. Mercadona the art of combination, and that I picked up that vitamin c cream which I I never tried before, but, um, what's the percentage on it? So this is a 50 plus.

Speaker 2 16:25

uh, meaning like uh, I'm guessing this, oh yeah, so this is a sunscreen. Yeah, 50 plus.

Speaker 1 16:30

Yeah, and it has. I mean, I think I paid under 10 euro for that, this one.

Speaker 2 16:34

Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. So you can't really beat it. And then you've got this one, which is a?

Speaker 1 16:41

Oh, I like that. I use that in the shower.

Speaker 2 16:43

Exfoliant mask with white mud.

Speaker 1 16:46

Yes, yeah, I love mod. Yes, yeah, I love it. It's nice after. Actually, this is my routine I use this one, the higher end one, to clean the eye makeup, and then I use that after to give a good scrub.

Speaker 2 16:58

So before we go to ala hop and we talk a little bit about that, I have to bring up the elephant in the room yeah the mercadona pineapple, pineapple, the pineapple moment.

Speaker 2 17:09

So we were thinking like, do we talk about this, do we not? I mean, we actually went to Mercadona the other day and Nalini said there are no pineapples. I'm like please don't tell me to stop selling pineapples because of what happened. So I think they have, maybe they have. So give you some background. I think, uh, obviously, uh, it's hard to date. Uh, you know, I don't have that challenge, neither does Nalini. But for some people who you know are trying to date and the dating apps are not working for them somehow and I don't even know how this came about Some people started going to Mercadona at a particular hour, which I believe was about 7 pm.

Speaker 1 17:49

Yes.

Speaker 2 17:49

And they would put a pineapple in their trolley as a sign that they're single.

Speaker 2 17:56

They're single and ready to mingle. Yeah, so, and I think, depending on how you put the pineapple, it kind of signaled what you were interested in. Oh, really, like again. I think some people kind of this got uh quite elaborate at one point. But the point is that you know people were going to the supermarket and this was like okay, you put a pineapple in your trolley, you walk around and it's signaling to other people in the supermarket that you are interested in meeting people you know some?

Speaker 1 18:24

okay, I have. No, I'm not normally in a supermarket at seven, but something like that would happen to me, where I would not know about this and have a pineapple in the cart and then some guys coming up to you like yeah, I'm kind of blinking. Yeah, yeah, and it caused an argument.

Speaker 2 18:39

So this got so out of control that I saw videos of extra security having to be put in certain Mercadona's because people were going to the supermarket without shopping for anything and just walking around with a pineapple and then putting the pineapple back. It's like, come on, people at least buy the pineapple.

Speaker 1 19:00

So it was I messaged when I went to pick up the stuff for the podcast I, you know, I went in and I'm just looking and stuff. And then I went to the center section because we made a joke that we would try this pineapple nonsense. Just go at seven and see what happens if people are actually walking around, I mean I think it's a bit late now in the in the game I think it's kind of died down.

Speaker 2 19:23

But if you are no pineapples, if you're none, if you're listening to this and you tried the pineapple thing, if it worked for you, if it, it didn't leave a comment. We are very interested to know.

Speaker 1 19:34

Well this Mercadona. I think they've stopped selling it. And then I looked on just to see if, what, if? This is a thing. Apparently some of the stores remove the pineapples a few hours before the witching hour of seven yeah, so that if you go in, I guess you're disappointed, which I think is actually really terrible because it's a listen.

Speaker 2 19:57

It's kind of a funny thing to get people in your store keep doing it and if you are, you know, at least just buy the pineapple, yeah that's the only thing I would say give them a break okay, so that's about mercadona. Let's talk a little bit about alejop oh, alejop, yeah, which they? Uh, it's from gato de gorgos, gata de gorgos, yes which I don't even know where that name comes from, but it's a little town close to here yeah where traditionally there's a lot of baskets made.

Speaker 2 20:22

Yes, and it's a cute little furniture as well, they make like little bits and pieces. But there's this store around Spain called Alahop that sells the weirdest collection of things you can imagine. Yeah, you will always leave there with something that you don't really need, but they do have a bunch of stuff that is quite cool.

Speaker 1 20:40

It's cool and, if you, the first time I was here and I saw an Alahop.

Speaker 2 20:55

It's cool and, if you, the first time I was here and I saw an alley up, I honestly thought it was maybe from a different country and apparently this is to make your nose thinner, so supposedly it's a nose massager. Oh, so you kind of like rub it here and it's supposed to try and make your nose thinner. We've got this. I picked this up.

Speaker 1 21:15

Is there a scrubber, or did you? Yes, oh, there is a scrubber. By the way, I think it's like three euro. It's really good.

Speaker 2 21:20

Yeah, so you kind of put your little soap in there. Yeah and just go to town.

Speaker 1 21:24

Yeah, so you can use it with some of the exfoliant products and these are the little eye patches, the eye patches that you can actually put in the freezer and then you put them on. These are nice.

Speaker 2 21:33

So they've got all the little gimmicks for you know, your gua sha's and rollers. There's so many little yeah. So, Alahop, if you're in spain, so a few little places that we mentioned that you definitely may want to check out mercadona for your cheap beauty products and for pineapple hour. Uh, for your like the little stuff you want to use yeah like for like massagers and that kind of thing. And then you have the pharmacies, uh, for like gemerarias and some of the kind of higher end and also really interesting products too.

Speaker 1 22:09

And again when you go into any of these pharmacies, chances are you'll meet a pharmacist or an assistant who will be more than happy to talk to you about the products I actually find.

Speaker 2 22:21

sometimes and maybe this is not right, but sometimes I find the pharmacists are more knowledgeable or more willing to share their knowledge than doctors in some cases. So, I'll go in with like a prescription for a dermatology thing and the pharmacist will go oh, that's like a lot of this Like, why don't you just try? And a lot of times you know, obviously they're licensed pharmacists, they know the products that they're selling very well. So absolutely, they know the products that they're selling very well, so absolutely.

Speaker 1 22:45

They're very helpful.

Speaker 2 22:46

If you're here and you need some advice on either, you know, like the beauty products, or even vitamins or nutrition and stuff. The pharmacists here are really great, fun way to kill a couple hours.

Speaker 1 23:05

Should we?

Speaker 2 23:06

talk about our slice of life today.

Speaker 1 23:08

Oh, yes, so we thought that it would be interesting to just maybe do a bit of a pivot that this is Chinese New Year, so happy.

Speaker 2 23:17

Lunar New Year and I believe the right thing to say at this time is I hope this year brings you great fortune and prosperity.

Speaker 1 23:26

Yeah, very, very well said. It is the year of the snake. We are not snakes. No, we're not. Do you know what's funny with the horoscopes in the Chinese zodiac? It's that there's some that are really cool.

Speaker 2 23:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:43

Okay, so my son. He is a dragon. Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 2 23:45

Yeah, okay, so my son one of my um, he is a dragon.

Speaker 1 23:47

Oh, last year, yeah, last year was year of the dragon, so that I think that's cool. You have that. Um, my other son, he's a pig, like I. There's no other way to say it. It's the year of the pig, and then my other son is a rooster yes yeah, okay, so and my husband is a monkey okay yeah, like I don't know, you can't.

Speaker 2 24:09

There's a few that are cool yeah, it's like I'd rather be a snake than an ox, but I'm an ox, so yeah so for our slice of life today, celebrating, that is chinese new year, and also celebrating the huge asian community that lives here in spain. So we wanted to we'll read our horoscopes in a moment but we also wanted to share something quite interesting. So this year was one of the first years that valencia actually celebrated chinese new year, but in a big way yeah so they had, like you know, the dragons on the street.

Speaker 2 24:43

They had a Chinese market. So watch out for this. If you're in Spain on Chinese New Year over the next couple of years, they are going to continue to do this. And also, I would say, if you're in Valencia, fantastic Korean restaurants, japanese, chinese, like everything, lots of. And there's even a noodle place where the lady she makes like seven different kinds of noodles. They're making them fresh and I think the each bowl is like under 10 euros for, like fresh noodles, fresh soup. Fantastic. So definitely some really great asian restaurants here and and really recommend doing a little bit of research because you don't want to end up anywhere, but you know, just making sure that you check it out.

Speaker 1 25:27

I think there's a lot more choice now Barcelona, they have a huge Lunar New Year celebration, and Madrid as well. So it's nice to see that different cultural traditions and, you know, celebrations are here, because I come from a city, you know, in Toronto, where it is so multicultural and every culture is celebrated in their own way, whether it's through the city or, you know, their own communities have events, but they're really really big events. Which I think is beautiful.

Speaker 1 25:59

It's I mean it's, it's great. So, uh, I think European countries tend to be a little bit different in that, first of all, they're older. They have a longer history. There's been less, More traditional. More traditional and less sort of immigration, the way North America's had immigration. Yes, so the fact that now there are, you know, you're seeing it it's just more common. It's really nice. And Alicante, by the way, has a very diverse.

Speaker 1 26:27

It's a very Spanish town, but or city, but it's still hugely diverse yeah, I mean you walk down a few streets and you'll find a pretty authentic Japanese restaurant yes um, and I just saw the other day, there is a uh, a Japanese market oh yeah, yeah, yeah, like a little supermarket.

Speaker 2 26:44

I've been there. Yeah, like talk about, you know, killing time.

Speaker 1 26:48

I mean, I love walking around those aisles Awesome.

Speaker 2 26:50

So let's do our horoscope. Shall I read yours?

Speaker 1 26:53

Sure, all right. So ox is a lucky sign for 2025,. Laura, you are stable and steady, and oxen, which is the plural for ox, will see growth in creativity, spirituality, networking and investments. It says here that you have traits of being hardworking, you're loyal and you're powerful. Some challenges you may have, some in the workplace, you need to rely on one's personal resources to overcome them. Okay, and if you've been together with your partner for a long time, work on your partnership.

Speaker 2 27:31

Okay, note taken.

Speaker 1 27:34

That's what it says for you.

Alahop and Beauty Gadgets

Speaker 2 27:35

All right, let's talk about the pig. This year, it's the pig's turn to clash with Tai Sui, meaning more changes and barriers could pop up throughout the year. They have a movement star hovering over them, indicating big changes and shifts. So don't stay still. Okay, keep yourself busy and travel a lot. Amen. For pigs planning to move homes or workplaces, note that 2025 will be an ideal year to do so. Although a year tends to be more disruptive if it clashes with taisui, it may present an opportunity. Financially. Changes will be very positive, so don't fear them. It'll be a good year to explore new opportunities and welcome new experiences. It represents the old being replaced by the new. Because pigs predominantly embody the water element, with some wood, spring and summer 2025 will align favorably with them. Okay, she recommends pigs make any significant decisions during those two seasons, so any significant decision you need to make wait till spring or summer okay, there you go.

Speaker 1 28:47

At the end of it, I'm still a pig but a happy one, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 28:53

So now in our slice of life, we're going to change directions just so that it doesn't look like we're promoting alcohol in every single episode so we have some healthy stuff that we wanted to share with you today in our slice of life. Yes, so first we have this beautiful juice with which wonderful Nalini has made here. So maybe, nalini, do you want to tell our audience what's in this.

Speaker 1 29:18

I like to make these sort of of homemade juices. Um, this is very simple. It's beets with um turmeric and some oranges and raspberries say that again. Beet with turmeric, turmeric, raspberries and fresh oranges oh wow. So I usually just blend it and then strain it like double strain it.

Speaker 2 29:44

Um, it's yeah, normally I'd have some in the morning and if you want to feel like a vampire, it's a perfect drink.

Speaker 1 29:49

Yeah what do you think?

Speaker 2 29:55

it's nice right it's super nice, so refreshing yeah, I didn't put um ginger this time.

Speaker 1 30:01

I like it yeah.

Speaker 2 30:05

Nice, super nice, awesome. And then we have these shots yeah, okay, I'm going to get this one.

Speaker 1 30:13

We also have some gazpacho.

Speaker 2 30:15

Yes, we do, yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1 30:20

That's okay, this is your shot. Wait, can I see what your box says?

Speaker 2 30:24

I don't know if it's the same one or not this is the only difference between mine and yours is yours says next and mine doesn't. Oh, mine just says woman, yours says next.

Speaker 2 30:36

So I'll share a little bit about why I started, maybe, drinking these yeah so I felt like last year, my hair, uh, I was seeing more uh on the brush that I was comfortable with, I would say, and I started getting bombarded on instagram is the way I would describe it uh, about this brand called holistic. It turns out is a spanish brand and it turns out that you know this has like everything everything you can imagine in it, supposedly good for hair growth.

Chinese New Year and Slice of Life

Speaker 2 31:11

I have been drinking this now for over three months and I have seen, uh, actually a big improvement in my hair growth, but also in volume and like just the texture of my hair. And again I want to remind everybody we are not sponsored by any of these brands. We're just sharing what you know we think people will actually like and enjoy that we enjoy. And what was the turning point for me to actually buy this was I walked into a pharmacy and there it was so I asked the pharmacist hey, is this for real, or is instagram just trying to brainwash me?

Speaker 2 31:45

and she said no, actually it's really good, like we have done a deep dive on it and the product is very, very good. It's got all kinds of stuff in it yeah, it's real.

Speaker 1 31:55

Yeah, I think, but they're both very similar yeah, it's strong I mean, the taste is not. I drink mine first thing in the morning. Um, and I've just started, you bought it for me this week. Laura gave it to me as a present, and the first day I drank it, I felt like I had more energy. Well, it's got.

Speaker 2 32:13

Like I said, it's got a bunch of vitamins in it. Again, I'm just reading some off. It's like vitamin C, a, d3, folic acid, biotin, zinc. So you know it can't be bad for you, and it's. It's actually taking off uh, as, a, as a, and then finally what we have is a gazpacho, so kind of going on our kind of healthy uh route this time not cake and olives, and alcohol. So this one is, uh, cucumber gazpacho. It's better now, so good. So can you tell our audience what you put in the gazpacho it's?

Speaker 1 32:52

I mean super simple and I know it's not something you would normally have in the sort of colder months. But to be honest, we've had some decent weather. In the last little bit I use Spanish cucumbers. It's very simple. I mean it's Spanish, you can use, uh, the other cucumber if you want, but I wanted to keep it sort of as local as I could I use that?

Speaker 1 33:13

Um, it's a little clove of garlic. I put a little bit of broth vegetable broth in it, a bit of yogurt, greek yogurt, to thicken it up. And, oh, I put um one of those it's called in the supermarket. The translation would be black tomato. But the darker kind of green tomato, just for something I thought would give it some color, that's it, and you just blend it and then have it there's also some really cool gazpacho recipes that you could check out with watermelon too, for the summer months those are really good.

Speaker 1 33:45

So just something fresh and clean and for sure.

Speaker 2 33:48

So we brought you a healthy episode today with lots of beauty products again, lots of different things to check out. We'll leave references to the different brands on social, so in case you want to look for them, please leave us your comments, your reviews, especially if you've tried the pineapple hour. We are super interested to know what the outcome of that was, uh, really happy, so we're gonna end with our phrase of the day this is where I need the yeah, this is where you need a little bit of all right.

Speaker 2 34:20

So this one is one that I actually love to sometimes use, because it is very kind of applicable, because sometimes I do think that, you know, there are moments where I think it's definitely a good idea to keep this in mind. So the phrase is en boca cerrada, okay, en boca cerrada, close your mouth. No entran moscas.

Speaker 1 34:45

Do not let the flies in Close your mouth. No entran moscas. Do not let the flies in Close your mouth. Don't let the flies in.

Speaker 2 34:48

So if your mouth is shut, no flies will enter.

Speaker 1 34:53

Okay, I feel I should use that one.

Speaker 2 34:58

What do you think that means?

Speaker 1 34:59

It means you're just too not talkative. But stop running your mouth.

Speaker 2 35:05

Sometimes it's wiser to shut up. That's like sometimes it's wiser to say nothing all right. Well, that's a wrap for our first season thank you very much for those of you that accompanied on this journey, and we are so looking forward to season two, where we're actually going to be taking a trip down south to the town of where a lot of the very high end brands make their handbags, and we'll also be talking about shoe manufacturing here in Spain.

Speaker 2 35:35

Can't wait to be with you again. Please leave your comments and thank you for being part of our community. Cheers, cheers, cheers.