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2014 Dove Summit at Sofitel Philippine Plaza to campaign #RealBeauty

by - Friday, April 11, 2014

#events

If you follow me on Instagram, then you have seen some photos I posted when I attended the 2-day Dove Summit at Sofitel. People have been asking me what went down at the Summit, and today I finally had the time to sort through hundreds of photos and chose the best ones to show you!

A few days before the Summit, I received this invitation and a style guide for the summit, and of course there was only one answer: YES! I confirmed my attendance and started looking for white outfits. Yay! An excuse to shop! Ha!




On the day of the summit, I arrived just in time for check-in. After we got our keys, we were asked to gather at the Dove Pavillion where the main lounge area is. We sat there casually and was welcomed by our two lovely hosts.


Apples Aberin and Lexi Schulze were our beautiful, funny, kalog and at the same time chic hosts for the entire event. They made sure we were all comfortable, and truly, I was. Even though I only knew a handful of people at the event, I was at ease and comfortable.

There was a short welcome speech and a short introduction. Then we were asked to go up to our personal Dove Suites to freshen up and remove all of our makeup and come back to the main pavilion. Of course there were some violent reactions and some groaning but they promised to comply. I was very much OK with it, relieved actually because I myself am not really much of a makeup wearer on a daily basis. I work at shoots and in weddings bare faced, I only wear makeup during events believe it or not.


So we went up to our rooms and when I first entered my room, I was breathless. There were little personal touches everywhere that made me feel right at home. And oh! That canvas bag with the blue nylon handle? That was sent to us the day before the summit by Dove. Our initials are heat stamped on leather too! Talk about personalized right?


We also get our very own Dove-themed white and blue Havaiannas slippers!


This was the view from my balcony. I was at room 359 and I had the room all to myself! At least until that night when hubby was going to join me in my room. I wasn't used to sleeping alone anymore. Tee Hee!


We were also given all Dove products for us to use during our stay (and to keep!), I shouldn't have brought any toiletries because they thought of everything.


Our very own monogramed face towel too! Isn't that just cool?


I have heard so much positive stuff about this hair mask so I was ecstatic to have gotten one!


I love our room. It was so cozy and very cold! I rather enjoyed the 19deg temperature because it was hot those days at the Summit!


We were also given some cookies to enjoy! Talk about spoiled right? We could keep the cookie jar as well. Love it. I wasn't able to taste them though because I am not allowed sugar, but hubby almost finished the entire jar that night!


After we were refreshed and sans makeup, we gathered back to the main pavilion. Everyone was a little bit shy at first because everyone was bared and unmasked off of their makeup. But after a while, everyone started to relax a little bit.



Mian Datu-David, Unilever's Marketing Manager for Dove Skin took the floor and gave a very touching and moving talk about how only 7% of Filipinas think they are beautiful. Just 7%! Can you imagine out of 100%, just 7% think they are pretty. She also tells us that those numbers can change with our help.

Mian Datu-David, Unilever's Marketing Manager for Dove Skin
After the introductory talk about how we should change our outlook in life about what real beauty is, there was a reason why we were asked to unmask our makeup. We were surprised with a photo shoot! Four of Manila's women professional photographers were to photograph us sans makeup! For what we don't know yet. Top photographers composed of Sara Black, Pilar Tuason, G-Nie Arambulo, and Jo Ann Bitagcol.

There were 80 people to be photographed, so while we waited for our turn, we went outside the pavilion facing the ocean for some hors d'oeuvres and cocktails.


Here is my friend Shen of www.shensaddiction.com having her beautiful portrait taken by Pilar Tuason. I then headed to where Sara Black was set up so she can take my portrait. Sorry, I don't have behind-the-scene photos of that one! Hehehe...



After the photo shoot, we were asked to get ready for dinner, and come back to the Main Pavilion for dinner at 7:45PM. The dining hall was set up beautifully! Elegant and classy! My friend and blogger Erika of www.shetravelstheworld.com and I were lucky enough to be seated in front too!



While were seated, there in the big screen flashed our faces from the photo shoot. It brought tears to our eyes to see ourselves sans makeup looking radiant and beautiful.


I was so amazed how nice (awesome!) the photo turned out. Kudos to photographer Sara Black for this lovely portrait. I just looked beautiful.


Here are Apples and Lexi again welcoming us to dinner! Everyone was wearing makeup again except me. I didn't feel embarrassed or anything, I actually felt powerful because really, the talk gave me confidence to face other people without makeup. And what do you know, no one judged me.


Unilever's VP for Personal Care then welcomes us and talks more about Dove's campaign. About #RealBeauty and how all of us at the summit were the most influential women in the country to help spread the campaign for real beauty. It was such an honor to be invited to the event.

Gina Lorenzana, Unilever's VP for Personal Care



During the dinner, we were serenaded by Nicole Laurel Asensio singing pop and jazzy music. I love her voice, plus, she was just lovely!

Nicole Laurel Asensio

After dinner, we were surprised by Dove with a special AVP -they interviewed our loved ones answering this question "When is ____ her most beautiful?" and also a special message. It was very touching, imagine the hard work they put into interviewing all those people. I was just stupefied.

Other people stayed and enjoyed good company and music after the AVP, but Erika and I retired early though, it had been a long day!


DAY 2

The next day, there was yoga and swimming or whatever it is you wanted to do. I slept in and saw hubby off to go to work. I had my breakfast buffet at Spiral, and took my time dressing up for the morning activities.

At the main pavilion, we were greeted by fresh faced Apples and Mian. It was such a good morning. The pavilion was divided into 3 sections: Hair Pavilion, Deo Pavilion, and the Skin Pavilion.

Apples Aberin with Mian Datu-David, Unilever’s Marketing Manager for Skin.

So here I am at the first pavilion: HAIR. Dove is now the number one product of choice for caring for damaged hair.


Carlo Isla welcomes us and talks about the different factors in our daily lives that contribute to hair damage.

Carlo Isla, Brand Manager for Dove Hair
 He also talked about the science behind the products on how they work to repair the damage.


Forgive me, but I forgot the name of this lovely lady. She was the lady behind product development. I feel sheepish for not remembering her name.


Carlo explains that our hair is like Jenga. It has holes and are very porous that can break when left alone. We need to repair those holes and gaps to avoid damage.


Take a look at this experiment below. Hair sinks because it is damaged. You can see the hair of the model sink down to the side of the tank per frame:


Now another experiment. She is holding real hair, she then shampoos it using another brand of shampoo, rinses and blow-dries it.


The other girl is holding real hair that has been pre-washed with dove shampoo, dried, then applied with Dove's hair serum to protect it not only from heat, but from other hair damaging factors.


Now the sink-float test. The hairs were released at the same time, and you can see that the hair treated with Dove floats, while the hair that has been washed with regular shampoo sinks. That is just amazing. I have nothing else to say. LOL. I was sold! I have yet to try it for myself though.


We were then led to the DEO PAVILION. The room was just beautifully decorated. I was in awe as to how lovely is was! Can you imagine the effort they put into putting all those ribbons up there?


Neil Trinidad, the Marketing Manager for Dove Deo talks to us about confidence in raising our arms. Ha! Of course, I had the confidence to raise my arms because I was wearing sleeves. But as Filipinas, it is in our nature to be embarrassed in raising our arms. We don't have the confidence to lift our arms and show our pits!

Neil Trinidad, Unilever Marketing Manager for Dove Deo
 The Dove deo, which I am already using, is the world's number one deodorant in caring for the skin in the pits. We damage the skin each time we shave, pluck, or wax. But Dove speeds up the healing time and soothes and smoothes the area making the skin healthier and whiter.


Rowena then shows us a video on women being insecure of their pits. But with Dove, we can change those numbers and we should be able to "reach high" with confidence, even in sleeveless tops!

Rowena Lim, Regional R and D manager for Dove
Here are some slides on how Dove repairs and cares for damaged skin.




The classic variant of Dove's deodorant is what I use. I prefer stick that roll-on or spray because it is the most convenient for me.


We were given a sticker and a piece of paper to write our affirmations for this year or the years to come. A "reach high" moment that we would like to achieve in our lives. Very deep exercise but quite inspiring! Then we were asked to stick it on the ribbons, we really needed to reach high to be able to do that! It was so much fun!


The last pavilion was for the BODY/SKIN. This was my favorite pavilion because I myself am addicted to bath products specially body washes. I have used Dove body wash in the past and I loved it too!


I love how they set up everything. The "stage" looked like a talk show set up which was quite cozy and comfortable. Like a boudoir kind of feel.



Dra. Ana Palabyab talks to us about dry skin, and how skin can be repaired or be prevented from further damage. She did a very interesting talk too! I learned a lot from her.


We were divided into groups and we did a moisture test. Everyone in my group volunteered me too! This is not me though, I didn't have photos from when they were experimenting on me so I had to take someone else's photo. LOL

First, one of my hands was slathered with milk. Just regular milk and let it get absorbed by the skin. They tested the moisture and the apparatus read 57%. And then my other hand was lathered in Dove's original body wash, and the apparatus read 69%! I know... WOW.


These are the variants of Dove's body wash. I just love how we have more choices now.


After the pavilion tours, we were then instructed to go back to our rooms, pack up and check out. And then we would return back to the pavilion for the farewell lunch. I was able to check out at 1:30PM but I had to go already. So we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch and see each other again!

I hope that you guys enjoyed my post on the Dove Summit. I would like to thank my Dove family and Bridges for having me at the summit. It was definitely a new experience for me, and I had a wonderful time!


Everyone, I encourage you to take the time to watch this compelling video by DOVE. Let's all campaign for #RealBeauty







Post a #selfie and hashtag: #iambeautiful #realbeauty, because you are.

Join the campaign.





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2 comments

  1. That video is seriously an eye opener. I really love the work that Dove has been doing over the past several years. Thanks so much for sharing your experience and pictures. Looks like it was amazing.
    the-creationofbeauty.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow what an interesting talk. I think everybody was enjoyed. Presently Im using the Dove Deeply nourishing, I'm eyeing to use the Gently Exfoliating to try the result. Love the embroider/customized stuff too:)

    ReplyDelete

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