Pond’s #SeeWhatHappens Forum (September 4, 2019)

What happens when you put together five of arguably the most beautiful women in the Philippines, or the world, or the universe rather, together? Of course, everyone stops and everyone listens.

Pond’s exactly knew that that would happen, so they gathered their ambassadresses in one stage to talk about their own doubts, fears, and how they overcame these. We all have our own dreams and aspirations, but we often let our hesitations or anxiety hold us back. As such, Pond’s held their See What Happens forum with Ylona Garcia, Heart Evangelista, Kathyrn Bernardo, Gabbi Garcia, and Nadine Lustre, for these admired women to speak about how they also have their own self-doubts like everyone, and how they choose to tackle this. The Livestream can be seen here:

Before the forum started, we got to check out what Pond’s has been up to with product offerings. Now, the product ideation really leans towards the younger crowd, with their Tone Up Cream, BB+CC cream, and face powders. Pond’s has always been the brand about the ‘may igaganda pa pala ako‘ mindset and is all about putting out products designed not to wholly alter the user, but instead help the user achieve his/her full potential.

To start the program, Dorothy Dee Ching, Unilever Vice President for Marketing (Beauty and Personal Care), spoke about how Unilever has always been a company that stands for ‘Beauty That Cares.’ Their all-encompassing mindset is to make a positive impact on people, the environment, and the causes that matter to the company.

Kristine Domingo, Pond’s Senior Brand Manager, spoke about the rationale for the campaign. They found through their research that 96% of women have held themselves back in situations, for various reasons. There’s fear of failure, self-doubt, and anxiety over meeting expectations. The biggest reason is the fear of being judged. They also learned that even the most seemingly confident women have their own hesitations and self-doubt, too. So they decided to start the conversation on this, in hopes that it will encourage women to let go of their inhibitions and to learn that self-doubt is something that’s in everyone, even in the most confident people out there.

They showed the introduction video to all of us before the ladies finally came out. So glad it’s now on YT!

And finally, one by one, the Pond’s ambassadresses were all there! It was so magical to see what’d happen when 5 extremely beautiful women came over.

The talk was like one hour long, so I won’t really be able to type down every single thing they said. Instead, I wanna share the highlights of what each ambassadress said that touched me!

Nadine Lustre

Nadine shared that she used to be so scared of failing, but without knowing what failure is, one never will know what winning actually is. I remember how she shared in her Gawad Urian thank you post on Instagram that we people are so allergic to negatives, without realizing that it’s contrast that makes the good things good. We’ll never know what good days are without bad days, what happiness is without sadness, and what success is without failure.

Heart Evangelista

Heart shared that she got to a point of almost nothing, and it was then she just focused on painting. Painting was that one thing she could name that she was doing for herself and just herself, and then she realized that when you do things for your own self, your entirety as a person changes. Your mindset, outlook, they all change.

I really was so touched by this because I also went through severe depression, and I also tried to find something which I was doing for myself and for no one else. For me, it was studying Japanese. It was something I wasn’t doing for a brand, for a boss, for my family––it was just something I liked to do…

Kathryn Bernardo

What I like the most about her mindset is that the biggest source of regret in life is not doing something. It’s not the ‘why did I do that’ but rather the ‘what if I did that’ that really bothers us many years down the line.

When she did her recent project Hello, Love, Goodbye, there were, of course, a lot of apprehensions. She wasn’t gonna do it with Daniel so for one it’s all-new, and of course, there’s also the concern of how the fans would take it. There were all the struggles with filming overseas and being homesick and so many other issues. But now, look, it’s so far the highest grossing Filipino film of all time! Kathryn shared that had she not taken on the project, it may have been the biggest regret in her life.

Ylona Garcia

It’s through this forum that I understood why so many people love Ylona!!! She doesn’t pretend to be this almighty person but is just her lovable self. If she doesn’t know the answer, she doesn’t pretend she knows, and it’s that authenticity that I loved about her.

She was asked about how she chooses courage over fear, and I loved her honesty when she answered that she herself hasn’t figured it all out yet. But despite the uncertainties, Ylona was firm to advise viewers to never compromise their dreams to the standards of society. She shared that she was at a talent school and all the other people were older than her, and during a votation of who’d be least likely to make it, all the other people wrote her name. At the age of 17, she’s already taking the showbiz industry by storm, so she’s proved her doubters wrong.

Gabbi Garcia

Gabbi shared how important a support system is in your life. I like her mindset of not doing things alone. In today’s world, while we have achieved so much connectivity with the internet, there’s a lot of feelings of loneliness. In the showbiz industry, of course, it’s a high-stress, high-pressure industry, that you’re bound to crack without a strong foundation. Of course, her advice was personified by Khalil actually being there to show moral support.

And tee hee I just wanna share some more photos from the forum:

The ladies are posed here with Benjie Yap, CEO of Unilever Philippines.

So after all this, my main takeaway is that we regret the things we didn’t do. It’s not all about crazy successes, but doing small things to help us achieve our goals and overcoming our inner demons. Then after this, let’s See What Happens.

Doll Up Mari: Top Beauty and Female Lifestyle Blogger Manila, Philippines