Glam Gurus
Ria Romero-Santos
Ria Romero-Santos graduated with a BA in Philosophy at UP Diliman and went on to pursue her Master Of Arts in Journalism at University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She has a very curious and an over-imaginative mind and loves to chat up and meet people from all walks of life. She is also a volunteer at the I CAN SERVE foundation which is a breast cancer advocacy group in the Philippines.
Ria did and internship at Marie Claire Australia, worked for seven years for a radio network and two years for the social networking site Friendster.
She currenlty resides in Singapore with an uber supportive husband and is very excited to be a super glamommoma when the time comes!
Martine De Luna
Martine was an expat kid in her growing up years, spending her childhood and adolescence in Hong Kong and Singapore. Thanks to the British school system, Martine developed a love for writing at a young age, joining poetry contests and participating in writing projects and activities throughout her school years.
She pursued Journalism and Creative Writing studies while she spent her late teens back in Manila, the Philippines, via a distance education program from the London School of Journalism. She ended up becoming a preschool assistant teacher, and eventually conceptualized a tutorial program for elementary and high school students.
Today, Martine is a work-at-home mom and passionate blogger behind the blog, Dainty Mom, an award-winning website that won for Best Parenting and Home Blog for the 2011 Philippine Blog Awards. While she’s not blogging, Martine is busy making words awesome for her clients, who avail of her marketing writing, website and blog consulting services. She’s also an attachment parenting, homeschool and breastfeeding advocate.
Vicki Leyson-Bitanga
Vicki is first and foremost a mother to two, Christian, 5 ½ years old and Gabrielle Anya (Brielle for short), who is 2 ½ years old. She is a freelance Interior Designer, based in Manila, whose designs have been published in MYHOME magazine.
This multi-talented Glam-O-Mama is also one of the co-founders of Jellybaby, Inc, a company that imports and distributes the brand, California Baby products in the Philippines AND the President of Unimind, Inc., a real-estate leasing and sales company.
Vicki resided in the States for about 23 years, working as an Account Executive for an insurance company. The Bitanga family relocated back to Manila in 2007, for her husband’s business. Her passion for interior design resulted in them moving every year with Vicki having to remodel/redecorate each time.
Christine Amour-Levar
Mother of Yasmine, Malcolm, Louis and Angeline, Wife of Steven & Sports Editor and Marketing Consultant at Asia Pacific Publishing Singapore.
Author of The Smart Girl’s Handbook to Being MUMMYLICIOUS (launching Feb/March 2012)
Founder of Beijaflor – Brazil Fashion Boutique Singapore
Of French and Filipino descent, Christine Amour-Levar is currently based in Singapore, where she lives with her husband and four children.
She grew up between Manila, Paris and Tokyo, and has travelled extensively due to her many work commitments. Christine’s career started in Japan in Advertising, where after graduating from Sophia University in Tokyo, with a BA in Business and Economics and a minor in Japanese language, she joined the firm of McCann-Erickson as an account executive. Her experience in advertising, her language skills (she speaks six languages: French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Tagalog and conversational Portuguese) and her passion for sports consequently led her to work in marketing forNike in the United States, Latin America, France and Singapore. Upon moving to Singapore in 2005, Christine saw a gap in the market for Brazilian fashion, which soon persuaded her to leave Nike to launch Singapore’s first and only Brazilian multi-brand boutique, Beijaflor. She then successfully sold her business in 2010 to a local retail group and currently contributes articles to Harper’s Bazaar Magazine Singapore, while also working as a freelance consultant with the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Regional office.
Kristie de Groot
Giving birth to her first child this past summer, Kristie de Groot is new to the world of motherhood and Glam-O-Mamas.
A global citizen, Kristie grew up in the US, Philippines and UAE. After obtaining a degree in Mathematics in the US, her career ambitions took her to Europe and Africa where she also met the love of her life (now husband). They both share an interest in travelling, philanthropy, and sports. Their travels have taken them across the globe, literally, as they appreciate both the luxurious and the rougher, more unconventional sides of travelling.
Her husband and daughter are currently based in Cape Town, South Africa where Kristie works as a Finance professional in Africa’s energy sector. Prior to motherhood, Kristie travelled extensively between Africa, Europe and the Middle East for her corporate role. Needless to say, motherhood has taken on a special role in Kristie’s life which can’t compare to anything else in this world. Aside from her career, Kristie is branching out to entrepreneurial and creative projects which in the end, will be more fun for her and her daughter.
Angelique Villaraza Dominici
Angelique Villaraza Dominici enjoyed six years in the Marketing Division of French multinational L’Oréal Philippines. In 2006 she moved to Paris and completed a Master’s Degree in Luxury Brand Management.
She is the distributor of googoo&gaga, a brand of art-driven children’s clothing from the Philippines, which she exhibits at Playtime Paris.
Angelique lives with her husband Michel and two-year-old Giuliano in the south of France.
Lexi Schulze
 This frenetic woman wears many hats.
In the workaday world, she is both a TV host and writer… as well as a pseudo-frustrated wannabe actor, painter and dancer. In her personal life, she shifts duties between being a sister, wife, daughter, friend, sparring buddy, shoulder to cry on, annoying conscience, devil’s advocate, and pretty much whatever she needs to be to those who mean the most to her. In both these facets of Lexi’s existence, however, there is one role that never stops… she is always and forever a MOM. |
Michelle Katigbak-Alejandro
The current Editor-in-Chief of Metro Weddings Magazine and current Beauty Editor of Chalk Magazine and contributing writer to The Philippine Star, Michelle Katigbak-Alejandro is also a first time mom to baby girl Isabella. Nothing could have prepared her for the highly rewarding but often times challenging world of motherhood. It’s all so incredibly worth it though when she sees her little girl smile and laugh.
Being highly exposed to such a creative industry, Michelle looks forward to learning and growing with Isabella and hopes to instill in her a love for writing, reading, music, dance, theatre, and the arts as she grows. With both her and her husband deeply invested in their own respective artistic and creative professions, Michelle looks forward to sharing their passions with her daughter.
She is also looking forward to contributing to Glam-o-Mamas. “As a first time mom, some of the things that really helped me the most were reading about the experiences that other moms had. It really helped remind me that I am not alone and that others have gone through what I am going through. It helps to remind me that it really is a learning process,” she shares. She hopes that sharing her own experiences might be able to help future new moms as well.
Buding Aquino-Dee
LATCH co-founder Buding Aquino-Dee is an attached mother of 3 and is passionate about all things blissful. She is a thriving social entrepreneur and loves advocacy work. She is also an award winning mompreneur and Eden Designlab’s other half. An inventor and innovator of well loved mommy faves like the Corsierre(tm) and the SaYa baby carrier, she mostly caters to celebrities and rock royalty. Not! Actually, the only royalty she associates with are fellow drama queens turned dairy queens like her. She boldly believes in breastfeeding and deems this facet of motherhood as a life-altering experience.
Vicki Abary
The former Features Editor for the luxury lifestyle publication, Philippine Tatler, Vicki Abary is also mother to 6-year-old son, Enzo. Nothing in this world has prepared her for the art of negotiation that she has learnt when dealing with his antics and it continues to be a learning process.
Despite these challenges, nothing can compare to the numerous hugs and kisses and ‘you look wonderfuls’ she gets as payoff- definitely priceless. Vicki finds she gains more insight into men’s behavior as she gets to know her 6-year-old as he grow
