Even on her last trimester of prenancy, Mariel Padilla remains one of the prettiest and freshest faces on television which she admitted takes some effort to maintain. “I’m on TV everyday so it’s important that I have nice, healthy skin. Sometimes, they make it really close up in the camera and may mga ibang stuff na hindi na-ko-cover ng makeup. So it’s so important to squeeze in time, no matter how busy you are, to have a good skin regimen. It’s so important. I can’t even stress that more. I don’t even sleep with makeup on no matter how tired I am, no matter how busy I am, I always make sure that my face is clean. I allow my pores to breathe,” she shared during the Cetaphil National Healthy Skin Mission event in Makati City.

Mariel said she is extra careful with her personal products now that she is expecting a second child. “For me, it’s so important to read the label and the ingredients so I know what’s in it. Our skin it absorbs everything. Lalo na ngayon that I pregnant, feeling ko everything that I put on my skin, everything I put on my body, nakukuha din ng baby ko. So kailangan hypoallergenic kailangan walang paraben, kailangan gentle yung ginagamit ko,” she explained.

Another challenge Mariel has to deal with is pregnancy anxiety. “Of course, I think never mawawala yun in a mom. I think a mom will always have these questions. If course you’re more confident because you already have a first child pero they always say that every pregnancy is different so I’m sure my second baby is different from my baby now so I have all of these thoughts. I do have those anxieties as well,” she said.

As mommy to Isabella and wife to Robin Padilla, Mariel said she wants to maintain her healthy appearance and tries to minimize pregnancy stretch marks as much as possible. “Sabi nila the dark underarms thing happens because of the hormones but I am blessed because both of my pregnancies are girls so hindi ko na-experience yung mga dark neck. So hormones yata yun. I don’t know if you can prevent that dahil hormones yun. The stretch marks, that we can do something about. My mom has the worst stretch marks, as in scary. Like terrifying as in horror movie levels. Thank you but sorry mom, thanks for giving birth to me. But my sister also has stretch marks but she has four kids. So I was so scared. Sabi ko, ‘Naku I’m bound to have stretch marks. It was going to happen to ma.’ So I was so sure I was going to have stretch marks so what I did, nag-moisturize ako ng nag-moisturize. Kailangan elastic yung skin mo para puwede siya ma-stretch. With Isabella kasi I was on bed rest so habang nag-wa-watch ako ng TV nag-lotion ako talaga and I only have very little stretch marks and I’m so proud of that. Super konti talaga and slight because I moisturize a lot. So this time I don’t have much time to moisturize because I was taking care of my father, I still moisturized at least twice a day. Twice a day lang naman talaga yung recommended pero yung kay Isabella as in OA talaga as in every time wala akong magawa I moisturize (laughs),” she recalled.