I’m always down for a sunscreen launch and with the rainy season here and well, I now find myself dreaming of good weather. But rain or shine we can all benefit from sun protection, which is why I’m happy to share that Gluta-C has dropped three sunscreens that adapt to your routine, protect against UV rays, and is packed with all the right skincare ingredients. The Brightening Tone-Up Sunscreen (P399.75/50ml, special introductory price P319.75!) protects as well and smooths and brighten the complexion instantly. The Brightening Tinted Sunscreen (P399.75/50ml, special introductory price P319.75!) comes in two shades, Light and Medium, that doubles as sun protection and a base for a quick ready to go look.

This week's roundup has a little bit of everything: reassuring news for anyone who books their annual check-ups (or therapy sessions, we see you) at a certain beloved women's clinic, a new K-beauty mascara that promises idol-worthy lashes, some big corporate shake-ups at one of beauty's biggest conglomerates, and a birthday sale worth swinging by BGC for. Let's get into it!

Sustainability and customizability in makeup are not new concepts for GRWM Cosmetics, as seen in the Face Card Palette system launched in 2024. That system let users build their own palettes by swapping pans in and out, so you only buy the shades you'll actually use instead of a fixed set where half the pans go untouched. The brand is now applying these same concepts to lip products with the release of its first-ever refillable lipstick, just in time for GRWM's fifth anniversary. It's a practical move, too: once you have the case, you only need to repurchase the bullet, which means less packaging waste and less guilt about finishing (or not finishing) a shade.

A lot of us are still doing our makeup the way we did in our 20s, then wondering why it doesn't look the same anymore. Here's the thing. It's not you, it's your technique. Skin in your 30s is a different canvas. There's some loss of firmness, texture changes, and dullness that creeps in, so our approach has to evolve too.

Here are the ten biggest resets to make once you hit 30. Consider this your cheat sheet!

If there's a theme this week, it's beauty brands happily wandering out of their lane, and we are so here for it. Happy Skin just opened an actual cafe where your iced latte comes with skincare actives, Teviant is setting up shop in Makati (with the founder himself in attendance), and one of the world's most-followed celebrity makeup artists is bottling his signature red carpet skin. Plus, CoverGirl makes a plot twist of a pivot, and we found out what's really in Alex Gonzaga's shower. Let's get into it!

If you grew up in a Filipino household, chances are there was an aloe vera plant somewhere in the garden, and someone (usually a lola or a tita) who swore by it for everything. Sunburn? Aloe. Thinning hair? Aloe. Random rash? Aloe na lang. It's one of those remedies that has been passed down for so long that we barely question it anymore.

The nice thing is that unlike a lot of folk beauty wisdom, this one holds up reasonably well. Aloe vera has been studied for decades, and while it's not the miracle cure some TikToks make it out to be, it genuinely earns its spot in a skincare routine, especially in a climate like ours.

You know that specific joy of wandering a Japanese drugstore aisle with a shopping basket that keeps getting heavier? Manila just got its own version of that, and it's the story I've been most excited to write this week. We've also got a flexible new concealer from Issy, seven new brushes from Tillo, a refillable lipstick first from Teviant, and a Careline sale that One Piece fans will want to set alarms for. Let's get into it!

Walk down any skincare aisle right now, scroll through any brand's launch post, and you will see the same two words stamped on serums, creams, toners, and even cleansers: barrier repair. It has quietly become the label of the moment. And when a phrase shows up on that many products at once, one tends to get suspicious. Do these buzz words actually mean anything?

So let me untangle what is real here, what is just repackaged moisturizer, and how to tell which one you are actually holding.

The makeup routine that carried me through my 20s just doesn't work for my skin anymore, now that I'm 38. My skin changed, my coloring changed, and my taste is a bit more elevated though I didn’t necessarily apply it. It happened so slowly that I didn't really clock it until I woke up and realized that I looked…dated, for lack of a better term. Products that used to look fresh started settling into places they never used to. And those techniques I leaned on for years? At some point they just stopped doing me any favors. If you've felt this too, then this one's for you!

So I'm hosting our next Project Vanity Community event: an intimate, hands-on makeup workshop made for those figuring out beauty in their 30s and up. And I'll be there guiding you through the process of getting a fresh makeup look tailored for our face.

Walk into any sari-sari store, drugstore, or supermarket aisle in the Philippines and you will find them: papaya soaps, kojic soaps, glutathione soaps, all promising to whiten, brighten, lighten, and basically transform you into a different shade entirely. We have been sold the dream of fair skin for generations, and the bath soap has become one of the most accessible ways to chase it. It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, and the labels make some very big promises.

But really: can a bar of soap actually make your skin white? The short answer is no, not in the way you have been led to believe. Let me explain what is really happening to your skin when you consistently use “whitening” soaps, because the truth is more useful (and honestly more freeing) than the marketing.

Hello, ladies! It's a good week to shop Filipino, with two homegrown brands rolling out some of their most ambitious launches yet alongside a few international names worth the splurge. There's a little something for the makeup maximalists, the skincare devotees, and the fashion-forward among us. Let's get into it!

Glutathione became trendy in the Philippines almost a decade ago. Back then, the pursuit of glowing white skin was everywhere, and glutathione quickly became a go-to. Today, though, whiter skin is no longer the goal; what we want now is smoother, glowing skin that looks healthy no matter your skin tone. What many people may not realize is that glutathione is actually an antioxidant, and skin whitening was just a happy side effect that brands capitalized on back then. Plenty of oral glutathione supplements are still on the market these days, but popular Filipina icon Marian Rivera has chosen Nuwhite as her glutathione brand of choice for five years now.

One of my favorite lip tints from the Filipino beauty scene is the Happy Skin Lip Mallows Plush Matte Lip Tint (P599). I have always liked its texture, stain, and longevity. The SPF15 is a bonus for me, as are the skin-caring ingredients typical of Happy Skin formulations. I even collected as many of the mini versions as I could, especially when they went on sale. I have since thrown those out, though, as they leaked and a lot of the caps broke quite easily. If there is one thing you could complain about with this product, it would definitely be the packaging.

Today I've got two Japanese award winners worth knowing about, a Business of Fashion deep-dive into the rise of "P-beauty" that I can't stop thinking about, a homegrown brand making its first real play for men, and a new Japanese hair mist quietly landing on local shelves. A lot of it circles back to the same idea: the products winning right now are the ones built for how people actually live. Let's get into it.

It feels like a necessary rite of passage lately for a Filipino makeup brand to release their own makeup brushes, either as a collab or as its own collection. Ever Bilena did the latter with the recently released Face Wand collection of brushes to add to their existing lineup of makeup tools.

There are eight brushes in the collection to cover your entire makeup routine, all of which you can purchase separately, so it's possible to get only what you need.

Beauty brands usually celebrate milestones with a product launch, a celebrity-filled event, or a limited-edition collection. Ever Organics decided to do something a little different for its birthday this year.

Instead of putting the spotlight on itself, the homegrown Korean skincare brand spent a day at SOS Children's Village Pilipinas, bringing together volunteers, content creators, and brand ambassadors for a day centered on the children and families under the organization's care.

There are already quite a few sunscreens in the Kiehl's lineup, yet they recently added another one—one that not only protects but also corrects. It's also branded as an anti-aging sunscreen, so I'm particularly interested in how my aging skin will react to it.

The Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum SPF 50 PA++++ Facial Sunscreen (P3,000) provides high protection against UVA and UVB rays through what the brand calls a "micro-mesh filter." What makes it unique is the added Corrective Complex with Collagen Peptide Fragments, which is designed to help skin recover from the appearance of past UV damage and other signs of aging.

The fact that my first launch back after having a baby was with Kanebo, and for a collection inspired by a baby’s very first skincare routine, felt so meant to be. The last time I was with Kanebo was for the launch of their first ever body soap, and I’m so glad I got to experience firsthand how they’ve updated their bestselling day and night creams with their newest technology.

It has been one of those weeks where the beauty news cycle felt genuinely alive. There was a controversy that had the whole community in its feelings, a few launches that made me stop mid-scroll, and at least one product that I think is going to quietly become a staple for a lot of us. I also want to make space this week for a story that matters beyond the products — because sometimes what gets launched is less important than the conversation happening around it. As always, grab a coffee, get comfortable, and let's get into it.

If you've been following the EXO Planet #6 EXhOrizon Manila concert chaos (in the best way), here's something worth paying attention to: Ever Bilena is giving away VIP tickets, and the raffle closes on May 30. That's three days from now.