K-Beauty has taken over the local beauty scene with so many Korean brands that have washed up in Philippine shores. There is one brand, however, that many have been pining to see here and now it has finally arrived. Innisfree just opened its first branch at SM Mall of Asia and boy, is it huge!

Happy weekend, PV readers! Now I know you are all still trying to recover from the recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness, but this week’s roundup might make you want to shop just a little bit more. We’ve spotted new shades from Generation Happy Skin, a K-Beauty collab with a huge fashion house, the iconic ABH highlighter, and your new YouTube channel obsession. Plus, there’s a new celebrity makeup artist collab that got us giddy with excitement! Are you ready? Let’s go!

There was a time in my life where I went for a foot spa sesh every two weeks. It was my refuge during a particularly stressful time and in those sessions, I always felt pampered and relaxed. A staple I had then, aside from the insanely bold polish shades, was a pair of slippers from Brazilian brand, Havaianas.  The soft slippers with a ton of styles and designs to choose from thrilled the picky twenty-something me and I slowly built a small collection flip-flops.

Slippers are more than just a necessity - a well-chosen pair can also showcase your personal style! Havaianas celebrates this with the annual Make Your Own Havaianas (MYOH). Here’s a peek at my #MYOH2018 experience!

Makeup sponges are some of the most universally recognized tools in beauty. Remember your first foray into makeup? Did you immediately go hunting for a brush, or were you first acquainted with the humble sponge applicator of your powder foundation compact? Mine was the latter, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this!

As November comes to a close, this week’s roundup is making us even more excited for the Yuletide season! Start marking your calendars cause we’ve got new collections and products that are sure to make your wallets cry out for help, lol. Sorry but we’re not sorry; these goodies are bringing in some early holiday cheer!

It’s a great time to be a makeup junkie. The past few years have witnessed the birth of several new local makeup brands, and each one of them has been bringing their A-game to the table. One of these new players is Vice Cosmetics, which just launched last year. With the success of several lines of lipsticks and their first collab, Vice is upping the ante with a range of powder highlighters, blushes, and contour called the Aura Collection.

There’s a foundation war going on in drugstores right now. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but affordable foundations have gotten better this year! Big brands are finally responding to our call for long-wearing, easy-to-blend foundation that won’t cost a ton of money while still performing close to a high-end foundation. Leading the charge is the latest from Revlon, just out this month: the Colorstay Full Cover Foundation (P825 for 30ml).

My average week can get pretty intense. I get asked about how I do it all and where I find the time to run a company (with different verticals - retail, PR, media), attend speaking and hosting engagements, and still do a little sports or art in between.

When I first started seeing anti-pollution skin care products a few years back, I thought it was just another skincare gimmick - yet another “concern” concocted by the beauty biz to get people to buy new must-have products. I dismissed it as a marketing shtick targeting the urban consumer. After all, shouldn’t I care more about how smog affects my lungs and other vital organs? I already had a reliable skincare routine, so proper cleansing should remove all the grime my skin accumulates through the day.

With December fast approaching, it definitely feels like the holiday season is upon us! Have you prepped your party looks yet? Before going full on with the holiday glam, we’re taking a look at five fall makeup trends that can be easily incorporated to our FOTD repertoire. And one of the easiest ways to spice it up for our theoretical fall season? Focus on the eyes!

After the boom of clay masks late last year, I thought that sheet masks would soon lose their popularity among skincare enthusiasts. But. I. was. dead. wrong. I’ve noticed so many new sheet masks cropping on up on Watsons’ shelves, and it made me realize that what started as a K-beauty trend has found a permanent spot in our routines. It makes sense though: it’s an easy and often affordable way to indulge in 15 to 20 minutes of pampering and me-time. With so many new variants to choose from though, which one do you start with? I tried out a few so you know what to try for your next self-care sesh!

When I was first started out using makeup, I would always check out the Wet n Wild counter because it was easy to find and had budget-friendly prices. Drugstore makeup may have a reputation for having poor quality products but Wet n Wild has always impressed me with the performance of their products. Even now that I’m better versed with beauty, I keep an eye out for WnW’s latest releases and find new faves to add to my collection! The quality is comparable to high-end makeup, and it’s cruelty-free, too! If you’ve never tried anything from the brand, you’ve been missing out, so I’ve put together a wishlist of my Wet n Wild favorites that you shouldn’t sleep on.

K-beauty has given rise to some pretty strange and interesting trends like applying 7 layers of toner, dunking your face in ice water to set makeup, and the use of bubble cosmetics. The last one particularly sounds like pure skincaretainment, which simply uses carbonization to create a fun and fizzy experience. But does it actually do anything for your skin?

Ellana Cosmetics has been part of my life for almost a decade now. I remember discovering it when I was still in college (around 2008-2009) and falling in love with the fact that their mineral foundation was so pigmented and long-wearing for the price. It’s the foundation I wore on my graduation! I’ve tried so many of their products since then, and eventually, I got to meet the founder Theresa Carbonel-Buenaflor and her husband, Diego around five years ago. We’ve worked together but most important to me is that we’ve become friends who randomly hang out to catch up.

Bobbi Brown is your best bet when it comes to high quality neutrals and classic looks. We’ve done a lot of rave reviews about their products, including their Luxe Lip Colors which remain a favorite even to this day. One would think that 30 satin shades is a good number to pick from, but these tubes are so successful that Bobbi Brown added three more lines under the House of Luxe Lip Color!

Cha-ching! Welcome to sweldo weekend! We hope you saved a bit of your paycheck because this week’s roundup is about to get spendy. Tom Ford Beauty has a new foundation that’s basically flawless in a bottle, and you’ll want check out AERIN and Estee Lauder for the perfect gift set… for yourself! We’ve also got Happy Skin’s fuss-free holiday makeup collection and deets on the Filipina VS Angel who recently shared her beauty secrets with Vogue!

In the last three years, many rumors and conjecture have spawned over superfamous brands allegedly private-labeling their products, to the shock of many a beauty addict. But what is private-labeling and why are people mad about it?

I am absolutely weak for minis (see Exhibits 1, 2, and 3). Since I like lugging my beauty essentials around, collecting travel-sized skincare and makeup has always been my happy pill. Recently, I swooned over the new shades of blk Cosmetics #blktravels when I spotted them on Instagram. Paris, Los Angeles, New York, and London are bold additions to their initial collection of MLBBs and more classic hues.