‘Tis the season for getting glammed up and doing a lot of picture-taking at all the holiday parties! If you’re like me and love a good makeup moment to ensure Insta-worthy photos, you’ll wanna step it up a little and put your fiercest face on. Need some inspo? From clean and simple to full-on party mode, here are eight looks for you to try!

Last November 23, Club Clio opened a new store on the second floor Atrium of Robinsons Galleria. This isn’t any old store though - it’s the Philippine flagship store which will carry new and limited edition products first. True addicts for house brands Clio Professional, Peripera, Goodal, and Dermatory should keep this store on their radars!

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!

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.

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?

Around this time last year I was giving a talk at a Belle De Jour event. I can’t remember what the topic was exactly, but it’s somewhere along the lines of mistakes I made that brought me where I am today. (Note to self: I must share that here too!) There was a Q&A portion after the talk. Somebody asked: how does a person know what their dream is?

Over the years, preservatives have gotten such a bad rap, particularly for cosmetics. The damaging effects of parabens and formaldehyde, among others, have effectively vilified a whole ingredient component which is actually a vital element for most consumer products! Since most cosmetic products contain water (as well as other liquids and aerosols), they are highly susceptible to pathogens like bacteria and mold. If you don’t want to find funky stuff growing in your favorite moisturizer, broad-spectrum preservatives are non-negotiable.

Project Vanity has always been about discovering the best beauty products in the country. More than that, however, it’s a community where we can find find smart, amazing women to share our ideas with. When I started it out by myself ten years ago there was no indication that it would be more than just a random beauty blog at the time, but here we are. We’ve grown up together and done things that we didn’t think was possible.

Where do you shop for your beauty hauls? I honestly love the convenience that online shopping offers, but it’s definitely more fun to be able to see everything that’s available and to swatch and try the products in person! Thankfully, we are now spoiled for choice with the launch of freyja, a unique beauty experience that allows you to get the best of both worlds!

I vaguely remember her as the super maarte Emily from the GMA show T.G.I.S., and while little budding tomboy Sammi didn’t like Emily at first, she warmed up to the idea of a flamboyant, pigtailed, Taglish-speaking Anne Curtis.

Cut to 2018. Anne Curtis-Heusaff now has her own cosmetics line that gives tribute to the decade of grunge, kitsch, and butterfly clips. Apparently, Anne Curtis is so obsessed with the 90s that she created a whole collection around it!

I like to pull influences from all sorts of media, but the canon of film and TV is such a particularly great resource because it laces aesthetics with philosophies about beauty and identity. In film and TV, makeup moments say a lot about character and these moments are pretty intentional by design. We recently had a discussion about great beauty moments from film and TV in the Project Vanity Community group, and I’ve put together some our faves into this little list.

If you’re part of Facebook beauty groups or wedding planning, you may have seen the viral post that sent online beauty community into a frenzy over the weekend. Originally shared by a user named Makiko Yoshizawa, the post is a scathing review of celebrity makeup artist RB Chanco. Makiko claimed that RB was unresponsive in the months leading up to her wedding, leading her to cancel their service agreement. She also detailed how RB insisted on keeping the reservation fee despite the cancellation of the contract, which happened mere weeks before the event. The post includes screenshots of OP’s exchanges with the artist.

If you’re a member of the Project Vanity Community, you may have seen one of my (many) posts raving about the Human Nature Hydrating Face Toner. I’ve used up two big bottles of this since discovering it sometime last year, and that’s a big deal for me as someone who often has to try a lot of other products as part of my job. There was a point when I regretted sharing about it though because it was out of stock at several stores by the time I had to repurchase!

Long before I’d jumped on the K-Beauty hypetrain, I was already a big fan of The Face Shop. Their Lovely Me:Ex Angel Skin Powder Pact was my first upgrade from drugstore pressed powders (and still holds a soft spot in my heart for its finely-milled, soft-matte finish). I still hold their My Lips Eat Cherry Aqua Tint as one of the gold standards for Korean lip and cheek tints: viscous enough to not be messy and bleed into my teeth, as other, more watery tints are apt to do. I’ve grown to be such a fan of their products that, despite being on no-buy, I can’t resist at least taking a peek when I pass by their stores, excited to see what new products or deals are on offer.

Kathryn Bernardo, to me, is the epitome of gandang polbo and lip tint. While I have not followed her body of work as an actress, I am a huge fan of her face and have admired her beauty journey through the years. In many past interviews, both she and her go-to celebrity makeup artist, Denise Go-Ochoa, would emphasize how little makeup Kathryn actually wears. She prefers to wear little to no foundation and would often stress the importance of good skin. Her signature makeup look consists of dewy skin, straight brows, defined lashes, flushed cheeks, and just a hint of lip color.

When local brands claim to be local, we expect it to mean that they are proudly made in the Philippines. But this isn't always the case. Their teams and concepts originate from the Philippines but manufacturing the actual products is a different story entirely. They go to Taiwan, China, Korea, Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia to bring their concepts to life. Why is this?

I often think that we expect too much from beauty influencers. We form a bond with them as they share the innermost details of not just their skincare and makeup routines, but their lives. We believe them when they rave about a product, or discard it as not worth anybody's money. We trust them to look out for our beauty and happiness but at the end of the day, they are just normal people too. They say or do shitty things that they regret afterwards and they are just as flawed as the next person on the street - only more glamorous with the perfect cat eye, of course!