Hello weekend! Finally, a couple of days dedicated to binge watching our fave shows, eating way too much food, and catching up with friends, family, and the world of beauty! This week’s roundup has got the scoop on a K-beauty collab that’ll have the kid in you freaking out, makeup and skincare perfect for the gym (#fitnessgoals2019), and the launch of the Boy De Chanel campaign featuring one of our favorite oppas! We’ve also got the lowdown on why Kendall Jenner is being dragged online and Pat McGrath’s new… mascara!

We often talk about “painful” beauty treatments but there’s another aspect of pain that no one really tackles: long wait times! I consider myself a Patient Patty when it comes to waiting during treatments (my parents are doctors and I’m used to waiting around the clinics), especially since I frequently have my hair bleached and colored and that takes aaaaalllll damn day.

When I first went to Korea to study makeup, I expected to be swamped by K-Beauty brands, idol endorsements, and their collectibles. And while that was certainly true, I honestly didn’t expect for luxury Western brands to have a place of respect among my friends and makeup instructors.

For Koreans, beauty brands follow a pretty tight market classification - a pecking order, if you will. They tend to look at consumers in terms of age, and will cater very specifically to each group. Koreans have a word 대 (dae) which means “generation” and pertains to the age bracket that a person falls under: teens, twenties, and so on.

Ah, award shows - perfect fodder for commentary, shade, and (the occasional) inspiration. This year’s red carpet saw a lot of corals and nudes, which are perfectly safe but are also kinda boring. So we’ve picked out a few standouts from the bunch so you can look at pretty people who’ve really. Gone. For. It.

Living Coral blew our collective minds when it was announced as Pantone’s color of the year for 2019. It is such a beautiful color, and it’s so easy to work into our existing wardrobe! We probably already have a piece (or five) in this shade just begging to be put back into heavy rotation. Of course, makeup-wise, the color itself is quite flattering on any skin tone. I’m here to share three of the lip looks I came up with to inspire you to wear Living Coral more. Here’s the twist: I used only one lipstick shade!

When I first started to get serious with my skincare routine, one of the brands that would constantly pop up in my searches is Dear Klair’s. This Korean brand’s approach to skincare is “simple, but enough” and they encourage a gentle skincare routine that’s fuss-free yet effective. It seemed the complete opposite of the popular Korean 10-step process.

Hello, 2019!!! How has your first week been so far, PV fam? We hoped it’s been filled with nothing but good food, loads of laughs, and tons of beauty! This week’s roundup is the perfect way to celebrate the first weekend of the year as we’re talking Benefit Cosmetics newest makeup product (they haven’t launched something like this since 2014), FENTY Beauty’s epic drop, and exciting news from BYS! We also have an update on Lady Gaga’s beauty company and L’Oreal’s newest foundation! Are yah ready? Let’s go!

Whenever Althea releases exclusives, I’m always excited because they seem to marry function, form, and price points well. I was especially excited to try their new sunscreen because I didn’t want to use up my Banila Co. Hello Sunny Hydrating Sun Essence that quickly, but also hated Biore’s formulations. It all seemed perfect: petal finish, less than P500, feels like a moisturizer (and not a powder), has a cute bottle, plus it has a bunch of good reviews, too. My experience was a little different.

I’ve always been curious about Dior makeup but I’ve never tried any of their products - until recently, when they invited me to explore their newly opened boutique in Mall of Asia. This is right in between the two escalators in the Main Atrium so you can’t miss it! The space is much larger than their old one on the second floor; it’s also more inviting, with a spacious area on the side so you can get immersed in the Dior experience.

I’ll confess: sometimes I cringe when I’m complimented about my ‘Korean’ face. I appreciate the intention, but I also can’t help but want to argue about how much skill it takes and the kind of mental dissection I do to make people (myself included) achieve K-Beauty without looking too contrived.

I was reading a science-fiction novel the other day about a galactic empire that’s on the brink of collapse. The head of the empire is thrust upon the responsibility with little choice, and she expresses doubts about being able to save people in the chaos. She asked one of the characters how she always seemed so confident. The answer, “Confidence is not about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing that you can make it right.”

Happy New Year, PV readers! I know we just celebrated (and are all still recovering) Christmas but boy, does this week’s roundup have us excited for 2019! With a cult fave skincare brand landing in the PH to a supermodel’s first ever beauty campaign (you’ll never believe it’s her first!) and the perfect color changing eye shadow for that NYE party, this roundup is party perfect!

I remember being targeted by a stream of ads for sensory deprivation tanks shortly after watching Stranger Things. Marketed as the newest, hippest way to meditate and relax, it piqued my interest until I learned that each session costed $100 and up. I filed it under my mental folder of bougie treatments I can’t afford, and haven’t thought about it again until our managing editor, Den, asked me to try it some weeks back. The newly opened Saltwater Float Center in Ortigas invited us for a session and I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to access the upside down to de-stress from work.

Last January, our K-beauty chinggus were heartbroken when Laneige Philippines started holding massive sales and, eventually, closed all branches. We thought they’d be gone forever, but Laneige is officially back in SM Makati, The Beauty Source!

Vice Cosmetics is on a roll! After just releasing a powder makeup collection just a few weeks ago, this hot and local brand is ending the year with a bang by coming out with new lip kits to complete our holiday looks.

If you can recall, the brand originally launched their lip kits late last year with a tandem of a Phenomenal Matte Liquid Lipstick and matching lip liner. This time, they’ve created a Velvet Matte Lip Kit consisting of two all-new products: a Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick and a matching, retractable lip liner!

It may be a few days early but Merry Christmas, PV fam! Thank you for joining us for another insane year filled with all things beauty. As a special holiday treat for y’all, we’ve got a roundup that’s both festive and fabulous. Get ready for BECCA’s celebrity BFF collab, another FENTY Beauty shade expansion, and Huda Kattan’s new skincare line! Oh, and LUSH has found a way to make our lipstick addiction more eco-friendly. Happy reading!

One of my favorite things to do when Christmas comes is buying presents for the special people in my life. I just love the thrill of being able to find the perfect gift! One of the things I like to get for the more kikay crowd are beauty sets because of the variety of items you get to try. Need some inspo for your last minute shopping? Here are some of our Christmas gift set picks that you should definitely check out!

If you asked me what my favorite luxury brand is, I would answer Estée Lauder in a heartbeat! The Advanced Night Repair wonderfully balances my oily skin, the Double Wear foundation is one of my favorite foundations ever, and the Pure Color Love lipsticks are the perfect luxury lipsticks to start with. The bar has been set pretty high so when I started my trial of the Estée Lauder Perfectionist Pro Rapid Firm+Lift Treatment, I honestly wondered if it would live up to my expectations.

I remember a time when the thought of a Brazilian wax (or even just a bikini wax) was something of a taboo. My own mother still cringes at the thought, but those of my generation are more open about comparing notes and sharing experiences, which makes it a little less scary.

This I will tell you: yes, it is the most painful kind of waxing but it truly beats epilating (a story for another day) and shaving (which has its own slew of horror stories). A well-done wax job is fast, clean, and yields the dolphin-smooth skin that provides comfort. Horrible waxing, as you’ll find out below, may make you regret ever considering having it done in the first place.

Before I got into makeup and skincare, my first foray into beauty was actually nail polish. I grew up accompanying my mom to her weekly manicure appointments, and one of my first beauty purchases was an iridescent blue-purple polish. These days, I don’t wear polish as much as I’d like because it seems impractical with all the household chores I do, but when Thai brand Tenten sent over their limited edition holiday collection, I just could not resist playing around and giving myself an extra special mani!