Skincare Claire Reyes Skincare Claire Reyes

Mist or Miss? The lowdown on the safety of spray-on sunscreen

Since SPF is one of the basic tenets of skincare, it’s no surprise that sunscreen is available in a LOT of forms. In the sea of creams, lotions, serums, sticks, and gels, spray-on aerosol sunscreens have become a popular choice. And the appeal is understandable: it’s lightweight on the skin, spill-proof, and easy to use. BUT is it all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s discuss possible issues with aerosol sunscreens, and what we can do to fix them.

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Lips Gett Baladad Lips Gett Baladad

Here's a three-step skincare routine - this time for your lips!

When it comes to beauty products, it’s lipstick that always makes me go weak in the knees. I had a phase of obsessing over 70s pale nude matte lips a la Anna Karina in Une Femme est une Femme. I’ve tried to recreate Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s dark glossy lips moment. I double take whenever I spot a lip in bright tangerines, Peggy Carter reds, and anything rosey, regardless of color nuance or finish.

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Beauty News Karla Aguas Beauty News Karla Aguas

Beauty Roundup: A new face for Estee Lauder PH, Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics, and a multi-billion $$$ acquisition

It looks like rain isn’t the only thing pouring in this week. The beauty world has got a ton of new releases, exciting launches, and epic teasers that’ll have you curled up into a ball of joy while sipping on some drama-free tea! This week’s roundup includes Jaclyn Hill’s much-awaited makeup collection (spoiler alert: it’s launching ASAP!), Estee Lauder Philippines’ fresh young endorser, and mask goodies from The Ordinary. We also got deets on a billion-dollar beauty acquisition so get ready for some epic beauty updates!

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Foundation Liz Lanuzo Foundation Liz Lanuzo

The new local foundation in town: Happy Skin's Ready To Glow Powder and Liquid base

Happy Skin is most famous for their lipsticks but if you ask me, their face bases are so underrated! I’ve been a fan of their Don’t Get Mad, Get Even foundation line since it launched five years ago. I felt a little sad when they discontinued it, but lucky for us Happy Skin has a sneaky plan in place: they actually replaced DGMGE with a new and improved version called Ready To Glow!

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Features Samantha Gonzales Features Samantha Gonzales

How wearing colored contacts changed my makeup routine (plus, tips for newbies!)

Once upon a time, I was trying the SNOW app and changed the eye color to a slightly lighter brown (and at around 15% opacity) than my natural eye color. Lo and behold, I looked good! GGSS (gandang-ganda sa sarili) vibes aside, it inspired me to finally research on and purchase a pair of colored contact lenses. After consulting with the other PV girls in our group chat, I bit the bullet and settled on 1,100-peso FreshKons at Eyecrafts. I mistakenly followed someone’s advice to get green lenses though (the rationale being that green made a lighter brown whereas a brown made a redder brown) and ended up with, what else, green eyes.

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Tips and Tricks Stacie Chan Tips and Tricks Stacie Chan

Deodorant on your face? Don’t do it! Here’s what to try for oil control instead

For the past few months, I’ve written quite extensively about armpits and antiperspirants. It sounds very unglamorous, but living in a tropical country like the Philippines means that we have to deal with heat and sweat on a daily basis. And because underarms aren’t the only parts of our body that get sweaty, I found an online beauty hack that - believe it or not - recommends rubbing deodorant on your face! It’s supposed to act like a primer that mattifies and prevents your face from producing both oil and sweat. I’m sorry, WHAT?

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Skincare Gett Baladad Skincare Gett Baladad

It’s Summer Forever: Five body sunscreens for different budgets and activities

While I had learned to use body sunscreen whenever I’d go swimming, it wasn’t until I became part of the PV team that I realized I needed to wear it daily as well. It’s especially important for me since I commute to work and get direct sun exposure in the process. So as much as we ensure that are our faces get all the love it needs, the rest of our body needs protection from harmful UV rays as well, even on regular days!

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Tips and Tricks Kristel Yap Tips and Tricks Kristel Yap

Spend or Splurge? How to build you pro makeup artist kit

When we did our Tom Ford eyeshadow team test a few weeks back, the girls kept asking so many questions about my pro kit that I realized that there is so much to share from “behind the stage.” Everyday life as a makeup artist is obvious to me because I’m immersed in this world, but going back to my just-a-makeup-lover roots, I can see why this could be an exciting topic! While makeup enthusiasts post a lot of content on social media, working artists rarely share as much. I hope this guide can help aspiring and beginner makeup artists, as well as serious makeup lovers who want to better understand on how to make smart beauty investments!

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Skincare Samantha Gonzales Skincare Samantha Gonzales

The new Kiehl’s Calendula Water Cream is a moisturizer/primer for oily-skinned people

Did you know that the Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol-Free Toner is Kiehl’s #1 best-selling toner globally? Its success inspired the brand to come up with a water cream (which is skincare speak for a lightweight gel moisturizer) that incorporates the same iconic ingredient, Calendula Extract. What’s different about the new Calendula Serum-Infused Water Cream is that it includes micronized Calendula petals that “burst” when applied. The Calendula serum is meant to soothe and refresh the skin without making it feel too heavy. While moisturizer isn’t a particularly exciting category for me (I’m really more of a sunscreen type of gal), the unique texture of this product led me to discover its unintended use as an ultra-smoothing primer that nourishes and creates slip!

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Beauty News Karla Aguas Beauty News Karla Aguas

Beauty Roundup: A new local makeup brand, a scrubby launch reception, and a collection to wish for

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s beauty roundup! We’re serving up some fresh hot drops, new brands to look forward to, HG products getting even better, and some juicy controversies we’d love for you to weigh in on. There’s good news and bad news for the Kar-Jenners, while FENTY Beauty has introduced their first ever brand ambassador. Plus, we’ve got full deets on the makeup collection that will take you on a magic carpet ride. Happy reading!

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Skincare Crystal Rodis-Concepcion Skincare Crystal Rodis-Concepcion

How I made my super oily skin less oily by going for gentler products (they worked!)

Raise your hand if your skin is so oily that you wake up every morning with enough grease on your face to fry your breakfast in! I know this; I’ve been there. Over the years, I’ve learned how to better manage my extremely oily skin, but I still find myself waking up with an oily nose and chin. During the daytime, I also still have to blot my face every few hours, as the Philippines’ heat and humidity can make our skin glands produce more oil. Recently, Den challenged me to make certain changes to my skincare and to see if those changes will help my skin become less oily. I was very curious if it could make a difference so I modified my usual skincare routine and products to give it a try.

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Tips and Tricks, Eyeliner Gett Baladad Tips and Tricks, Eyeliner Gett Baladad

From Eyes To Lips: How to use eyeliner to create new lip looks

I’ve been complaining to Nine and Den about finding the perfect dark lipstick, a la Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Never mind that my collection of orange lippies were the perfect choice for summer - my desire for vampire lips had to be sated! While I was very tempted to buy a tube, I couldn’t find the color nuance at the price point I wanted (aka, cheap) because of my low-buy. So I was super intrigued when I watched a tutorial by YouTuber Sarah Cheung, who created a 90s look inspired by Canto-Pop Queen Faye Wong. She used a brown Colourpop pencil eyeliner and mixed it with her red lipstick to create the signature grunge look of the era. And so, here I am with a bunch of pencil eyeliners and lipsticks to test how well this hack works!

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Beauty News Karla Aguas Beauty News Karla Aguas

Beauty Roundup: Screen-safe bases, puppy highlighter, and the new Ordinary clone

Happy weekend, everyone! If you’re like us and still recovering from those insanely campy and absolutely glorious MET Gala looks, this week’s beauty roundup will help bring you that zen, back-to-reality beauty dose that you need. We’ve got the latest on a new skincare player to rival TO’s fuss-free formulations and Happy Skin’s latest high-tech creation! We’re also spilling the deets on Gucci’s return to the beauty world and something called a puppy dog highlighter?!

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Lips Liz Lanuzo Lips Liz Lanuzo

Review + Swatches of all 20 shades: The Sephora Rouge Lacquer Lipstick

Today I want to talk about something new called the Sephora Collection Rouge Lacquer Lipstick (P745 at Sephora.ph). This line is all about shine, shine, shine! It looks like a lip lacquer but comes in a tube that has a buttery melt-on-your-lips texture. There are 20 shades available from demure to intense so there’s sure to be a color for you.

Let me do a quick rundown of the product!

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Hair Denise Bengzon Hair Denise Bengzon

This Japanese serum makes hair super shiny in just a minute!

If like me, you don’t have the time, budget, or patience to sit through a salon hair treatment, you’re going to want the Kracie Dear Beauté Himawari Oil in Treatment Gloss & Repair to your shower essentials ASAP.

To be honest, I never really cared much about my hair before I let Sam dye my hair (for the first time ever!) in a rocking purple hue. While I totally loved the crazy color, the bleaching process totally fried my hair to the texture of straw. My hair became dry and rough and prone to tangles and split ends! For a while I tried to manage it with tubs of conditioning treatments that only seemed to help if I applied them every day. Eventually I got tired of doing these daily 10 minute-long hair masks, and just had the damaged hair chopped off.

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Skincare Marielle Ong Skincare Marielle Ong

Exploring clean skin and #LifeGoals with BDJ and Neutrogena

What if you wanted a change? What if you’re looking for something better? What if you dared to dream and strive to do? Just realizing that there are endless possibilities available is a source of empowerment, but sometimes we need a little help to become aware of them. Neutrogena and Belle De Jour offered a fun afternoon of imagination and positivity as we learned about the newly formulated range of Neutrogena Deep Clean Foaming Cleansers and created inspiring vision boards with Trixie Esguerra!

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