The Undas traffic has barely cleared and the 11.11 countdown timers are already up on every app on my phone, which is how I know we've crossed into the part of the year where the beauty calendar goes on overdrive. I came back from the long weekend to a feed full of pre-launch teasers, intro prices, and the word "finally" all over the place. Let’s go!
BW Women has a new face, and she's Gehlee Dangca
The "Are you G?" posts that BW Women teased last week have an answer. On November 5 the brand introduced Gehlee Dangca as its newest face, with the hashtag #GehleeDangcaForBWWomen and the brand's "pretty girl energy" framing: more sparkle, more confidence, "more reasons to feel like your best self every day." The timing is deliberate. Once Upon a Spritz: Return to Whimsyland, the brand's celebration of the Whimsical Collection, is this Sunday, November 8, 3 to 7 PM, at Bigger Pictures on Sheridan Street, Mandaluyong, and a brand-new endorser three days before a fan event is as intentional as it gets.
If you already have a Whimsical Event Pass (sales closed October 30), here's what the brand says is waiting for you: a full-size BW Women Whimsical Deo Body Spray in the variant you picked, an Ever Organics Papaya sampler, Hello Glow Suncare Gel and Lifting Serum samplers, a Whimsical sticker pack, and live performances from Will Ashley, MeiMei, and VXON. The brand also posted that "the Whimsical world got a little bigger" and that we'll "meet the newest additions soon," which is the strongest hint yet that the four new scents (the collection is going from five to nine) get unveiled at the event. There's a mascot now too, Stardust, the explorer of Whimsyland, which tells you how committed Blackwater is to building a universe around a deo spray that costs under P200. For a line aimed at the Gen Z crowd, it's a smart kind of excess.
Detail is bringing back Dream Skin, now talc-free
If you've been in the local beauty scene long enough, you remember Detail's Dream Skin powder foundation, and you probably remember when it quietly disappeared. The brand has spent this week saying out loud what the comments have been saying for years: "The powder foundation that we all missed is coming back." Dream Skin returns today, November 6, in new packaging, with what Detail calls an improved formula, and now talc-free. The pitch is the same one that made it a cult item: it covers imperfections for a matte, flawless finish, and you control the coverage with your tool. A wet sponge for maximum, a puff for medium, a brush when you just want to take the shine down.
The shades are the ones you used to love, which is a relief, because reformulations have a way of shifting undertones. All eight are back: Chiffon (Soft Ivory), Silk (Light Beige), Satin (Natural Beige), Cedar (Medium Buff), Dune (Medium Nude), Teak (Medium Olive), Sable (Warm Cocoa), and Oak (Deep Honey). Detail's own tip: buy a shade darker and use it to contour the outer rim of the face and the nose. The brand has also teased that Dream Skin is only the first of "all the new collections we're launching this month," and there's a running promo to go with it: a free Jelly Blur in Off The Record with a P399 purchase (a mini with P299) until November 30.
Colourette's Cover Base is a 21-shade pot concealer with a P299 intro price
The pot concealer has become the local base launch of the quarter. Happy Skin did one in October, GRWM has been teasing one for November, and now Colourette has put a number on it too. Cover Base Full Coverage Pot Concealer is new, comes in 21 shades, and the brand is selling it for P299 as an intro price on its TikTok Lives this week. The formula claims are the full list: full coverage "in one press," creamy and easy to blend, long-wearing and self-setting, a soft blur over texture, a lightweight "skin-like" finish, and non-comedogenic. Twenty-one shades for a concealer is a serious range for any local brand, let alone at this price, and it's in keeping with Colourette's base line, which already runs to 24 shades in its foundation.
The intro deals are tied to three livestreams: November 6, 7 PM with Xeng Zulueta, November 7, 7 PM with Christian Ray, and November 9, 7 PM with Hannah Asad. Beyond the ₱299 single, there's an Instant Cover Duo (Cover Base plus a Bake Base Mini in Invisible) for P505, which the brand values at P748, and an All-Day Cover & Set Bundle (Cover Base, First Base Mini, Bake Base Mini Invisible, and an XL Puff) for P799, valued at P1,176, plus up to 20 percent off base favorites. Do the math on the duo and the regular price of Cover Base looks like it'll land somewhere in the P400s once the intro window closes.
La Roche-Posay is officially at SM Beauty, and yes, Effaclar and Anthelios made the trip
For years, La Roche-Posay has been one of those brands Filipinos got through gray-market Shopee sellers, a tita's balikbayan box, or a side trip to a Watsons or Boots in Hong Kong. This week SM Beauty announced the French derma brand has "finally touched down," with shelves at SM Makati, SM Megamall, and SM Aura, exclusive to SM Beauty at those branches. The display is organized by skin concern rather than by product line, which is how the brand merchandises in European pharmacies and a sensible way to introduce a range most local shoppers know by one or two hero products.
Those hero products are the point. Effaclar, the brand's line for oily and acne-prone skin (Effaclar Duo+ is the one people mean when they say "that French acne cream"), and Anthelios, the sunscreen range that built La Roche-Posay's reputation in the first place, are the two names that have driven the pasabuy demand, and the ones to check for first. Also on the shelves, per early photos of the display: the Mela B3 brightening range (the serum, the Double Dose, and the SPF), which is the brand's newer dark-spot line and the one most likely to appeal to a market that already buys niacinamide by the liter. Scent and Beauté, the distributor behind CeraVe and several luxury beauty lines, is behind this coup.
Tillo made the first Filipino beauty advent calendar, with Sean Anthony
Of all the things I expected a local brush brand to do for Christmas, an advent calendar was not on the list, which is probably why it works. Tillo, Teree Daisuke's brush line, spent the first week of November posting a slow, wordless countdown (someone hangs the star, someone prepares the gifts, "the house feels a little fuller") and revealed the payoff on November 5: "Welcome, P-Beauty's 1st Advent Calendar!" from Tillo & Friends, made in collaboration with Sean Anthony, the Filipino-Canadian creator whose advent calendar unboxings have become their own genre (he's the one who opened Dior's US$1,000 calendar on camera last year and said what everyone was thinking). Having the internet's advent-calendar critic co-sign a local one is really good marketing.
Sean Anthony has a secret 13th box in the advent calendar with his Gemini Brush duo - a previously unreleased product. The Advent Calendar retails for P2,999 with over P5,500 worth of products inside from Careline, Ever Bilena, blk, ISSY, Sola, Squad Cosmetics, Colourette, and of course Tillo’s tools.
And that's it for this week's Beauty Roundup!
