I know I promised to show Avon's Valenine's offering today, but I haven't done the swatches for the new lipsticks yet so that will have to wait tomorrow. Today I'll just be showing you some of the brand's new releases last January!

They have new variants of the uber-good Skin-So-Soft Lotion, plus body washes in that range. I love the body washes - they smell clean and girly without being overly drying. The jewelry, on the other hand, are in Avon's signature classic style. 

Here be photos and pricing info!

Skin-So-Soft Signature Silk Replenishing Hand & Body Lotion 250 ml. This body lotion works two ways to provide the most sensual, touchable skin. Price: Php 290.00

This stuff is the bomb. The real deal. After three weeks of using the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate, I can honestly say that this is one of the best skincare products I've ever tried - up there with my Clinique Moisture Surge, Clinique Liquid Facial Wash, and Burt's Bees Toner. 

Observe:

Being an independent adult is terrifying. Aside from paying all the bills yourself, there are also the decisions you have to make everyday about your career, your relationships, your own well-being - it never ends. On one hand it's cool that your parents don't manage your life anymore, but there's also the risk of making a grave mistake and having no one else to blame but yourself. 

Morbid thoughts for such a pretty Thursday morning, I know! It's actually a good, no, awesome day for me and I am in a merry mood. Just scribbling.

Anyway, I just want to share something new from Avon - their newly repackaged and reformulated Avon Naturals skincare line. There are three variants, namely Rose & Rose Hips, Tea Tree Oil & Green Tea, and Honey & Milk. Here's the product info and prices for your reference!

Formulated to deeply nourish the skin and leave it feeling soft and supple all day long, Avon Naturals Milk & Honey Nourishing Skin Care products bring together honey extract and milk protein that smoothen rough, dry skin, and provide long term moisturizing benefits—all wrapped in a sumptuous honey and milk scent.

Last Christmas, Tony Moly sent me a package that contained one of their best sellers: the Tony Moly Appletox Smooth Massage Peeling Cream (P525), cutely nicknamed as the Appletox. I've never used it until last night mainly because I'm anxious about breaking out. I've never used a Tony Moly skincare product before so I really took a chance here!

Since I had a bit of free time last night and needed to get rid of some dry skin anyway, I decided to try the Appletox. It's supposed to be a face mask-cum-exfoliator as it dries into flakes you can rub off. 

How to use the product. Apply a light layer all over your face. Wait for it to dry, usually in 10 minutes or so. After drying, gently massage the mask off your face to get rid of deep-seated dirt and peeling skin.

Okay so, I've been using the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate for a week now. And these are my observations!

• My skin is incredibly smooth right now. The roughness from dry patches, blackheads, and random bumps are very much reduced. 
• Skin is more even and has a glow, so I tend to use less makeup.

There is a dizzying bevy of anti-aging products out there, with extraordinary claims to bring back your skin's youth. How do you find out what actually works? Simple, you try them! After some research on reviews and ingredients, of course.

That said, I want to give you a bit of information about Avon's latest anti-aging product: the Anew Genics Treatment Concentrate (P1,799). It claims to help skin look ten years younger with the help of the brand's patented YouthGen Technology. It is supposed to re-activate one's "Youth Gene", that genetic component in our cells that keeps skin elastic, wrinkle-free, and glowing - young, in other words. 

Sounds too sci-fi? Perhaps, but it is quite intriguing. Promises aside, the quality of the serum itself is pretty good.

When Liz of Estee Lauder asked me if I wanted to try the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate (P4,800), I was like, "Fug. Not another anti-aging product!" in my head. I am up to my ears with anti-aging products - and I'm only 23! I am extremely reluctant of using one for four weeks tbqh, but since I like Liz, I thought I'd give it a chance.

So that's the challenge: use the ANR serum for four weeks and write about it once a week during that period. I just got to try it last night because I broke out last week plus I was sick, so I don't have much in the way of a review just yet. I will however share my first impressions for now.

Not an anti-aging product LOLZ

Okay. First off, the ANR serum is technically not an anti-aging product (read the description). I just assumed it was, on first glance, which is very careless of me but it is admittedly a common misconception. Estee Lauder is associated with mature women after all!

Thanks for the well wishes, guys, I am feeling much better now. I have a horrible croaky voice though...not cool because I need to be at my best tomorrow. Good lord. This week will be crazy, again.

Anyway! I just wanted to talk about the Snoe White Beauty Bar (P139), particularly the Exfoliating Oatmeal Beauty Bar. It's what I've been using in the shower lately since it's pretty good. Let me tell you why!

• Has this nice oatmeal yogurt scent that's very relaxing. Doesn't smell too chemical.
• Incredibly sudsy and slinky.

I am so sick today. -_- Was trying to write a proper blog post but couldn't bring myself to concentrate. Anyway, Kira will be sharing her review for now!

Who suffers from an extra active t-zone? I do! And although I know that there's no product can permanently make pores disappear (they say it's virtually impossible since we're born with it!), I am still on the lookout for pore minimizing solutions no matter how temporary or pricey they may be.

It was timely that Liz asked me to review this little product as I've been battling with big pores on my nose and and oily complexion (blame it on stress and this schizo weather we're having). It's called Z-Pore (P1,600)!

Z-Pore™ combines special silicone polymers and optical diffusers to instantly reduce the look of pores and provide a soft matte finish to the skin. This water-, sweat-, and humidity-resistant formula lasts all day."

What it is:

A lightweight, nude-colored cream that resembles the consistency of mousse cream.

How to use it:

After my usual skin care regimen (wash+tone+moisturize), I just apply small dots of the GSL Z-pore on my problem areas -- my forehead, nose, chin and the cheeks near my nose.

Moisturizers are your first line of offense against your skin's basic issues. Dryness, dullness, and oiliness are some of the things that moisturizers should help you out with. You leave 'em on your skin 24/7 so they should be nothing less than amazing.

Thus, I'm a little leery of trying out other moisturizers, especially from a brand like Benefit which isn't singled out for its skincare products. So many things can go wrong.

Well, none of that sort happened when I started using the Benefit Triple Performing Facial Emulsion (P1,500)! I've been using it regularly for two months now so I can confidently say that this is a pretty good match for my combination skin. Here's why!

What I love about the product 

• Ultra light and oil-free, it is easily absorbed by my skin. It doesn't trigger extra oiliness during the day.
• Leaves an instant glow and silkiness on the face. I love how my face feels like after using this. It also showed improvement over the first few weeks I started using it.

Exfoliators are useful in removing product build-up and other accumulated junk on the skin's surface. They also clean up dead skin and pore blockages, two common causes of acne. Nonetheless, you don't actually need to use exfoliators everyday. As with everything else, use them only when you need them!

That said, many exfoliators out in the market now have a tendency to be harsh on skin. Their scrub beads can be abrasive and the formula drying so they may do more harm than good. If you feel that your current exfoliator fits that profile, then perhaps it's time to switch to something more gentle yet equally effective.

Say, the new White Result Exfoliating Gel (P300 ish), for instance. It is a gommage exfoliator that starts out as a gel and dries to form physical scrub.

This Exfoliating Gel is mostly water infused with botanical extracts like bilberry, sugar cane, and citrus fruits. It also has moisturizing ingredients and film-formers in the ingredients. Once it's massaged (a minute or two), it becomes this soft, papery film that scrubs out all the junk on your face.

Observe:

Thw White Result Exfoliating Gel starts out as a cloudy gel

Christmas celebrations will start tomorrow, so you should be done with your gift shopping by now. In case you aren't though, troop to VMV Hypoallergenics to get rescued! They have gorgeous holiday sets available, like this one:  

There are tons of sets out there but I think VMV trumps them all. The packaging is gorgeous - boxes come with tissue and some fluff inside, neatly tied with a grosgrain ribbon accented with mistletoe - plus you get products that your recipient will probably love. It looks expensive (but it's not since one set is on averge P1,500). It's already wrapped. The products of VMV are amazing. 

Everybody wins!

The set I have here is called Merry Goin' Round.

The other day, a package arrived from Pond's. One of its contents was a gold box:

With a note:

The first thing you'll notice about the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oils is the price tag. They're quite expensive, there's no way to get around it! I used to think that there are equally good alternatives and for a while I've even used some like the ones from Muji and Pure Beauty, which are less than P500 for a big 200ml bottle.

However, when I got sample bottles of the Shu oil, I found out why it was so expensive. It is the best makeup remover + skincare product I've ever tried! And you know I've tried quite a number of them. Thus, I committed to a 450ml bottle of the Shu Uemura High Performance Balancing Cleansing Oil (P4,000).

What I love about it:

• Removes all makeup (except long-wearing, waterproof mascara) in a jiffy. I use less than one pump for my whole face and just massage gently to dissolve the makeup. It gets rid of waterproof eyeliner and liquid foundation, primers, lipstick, and powder makeup. They all wash off.

• It's skincare. Ever since I started using it, my skin looked better.

Skincare, whether you are a man or a woman, is not an option. There's no stigma when women take precious care of their skin, but men? It seems that the prevailing thought is that if you're a guy and you use something other than soap and shampoo, you're considered metrosexual or even gay. That's unfair and quite counterproductive. If men can't not brush their teeth, then they also can't not use a proper facial wash, toner, and moisturizer.

Maybe the stigma lies in how products are packaged. Let me share a conversation I had with someone from a giant skincare company. The rep remarked that they are surprised that their new facial wash (then) was so successful, even men were buying them. It appears that men thought the new facial wash was for them simply because the tube was black.

Maybe guys don't feel as shy about skincare when the packaging is very much male. What do you think? If that's the case then they will love Watsons Men skincare line, with it's macho metal tubes and sporty bottles.

Cinderella was my favorite fairy tale when I was a child. But now that I'm a little older and consider Cinderella as stupid and weak (well not counting Drew Barrymore's Ever After), my favorite is now East of the Sun and West of Moon. The heroine in that story has more guts and determination than all Disney princesses combined. That's the kind of girl I want to be when I grow up!

Anyway! This whole flashback is brought you by Majolica Majorca's latest collection called Glass Trick. It pays homage to the immortal glass shoes that generations have come to know and love (at some point...), and features glossy and shimmery products that mimic the effect of glass. 

I'm going to review the whole collection quickly, so you know what to check out!

Dress Glove Cream (P325). This is a hand cream that has the sweet scent of the Majoromantica Perfume. It also has fine shimmer, so it makes hands sort of glow.

Remember my war with acne around three, four months ago? It's almost over now. I'm enjoying relatively good skin lately since the pimples have stopped. Well, I still get one or three on occasion but they're not cystic. It means they don't leave a deep mark and it's easier to get rid of them.

Anyway, I have recently re-discovered these acne drying products I bought from the House of Obagi three months ago. I got two new (thankfully small) pimples last week so I needed a quick fix, and thought of giving these Acne Clearing Solutions another chance.

Why another chance? Well, the last time I used them, they dried up my skin quite horribly. My face felt rough, dull, and flaky. After that I swore off using them because it took my skin weeks to recover! But I think I was just applying them incorrectly. I used to pat two squirts of the liquid all over the affected area and, predictably, that area became extremely dry (Duh! Why didn't I think of that earlier). Now I use a cotton bud to apply the product only on the pimple itself.

Works like magic, I tell you. My pimples dry up overnight. That's awesome considering that these Acne Clearing Solutions cost only P500 for one bottle.

A few weeks ago Lancome Philippines invited bloggers to visit their Greenbelt 5 Atelier. It's my first time to actually go inside so it was, to say the least, an interesting afternoon for me!

The atelier is posh, all gleaming glass and silver panels decorating the bright interiors. I immediately scoured the displays for makeup (surprise surprise?). Hehe.

One of the brand's latest foundations - Blanc Miracle

The makeover table