I'm just wondering if you still go out without any make up besides skin care? Any of you feel 'incomplete' without any color on? I know it's pretty personal, just wondering how the rest of you would react. - Tin

This sounds like a simple yes or no question but it's more complicated than that, for me. Women who rely on makeup to feel polished are often looked down on. "Wow she needs all that makeup to be pretty?" "Kapal ng makeup niya!" Everyone's all "natural beauty is the best!" but how many people do you personally know wake up looking "perfect" (as defined by society) in the morning?

Humans are built to appreciate physical beauty in others; it is theorized to be linked to evolutionary instinct, where a beautiful person is considered to have a lesser chance of having genetic or acquired defects. The concept of beauty has changed over time, but each culture has always had one - an ideal, an image of perfection that we hold up for worship.

Women and men are pressured now (more than ever) to look perfect because (1) someone is always watching what with the prevalence of social media (2) wider, instant, and insistent distribution of materials that proclaim what is beautiful and (3) better and more affordable access to information/ products to beautify oneself.

So, with that pressure to look beautiful, how can average women like us possibly be celebrated in a society that expects us to be perfect? Quick answer: makeup.

I was trawling Mall of Asia yesterday with my mom when I saw a stall I have never seen before. I asked the sales lady when it arrived and she said it's been there since February 16! The brand website doesn't offer much information, but it's pretty obvious that the products are targeted towards tweens and teenagers (Justin Beiber for the win!).

Presenting, essence, a drugstore cosmetics brand from Germany. It's now in the Philippines!

The enormous display drew me in but the prices kinda blew my mind. Most of the items were being sold for under P250, with the cheapest going for as low as P79 a piece. Not bad eh? I swatched a few products and found them okay for the price. Not too bad but not "omg gotta have this" good (at that time).

Eyeshadow singles for P119

The rose has symbolized many things through the centuries - eternal love, secrecy, unity, and even the turmoil of revolution. For you, a rose might have a more personal meaning. It may not even be something that you consciously choose; but when you enjoy a rose, you will forever be reminded of that soft first kiss or a memorable evening that could have happened years ago but is still fresh on your mind today.

That is the beauty of flowers. That's why we try to preserve them no matter how fleeting their lifespans are.

That said, DKNY has finally bottled their own version of this romantic flower's scent. Called pureDKNY Drop of Rose, they have created something akin to a garden full of blooming roses, with verdant green notes growing in the background as the fragrance deepens. If you love the pureDKNY line or just a fan of roses, this is something you must sniff stat! 

So! I have an exciting bit of news. DKNY has chosen Project Vanity to host a massive contest for their newest fragrance. We are giving away P30,000 worth of prizes to the lucky person who can make a creative, romantic video that shows the pureDKNY Rose's elegance and timelessness.

Here are the mechanics!

Open image in another tab to see a bigger version

BYS (be your self) is an Australian drugstore brand that has been in the Philippines since late last year. If you've seen it in Watsons, then you know how dizzying their selection of colors and products is! I think that BYS has a lot to offer in terms of quality vis-à-vis the price. It's always nice to find a brand where most things are under a thousand bucks.

I will be reviewing a few BYS products in the next few weeks, and today I'm starting off with the BYS Brow & Eye Pencil in Blonde (P250). It's a soft, rather waxy automatic pencil liner that is actually an ashy brown.

I love the flat, slanted tip (remember the Shu Uemura naginata shape?) as it gets me a nicer arch in a shorter amount of time.

What is the difference between lip sticks, lip butter and lip tint? Do they actually have distinctive characteristics or is it a matter of labels? - Kris

Hi Kris! Thank you for your question. :) Ten years ago, it wouldn't have even existed! All women had were lipsticks and glosses. However, thanks to technological innovations and new ingredients we now have more formulas to play our lips up with. They may look or even swatch the same but other than a few "confused" lip products I can say that there is a difference in the formula.

Here's the dish on what makes lipsticks, butters, tints, and stains unique!

Lipstick. Mostly wax-based and saturated with pigment, lipsticks can offer you maximum opacity and good staying power. They come in all sorts of finishes from matte, creme, satin, high-shine, to frost. Lipstick colors and finishes are the most complex among all the lip formulas.

Have you tried customizable palettes yet? They're a pretty cool tool for keeping your makeup in one place where you can see them. If you like to collect, I'm sure you know how it can be difficult to remember the stuff you actually have! Customized palettes are also useful to people who like to travel light, without the uneccessary clutter of bulky compacts.

Now there's a few of them special palettes floating around already, but I'd like to present a local and affordable brand: Wild Peach Cosmetics.

Magnetic palettes like this usually cost P500 to P900 a pop, but Wild Peach sells them at P280 (small) and P550 (large). That's quite a price cut from the competition, ha. I thought it would be flimsy when I found out! But contrary to my low expectations, WP palettes are excellently made with a little bit of heft. The cardboard material feels thick and sturdy, while the matte finish is quite classy in person (there's also a glossy finish but why bother haha).

Here's the small sized version in action. I have the large but I haven't photographed it yet! I'll blog about it when I've filled it up.

Established beauty bloggers like myself have many incentives to blog. The passion for the niche is a given already because it's difficult to go far as a blogger without it; I mean, imagine all the time, money, and research that have gone into building a website worth reading and coming back to! We may have started our blogs casually, as a hobby, but maintaining it takes dedication.

I wouldn't call it an investment because when we started we expected very little from this (ad)venture. Nonetheless, our efforts are - whether we like to be coy about it or not - being rewarded handsomely.

We get freebies and invitations to fun parties. More importantly, I think, we're part of a close-knit community that you would be surprised to know isn't competitive. These are some of the things that motivate us to blog regularly, to come up with interesting free content for our readers. But. How about new beauty bloggers who are largely ignored by brands and the community? Being just one of hundreds of new bloggers in the niche, how could they hope to keep their blog going?

And why should we care?

Are you still reluctant to wear loud lipstick? I'm not going to force you if it's really not your thing, but if you want to then here are a few steps to ease you into your scandalous color of choice. Remember - it's all in your head! Loud colors are fun to wear and shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's just lipstick.  You can take it off any time.

That being said, today I want to talk about a mini-selection of daring Maybelline Colorsensational Lipsticks (P399). These come in different variations of red (except one) hence the color of the tubes.

The formula is just okay. It's pigmented and fairly smooth, although I find that it can be drying after a couple of hours (you know the SOP for this). The lasting power of the bright reds are good at three hours plus a stain, but the lighter ones like the peach and coral - not so much at less than two hours. It has this strong sweetish vanilla scent that fades away after a few minutes.

Overall, the Maybelline Colorsensational is not too shabby for the price. I do love the reds here, which I have finally swatched for you!

Let's begin.

Sweet yet well-rounded - that's the Éclat d’Arpège Gourmandise Lanvin (P2,998/ 50ml). It's invigorating upon first spray with Sicillian lemon and lavender smoothly scenting the skin, but then it develops into a sweet glow of green tea and peach blossom. It comes down to a musky cedarwood and amber base which I find stays with me all day.

The packaging is quite playful and girly, something that Lanvin (as a fashion house) is best best known for. Strings of illustrated candy surround a hazy lavender globe.

I can't believe I survived February. It's only the second month of the year but I've been ridiculously busy! I noticed that people like to brag that they're busy, as if it's an achievement. Like a badge of honor. For me, busy - or in my definition having too many things to do that I'm at my wits' end - is not good. I like to take my time doing my work so that it's polished and perfect before I turn it in. Being rushed all the time is no way to live.

Not that I'm complaining. I love my work, I just need more time to do it! And to rest afterwards. :) Anyway, here's my top ten best of February!

Headlining the list is the Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Liner. Don't you just adore it when products are affordable AND work amazingly well at the same time? This gel eyeliner doesn't smudge or fade and comes with a really good brush too. :) It's not going to rival the MAC Fluidline (my fave gel liner of all time) but it comes close in terms of wear.

Another good drugstore find is the L'Oreal Lucent Magique Foundation. This is the drugstore version of Lancome Teint Miracle! It has a brightening, glowy finish without the shimmer, and makes skin look amazing in person and on camera. However, this doesn't last particularly long so if you have oily skin you might want to consider other options.

Hope you're having a great Saturday so far! I'm off to a tea party later so that should be fun. If time permits I'll shoot a tutorial for this look I wanna try out. ;) Anyway! The Commenter of the Month for February is couchpotato_md. Please email your name and shipping address as soon as you read this.

And now, for the March prize! I'm giving away a lip gloss and eyeshadow from Bobbi Brown's latest collection called Lilac and Rose.

I'm already jealous of whoever is winning this duo! The Lilac and Rose Collection features fresh, modern shades of the eponymous flowers. I love the concept of the heather gray-lilac palette, and the Lilac Gloss (which I'm giving away) is such a wearable almost magenta shade.

Hey folks! Can I just say that I'm super touched by all the entries I got on the Project Vanity event. I spotted some old readers there, and even new ones who managed to read the 1,700+ posts in only a few weeks! I'm overwhelmed (in a good way) and very happy to know how this blog has helped you even in small ways like trying out a new look. <3 Makes me even more psyched for the event! 

Anyways, today I want to review the Veloci Watch (P2,750) that I got a couple of months ago. It's an Italian-inspired (but made in Japan) watch that comes with three different Asprey straps in one kit. Really cool if you like changing your watch per outfit.

Veloci is a great everyday watch for me since the straps are tough, washable, and super light. The watch face itself is a little bigger than I'm used to but that's the look, I suppose! The silver and pink face can be easily matched with most of my girly outfits. Oh and of course, I can buy a new strap whenever I feel like it.

The straps that come with the watch are actually from Asprey and can be purchased separately for P350. It comes in lots of other colors and prints, I think, so you can play around with any look you can think of.

At 25 I think that my style has sort of "settled down". Well it wasn't that crazy to begin with but now that I know what works for me, I don't experiment so much anymore. I like pastels, dainty colors mostly, and a healthy mix of neutrals to keep everything grounded. As for silhouettes, I know to make my shoulders look narrow, to bare my collarbone, and create a waist where it's almost non-existent.

These are things I learned over the course of years! I wish there was someone to tell me about it earlier. I could have saved a lot of time, money, and grief over ill-fitting clothes. 

Remember my fashion battle plan? I've been keeping true to it! Here's something I wore the afternoon of the Magnum event. I was there to check out the preparations so I just wore a casual outfit that's easy to move around in. 

Fresh flowers