I say this with all honesty: the thing I love most about my job as PV's managing editor is working with an amazing group of women whom I'm happy to count as friends. The sort of hard part? These same beauty-crazy girls are such enablers! When your job requires you to know about each new makeup and skincare release, you are going to want to buy a lot of things. If your co-workers happen to be anything like mine, you'll probably go broke within the first week.

Highlighting is one of those makeup tricks that takes so little work but creates a huge impact on your finished look. Placed in strategic areas, it can make your skin look real good and your expression brighter, more well-rested! Highlighting used to be something only makeup artists do. However, along with contouring, it has become so accessible that even beginners and the laziest makeup junkies can get on board.

Quick question: what do you get when you cross a haute couture fashion house with one of the biggest makeup shops in the world? The answer: a giant golden teddy bear! I know, it sounds completely random, because, well, it is. This week, we finally found the solution to our underwear shopping woes and with one quick click and how Kat Von D is teasing us (and our brows) to no end. Ready for a quick read? It’s a doozy!

Aimee Song recently confessed in a video that she feels sad, alone, and unfulfilled despite her unbelievably glamorous life. Yes, that Aimee Song with 4.6 million Instagram followers and hundreds of thousands worth of sponsorship deals in her stylish purse. That Aimee Song who probably barely pays for anything anymore, and who shot that video in a luxurious hotel room in Paris while being paid to be front row at Fashion Week. She has, at least through the glossy window of social media, the best life anybody could ask for. But she's not happy. 

The word "retinoid" is casually thrown around these days when it comes to acne treatment. This is a pretty potent ingredient though, so I put my pharma training to good use and did quite a bit of reading on what retinoids are and how they work. If you've been thinking of adding them to your routine, read this lowdown before you commit!

Is it just me or is digging for affordable makeup gems the official sport of the Project Vanity staff? We've featured quite a good bit of Budget Beauty stories here, and sharing drugstore finds is also a hot topic in the Project Vanity Facebook Community over on Facebook! So we decided to look into one of the brands that Pinay beauty bargain lovers often gush about: SanSan Cosmetics.

My last haul for a P1,000 look proved to be a trove of neat finds, so it’s only fitting to check out other products from this budget-friendly local brand. Here’s a review of six things I got to try this time around!

I very rarely talk about hair products because so few of them actually work for my super picky hair. Just to give you a picture: I have fine, fine strands prone to breakage and hair fall, and on top of that I have developed an oily scalp over the years. I manage it with a good cleansing routine and lightweight hair styling products, but it's a delicate balance. One wrong hair product and it could take my hair and scalp weeks to recuperate!

With the variety of paints, powders, and products available, playing with makeup can be quite a creative adventure. But sometimes, as with any art form (and makeup is definitely an art), it helps to get a little inspiration.  

Enter Beauty Discovery, the special pop-up in SM Makati created by luxe brands Shisedo, Guerlain, and Elizabeth Arden. The booth allows makeup lovers to try the brands' luxurious creations, and to serve as a guide, they had a Beauty Lookbook Workshop hosted and taught by PV’s very own Liz Lanuzo! The event happened last July 8 at SM Makati.  

With the beauty industry constantly producing new products at breakneck speed, we're very much spoiled for choice. Sometimes though, the feeling of having so many options can be overwhelming. I think this is especially true when it comes to lipsticks. Color options are a beautiful nightmare in and of itself but finishes compound that situation tenfold.

To beauty shopaholics like us, having a favorite is key to narrowing down the “financial blackholes” we can potentially sink into. Unfortunately, bankruptcy by lipstick is just not a socially acceptable incapacity (yet.) Today, we’re going to break down the world of lipsticks and hopefully help you, dear reader, edit your lipstick wardrobe and stick to pieces you'll actually use.

I've always wanted a ring light but I can not make myself spend P6,000 for it. I can put it down as a company expense, sure, but I already have a Glamcor Multimedia Extreme (bought from Suesh) that cost upwards P20,000 so didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money on another lighting situation! Besides, I don't have a lot of extra space in my studio slash office anymore. I just can't commit to a ring light at the moment.

When I first started to experiment with J- and K-beauty, I had a difficult time finding products that fit me. See, while Western makeup was all about mattifying, the cult of chok-chok meant that most products geared towards a more Asian aesthetic added “dewiness” to the skin. Unfortunately for me, that meant a greasy disaster on my oily skin.

Lurking around in Facebook groups as well as the comment sections of PV, I’ve noticed that a common favorite perfume among gals is Dolce&Gabbana’s D&G Light Blue Eau de Toilette. It’s really not hard to see why. D&G Light Blue is a fresh, citrusy fragrance that goes well with the tropical climate we have. The lemon and green apple notes are such a hit among Pinays and all over the world, too! Now, sixteen years after the launch of this cult favorite, Dolce&Gabbana has finally added a new permanent fragrance to the line: D&G Light Blue Eau Intense Eau de Parfum.

Until recently, I have only used micellar water as my makeup remover. It worked for me, so I never thought to try any other types. When I finally got to try a cleansing balm though, I became an instant convert! I loved how easily it removed the makeup from my face, without needing to make several passes with a cotton pad.

I recently went through ALL my makeup and skincare so I can properly organize and dispose of items accordingly. It took me half a day and about ten extra bags of product, all of which I gave away to my family! Now my place feels cleaner and I get *less* stressed out about where my stuff are. I also unearthed some products that I really, really like, but can't use nor bear to throw away.

I found so many cushion compacts that I just kinda forgot about because they are ridiculously too light against my skin tone.

I used to have a nonchalant attitude towards buying makeup and skincare. I didn’t care much about what’s in a product so long as people talked about it. I’d buy something on sale because it’s from a known brand and it looked pretty, and worse, I tried anything that the Internet said would work on my acne-prone skin. I DIY-ed the heck out of treatments that more often than not worked horribly. All this because I didn’t make time to talk to my skin and ask “What do you need?”

At that time, it seemed silly but doing so could’ve saved me my money and my skin. Makeup and skincare, I realized, does not carry the “one size fits all” tag.

Hey, PV girls! What’s good? Let me give you a run down of what’s been happening in the beauty world. One of your favorite local brands has now come out with a line of gel nail polishes (I know, I know- try to breathe), Pink Sugar released two new shades of their well-loved Sugar Tints, and Beautyblender is getting very millennial! Sponges and nails not your thing? Well, Colourpop is collaborating with a gorgeous celebrity model (for the third time), Clinique is now working with our fave K-Beauty star,  and Jo Malone just launched a new collection. Interested yet? Read on!

When it comes to achieving chok chok skin, we've gotten used to expecting Korean beauty products to be the answer. It's not so surprising as K-beauty offers a lot of great picks, but the Japanese are actually the original skincare pros! LuLuLun in particular has been making waves as Japan's favorite sheet mask brand. It consistently receives beauty awards and has sold over 300 million masks since it first launched in 2011.

Considering that most of our fave sheet masks are from Korea and are single use, we were excited by the idea of masking everyday for an entire week. We received two variants to road test: the Classic Moisturizing Face Mask and the Moisture-Enrich Face Mask.

We love our flaws, blemishes and all, but it never hurts to conceal them when we need to look polished and professional. We'll need more than foundation for dark spots and serious eye baggage though, which is where the magic of concealer comes in! Benefit Cosmetics offers a great solution in its best-selling Boi-ing concealers. Recently, they've introduced a revamped concealer line and a new product. 

Masking has become a habit - okay, an obsession - of mine in the last couple of years. It's the most effective way to jolt my skin back to life, after I've abused it with stress, poor diet, and unwise skincare choices! This is why I have so many different masks (mud, sheet, leave-on, you name it) stocked up in my shelf. I've got masks for acne, dry skin, tired skin, or just generally unhappy-with-the-world skin because one never knows when disaster will strike.