As an avid concert-goer, I understand the challenge of creating a durable and stylish makeup look that lasts through the sweat, energy, and emotion of the event. Drawing from my personal experiences and lessons learned, here's my guide to crafting your concert makeup, complete with my tried-and-true product recommendations.

Do you have that one product in your vanity that seems to be irreplaceable? That despite you trying out new ones every so often, you keep on coming back to it? For me, it is the Cure Natural Aqua Gel Gentle Exfoliator (P1,500 / 250g). It was in 2013 when I was first introduced to Cure and ever since then, I can no longer count how many bottles of it I have repurchased and downed. Yes, it has been almost 10 years but I still can’t stop gushing about it!

Real talk: the soles of my feet had gotten to a point where the thick callouses catch threads when I drag them through my Tencel bed sheets. I’ve been ignoring this for a while but it’s really gotten to a point where the dead skin is starting to annoy me! So, it was the perfect opportunity to give the new Baby Foot Peel in Peach Scent (Limited Edition) (P830 in Lazada/Shopee) a try.

Revenge travel is everyone’s favorite hobby at the moment now that the world has opened up post-pandemic. I’ve been on a couple of trips abroad myself this year and the energy at the airport is really different - people are more excited and at the same time more appreciative of the privilege to be able to travel to other countries once again.

Have you ever found your perfect foundation shade match only to find it changing color halfway through the day? After you’ve bought it full-sized? This has happened to me a couple of times already and here in the Philippines, beauty brands don’t really allow us to exchange them for a better shade. I’ve learned my lesson since so I’m extra careful with choosing my base products. Aside from swatching, sampling, and extensive research on reviews, it is also best to watch out for that dreaded color change brought about by oxidation.

Having scars may deal a blow to our self-confidence, but think of it as our skin getting stronger after every challenge. After all, the formation of scars is a natural part of our skin’s healing process! They can result from accidents, injury, burns, surgery, acne and illness.

Depending on the severity, age, and location of the scar, there are several options to fade them away. If the wound is not too serious and it’s still fresh, the best way to keep it from scarring as much as it would when left alone is to be proactive while the wound is newly healed.

Anyone who loves browsing aisles of beauty products know from experience that it’s fun to discover and test new products. When we would look around physical stores, it was easier to scrutinize whether the products are real or not. Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, however, our choice of shopping channel quickly and heavily shifted from retail to e-commerce.

Do you know what your skin type is? It’s a key piece of information that will have you choose the right products for you. It will help you avoid common mistakes I’ve seen in my practice, when some of my patients admit to buying/using popularized and hyped-up products that messed up their skin. These can cause or trigger breakouts, infections, contact dermatitis or flares of skin diseases. Remember: what can work for someone may not work for you! Even we have the same skin type, our skin reacts to certain ingredients differently.

Now when you have correctly figured out your skin type, it’ll be easier to pick which products you can use. The easiest way to determine what your skin type is after washing your face and observing your skin within the day. Here then are the 5 different skin types.

If someone you love is passionate about makeup then it’s only natural that you want to support it. A beauty item or two is sure to make them happy since it’s something they would enjoy using! But where do you start if you know ZILCH about makeup? Here’s a guide to help you get the perfect gift!

I was cleaning my brushes the other day and while doing so, I thought about how much I hate the process. One, I’m 6’2” so my back always hurts whenever I bend over the sink to rinse my makeup brushes. Two, cleaning brushes takes so much time. Three, you have to leave them overnight in order for them to dry. I can go on and on, really. Waking up the next morning, however, I am instantly in a good mood when I see that all my brushes are clean.

Since we are all wearing masks for the time being, beauty trends have been focused on eye and brow makeup. Sometimes, though, we want to wear more face makeup, but then it would just transfer to our masks instead! As a PV girl, I still sometimes wear makeup under my mask and have learned a few tricks to help my makeup stay put on my face and not turn my mask into an icky mess. Here are some of my tried-and-tested tips to make my makeup more mask-resistant!

It’s one thing to know how to cook and bake, but the beauty junkie takes it to a whole new level by knowing her way around the kitchen scraps. That’s right, we're challenging you to get nifty with what some might consider as refuse! Aside from repurposing your coffee grounds, there are more food leftovers that can double as beauty treatments. Get thrifty with your routine, and save a few pesos with these DIY hacks! (Hint: Use the extra funds for cheap thrills or set them aside to splurge on a big-ticket item!)

How much does your entire makeup stash cost? Have you ever tried computing the cost of each item, including your tools? Over at the Project Vanity Facebook group, we once had a community challenge to find out just how much beauty lovers spent just to create their daily looks. More than a few members were surprised by how much their FOTDs were actually worth, so it becomes easier to understand why it hurts so much when we misplace kikay kits or accidentally break foundation bottles!

The other day, Den and I were talking about what we thought was a botched cosmetic campaign. The advertisement was for an all-around (eyes, cheeks and lip) product. The idea was there, but it felt like the execution was lacking and the makeup looked clown-like, which we were sure was not the goal of the campaign.

I’ve always said that trying to do “less” with makeup is harder than going full glam. No makeup makeup looks and monochromatic looks are so understated that one minor mishap can be easily amplified due to the fact that there is nothing else to distract from the error. With the growing popularity of multi-use products, let’s get comfy with monochromatic makeup and learn the right way to pull off that one-product face!

I have a confession: I enjoy watching blackhead extraction videos. It’s just so satisfying to see them get popped out of pores! It’s a different case, though, when I visit my derma to have this procedure done on myself (don’t DIY - you might cause more damage). It can hurt a lot, and sometimes my nose gets so irritated that I have to stop myself from sneezing on my derma.

As an oily skinned gal, I’m more prone to getting clogs in my skin so I’ve learned to put up with extractions as a necessary evil. But when I heard about the grit method and that many people swore it worked for them, I just had to try it for myself!

With cosmetics becoming more accessible and more affordable, many beauty lovers have found themselves with collections bigger than they can use up before expiry. Hauls are fun, to be sure, but it’s also important to be wary of when our love for beauty and shopping at are unhealthy levels that negatively affect our finances and the planet. 

These days, I’ve ditched wearing foundations in favor being able to do some eye makeup. I used to be obsessive about creating a perfect face base but my eyeshadow envy has finally gotten the better of me, which I think is a good change. It has given me the chance to finally play with the few palettes I have in my collection, and it’s been so much fun combining colors and doing different looks.

Have you ever heard of the old Hollywood trick of using soap on eyebrows? It may sound crazy but many professional makeup artists (both local and international) swear by this beauty hack for fixing brows into place! In fact, it has made such a huge comeback into the beauty scene that there are now several local brands that offer brow soaps in little tins that can fit into your makeup kit. But if it’s literally just soap, we can probably recreate the same effect using regular soap from the grocery, right? So, I decided to try it and find out!

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?

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!