Something's been nibbling at my brain lately. I think about it during odd moments of the day, trying to resolve some inner conflict about what being beautiful means to me. I have always believed that being beautiful is important but - why? This all started when I saw the Dove ad.

The message is simple, yet powerful: we are more beautiful than we think. According to the video, how we perceive ourselves physically affect the way we handle our relationships, the jobs we take, pretty much every aspect of our lives. Taken at face value, that sounds exceedingly shallow. Being beautiful certainly shouldn't be our raison d'être and/or the delicate scale by which we measure our self-worth. There are far more important and valuable things to nurture, such as our unique set of skills and talents, our knowledge, our love, kindness, and empathy for others. 

But we live in a world where people judge us by our looks. That's a hard fact to swallow, but it also makes sense to me as a survival instinct. We judge a person's face and the way he or she dresses and that impression guides us in our relationship with that person moving forward. Guide, not control, alright.

The Dove Nourishing Oil Care Nutri-Oil Serum is the bomb. For only P239, you get shinier, softer hair with less frizz. No stickiness. No product build-up. How cool is that? Sorry if I sound like a chirpy advertisement but I really really like this serum!

I've been a fan of Citre Shine serum since high school. If you have curly hair, you know how difficult it is to prevet tangling and frizzing, while still maintaining a semblance of definition.

Meet Sara, the blogger behind I Play The Villain. Here she reviews the Dove Beauty Moisture Facial Cleanser. After using it for a couple of weeks, she finds that she loves it!

Ever since that recent trip to the dermatologist and how I was forced to go makeup-free for a week, that's when it really sunk in that makeup can only help you with so much. In fact, if you have (or like) to wear makeup every day, you must also take meticulous care of the base on which you apply all that: the skin.

The skin (face) is often something that most people take for granted; funny, considering that's where all the stress, the abuse and the evidence of carelessness, shows up.

After my trip to the derma, I re-evaluated the skincare I was using. My original facial wash claims to remove all the dirt on one's face; deep cleansing, as it were. I love it enough for it to be HG material for me, but truth is, it has a tendency to dry out my skin. Moreso, since I use it twice (sometimes thrice) a day. I also dislike that tight feeling after washing it off and I thought I could somehow live with it.

Then I picked up the Dove Beauty Moisture Facial Cleanser (P200).

What I love about it

• After weeks of using this, I could tell that my skin became smoother and more moisturized. Sometimes, I can even get away with skipping my moisturizing night cream and my face won't feel parched the morning after. 

One product I've only recently tried is the Dove Foaming Makeup Remover (P350). It was introduced to beauty writers just last Tuesday at the Watsons Beauty Lab so it's literally fresh off the shelves.

It's a great product, but I have to say that it's not new. Pond's has the same thing called the Gold Radiance Boosting Cleansing Mousse which they launched last October. I'm a fan of it alright (I finished off a 150ml bottle), but it has limitations - it can't take off eyeliner or mascara so it's really more for removing face makeup. The Dove Foaming Makeup Remover has no such limitation! It comes with a couple of caveats though.

What I love about the product

• Melts off face makeup (foundation, concealer, powder, blush) quickly and efficiently. It dissolves eyeliner and non-waterproof mascara with gentle rubbing so it's a one-stop makeup remover for the whole face.
• A little goes a long way. I use three pumps for my whole face.