Hi Liz! First off, lemme just say that I am a BIG fan of Projectvanity.com and I always make it a point to check for updates when I go online. I really admire your sense of style and enjoy your no-nonsense reviews.

Now pardon my presumption in emailing you, but since I admire and trust your fashion and beauty sense, I thought I'd ask your advice. My thirteen-year-old sister has wavy hair much like yours, but it's very thick, dry and frizzy, and she's been getting quite self-conscious about it. My question is simple, what salon or home treatment have you tried that you would recommend as a remedy? Bearing in mind that she's still quite young and I wouldn't let her try anything that might potentially damage it. That's all, really. I'm sure you're a very busy person, but I would really appreciate a response. Thanks and keep up the good work!

 

Hi Paola! My gosh! Thanks so much for following Project Vanity! :D I always love hearing from readers.

Now about your question. You hit the mark - hair is something I'm really conscious about. Your sister and I seem to have the same hair and same problems. I was so bothered about my hair that when I was 15 I had my hair chemically straightened every six months until I was 17. I am still suffering the effects; now my hair is thinning and hair fall is a major problem. So if you or your sister is considering it - even when she's 20 or 25 - try not to. The cost, side effects, and maintenance is not worth it.

I think the key to having great hair is to adjust one's view of what great hair is. Right now, I am loving my wavy hair. I always wear it up (for convenience, also because I try not to apply any product on it as much as possible), but when I wear it as it is with only minimal styling, everyone thinks I had it digipermed or something! I'm sure the same goes for your sister. It's a matter of looking at things differently. Perhaps you guys can look online for pictures of glamorous women with thick wavy hair - there are lots!

Vanessa of Gossip Girl

Now that's out of the way, we can go on to products. For my hair, I like using a clear hair serum while it's damp. This manages the frizz and adds extra shine to the hair. I love Citre Shine (~P400)

My mom is my best friend - that is, in a mother-daughter sort of way. I don't tell her everything about my life (I wonder how many daughters actually do) but she manages to know me better than everyone else. I'd like to think that's a two way thing!

So when Clean & Clear contacted me about having a date with my BFF at the Mall of Asia, I immediately asked my mom to go. MOA is our favorite mall, and we haven't really hung out by ourselves for some time. Off we went!

Open the image to zoom

 

We were asked to do eight fashion/beauty-themed things and use the Clean & Clear BFF 8 Date app on Facebook to document our adventures. We didn't get too creative as my mom was fashionably late for the start of the event (two hours, lol) so I thought that we should just chill and do the things that we usually do when we hang out. And they are:

1. Visiting our favorite personal care store, Watsons. This is always, always our first stop when we go to the mall.

2. Taking outfit photos. Yay! 

 

I once joked on Twitter that I should be ashamed of myself if I still have eyebags after going through all the eye creams I have. Ha ha. But seriously, the skin around our eyes should be well-cared for. All that rubbing we do when you're tired, the late nights, the unnecessary exposure to the sun - these will take sweet revenge in twenty years, even ten. That's why it's important to find an eye cream that can serve as a maintenance product. 

Eye creams are basically designed to moisturize and to keep down the puffiness of the eye area. They should also be able to soothe the distressed skin after a long day of exposure. After trying out the famous Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye, I can say that this product does the jobs I mentioned above.

The Estee Lauder ANR was first formulated in 1982 and has now become one of the brand's key products. The texture is similar to a serum - not too heavy and absorbs easily.

There is nothing like cheap lipstick to lift a dour mood. It's the easiest, fastest way to change up your look and it doesn't even have to cost much to look good! Now, something I recently bought is the Fashion 21 Aqualicious lipstick in Little Mermaid. I read about it in a local beauty blog some weeks back and found it interesting. It was only P150 so I grabbed it when I got the chance.

What I love about the product

• Little Mermaid is a gorgeous pink coral shade that instantly brightens my skin.
• Vibrant, opaque, and pigmented. One sweep is enough to get a good color pay-off.
• Creamy and moisturizing, although I would still suggest a balm underneath.

I was just settling down to write about some cheap lipstick I found at the drugstore. But then I thought what the hell, I don't want to talk about lipstick. When you do what you love and you get either pressured or paid to do it, well, it stops being something you love, but just something you do.

Beauty blogging has allowed me to reach out to women who want to be more beautiful but just don't know where to begin. Thus, when Asian Secrets asked me to run a contest for them, I was ecstatic! Not often do I get the chance to work with a great product as well as help new people through it. 

After announcing the winners, I set about purchasing and booking P40,000 worth of prizes. Here's my post with pictures of the winners and what they got! This post is about Kirby's makeover.

I was really excited about meeting the bride. I wanted to find out more about her and her wedding plans! Kirby is actually a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who is now taking Law at the University of the Philippines. Her soon-to-be husband is a scientist. Talk about intimidating!

I love the Urban Decay Primer Potion, so when I "ran out", I made sure to follow the advice of the makeup gurus. I prepared a clean jar and cut the violet tube up to get the last remaining drops of the stuff. I knew that the packaging wasn't practical since the curves made it difficult to maximize the product, but I was surprised when I found out that there was still so much left! I estimated around 50%!

Now I know that the UDPP now comes in a squeeze tube, and the later genie tubes had a bent doe foot applicator, but I wanted to dry something new. Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog swears by the Too Faced Shadow Insurance so I got it to see what the hoopla was about.

It contains more product than the normal-sized UDPP, and it only cost P1,100 at Get Sophisticated. Good thing it's available here at a nice price!

What I love about the product

• Easier to spread and blend in than UDPP. UDPP dries up quickly so sometimes there are beige streaks left that I can't remove anymore. UDPP dries and hardens, while TFSI simply dries. The texture is like creamy liquid concealer.
• Colorless when blended properly.

 

Statement accessories that really make a personal, unique statement - that is the idea behind the upcoming collection at Ukay Manila called Trinket Box Luxe. Don't you just hate it when you're wearing a great necklace, but see someone else wearing the same thing? Well, even if you don't, you know deep inside your heart that at least two dozen other girls have the exact same thing. That's what happens when you buy from a department store.

The new accessories that we'll be putting up are all sourced from Bangkok, Korea, and Hongkong personally by our very meticulous supplier. She's awesome! Here is a sneak preview of some of the accessories:

Cute and elegant at the same time. A daintier version of Patricia Field's clover charm necklace for Sex and the City 2

Turquoise always adds a fresh, stylish pop of color to even the most boring ensembles

There is nothing better than cheap, nice shoes in this world. Okay I'm just kidding, there are a lot of better things. But you have to admit, a P600 pair of edgy heels can make anyone's heart skip a beat!

I found these at So Fab in Glorietta 5. They also had other interesting heels on sale for only P600. Such a great deal.

organic cotton cardigan from Zara/ old rose blouse from Ukay Manila/ Folded & Hung shorts/ So Fab shoes

 

Here is a picture of me with zero makeup and photo processing. I have okay skin lately, but as you can see, I have a number of blemishes and roughness in some areas. I also have natural eye bags that I really can't do much about. Like everyone else, I want to put my best face forward, so I started my enthusiasm for beauty products in the quest to fake perfect skin.

There are literally cartloads of stuff that you can use to look as if you have a flawless, glowing face, so the only question really is this: how much are you willing to spend for it?

I rummaged through my beauty collection to find the best way to fake perfect skin in terms of cost. I came up with two sets of products: one that's affordable, while the other one not so much.

Damage: P2,410

Pond's Flawless White Day Cream (P300), Purederm Magic BB Cream (P660), Revlon Beyond Naturals concealer (P750), Ellana Mineral foundation 6g (P420) and finishing powder (P280)

Damage: P12,200

Clinique Moisture Surge (P2500), Smooth-365 Serum (P2600), MAC Studionfinish concealer (P900), NARS Sheer Glow foundation (P2450), Colorescience pressed mineral foundation (P3750)

Before we get to how the products actually look and perform against each other, let's start with how my beauty routine goes. I find that this works best to create that flawless face.

1. Start with a good moisturizer. Make sure that it absorbs on your skin well, leaving a matte yet glowy finish.

I have amassed quite a number of lipsticks these past few months. While I like all of them, there are a few that stand out - a few that's on top of my mind when I'm hurrying out. One brand that I keep using is the Estee Lauder Pure Color. I have two variants: the Long Lasting Lipstick and Crystal Lipstick.

I first encountered Pure Color lipsticks a few months ago when Liz of Estee Lauder Philippines gave me a tube. I loved it, so when I got the chance to purchase a makeup set from the brand, I went for it. There were four Pure Color lipsticks included!

This is what Pure Color lipsticks look like, but since I got mine from a set, they were in plain gold tubes like this:

What I love about the product

• Lasting power is better than most. It doesn't fade for at least four to five hours. The Long Lasting variant lasts longer than the Crystal one, of course. They're reminiscent of MAC satin finish lippies, but without the dry texture.

Here's the first part of my coverage on the Asian Secrets grand winners!

Kirby, our December bride, said, "I found out rightaway that I won because my Google Reader's subscribed to Project Vanity. I called the fiance immediately 'coz I couldn't contain the excitement. I'm just thankful for the blog's and the company's generosity! I'm glad that I have been chosen by the people behind the product I really love and actually own in my bathroom. I'm glad I have won from a brand I really use. I didn't join for the sake of joining; I joined because I really wanted to share my experience at the same time. ""

Kirby with her Asian Secrets lulur

"Even before Project Vanity’s product review, I was already aware of the product as I have seen its promotional booth in Watson’s Galleria and it got me interested. I thought of purchasing the product on my next visit since I was in a hurry then. So I did."

"I loved it the first time!

I've just finished a marathon publishing session over at the Beauty & Fashion section of thePOC.net. I've been at it for the last three hours, sifting through designers and grammatical errors (which are thankfully few). I leave the rest to the proofreaders, should I have missed anything! Next week should be the last week of our PFW S/S 11 coverage. Head on over to see what we've got so far.

Anyway, while looking through the shows, I must say that I am completely underwhelmed. Nothing stands out. In fact, some of the clothes are verging on the ridiculous. I'd like to say that most of the designers tried their best to showcase their skills (like last time), but this season, it seems like a lot of them have toned it down. Is it because most of the shows are sponsored by big brands who are naturally conservative and specific about what they want and don't want on the runway? 

I am trying hard to find the fashion in these:

"Philippine flag pinata." I quote one of my writers.

So unique and fashion-forward

La Mer is a brand that is famous for luxury skincare that many celebrities and magazines swear by. Its beginnings are the stuff of legends: a NASA aerospace physicist, Dr. Max Huber, worked for 12 long years to heal the scars he got from fuel rocket burns. After experimenting with sea kelp and bio-fermentation, he formulated the world-renowned Miracle Broth, which is supposed to help "sooth, nourish, and renew the skin". Read the interesting article of Time Magazine on it and you'll also find out why it's so expensive. ;)

Now, La Mer recently launched the newest member of the brand's skincare family called The Eye Balm Intense. It's a luxe eye cream that comes with a silver-tipped applicator to enhance micro-stimulation. It is supposed to turn back the hands of time, and it better, since it is $145 per half an ounce! That's P6,090 converted, sans taxes when sold here in the Philippines.

I've had the pleasure of using this cream these past two weeks. Here are my impressions!

What I love about the product

• Dramatically reduced the puffiness of my eyes. This has always been a big problem, especially during mornings after waking up. 
• Slightly reduced the appearance of my fine lines.
• Feels immediately cool and soothing when applied.

I abhor blackheads. They grow steadily and are so hard to remove! Argh! Good thing my blackheads aren't that obvious because I have fine pores, but still, I know they're there and I feel the discomfort.

FYI: blackheads are a type of acne and is caused by oxidized sebum or oil. This substance hardens and darkens during the process of oxidation, hence the tiny bumpy thingies all over and around our nose. Gross, I know. Facials are the best way to get rid of them since the hot vapors soften up the sebum while the pricking removes them physically, but who has the time to go to facials? They are also heavy on the pocket when done regularly (although I would still recommend them if you have an acne problem).

The next best thing to facials is using pore strips. They are basically strong adhesives that latch on to the offending bumps and peel them off neatly, saving you from manually popping and pulling them out by yourself. Now, one product I've recently tried and loved is the Purederm Nose Pore Strip.

What I love about the product

• Cheap at only P79.00, available in Watsons personal care stores. There are three individually foil-wrapped strips in one pack. The P139.00 box has six strips inside.
• Easy to apply and remove. Effortless, really. Although you need to set aside 15 minutes of your day for it.
• Took out at least 90% of my blackheads. Yay! The adhesive was pretty strong. It stung just a bit when I peeled it off (like duct tape) but nothing uncomfortable.

The lucky girl who won all these beauty products included in the Project Vanity Stash Giveaway is none other than...

Project Vanity dress/ Love Walks In heels

I want to take a break from writing about expensive beauty products, but whenever I check my photo albums, I can't seem to find a cheap beauty product that I've both A.)taken a photo of and B.)tried for at least a week. I don't review anything without good photos and actually trying it for some time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a brand snob. In my perfect world, all the great rave-worthy stuff will come from Ever Bilena or Fanny Serrano. In my perfect world all the good things will be P500 or less. But I find that's rarely the case.

Now, one of the best products I've come across this year is the Clinique Moisture Surge. This is one beautifier that I really swear by! It's my constant companion whenever my skin is crap (which is often lol) since this gel moisturizer instantly smoothens, calms, and brightens it, however bad the condition is.

There are quite a lot of retractable kabuki brushes out there, but many of them sacrifice the quality of the brush itself for the convenience of portability. This is not the case with Sigma's version of the flat top kabuki named Miss Taylor! The brush has the same quality as the Charm Luxe Flat Top Kabuki brush so I won't go into a detailed review anymore; just click the link.

To summarize: the Sigma Miss Taylor brush is soft, dense, and spreads liquid/cream/powder foundation and blushes like a dream. If you've always wished for a flat top kabuki that you can travel with and use on-the-go, this brush is just the thing you need. The metallic purple color is a cute add-on! It's an eye-catching accessory when you whip it out to retouch your makeup.

I recommend you use this for retouching instead of sponges since it won't disturb the makeup you already have on. 

You can find this brush (as well as other Sigma individual brushes and sets) at the Pink Slippers Boutique.