“When I shop, I just get what I like on the mannequins! I don’t like looking around!” said a friend of mine over lunch. I was marginally scandalized. I’m a person who can’t settle on a purchase without seeing everything first. How can I possibly make an informed decision if I don’t know all my options? How can anyone else?

Hehe, seriously, I think of shopping somewhat like a game. And I loooove having a companion to shop for. A couple of weeks ago, I accompanied the winner of my Palmolive Naturals Stylista Speaks contest  to her shopping spree at Forever 21 Makati. It was such a fun experience because it’s my first time to go shopping with a new friend!

Her name is Marie. She’s a pretty just-out-of-college woman who is very sweet and kikay. Ahhh, a girl after my own heart (well except for the sweet part, har di har har). She wanted to find good deals at first since some items were on sale, but I persuaded her to invest in some pieces that I think she’ll enjoy wearing again and again! I also gave her my tried-and-tested shopping tips, which I shall post here!

I've read so many positive reviews about Tarte blushes that I just had to get one when Windy asked if I wanted to review anything from her store. I chose the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Blushing Bride (P1,100 from Stuff in Style) because I don't think I have anything like it in my stash! It's a plummy-berry blush that's touted to have a long-wearing formula.

Texture and staying power. Blushing Bride is very pigmented and smooth, with a liberal sprinkle of golden sparkle mixed with the color. The shimmer doesn't look tacky or thick so it shouldn't show on your skin. You'll just get this golden glow which I think is a nice add-on.

There's a survey that says that the marketing and PR industry is the #2 most caffeinated of them all. I'm in it and I like caffeine (tea please!) but I don't normally rely on stimulating beverages to get me through the day. But! This month is so hectic that I might need to start smoking tea! (Random, I just googled that and people actually do smoke tea leaves. FYI. Don't do it though, you will still kill your lungs.)

Anyway, I'm planning and hosting two events to be executed in the next two weeks, plus there are so many beauty releases this month. If September is fashion month, October has got to be the beauty month. The holiday season is near so people are starting to shop for gifts and prettifiers to use for the inevitable string of parties. Beauty brands know this so they're either launching or promoting their best products of the year!

I thought I'd show you a sneak peak of what I'll be talking about in the coming days. Here are a few new things I received in the last two weeks

I've had this drastic hair cut for two weeks now and I feel guilty not telling you about it sooner. It's just that for a few days I didn't know how to feel about it. When I left the salon I was squealing in delight. When I woke up the next morning I was all "What the fck did I do to myself?" But now I am super happy about my new look. 

Given that my hair is wavy, frizzy, and my face is wide and chubby, only a master hair cutter can make my bob look this good. Oh and a blow drier along with some awesome hair products! Anyway I will write a separate post about my salon experience, but I'll tell you now that this hair cut is worth P6,500. Well, P7,500 including the dye job. I didn't pay for it although when my hair is long again, I have half a mind to go back to that salon!

So why did I do it?

September was a mighty blur to me. If you ask me what I did exactly, I wouldn't know without consulting my calendar. I would spend an entire day operating on the impression that it's a day or two ahead. Is that a bad thing? Yes because I am sometimes disoriented and out of focus. No because I love and enjoy what I am doing. And through my blog-related efforts, this website has been pushing 5,500+ page views a day! Even reaching 7,000 on a good day.

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That said, I'm so thankful for your support. I wouldn't keep pushing without your comments and questions as readers, without your trust as sponsors. :') You're the best!

Okay, that's it for the emo rambling. On to my my top 10 favorite finds last September!

If you're OC about perfecting your face makeup (as I am) then you'll love the Real Techniques Core Collection Brush Set (as I do). It's a set of four wonderful brushes to conceal, smoothen, and brighten your complexion. It's a great deal too for only P1,100 for full-sized brushes and a travel case. My favorite brush in particular is the contour blush - it deposits blushes and contour powder cleanly. Love!

Nice, affordable mineral powder foundations are like unicorns. They're not so easy to find, even harder if they're in pressed form!

The more I like a scent the more sparingly I use it. Is that weird? Like good memories and golden moments, I just want to preserve it for as long as I can. I even have a flacon of perfume just barely half used after three years!

A strong candidate for my all-time favorites list is the Elizabeth Arden Green Tea Cherry Blossom EDT. I swear, it was love at first spray! The aromatic scent of green tea is perfectly melded with the sweet, dainty scent of the cherry blossom. It makes me feel happy, awake, and so feminine, like a lady who walks primly to high tea with her friends. 

The launch of this fragrance was memorable and intimate since Elizabeth Arden just invited a few beauty bloggers to a spa date (NEO Day Spa in The Fort - one of my fave escapes!). They also introduced the Aurora Collection, which is comprised of rosy, illuminating hues perfect for spring/summer.

What do you know, I have a video blog of the whole thing (shot by Marge Manabat). ;) Watch!

People ask me why I didn't become a makeup artist. Well, for many years I didn't think it was a good fit. I was just happy doing makeup on myself, writing about it, growing this website. Recently though I've seriously considered going for it. I was supposed to do makeup for a couple of bridesmaids last month, but that was the weekend Snaps was horribly sick so of course I couldn't leave him. I was so excited about that gig! It just wasn't meant to be.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Shiseido invited the press to a makeup workshop conducted by their Regional Training Manager for Asia, Angela Boh.

Angela demonstrated Shiseido's 2012 Autumn/Winter collection which features the Radiant Lifting Foundation - a new foundation that takes the reflective properties of light into play to create an illuminated base, the Camellia Compact – a soft, velvety highlighter and blush compact, and the Lacquer Rouge Collection which has intense liquid lipstick shades for Fall.

Shiseido Camellia Compact - highlighter, blush, and contour in one

She also showed us how to apply makeup the Shiseido way.

I'm not a food blogger and I won't start now, but it doesn't mean that I won't talk about food I like. :P A few weeks ago I got to visit this new Asian fusion restaurant in Marikina called Tiyo's by Chef & Brewer. The place is operated by the same people behind Ferretti shoes, so we had a meeting there to discuss business. The usual!

What wasn't usual is the food. We had this chicken sisig wrapped in warm tortilla, drizzled with mayonnaise and mustard. It was heaven! And simple too, if you want to make it at home. I loved the salty, creamy, then sour flavors of the dish. It sounds weird but wait 'till you try it! They say it's perfect with beer as pulutan.

Something about the cooler weather and the season makes me want to wear smoky eyes all the time. I've demonstrated how easy it is to do the look, so there's no excuse for me (and you!) not to wear it whenever I feel like it! Ha. One palette that makes smoky eyes incredibly easy is the Etude House Dolly 3-Step Eyes in Cute Doll (P648). It contains three eyeshadows that combine perfectly to give you the gradient smoky look.

The Cute Doll BR401 palette contains full-sized, super creamy matte eyeshadows in bone white, caramel, and charcoal brown.

Hi girls! It's a glorious Friday morning and I'm excited! I've been several shades of lazy and busy to go out lately so I've stored up all my appointments for this day. Call it streamlining operations - if there's anything I dislike, it's wasting time when there's a smoother way to accomplish things.

Anyway, I just want to tell you about an upcoming workshop by Estee Lauder. They are bringing in their Director of Global Makeup Artistry, Blair Patterson, to conduct the class! It will be held on October 13, 4:30pm at the Lubang function room of EDSA Shangri-La. Sounds fab right?

All you need to do is reserve and pay the P3,000 workshop fee, which is in reality consummable GCs at Estee Lauder.

When I first heard that Katie Holmes is the first and (so far) only celebrity endorser of Bobbi Brown cosmetics, I gave a big internal whoop. The pairing is perfect! Katie has always been polished, elegant, and discreet, much like the trademark Bobbi Brown look. I honestly am looking forward to their upcoming campaign together, see what these two pretty powerful girls can come up with!

Anyway today I want to review some things that I've been using for a couple of months now: the Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Collection. It features a mascara, eyeliner, and cream shadow that is guaranteed to last from coffee to cocktails. I love the concept, and I'm sure you would too if you hate touching up your eye makeup! 

Here's what I think of each product in the collection.

The Bobbi brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow in Shore (P1,450) is my favorite out of the bunch. The formula and shade is absolutely amazing! It's super creamy yet thin, then dries into a velvety, budge and smear-proof layer on my lids. This doesn't crease at all.

At first I was all "meh" about Shore, a boring-looking matte neutral beige, but when I got to know it better it's now one of my favorite eyeshadows.

There are certain emotions and impressions that come with particular colors, which then makes them the perfect weapon if you know how to use them. You can leverage these things according to the effect you want to achieve on people. Some can call it manipulation, but I like to call it resourcefulness. :) 

That said, there are no hard and fast rules when choosing lipstick shades. In the end, it depends on your personality, location, and the kind of people you are with. You can even just pick your signature shade and wear it anywhere you like. But if you're the kind of girl who changes lipsticks more often than she changes shoes, then honey, this is for you! Let your lipsticks do the talking!

Going on your first date with a special someone? You can never go wrong with a glossy, flirty-yet-innocent pink lipstick. It doesn't scream *too much* but it's not blah either! Whether you're wearing a chiffon dress or something casual, a pink lipstick like the Cover Girl Lip Perfection Lipstick in Dazzle will look gorgeous on you. A glossy finish like this makes your lips look plumper and more kissable.

So you guys hit if off, huh? Congrats! If you want to make a good impression when you meet his parents, there's nothing better than a sheer peach or coral shade.

Fall isn't just a season, at least, not when it comes to the fashion and beauty industry. Fall is a change in the overall mood of women, perhaps brought about by the colder weather and longer nights. We adjust our routines and with it our clothing and beauty products. That's why even if there's no autumn in our country, we're still affected by the global fashion zeitgeist during this time of year.

So! Today I want to talk about the Guerlain Fall 2012 Collection which is now available in the Philippines. Everything is beautifully packaged in gleaming bullets and compacts, and the color selection is just wonderfully rich and seductive.

There are two themes: Femme Fatale, which is all about fiery passion in deep red and chocolate colors. In contrast, Femme d' Amour is more romantic and angelic, with rose and dainty pinks in the color story. I found a nice video where Guerlain's National Makeup Artist Marcus Monson showed how we can achieve the looks. Which one are you today? ;)

Here are more photos and pricing info on the featured products!

Smoky eyes can be intimidating. There's the impression that it takes a lot of time, brushes, and expertise just to get it right. That's not necessarily true though! Smoky eyes can be quick, easy, and most importantly, clean, if you use the following techniques. 

This look is particularly perfect for girls with monolids and chinky eyes. Smoky gradient colors like this can make your eyes look bigger and more defined plus you don't need a crease to make it work. So, are you ready for glamorous, dramatic eyes? Here's my five-minute smoky eye tutorial!

Step 1: Use a black/charcoal creamy eyeliner, eye crayon (those jumbo fat ones), or cream eyeshadow as base. Key word: creamy! You can't use your normal pencil eyeliner if it's very dry. You're looking for something that's emollient and easy to smudge.

I'm using the Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Eye Pencil in Onyx in this look.

When I started Ask Liz! I just wanted a centralized, public place to store all my answers to your questions. Now, 275 questions later, I find that it has evolved into a sort of micro-community for beauty enthusiasts. I love that you guys are interacting with each other and answering other questions that I can't help with. How awesome is that? Cheers to everyone who posts! :D

Here are my answers to some recent questions.

I haven't been posting my outfits lately for the simple reason that I don't have any photos of them. -_- I'm usually rushing out, but that excuse aside, I also don't have anyone to take photos of me. So here's what I'm going to do: I will just share some of the new stuff I bought or got in the mail. I've been on a mission to update my wardrobe lately, and here are some of the things I carted!

This is my favorite find. It's a jacket from Apple & Eve (P1,500)! I forget what this type of jacket is called, but I've been looking for something like this for some time. I love that it's light, perfect for our weather, and it fits me so well! Can't wait to wear it out.

Good Monday morning! Thought I'd start the week with a skincare review. It's something I've been using consistently since late May, so I thought it's about time to blog it with conviction. :P 

The Benefit It's Potent! Eye Cream (P1,800) is a brightening eye cream that promises to fade dark circles and smoothen lines. It's an extremely lightweight product that gets absorbed on skin without leaving any greasy residue. It doesn't have any fancy star ingredients that are only called in letters and numbers; what it does have is extracts of linseed, almond, wheat, oat, apple, and plankton.

What I love about the product

• It's incredibly light. It almost melts upon contact with skin, making it easy to massage evenly on lids and under eyes. 
• Moisturizing even if the cream isn't heavy at all. In four months I've used it, I've noticed that the skin under my eyes has become more supple, elastic, and the lines, smoother.  

I tried an intriguing facial the other week from CACI 6750. Why intriguing? Instead of pricking and scrubbing, the facial involves simply scraping off whiteheads and blackheads with an ultrasonic spatula. I know, too sci-fi! But it works. The machine cleaned up my face nicely without the stressful pricking that usually comes with facials.

CACI, short for computer-aided cosmetology instrument, is a brand from the United Kingdom which specializes in non-invasive anti-aging techniques. It has been in the Philippines for seven years, but oddly enough it's not yet too popular. Former Ms Universe Gloria Diaz loves the signture facial, the CACI Premium Non-Surgical Face Lift, and comes in every so often for a treatment!

I didn't try that face lift because I'm just 24 (although some people like to start young). Instead, I went for the MD Dermatics Glow Facial, which is basically for clearing out nasty pore blockages and acne. It uses microcurrent toning, a technology that was initially used to treat those with Bells Palsy. However, the affected muscles did not react as well as the normal muscles and this is where they saw the aesthetic value of the technology.

You know that feeling of going back to an old love, then finding out (with the utmost delight) that it's even better than you remember it? That's what I felt when I dipped into the MAC Fluidline in Dipdown (P1,100). The Fluidline was my first ever high-end eyeliner and I loved it so much that I used it for almost two years. I kept it for three years just for the nostalgia, and believe it or not, it was still creamy and usable until the day I threw it away. 

I received a fluidline in a MAC event that I attended a couple of months ago. I didn't want to use it since I have got quite a few brown eyeliners on rotation already, but I was curious to see if this gel eyeliner is as good as I thought it was. It is!

This is the best gel eyeliner I've tried, hands down. If you thought your drugstore gel eyeliner was creamy, the Fluidline is waaaaay creamier than you'd think possible.