Here in Project Vanity, we love sharing our beauty tips, product insights, and hot new finds. What we don’t like sharing, however, is makeup itself – we don't want bacteria spreading around and causing problems! Even if you don't share makeup products with other people, your personal collection can still harbor unhealthy growths that can compromise your safety and shorten the lifespan of your products. So it's still important to sanitize your makeup regularly.

When shopping for beauty products, two of the PV girls' favorite stores are Watsons and the Beauty Section of the SM Store. Aside from getting great deals at their many sales, buying with an SM Advantage Card from either store also gets you discounts and points which you can then use for future purchases. In fact, I’ve been able to buy a few lipsticks just from my accumulated points! Getting to treat myself to something from SM Beauty is always a fun experience, and now I get share that joy with others!

Move over, Instagram brows - Korean straight brows are in. They're perfect for creating a look that's sweet, innocent, and oh-so young! Naturally, they pair well with Hallyu-inspired gradient lips and puppy eyeliner. If you've attempted it before and ended up with a solid block instead of feathery frames, we're here to help you, dear reader, to achieve your K-Drama goals. Snagging an oppa on the side is just a plus!

I will take any chance to visit a place with cooler climate, and I suppose a lot of Manila-dwellers would feel the same way for obvious reasons. But anytime I start packing for a trip like that, the anxiety portion of the program also begins. How cold will it get? Do I have warm-enough clothing? Will my dry skin turn into a flaky mess??? Cue over-packing both clothing and beauty products. Sadly for me, lugging around what feels like every skincare product in my collection doesn’t always guarantee success in actually keeping my skin moisturized. As the saying goes, it's all about quality over quantity.

Have you ever swatched foundation in the store, fell in love, and purchased it only to discover that it had turned darker (or worse, turned orange!) when you got home? If this sounds familiar, you've experienced having makeup oxidize on you. This is why beauty reps often ask "acidic po ba kayo?" when you shop face bases, but it's not helpful because the answer is always "yes" as our skin literally has an acidic pH level. What is causing the change in color then?

The holidays are fast approaching and you know what that means - parties and get-togethers will be keeping your social calendar jam-packed and busy! For me, it’s the time of year when I whip out my bright and glittery makeup because it suits the festive holiday spirit. This time, I'll be putting down my usual lippies to give way to something more fun, like some metallic bling from J.Cat Beauty's Flash Metal Metallic Matte Lip (P329).

I honestly never thought that there would come a day when I could confidently say (and that other people would actually agree) that my skin is in a good place. I’m crossing all my toes and fingers that it will remain as it is, with less breakouts, bumps, and visible pores compared to a few months ago. I now know that it takes a good amount of discipline to keep my skin in good condition but it’s definitely possible.

There’s lots to celebrate this week, PV girls, because the latest MAC Cosmetics collaboration will have you beaming with Pinoy Pride. We've also marked the launch date of Gigi Hadid’s Maybelline Collection on our calendars (it’s coming to the PH sooner than you think!) and adding some sparkly new palettes to our wish lists! Who’s ready for the scoop? Let’s get reading!

Raise your hand if you’ve ever applied your makeup at home, only to leave the house and find that your application is uneven or overdone! Getting enough good lighting in your vanity area is actually important to ensuing that your makeup game is on point but we may not always have access to lots of natural light. Maybe your room doesn’t have a window or enough light sources, or you need to do your makeup early in the morning before the sun rises. If you don’t have the budget for a full light-up vanity and aren’t handy enough to DIY a similar setup, a mirror with LED lights is just the thing to get you out of the dark!

When we got a sneak peek of the full roster of H&M Beauty, I was personally curious if the quality lived up to its chic packaging. In general, the eye and lip products are great and can really compete with more established brands but what caught my eye was their set of Powder Blushers, which range from soft hues to shocking pigments. They're just P499 at select H&M branches. Naturally, I got three… because that’s what people like me do.

As consumers, we might be fickle about where our clothing and our food are made, but what about cosmetics and personal care products? To be honest, I never considered this before, when my beauty buys were limited to drugstore and drugstore-priced products. When I started getting into mid- and higher-end products though (it strangely coincides with the time I started writing for PV, hmm) I admit my curiosity was piqued because the higher price tag made them feel like actual investment pieces. So I had to know: am I getting my money’s worth by spending more for these items when they could possibly be made in the same place as my cheap thrills?

I'm lucky to call Laveen and Rohit Mirpuri of Pink Sugar my friends. I always learn new things from them when it comes to business, and they are always super frank (sometimes painfully frank) when it comes to feedback about my own business and products. I am the same with them. When you're working your ass off as hard as we all do, then there really is no time for bullshit. I appreciate that!

While I've already reviewed the different product lines of Collagen by Watsons products, I wanted to dedicate a post to my unexpected new HG: the White Regeneration Instant Finishing Cream. Adding this product to my routine has brought me a lot closer to achieving that coveted chok chok glow, and budget-friendly price tag just blows my mind!

I am tired of dry, crusty, flaky, uncomfortable lip products that make me want to take of all of my makeup in the middle of the day. I think the makeup community has been collectively sold on the liquid lipstick hype that some of us have forgotten what it’s like not to have to perform 70 lip preparation steps in order to appease the liquid lipstick gods. That’s why traditional bullets, like the American-made Milani Color Statement Lipsticks (P300 from Lannel Boutique), are a breath of fresh air!

The Drunk Elephant Sukari Babyfacial ($80 or about P4,000) first caught my attention when I read that it's Sephora's fastest-moving product. I have never heard of Drunk Elephant before, but surely, if it's such a best-seller, it's worth trying out? For the sake of research, I had my friend buy one for me while she was in the US some months back. I didn't really ~read~ the product description all that well so I only found out that this is a 25% AHA and 2% BHA mask when I got the box. Yikes.

When you have to fit work, sleep, exercise, dating, house chores, and commuting in Manila all in 24 hours, you’ll have no choice but to learn how to pinch your time where you can. In my case, I’ve learned to keep my daily office makeup routine within 5 to 10 minutes! It took some practice to achieve that time record but I now have tricks to cut down what used to be a half-hour routine. Here are a few tips that might help you out if you’re a fellow busy bee!

With so many makeup tips and tricks popping up nowadays, it can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. Some may even make you even cringe with how crazy and over-the-top they are - remember the one about using a knife as a guide to contour? No thanks! I'd rather stick to safe options, particularly when they look like they can actually work. So I decided to actually find out! I picked out three top hacks that promise to help my foundation look more fleek, using products that most beauty junkies would already have in their stash.Is it a real HACK or just WHACK?

The nippy weather is really making me feel the Ber months! The shift to cooler weather has been making my skin drier than usual, but I already changed my routine recently to suit the weather. Instead of swapping my lightweight moisturizers for something heavier, I'm opting to add face oils like the In Her Element Pure Squalane Oil as my last skincare step instead! I apply it over my moisturizer and other skincare layers, and what it does is act as an occlusive or barrier to trap the moisture in my skin. It's literally the divide between healthy skin and Flake City.

As a member of several beauty communities, I’ve noticed the different stages in a person’s dedication to beauty. It begins with a casual interest in cute products, followed by a more serious commitment like building a collection, and succeeded by being more aware of things like the ingredients that go into the products. If you’re part of the latter group, you might even find yourself questioning if all those other ingredients absolutely have to be in there.

Finding my first mentor was life-changing. She contributed so much to whatever success I have now, because for the first time, someone was able to show me that it was possible to have a different life than what my parents and school initially taught me. Because of that person, I saw a path to being an entrepreneur! I was a freelance marketing consultant for her business, but eventually, I began to understand that I could be more - with a little bit of guidance.

Mentors are people whom you look up to for advice, wisdom, and opportunities. They are role models that you seek for guidance; ideally, you have a long-term relationship with them where they share their method to success. They can be massively influential to your personal and professional growth. But here comes the daunting task: how do you find a mentor?