Hello, sunshine! Time for a little pick-me-up with this week’s beauty roundup. We’ve got the scoop on the latest Sunnies Face baby, a retro makeup collection by Grandma, Jeffree Star’s big reveal, and a fashion blogger’s partnership with a French beauty brand!

The most common makeup mistake that I’ve seen Filipinas make is thick, solid eyebrows that approach a crunchy appearance. I think it’s because many of us learned how to do our eyebrows from YouTube and Instagram beauty gurus, which is fine, except that their makeup is created under bright lighting and filters. In real life though, it can look quite heavy. Keep this in mind when doing your own brows. Whatever happens, the humble spoolie is your best friend! Of course, a good formula that works with your application style is important too.

What do you do to perk up when you’re feeling down? Maybe take extra time with your skincare, put on a cute outfit, or swipe on your favorite lipstick? If you need a visual reminder that you can constantly see, though, I think that manicures are the way to go!

Since SPF is one of the basic tenets of skincare, it’s no surprise that sunscreen is available in a LOT of forms. In the sea of creams, lotions, serums, sticks, and gels, spray-on aerosol sunscreens have become a popular choice. And the appeal is understandable: it’s lightweight on the skin, spill-proof, and easy to use. BUT is it all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s discuss possible issues with aerosol sunscreens, and what we can do to fix them.

When it comes to beauty products, it’s lipstick that always makes me go weak in the knees. I had a phase of obsessing over 70s pale nude matte lips a la Anna Karina in Une Femme est une Femme. I’ve tried to recreate Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s dark glossy lips moment. I double take whenever I spot a lip in bright tangerines, Peggy Carter reds, and anything rosey, regardless of color nuance or finish.

It looks like rain isn’t the only thing pouring in this week. The beauty world has got a ton of new releases, exciting launches, and epic teasers that’ll have you curled up into a ball of joy while sipping on some drama-free tea! This week’s roundup includes Jaclyn Hill’s much-awaited makeup collection (spoiler alert: it’s launching ASAP!), Estee Lauder Philippines’ fresh young endorser, and mask goodies from The Ordinary. We also got deets on a billion-dollar beauty acquisition so get ready for some epic beauty updates!

Happy Skin is most famous for their lipsticks but if you ask me, their face bases are so underrated! I’ve been a fan of their Don’t Get Mad, Get Even foundation line since it launched five years ago. I felt a little sad when they discontinued it, but lucky for us Happy Skin has a sneaky plan in place: they actually replaced DGMGE with a new and improved version called Ready To Glow!

Once upon a time, I was trying the SNOW app and changed the eye color to a slightly lighter brown (and at around 15% opacity) than my natural eye color. Lo and behold, I looked good! GGSS (gandang-ganda sa sarili) vibes aside, it inspired me to finally research on and purchase a pair of colored contact lenses. After consulting with the other PV girls in our group chat, I bit the bullet and settled on 1,100-peso FreshKons at Eyecrafts. I mistakenly followed someone’s advice to get green lenses though (the rationale being that green made a lighter brown whereas a brown made a redder brown) and ended up with, what else, green eyes.

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?

While I had learned to use body sunscreen whenever I’d go swimming, it wasn’t until I became part of the PV team that I realized I needed to wear it daily as well. It’s especially important for me since I commute to work and get direct sun exposure in the process. So as much as we ensure that are our faces get all the love it needs, the rest of our body needs protection from harmful UV rays as well, even on regular days!

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!

Did you know that the Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol-Free Toner is Kiehl’s #1 best-selling toner globally? Its success inspired the brand to come up with a water cream (which is skincare speak for a lightweight gel moisturizer) that incorporates the same iconic ingredient, Calendula Extract. What’s different about the new Calendula Serum-Infused Water Cream is that it includes micronized Calendula petals that “burst” when applied. The Calendula serum is meant to soothe and refresh the skin without making it feel too heavy. While moisturizer isn’t a particularly exciting category for me (I’m really more of a sunscreen type of gal), the unique texture of this product led me to discover its unintended use as an ultra-smoothing primer that nourishes and creates slip!

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s beauty roundup! We’re serving up some fresh hot drops, new brands to look forward to, HG products getting even better, and some juicy controversies we’d love for you to weigh in on. There’s good news and bad news for the Kar-Jenners, while FENTY Beauty has introduced their first ever brand ambassador. Plus, we’ve got full deets on the makeup collection that will take you on a magic carpet ride. Happy reading!

Raise your hand if your skin is so oily that you wake up every morning with enough grease on your face to fry your breakfast in! I know this; I’ve been there. Over the years, I’ve learned how to better manage my extremely oily skin, but I still find myself waking up with an oily nose and chin. During the daytime, I also still have to blot my face every few hours, as the Philippines’ heat and humidity can make our skin glands produce more oil. Recently, Den challenged me to make certain changes to my skincare and to see if those changes will help my skin become less oily. I was very curious if it could make a difference so I modified my usual skincare routine and products to give it a try.

If you’ve ever had pimples, chances are that you’ve also experienced getting cystic acne. These pimples occur deep in the skin, making them extremely painful and also very difficult to get rid of. Worst of all, they often last for weeks and can’t be treated with your normal routine. Don’t feel desperate though; we’re here to help!

Though the weather has gotten quite rainy, the unbearable heat of living in a tropical country continues to be something we struggle with. We try to keep cool by adding lots of shorts and skirts to our outfits, but this gives rise to another problem: the chub rub.

I’ve been complaining to Nine and Den about finding the perfect dark lipstick, a la Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Never mind that my collection of orange lippies were the perfect choice for summer - my desire for vampire lips had to be sated! While I was very tempted to buy a tube, I couldn’t find the color nuance at the price point I wanted (aka, cheap) because of my low-buy. So I was super intrigued when I watched a tutorial by YouTuber Sarah Cheung, who created a 90s look inspired by Canto-Pop Queen Faye Wong. She used a brown Colourpop pencil eyeliner and mixed it with her red lipstick to create the signature grunge look of the era. And so, here I am with a bunch of pencil eyeliners and lipsticks to test how well this hack works!

Doing group reviews on PV are honestly quite a challenge as we all work remotely, but it’s definitely more insightful as we get more varied feedback from different types of users. We also had a lot of fun doing it for the Tom Ford Lips and Boys Lipsticks so we just had to do the same for these three Tom Ford Eye Color Quads!

Happy weekend, everyone! If you’re like us and still recovering from those insanely campy and absolutely glorious MET Gala looks, this week’s beauty roundup will help bring you that zen, back-to-reality beauty dose that you need. We’ve got the latest on a new skincare player to rival TO’s fuss-free formulations and Happy Skin’s latest high-tech creation! We’re also spilling the deets on Gucci’s return to the beauty world and something called a puppy dog highlighter?!