Yesterday Happy Skin released the Fresh Morning Dew Collection, which aims to deliver a fuss-free fresh face that’s comfortable to wear during the crazy hot summer. I find this collection tight and well-conceptualized; if you don’t like spending a lot of time on makeup, hate the makeup-y feeling on skin, and love to use flattering multi-use colors, then this line-up is made for you.

Let’s take a look!

In one sense, quarantine has been “easy.” But in another sense, it hasn’t been. Here I will once again acknowledge my special circumstances: I am mentally ill, and my condition comes with depressive and anxious episodes. But even if I wasn’t a “clinical case,” the COVID-19 situation has produced feelings of fear and powerlessness - of being able to only watch through a screen as the world as we know falls apart - that have been incredibly difficult to push past.

It is a fact that beauty products are not essential to survival. But is survival enough if we can do more? One of the things that makes us human is the ability to have a story in our head about how things could be, and the desire to make it true in the real world. We like to hope for better days and dream of better selves. As shallow as it sounds, a beauty routine actually helps with that.

I am an introverted person, a true homebody. Everyone I know will agree that this is true. So staying in and working from home to help keep the community safe at first felt like such an easy task. Of course, I do realize that I am privileged enough to have a roof above my head and food to eat even during this time, but after a week of being stuck at home, I got this urge to do something different because every day started to feel the same.

Yesterday, a member of the Project Vanity Community on Facebook desperately needed a solution for the blackheads on her nose. I know how frustrating it can be, especially when the pore strips and masks don’t seem to work. However it’s important to understand that there’s no instant cure to blackheads unless you plan to manually extract each and every one of them. EVEN THEN, they’ll come back after a few weeks. You have to play the long game here and to understand where they come from.

The Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask (P950 for 20 grams) has been around a few years now following the massive success of the Laneige Sleeping Mask. It was the first overnight lip treatment I’ve heard of - not the say it’s the first, of course, but it seems to be one of the first products in this category that became popular. ANYWAY. I just want to rave about this little pot of goodness, because it’s been keeping my lips alive these days.

Self-care is a tricky subject to talk about because it means different things to different people. No one else can be an expert on self-care except the self giving and receiving the care, so it’s a little bit of an airtight loop. Only you know if it is working or not.

When quarantine started all over the world, there are two opposing camps that emerged: one that encourages hyper productivity (learn the skill you’ve always wanted to learn! Start that side hustle you’ve always wanted to have!) and one that says “fuck productivity, just slow down and take all the time you need to heal mentally”.

Hey PV girls! We hope you’re all keeping safe during this enhanced community quarantine. Just a friendly reminder to eat healthily, take care of your mental health, wash your hands, and #StayHome. If you need to shop for essential skincare and beauty needs during this ECQ, here’s a list of beauty stores that are still open online and delivering.

Warning: don’t do this at home, alright? It’s been over 40 days since I wore sunscreen on my face and body. I haven’t used a single drop of it since the Manila lockdown started! I do my normal skincare routine otherwise - essence, moisturizer, I even mask - so it’s not really laziness. Part of it is because I don’t have any more Biore UV Aqua Rich backups at home (my HG sunscreen), but a huge reason is a morbid curiosity of mine on how important sunscreen REALLY is to my skin. I wanted to find out what will happen if I just stop using sunscreen altogether. Call it insanity. Call it a sacrifice for science.

It’s one thing to know how to cook and bake, but the beauty junkie takes it to a whole new level by knowing her way around the kitchen scraps. That’s right, we're challenging you to get nifty with what some might consider as refuse! Aside from repurposing your coffee grounds, there are more food leftovers that can double as beauty treatments. Get thrifty with your routine, and save a few pesos with these DIY hacks! (Hint: Use the extra funds for cheap thrills or set them aside to splurge on a big-ticket item!)

I do corporate speaking engagements on the side, and some months ago Watsons invited me their planning session to talk about the latest beauty trends. They gave me this gift bag with some Watsons goodies after my talk - love getting these, there’s always something I need or discover in them! It had the Watsons Goat Milk Cream Body Wash (P289 for 1 liter) and guys, seriously, this is SO GOOD.

We strongly advocate the use of low pH cleansers for the facial skin here at Project Vanity. It's not just a matter of preference; low pH cleansers actually function to preserve the acidic mantle that keeps our skin healthy. Unfortunately, there are products marketed for facial cleansing that have high pH levels. They may come in the form of bars, foams, creams or even gels but for this discussion, we'll refer to this kind of cleansers as "soaps". If you use soap to cleanse your face, you may want to stop for a moment and read on why it’s doing you more harm than good.

While Manila is on lockdown, we have everyday heroes fighting against a deadly virus in their scrubs and PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment). Some, like Medical Technologist Elle Zamora, go the extra mile with her beautiful makeup looks and show-stopping natural curls. I was inspired by her when I saw her post on a Facebook group the other day and thought that you should hear her story as well! This is what her life as a medical frontliner is like, and how she copes with brutal 12-hour shifts and stress about COVID-19.

It’s the third week of the quarantine, so we’re all feeling a little (or super!) lazy when it comes to putting any sort of makeup on. If you’re doing a lot of meetings on Zoom or holding parties at Hangouts though, you probably want ~some eyebrows at least! I know I do. I need to feel normal during such abnormal times. Here’s what I like to use when I only want to spend the least amount of time as possible on my arches.

While I often shop for makeup at Sephora, I admittedly tend to skip over their in-house brand as they’ve always looked plain next to the other brands that they carry. Recently though, I’ve noticed that the Sephora Collection has been upping their game with new skincare releases that feature trendy ingredients housed in chic, minimalist packaging. If you’ve been curious to try their new line of cleansers, here are my thoughts after testing these products for two weeks.

Disclaimer: I actually finished this project before the coronavirus quarantine. I wanted a more compact and complete makeup kit for my workout bag; I was swimming and playing tennis at the club as often as I can, and I shower there then go to the office or to a meeting after. I needed a comprehensive face! So I thought long and hard about what went in here and how everything is arranged.

I started a group chat with fellow beauty entrepreneurs about a year ago, and it’s usually what we use to coordinate lunches and sometimes discuss the retail landscape as well as challenges in the industry. We have had very different conversations though once the lockdown bore down on all of us - we were in distress. With malls closed down and even Lazada and Shopee non-operational (except for essential products), plus limited delivery service, it has so far been a three-week nightmare.

You’ve probably bought a product based on how attractive its packaging looked. I know I have! Sometimes I feel conned when the product itself turns out to be bad, and its only saving grace is the cute design that initially lured me into purchasing. Indeed, the beauty industry is very competitive and they have to do whatever it takes to keep their customers interested.

I know how frustrating it is to manage serious acne. I regularly go to the derma, I’ve tried different products and treatments, and I’ve even worked on improving my sleep quality and mental wellness to help manage my stress. But I think the most difficult part of acne is the aftermath. They often leave marks - physical scars, and sometimes even emotional ones. While there are many ways to treat hyperpigmentation, acne scarring often affects skin texture, causing a rough and uneven surface. How do you treat this type of acne scarring?

There are products that are bad, and then there are ones that we can not in good conscience recommend to anybody with a face. We don't hate anybody that much (or at all)! Here are five things that should be on your hit list.