Here is something I will never forget: I was about 13 years old when I woke up at 11 o’clock in the evening with water up to my knees. Up to that point I have lived my life with no major natural disasters; that flood has never happened before in our neighborhood, even during my grandparents’ time. I remember feeling eerily calm as I rushed to my parents’ room and knocked to wake them up. “May baha!” I shouted. It was completely dark, and only the sound of the swiftly rising floodwaters filled my ears.

Are you ready for 2021? What about your skin? A new year is a good place as any to start some healthy skin habits. As a dermatologist, here are a few things I recommend to get better skin on 2021!

Learn more about the best face essences for skin hydration and how it should be used as the first step of the moisturizing part of your skincare routine.

While lipstick is the number one makeup product I cannot live without, mascara is definitely number two. There’s just something so fabulous about applying a coat of mascara. Personally, I feel like I’m about to take over the world whenever I’d wiggle the wand between my lashes. Applying mascara for me is an instant pick-me-upper!

How are you celebrating the holiday season? The years before meant lots of big parties and reunions, but this year will be considerably different because of the pandemic. Safety is naturally the most important thing. Still, that doesn’t mean that we throw all celebrations out of the window. Zoom parties or parties with your own closed bubble are great ways to share love and cheer to everyone in your life. And you know what that means - it’s the best excuse for glamming up!

That’s why we asked celebrity hairstylist Renz Pangilinan for hair looks that we can do at home for the holidays. Some of Renz’s clients are Pia Wurtzbach, Heart Evangelista, and Kylie Versoza, and he’s here to serve us some inspo and tips!

We love our face masks at Project Vanity, and since K-beauty is the fountain of face masks, we are sharing with you the best Korean face masks to try!

Since we are all wearing masks for the time being, beauty trends have been focused on eye and brow makeup. Sometimes, though, we want to wear more face makeup, but then it would just transfer to our masks instead! As a PV girl, I still sometimes wear makeup under my mask and have learned a few tricks to help my makeup stay put on my face and not turn my mask into an icky mess. Here are some of my tried-and-tested tips to make my makeup more mask-resistant!

I hit my mid-30s halfway through this year, just a couple of months after our son turned a year old. My hobbies now include taking daily selfies with our hyperactive toddler. Being the beauty writer that I am, I cannot help but notice the huge difference between his skin and mine. Baby skin is just so plump and bouncy! And while I have nothing against aging, I would still like to delay signs of it when it comes to my skin.

Unfortunately, my skin is starting to tell a different story which can be attributed to the steady loss of collagen. A bit of sagging has started which can be seen on my eyebrow area and cheeks. My pores are more visible, and some fine lines are settling down around my eye and mouth area. I’m sure you can imagine just how excited I was when I first heard about Avon’s newest skincare breakthrough!

Before I get into this blush review, I just want to talk about something life-changing: mask brackets. These are silicone brackets that you can put underneath your face mask so that you can talk and breathe easily. The best thing about them though is that I can - wait for it - wear makeup again without it all rubbing into the mask! There would be some creasing where the brackets touch my face but it’s easy to fix with a clean finger.

Wrinkles are a normal part of skin aging. Apart from wrinkles, when the collagen and elastin in the dermal layer of the skin gets broken down, the skin will look less supple and plump, and will eventually sag due to gravity. The areas where wrinkles and sagging appear the earliest are the areas frequently exposed to the sun like the face, neck, arms, back of the hands, and the upper part of the chest. Today, I’ll focus on the neck because it’s a direct extension of the face.

Prior to the pandemic, I was admittedly not all that concerned about how long-wearing my lipsticks were. I didn’t mind repeatedly re-applying, and I even found the process fun. But with the need to constantly keep the mask on when outside, except for stopping to eat or drink, the search for a mask-proof lippie gets high on the priority list. So let’s turn to a line with an impressive reputation, the Maybelline Superstay Matte Ink Liquid Lipsticks (P299).

I turned 44 recently. I was joking to everyone that I’m now a middle-aged woman. Some people told me I’ve been one when I turned 35. Some argued middle age starts at 40. So I looked it up and both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster said middle age is from 45 to 65. Hooray! At 44, I’m apparently still a young adult!

Since I think the ladies and gentlemen in the Project Vanity community are young folks (like me haha), you might be wondering what it feels like to be a woman in her 40s.

When we talk of retinoids, we mean the big group of vitamin A derivatives which includes the non-potent forms like retinol, retinaldehyde, and retinyl palmitate found in skincare and the medical-grade forms like tretinoin, adapalene, tazarotene and the oral isotretinoin. These are typically prescribed for acne. Scientifically speaking, they work by binding to the retinoic acid receptors in the skin cells which will increase skin cell turnover, increase production of dermal collagen, minimize pores, and brighten hyperpigmentation.

The year 2020 has brought us many problems, and one of them is maskne. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that it’s been such a drag! No matter how perfect my skincare routine is, just wearing masks so often for long periods of time causes pimples to form up where the masks rubs on it. Of course, there’s the extra humidity because of our breath and sweat, so my skin gets irritated easily. Dermatologist Nikki Paderna wrote about maskne in her PV column and her tips have helped me deal with it!

Inspired by the nail polish queen and Preview’s former beauty editor, Agoo Bengzon, I began wearing nail polish when I was in college. Since I couldn’t afford going to the salon for a manicure back then, I decided it would be more practical to spend on a bottle and apply the polish myself.

After many years of practice, I can confidently say that I’m good at applying nail polish. I couldn’t take all of the credit, of course. Ease of application also has to do with what brand I use. Having tried many brands, I already know what bottles to reach for whenever I want an easy manicure.

Like a lot of Pinays, I like to grow my hair long. I have curly hair and I love the layers that my stylist can create when my hair is at a good length. I also like to color and highlight my hair, which I think emphasizes my curls even more! All that processing is very damaging to my hair, though. It also doesn’t help that I like to wash my hair frequently to keep my hair clean, which can also add to the damage.

I first fell for Anne Curtis’ Wedding Lipsticks back in 2017 when it was first released. I promptly went out and bought a set because the whole concept was so timely for me; I also got married that same year. While I didn’t wear the lipsticks for my own bridal look, I recall enjoying Anne’s lipstick shades in Mon Amour and I Do on a daily basis.

I think of skincare as self-care. I like to pamper myself, and I make sure that the products I am using are doing the best they can for me. They must be well-researched, dermatologist-approved, and with great ingredients that will not irritate my skin! Enter the new Cetaphil Bright Healthy Radiance Line – Cetaphil’s newly launched skincare line that promises to brighten skin with active ingredients that won’t irritate the skin.

Since I started writing for Project Vanity many years ago, I have learned to adopt a multi-step skincare regimen. There was even a point where I challenged myself to a 10-step Korean routine! And yes, I totally get the sensorial appeal of each luxurious step. But I will always have just as much appreciation for the straightforward but efficient skincare routine. Now after having tried five of Japanese brand BCL’s high-performance products, I have no doubt that they have the simplified skincare routine down pat.

Even before the pandemic hit, most of us were already using our gadgets consistently. From our smartphones to our laptop computers, not to mention the seemingly endless Netflix binge, our eyes are constantly in use. This brings on what we call digital strain, which then causes on further issues like dry eyes, headaches, blurred vision, and neck and shoulder pain. Add to that the stress of working from home and some sleepless nights, it is no wonder we feel not just our beauty but our health taking a hit.