The holidays are on full blast, and while the festivities bring joy, they can also pile on the stress with endless gatherings, gift shopping, and preparations. In the midst of all this hustle, don’t forget to hit pause and carve out some time for yourself. A little pampering goes a long way to keep your energy up for the season!

The holiday season is finally here, and with it comes the joy of giving! Christmas is the perfect time to show your love and appreciation for family and friends through thoughtful presents. If you’re looking for gifts that spark joy and are equal parts practical and beautiful, Watsons has you covered with their Holiday Gift Sets. From health and wellness bundles to beauty must-haves, there’s something for everyone on your list—and at prices that won’t break the bank!

Watsons Philippines has found a clever way to help you declutter your home and make a difference for the planet. Enter the Recycle for Rewards program, an initiative that rewards you for dropping off your empty health, beauty, and personal care containers at select Watsons stores nationwide. Yes, that’s right, your used shampoo bottles, skincare containers, and vitamin jars could now earn you shopping points, vouchers, or even free goodies!

BEVi Asia Pacific has achieved a landmark moment by winning the Asian Export Awards 2024 in the Philippines Market Development of the Year - Personal Care Category. This award underscores the company’s significant role in advancing the Asian export economy and cementing its position as a powerhouse in the beauty and personal care industry across local and international markets.

At the core of this achievement is Kojiesan, BEVi Asia Pacific’s flagship product and the first kojic acid soap in the Philippines. When it debuted, Kojiesan revolutionized the market by introducing the potent skin-brightening benefits of kojic acid to a largely untapped audience. Backed by a robust distribution network, the product quickly captured the hearts of consumers, becoming a household name and establishing BEVi Asia Pacific as a trailblazer in personal care innovation.

It’s that time of the year when we’re all thinking of refreshing our beauty stash, stocking up on wellness essentials, or even finding the perfect gifts for the holidays—and Watsons has us covered with their big Nationwide Sale! If you’re a Watsons fan (who isn’t?), mark your calendars because from November 14 to 17, you can snag up to 50% off on tons of health, beauty, and wellness favorites, plus enjoy Buy 1 Take 1 offers on select items.

I recently got the opportunity to go on vacation for the first time since the pandemic started back in 2020. I needed somewhere fun, yummy and preferably close by. Singapore was the obvious choice.

Aside from being one of the food capitals of the world, Singapore is also known for fashion and beauty - a fact that any fan of Crazy Rich Asians can attest to! Every glamorous outfit on that movie was topped with perfect skin and amazing makeup. In between sight-seeing at Marina Bay and chowing down on sumptuous chili crab, I was on a mission to find the best places in Singapore to indulge my love affair with skincare and cosmetics.

Reading labels on the packaging of health, wellness, and beauty products helps you make informed decisions. That's because a label can tell you what ingredients are contained in the product, how to use it effectively, and how caring it is for the environment.

Many retailers are now more conscious of their roles as more than purveyors of products but also as stewards of making greener choices. All over the world, retailers like Watsons are making efforts to be more sustainable and engaging their customers to live more sustainably through the products they choose, or through using reusable bags, or participating in recovery and recycling efforts by the retailer or the community.

As a beauty enthusiast, I must have seen thousands of Tiktoks or YouTube videos talking about numerous dupes for popular, often more expensive products. We grew up in a society wherein most of the time expensive means better but with the current advancements in the beauty industry this has started to change as more and more products turn out to perform comparably well or even at par with popular brands.

Here are a few much-loved beauty products and their corresponding dupes – tried and tested by yours truly.

In the late 1990s, I discovered makeup reviews, looks, and trends from newspapers and magazines. Over time, you could see the shift from print to blogs and social media. The key opinion leaders used to be newspaper or magazine columnists, but that changed with the rise of bloggers and content creators.

I wanted to take my love for makeup to the next level by taking a makeup artistry course. Formal makeup training felt like I had to learn about makeup again. I noticed the differences between learning through makeup school and online, and here’s a few that you might find useful. Let’s go!

Having scars may deal a blow to our self-confidence, but think of it as our skin getting stronger after every challenge. After all, the formation of scars is a natural part of our skin’s healing process! They can result from accidents, injury, burns, surgery, acne and illness.

Depending on the severity, age, and location of the scar, there are several options to fade them away. If the wound is not too serious and it’s still fresh, the best way to keep it from scarring as much as it would when left alone is to be proactive while the wound is newly healed.

My earliest memory of makeup was watching my mother put on this gorgeous deep red on her lips as she got ready for Sunday mass. And like all children I thought my mother with her lipstick on must be the prettiest woman in the world.

Although my memory of lipstick only goes back twenty years, this iconic product has been glamming up the women (and men) of history for centuries.

This pandemic deemed many of our cosmetic products useless, like colorful eyeshadow palettes or loose pigments that we may have bought on a whim or for that one party we needed to attend. Not everyone has the energy or time to play with makeup and post on social media, or wants to donate the palettes because it’s a limited-edition item. It’s an even bigger problem when they’re about to expire.

Allow me to share some ideas on how you can utilize those rainbow palettes so they won’t entirely go to waste!

I lost my job during the pandemic. And let me tell you, taking care of my skin and putting on makeup were the last things I wanted to do.

Skincare and makeup is always a fun time for me. I’m always happy when I “make myself pretty” even for no reason and despite the amount of time it takes to finish. I feel glad whenever I get to use the makeup products I worked hard to earn the money for. It’s double the serotonin boost for me when I could get ready while a new episode of my favorite show or the latest upload of a YouTuber I follow is playing in the background. I call it “my happy alone time”.

Anyone who loves browsing aisles of beauty products know from experience that it’s fun to discover and test new products. When we would look around physical stores, it was easier to scrutinize whether the products are real or not. Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, however, our choice of shopping channel quickly and heavily shifted from retail to e-commerce.

During most of my childhood I had pin straight hair that needed little to no management. Then right before high school, my curls happened! My hair started growing out curly to my surprise. I would try to hide with wide headbands and ponytails because people said it was buhaghag. In high school I was regularly rebonding my hair during the summers. By the time I was in college, my hair was fried, so I chose to stop getting my hair treated. College was more than five years ago at this point and while my hair is more alive, I wasn’t completely sold on how it looked. I knew I had curly hair; I just didn’t know what to do with it.

Picture this: The year was 2016. Bold brows, matte foundation, and really matte lips were all the rage. Of course, I was into it - and there’s nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that I did not really care about skincare.

Yes, this self-confessed skincare addict used to be someone who cared more about hiding her imperfections than taking care of her skin.

Lightweight, sheer, oil-free and natural are what I look for in a tinted moisturizer. So many brands both international and local are promising these things, and I am glad that the local make-up scene has so many options! The first time I heard about Issy & Co. Active Skin Tint was from Miss Bea via her Youtube Channel. She compared this with a skin tint from another brand and she didn’t really like the coverage. I was curious, so I’m glad to finally try it out.

While I’ve started using scented candles since 2019, it became a daily habit in 2021. I have discovered a candle enthusiast community consisting of chandlers (candle makers), suppliers, and fellow candle enthusiasts. After trying over 70 candles in a span of two and a half years, I have narrowed it down to my top 11! Here’s what’s worth the splurge.

Better skin in as early as 2 weeks

While there’s a lot of drinks and vitamins in the market that promise better skin, I was on the lookout for something that’s proven and tested to work on acne -- something to help me deal with cystic acne which I often get whenever I’m on my period.

I’ve always had sensitive skin all my life. When I was younger, I’d often experience allergy flare ups that’s usually triggered by the food I eat, the weather, or even stress.

These days, I’ve been dealing with mild skin irritation from the summer heat. While I’ve been managing it with a gentler, much simpler skin care routine, I’ve been looking for a new cleanser that can manage my skin’s irritation - which is mostly red spots on my chest and dry patches all over my face.