As #adulting rears its ugly head, I attend a more diversified set of events. From the casual meetups with friends and low-key backstage work commitments, to the more dressy blog events and formal wedding parties, I put effort into looking good. I’ve noticed that I do very different faces for each of these events, so I tend to edit my kit accordingly. If you find yourself scrambling to do different looks with just a single kit, consider adapting this method of keeping three kinds of kikay kits.

When I first went to Korea to study makeup, I expected to be swamped by K-Beauty brands, idol endorsements, and their collectibles. And while that was certainly true, I honestly didn’t expect for luxury Western brands to have a place of respect among my friends and makeup instructors.

For Koreans, beauty brands follow a pretty tight market classification - a pecking order, if you will. They tend to look at consumers in terms of age, and will cater very specifically to each group. Koreans have a word 대 (dae) which means “generation” and pertains to the age bracket that a person falls under: teens, twenties, and so on.

I’ll confess: sometimes I cringe when I’m complimented about my ‘Korean’ face. I appreciate the intention, but I also can’t help but want to argue about how much skill it takes and the kind of mental dissection I do to make people (myself included) achieve K-Beauty without looking too contrived.

Last January, our K-beauty chinggus were heartbroken when Laneige Philippines started holding massive sales and, eventually, closed all branches. We thought they’d be gone forever, but Laneige is officially back in SM Makati, The Beauty Source!

Last November 23, Club Clio opened a new store on the second floor Atrium of Robinsons Galleria. This isn’t any old store though - it’s the Philippine flagship store which will carry new and limited edition products first. True addicts for house brands Clio Professional, Peripera, Goodal, and Dermatory should keep this store on their radars!

K-beauty has given rise to some pretty strange and interesting trends like applying 7 layers of toner, dunking your face in ice water to set makeup, and the use of bubble cosmetics. The last one particularly sounds like pure skincaretainment, which simply uses carbonization to create a fun and fizzy experience. But does it actually do anything for your skin?

I love brush sets. I’m addicted to them, and the bigger, the better. I’m very maarte with my personal makeup routine, and I like to believe that the brush I use affects my final face.

As with any brush set, I have three basic review guidelines; form, fiber, and function. With form, I look at the shape of the brush heads. These must be a good size to work on my face, and a good shape to apply the makeup it’s meant to apply. With fiber, I touch the actual brush heads and check if they’re dense or loose enough. I actually prefer synthetic fibers, as well-designed synthetic fibers can mimic the feel of natural fibers, minus the staining and the cruelty. Lastly, I look at the function. Does it blend if it’s meant to blend, or line as it’s meant to line? I look at a set cohesively and determine what it’s meant for. Is it meant for a full face? A basic face? Or was it just meant to supplement existing brush collections?

The MAC Studio Fix range is basically an institution, known for its wide shade range. In fact, beauty enthusiasts often refer to the MAC foundation shade coding system even when talking about other brands! Now, MAC aims to be even more inclusive than they already are by embodying All Ages, All Races, All Genders. They have looked at even more undertones and shades, and recognized what consumers have long been saying – one shade does not fit all.

If you’re part of Facebook beauty groups or wedding planning, you may have seen the viral post that sent online beauty community into a frenzy over the weekend. Originally shared by a user named Makiko Yoshizawa, the post is a scathing review of celebrity makeup artist RB Chanco. Makiko claimed that RB was unresponsive in the months leading up to her wedding, leading her to cancel their service agreement. She also detailed how RB insisted on keeping the reservation fee despite the cancellation of the contract, which happened mere weeks before the event. The post includes screenshots of OP’s exchanges with the artist.

While we know Elizabeth Arden mostly for its feminine fragrances (White Tea remains a personal favorite since trying it last year), they’re not one to be left behind on color cosmetics and skincare.

The introduction of the SUPERSTART Skin Renewal Booster has inspired a full-on SUPERSTART collection. This collection features skincare technology that focuses on improving the radiance and appearance of the skin’s topmost layer, the stratum corneum. The line heavily features probiotics, which aims to strengthen skin’s own natural defenses leaving your skin feeling resilient and refreshed.

Kérastase Philippines just launched a new haircare line, Kérastase Résistance Extentioniste, as their first hair program designed to optimize and reinforce the length of damaged hair. It features Creatine-R Complex, a natural amino acid that is usually found in workout supplements. It is meant to improve strength, increase muscle mass and help muscles recover quicker during exercise. Recherche Avancée L’Oréal Research Institute has harnessed this technology to create a ‘training program’ for hair that will strengthen and reinforce hair’s internal structure, which is supposed to assist in uninterrupted lengthening.

This line claims to induce hair growth of up to 4cm in just 3 months of consistent use. Average hair growth is at 1cm per month, but if you’re impatient about growing your hair like I am, the product promise has definitely gotten me intrigued!

From being ‘Jenny from the block’ to becoming a film actress, Jennifer Lopez has always worked in front of the camera. For the first time ever, she’s stepped behind the scenes to collaborate with European cosmetics brand Inglot to create a massive 70-piece collection that is now available here in the PH!

Supermodel Claudia Schiffer has had a lot of time to ruminate on her makeup collection – she was the 90’s It Girl and has had a very active three-decade old career. That’s countless years spent having makeup done on herself, so who better to create a line than the woman who has served as the muse of countless photographers and fashion designers?

When it comes to makeup, it seems like every Filipino beauty fan is obsessed with having perfect arches. It takes some practice even to do easy, breezy brows and it can be overwhelming to have so many types of brow products to choose from. If you’re just starting out, brow powders are one of the easiest eyebrow formulations to master! It’s a good pick for any kind of brow, and you can find budget-friendly options for under P600 and under P500.

Late last year, the PV Team chat was in a tizzy when we realized that B. by BANILA became available online. Some of us (the identity of whom begins with an S and ends with AMANTHA) may have even bought a couple or more items. While B. by BANILA has been available both online and offline for quite some time, they only officially launched last May 8.

Banila Co, the mother brand, strives to create “skincare for makeup” – or skincare that’s so good, you wouldn’t need makeup! With that in mind, their product offerings tend to focus on skincare and a few base products. To complete the look, they created the sister brand B. by BANILA to mold the complete package of a “girl crush.”

Earlier this May, Make Up For Ever Philippines released two new additions to their Ultra HD line: the Ultra HD Skin Perfector (P2,300) and the Ultra HD Soft Light (P1,990). The Ultra HD line is well-known among professionals as being one of the most camera-friendly foundations in the market. Formulated to look photogenic at 4k resolution (standard HD being only 1280p), the Ultra HD lets you #beYOUunfiltered whether going bold or bare.

Cosmeceuticals are cosmetic products that claim medicinal or drug-like benefits. Skin Doctors Beetox cream claims to “instantly help to activate you skin cells to reduce the appearance of: wrinkles, fine lines, sagging skin and aging.” It was only at this point that I realized that Beetox was a play on ‘bee’ and ‘botox’!!! I had first thought it was to do with toxins and bee venom, haha.

As the resident queen of dark circles, correctors are my life-long advocacy. I believe that people who are cursed with too much pigmentation in their eye area should be equipped with the means with which to defend and correct themselves. I, thank you.

Kidding aside, color correction is one of those ‘level 2’ makeup tricks. It’s not the first thing you get into when doing makeup, but once learned, can completely change your makeup game for the better. As more drugstore brands expand and improve their offerings with professional level formulas, I'm happy to see orange correctors becoming more accessible. But how well do they work? I test two locally-available budget correctors to find out.

When the PV team received the invite for the launch of the Laura Mercier Velour Extreme Matte Lippies and found the venue was at Yes Please, BGC, we were pretty shocked, to say the least. Laura Mercier has long been a staple for the Titas of Manila, so it was a little jarring to experience the new products in a blacked out, neon-lit bar.

Just as KBeauty is starting to take a stronghold in the Philipines, we welcome another new KBeauty brand: L.O.C.K. Color Cosmetics! The packaging is fun and quirky, with anime-like characters and modern cityscapes adorning the matte black boxes; it looks like it was geared for a younger, hip audience.

Normally, expectations are lowered with this kind of marketing. Younger people don’t need hard-working makeup because they have better skin - that’s just fact. Still, every little swatch changed my mind and I can’t wait to tour you guys around the products!