If you’ve been a long-time reader of Project Vanity, you might still recall when Liz used to do #ManiMondays. As a nail polish fan, I used to look forward to those posts because I didn’t know much about other brands besides local ones like Caronia, Bobbie, and Chic. Nowadays though, it’s rare to see Liz wearing any kind of nail color, and I get it. Manicures take time to do and need to be properly cared for - sporting chipped nail polish is the equivalent of having smudged mascara or eyeliner and not fixing it.

In just a few short years, the Philippines went from having just a couple of Etude House stores to having more Korean brand and product options than we can keep up with! If all the oppas visiting the country doesn’t convince you (looking at you, Park Seo Jun and Lee Dong Wook), maybe this will: even the big names in Western beauty brands are getting into the K-beauty craze! The latest to ride the Hallyu wave is none other than Avon, a well-loved beauty brand that secured its spot in our kikay kits and dressers long before Watsons even became a thing. 

Have you ever been to a beauty convention? If you’re the type of beauty lover who loves staying ahead of trends and getting in-depth knowledge of the industry, this is the place to be! I’ve only attended a couple of local cons so far, but I found my current go-to sunscreen stick (it’s not available locally) at the one we attended a few months ago. There are free demos and talks, and hair, makeup, and nail competitions. You might even find an exclusive sale or convention-only prices.

When we say that Project Vanity is the source for your daily dose of beauty, we mean it! In this year alone, we have published over 200 stories so far, and we still have so much more to share. It’s honestly not easy work but we love what we do because of commenters like Monalisa Bio, who regularly shared her thoughts and insights after reading each story. Thank you for the support and for making Project Vanity part of your daily habit, Monalisa! You are our Commenter of the Month. Please email me at den[at]projectvanity[dot]com to claim your prize.

I’m probably a little late to the game but I first heard about the zero waste lifestyle mid last year while browsing group pages on Facebook. This movement is about making the conscious effort to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste that one produces on a daily basis. I’m sure you’ve heard about switching to reusable straws, reusable coffee cups, and even menstrual cups! When it comes to our beauty addiction, there are a lot of ways to make our routines more environmentally-friendly, but let’s focus on a personal care staple that (almost) everyone uses: shampoo.

Sending out a big THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to keeping the comments section active! We really appreciate the feedback and the chance to hear your own tips and recos. It was hard to pick a favorite for Commenter of the Month, but we were most inspired by Riz who shared about how Project Vanity (and In Her Element) helped her to achieve better skin. Congratulations, Riz, and thank you for making us part of your journey to better skin!

As PV’s resident acid addict, I honestly never thought I’d get into physical exfoliation again. But after getting recurrent forehead pimples in the past few months, I finally realized that my facial wash wasn’t enough to fully remove my sunscreen. I started incorporating an oil remover into my daily routine even on no-makeup days in an effort to remove the sunscreen better. Though I had been washing my face correctly, I was a little bit shocked to learn that there were impurities that even my most trusted cleansing products couldn’t remove.

Project Vanity has been running the Commenter of the Month giveaway for as long as I can remember. In fact, the very first time I met Liz was when I won CoM seven years ago! I had been a regular reader for some time at the point, and I enjoyed being able to contribute to the discussion and interacting with other readers in the comments section. That’s why I really appreciated how Shasta shared her comparison of the 3CE Multi Pots to the Bobbi Brown Pot Rouges. Thank you for giving a detailed review, Shasta - you are our Commenter of the Month! Please email me at den@projectvanity.com about claiming your prize.

These days, I’ve ditched wearing foundations in favor being able to do some eye makeup. I used to be obsessive about creating a perfect face base but my eyeshadow envy has finally gotten the better of me, which I think is a good change. It has given me the chance to finally play with the few palettes I have in my collection, and it’s been so much fun combining colors and doing different looks.

People tell me that I’m lucky to have dry skin because I don’t have to worry about getting pimples or having a shiny face. Both are certainly true, but dry skin has it own concerns, too. Your skin can look either red and irritated, or gray and sickly due to dullness. Extra dry spots can cause skin to look flaky and you can’t cover that with makeup because of the weird texture. Dry skin is also more prone to getting wrinkles and fine lines; just imagine how super matte lipsticks make every single one of your lip lines look more visible!

Why are your comments important to us? As much as we devote ourselves to researching all our articles extensively and going into great detail in our reviews, there’s always something new learn. We love it when our readers share their own knowledge and experiences, especially when they try out something that we recommended. So congratulations to Jobelle Mercado, who updated us to say that she found her new HG after reading our story! We’re so glad to know that sunflower oil also worked for you.

I’ve lost count of all the times I’ve done a full face of makeup but forgotten to curl my lashes or apply mascara. My eyes end up looking dead and my makeup uneven. I feel like this is the beauty equivalent of showing up in a fantastic outfit with bare feet, so I’ve taken to packing along a mascara and a curler in my kikay kit! But do you know how difficult it is to comb and curl lashes in a moving vehicle? It’s a (potentially painful) disaster waiting to happen.

Have you ever had a pimple suddenly show up right before an important event? Now, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t usually have acne (because of my dry skin) but I’ve gotten Super Bad Timing Pimples more than a few times! It’s the kind of situation that makes you feel extra desperate to try every single spot treatment available, or maybe even consider popping the pustule with the fervent hope that it doesn’t leave a lasting scar. We all want a quick fix, even just for normal days, because who wants to be seen with pimples?

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!

If like me, you don’t have the time, budget, or patience to sit through a salon hair treatment, you’re going to want the Kracie Dear Beauté Himawari Oil in Treatment Gloss & Repair to your shower essentials ASAP.

To be honest, I never really cared much about my hair before I let Sam dye my hair (for the first time ever!) in a rocking purple hue. While I totally loved the crazy color, the bleaching process totally fried my hair to the texture of straw. My hair became dry and rough and prone to tangles and split ends! For a while I tried to manage it with tubs of conditioning treatments that only seemed to help if I applied them every day. Eventually I got tired of doing these daily 10 minute-long hair masks, and just had the damaged hair chopped off.

As someone with dry skin, I always thought that moisturizing would be the key step in my skincare routine. For many years, I would slather thick and heavy creams all over my face in the hope that they would get rid of my dry patches and ashy gray complexion. And then I learned about the existence of acids. I researched about chemical exfoliation feverishly because “acid” sounded so intimidatingly potent and I was afraid of burning my skin like Liz did when she did a chemical peel. The treatment worked for her but I didn’t want to deal with the downtime!

Konnichiwa! Were you able to visit Japan in time for the cherry blossom festival this year? That’s personally on my bucket list of things to do when I travel but until then, I’m quite content with all the goodies that J-beauty offers! But before I go into that, we have an important announcement:

Over at the Project Vanity Community page, we often get requests for sunscreen recommendations. Everyone looks for the same qualities: no white cast, not sticky or heavy, and ideally without that distinctive sunscreen scent. By and large, Asian Beauty (AB) sunscreen formulas are the clear favorite, with most recos coming from Japanese and Korean skincare picks. Having so many options can be pretty overwhelming though, so let’s attempt to answer the billion dollar question: which sunscreen has the best formula?

As a smol person with smol hands and even smoller fingernails, manicures make me feel more grown-up and elegant. Extending a perfectly polished hand to someone I’ve just met is my way of saying “I’m a detail-oriented person” and “I’ve got my life together”. I do a pretty decent job of painting my own nails (I can even do some simple nail art!) but it takes me a lot of time to make it look presentable. So when I found rave reviews for stick-on nails in one of my beauty groups, I thought I had found the perfect solution!

Metro Manila heaves a collective sigh of relief now that water service has resumed to all areas! Apart from the obvious sanitation issues, having no or very limited access to water was especially tortuous since we’re officially in the hot and sunny season. A daily shower is non-negotiable for us Filipinos, and it’s not uncommon for many to bathe twice a day during summer. It’s refreshing and necessary for removing all the dirt and pollution that sticks to our bodies, but have you ever wondered how it affects the health of your skin?