Haven't you always wondered how orchids can live so long while looking as fresh as the day they first bloomed? Guerlain did. They gathered 30,000 species of orchids to discover their secrets until they found "the one". It's called the Vanda Coerulea, a blue orchid found in China that could live more than 80 years in extreme weather conditions. After ten years of research in three different parts of the world, Guerlain has finally managed to distill the molecular extract of Vanda Coerulea with two other orchids into the Orchidee Imperiale Cream.

The Orchidee Imperiale is Guerlain's flagship anti-aging product which they released just last year. It promises to reduce fine lines and wrinkles and restore the skin's strength and luminosity. Now, I put this to the test for more than two weeks, so I can confidently say this: it's awesome. If you can afford it, go run out and get it. This is the best moisturizer I've tried to date although I will admit that I didn't like it at first.

We were off to a rocky start.

I was intrigued by the Pond's Gold Radiance Boosting Cleansing Mousse because it promises to remove makeup while also serving as a facial wash. Who doesn't want to save one step in their routine, right? Also, when Gold Radiance first landed on Philippine shores, this particular product wasn't available because it sold out in other Asian countries. Now if that's not enough to make you curious I don't know what is!

As promised, the product is a foamy mousse that becomes a rich, thick lather when you lightly rub it on your skin. It feels quite soft on my face which makes it enjoyable to use! It does melt off makeup in one wash, but it doesn't remove all kinds of makeup. The mousse removes foundation, blush, concealer, and unprimed eyeshadow, but it does a poor job taking off primed eyeshadow, mascara, and eyeliner (or most eye makeup).

Let's get on the nitty gritty, shall we?

What I love about the product

• Literally melts off powder makeup. Once you get it to a lather, all the junk just comes off.
• A little goes a long way, surprisingly. I use half a pump of the product for each side of my face. The trick is to massage it in small circles.

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of finally meeting the product manager of Guerlain and Bulgari, Sigrid Villamil. She's a vivacious, beautiful woman who is obviously passionate about the brand. Over delicious food (thanks Sigrid for letting me know about Chelsea's cookie dough cheesecake!), we talked about Guerlain and how it is one of the oldest brands in the industry, representing quality, tradition, and the ultimate luxury when it comes to beauty.

Guerlain was founded in 1898 by Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain in Paris. His perfumes were so popular that he became the perfumer of the royals, first by the King of France, then by Queen Victoria in England, and also by Queen Isabella II of Spain, among others. Some of the Guerlain scents that are part of perfume history are Jicky (recognized as the first modern perfume), Après L'Ondée, Mitsuoko, and Shalimar, the flagship fragrance. Read my review! 

The 183-year old house of Guerlain eventually started producing skincare and makeup, the most famous of which is the Orchidee Imperiale skincare line and the Meteorites. 

Guerlain must-haves: Midnight Secret, L'Or makeup primer, Orchidee Imperiale Cream, Rouge G lipstick, Meteorites, Lingerie De Peau liquid foundation

According to Sigrid, Guerlain believes in beauty - the kind that a woman naturally has and in the things that she uses on herself. Hence, Guerlain products are always in beautiful, luxurious packaging which makes them keepsakes in their own right.

I've read about Mario Badescu years before in magazines, but my curiosity was piqued when Kristine of Temptalia raved about it in 2009. I never got to try it though because I had the impression that MB products are expensive, but that idea is quite off the mark!

On a trip to Rustan's Makati the other day I chanced by the wall of Mario Badescu skincare in the Essences section (near the Glorietta 4 area). I quickly checked the price and saw that the Drying Cream (for drying acne) was only P795. Well, it's not dirt cheap, but it's certainly not expensive.

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of going on a conference call with Anthony Gonzalez, the Senior Manager of the global research and development center of Avon skincare products. He's based in New York and wanted to share the latest Anew line called Reversalist to the Asian press. The talk happened at the Avon Philippines headquarters in Makati Avenue.

ANEW Reversalist's Activinol technology boosts Activin, to reactivate skin’s repair process and help recreate fresh new skin and dramatically reverse the look of wrinkles. Avon’s patent-pending Activinol Technology is shown to increase the production of Activin to help boost skin’s ability to repair itself and recreate fresh, new skin.

Anthony Gonzalez

Now I know a lot of you are jaded about anti-aging products since so many of them come out with claims of miraculously solving skin issues, so I cut straight to the chase and asked Mr. Gonzalez The Question: what makes the Anew Reversalist unique? He answered quickly and confidently, "Other anti-aging products focus on stimulating collagen and elastin. But we approach aging differently. We go to the cellular level and look at aging as a result of tiny wounds to the skin."

I had high hopes for the St. Ives Blemish and Blackhead Control scrub (P195). I have too many blemishes lately and I'm desperate for a solution! On a visit to Purebeauty in Serendra a couple of weeks back, I bought this intriguing product to see if it's any good.

It's not. It makes my face feel amazing  - but the downside is, it makes me look like total crap. Yep, it broke me out, which is weird because it's supposed to have salicylic acid.

Several posts ago, after I commented on the lack of the Cleansing Oil for Sensitive Skin in Muji High Street, a reader tipped me off that the newly-opened Rockwell branch has stocks. I zoomed off and true enough, the shelf is full of the stuff! I got mild sticker shock though when I found out that the price of the makeup remover is 100%+ more expensive. From P395, it is now P600+. I would have still bought it (it's that good, for me) but the Mild Cleansing Oil variant is cheaper at P425 so I went for that instead.

I don't have much to say about since this works almost the same way as the one for sensitive skin - read my review on it. The main difference (other than the price) is that this is more runny.

I have read in tons of blogs that the Koreans and Japanese make some of the best makeup and skincare out there. However, the obvious road block is that this stuff is in another country! The good news is that there are a lot of enterprising Filipinas who are very much aware of this demand and know the best products to sell online. One of them is Bon, owner of a store called We Have It 43. I have seen her store way before she approached me, and I was duly impressed by the wide - and I mean WIDE - range of products available there.

She carries popular BB cream brands like Legere, BRTC, Missha, Etude House, Dr Jart, and Liole. She also has famous Japanese brands like Majolica Majorca, Shiseido, Kanebo Lunasol, and Jill Stuart. There are more than 70 brands to choose from! What I like most about the store though is the fact that the prices are not super hiked up. They're more than fair, actually. Bon can afford to do this because she is based in Taiwan and she has direct access to the products, which she ships to a friend here.

Anyway, when she asked me if I want to try some of her wares, I asked her what her best seller is. She pointed to the L'egere White Multi BB Cream (P1,000), which she has sold more than 300 tubes of! I was skeptical at first, until I read that it has a 4.4/5 rating at Makeupalley.

The short of it is that this is the best BB cream I've tried to date. Here's why!

I am currently using Estee Lauder's latest moisturizer called Time Zone Night Anti-Line/Wrinkle Creme. It's so good, I want to use it during the day! It's the first heavy cream moisturizer that my skin enjoys. There's none of that greasy feel I just can't stand in other brands. And believe me, I have tried quite a few cream moisturizers.

This age-defying moisturizer works overnight to help dramatically reduce the look of lines and wrinkles. Our exclusive Sirtuin EX1 Technology helps reverse the appearance of aging for a years-younger look-more lineless, radiant and rested.

Helps support skin's nightly restorative actions including natural collagen production with an amino acid complex. And while you sleep, the soothing scent calms and relaxes. 

I am way too young to need help in the wrinkle department, but I like it mainly for its moisturizing and soothing properties. I highly recommend this for mature or maturing skin because this product is designed with repair during nighttime in mind.

Who can say no to "all-natural" beauty products? I know I can't! So when Kustie came out in malls, I was excited. Kustie is an affordable, easily-accessible "all-natural" brand that seemed to perform well according to blog reviews. 

Let's move on to the actual quality and performance of this body scrub and moisturizer!

This was supposed to be titled "my current skincare routine", but then I realized that I forgot to include a couple of regulars like the Myra e Daily Sun Protect Facial Moisturizer SPF 15 and the Eyliplex-2 eye cream. I also realized that I don't use everything every single day - as you know, I work from home, so I don't go out five days a week.

As such, I adjust my so-called "routine" into something less fussy. I'm vain, but I don't obsess about it!

Meet the team:

Left to right (click the links for reviews):  Muji Cleansing Oil for Sensitive Skin,  Pond's White Beauty Activated Carbon Cleanser, Burt's Bees Garden Tomato Toner,  Clinique Moisture Surge,  Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye, Smooth-365 Clarity + Smoothing Peptide Serum

Can I just say? I hate it that Muji hasn't yet restocked the Cleasing Oil!

A PR company sent me a 200ml bottle of the Vaseline Healthy White SPF24 sunscreen AGES ago, like half a year ago. For some reason or other though I never blogged about it, which is sad, because this has become an indispensable part of my skincare regimen. I actually finished off the huge bottle, so I purchased a 350ml one!

I love this mainly for its SPF 24 UVA/UVB protection. I never go outside the sun without slathering it on my skin. I know there are other SPF lotions out in the market, but this is perhaps the most affordable with a high SPF rating minus the thick sunblock-y feel.

It has a lotion-y, slightly floral scent that I don't find overwhelming. As for the texture, it's certainly lighter than the usual sunscreen/sunblock lotions

Yesterday, The Body Shop invited beauty bloggers to their Megamall branch to have fun with their famous Body Butters. I particularly enjoyed the part where we were asked to make our own Body Butter scent out of the existing variants! 

TBS Body Butters fall under three types: Nutty (Shea and Olive), Fruity (Wild Cherry, Strawberry, Satsuma, and Grapefruit) and Floral (Moringa, smells like jasmine). The bloggers were divided into four groups of three people, and I got grouped with Tanya and the fab Frances. Here's what we came up with:

Scent 1: Olive + Wild Cherry

One of the gifts I got last Christmas was a set of Etude House face masks (thanks Tanya!). I have to admit though, I don't like using face masks. I have this sneaky feeling that leaving on a concentrated product for more than five minutes will cause a breakout. But since I have really bad skin lately and I didn't have much to lose, I opened up the Essence Mask Vitamin C (P58) and hoped for the best!

Too pretty to open: Lemon mask, Pomegranate, Essence Mask Vitamin C

Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The foil pack is full of this gel-like substance that neither stinks or smells good. It smells serum-y, if you can call it that. The mask itself is incredibly moist and stuck on with no trouble. It felt cool and relaxing on my face, so I was content to just let it stay there for 15 minutes while I was taking (backlog) product photos.

I've had the Smooth-365 Clarity + Smoothing Peptide Serum for...oh, a few months now. It was love at first use, so I don't have a good excuse why I didn't review it sooner. Well, I partly wanted to space out expensive vs cheap products as well as rave-worthy vs meh items. The Smooth 365 is both rave-worthy and quite expensive at P2,500 per tube.

So what does Smooth-365 do? It's designed to promote skin clarity and give your skin a velvety smooth texture. "Skin clarity" is a rather vague term - does it mean fading out blemishes, or brightening skin? - but I can vouch that the Smooth-365 does make my skin look brighter and generally a nicer version of itself. It also gives a velvety texture to the skin instantly upon application. Too good to be true? Yes. But it does work.

If you're skeptical, you can visit Makeupalley, where Smooth-365 has a high rating of 4.2 out of 5. Makeupalley is my favorite cosmetics review community and the ratings are always reliable. Anything above 4 and you know you've got a keeper.

What I love about the product

• Makes my skin smooth and velvety immediately upon application. I'm not sure if they have testers in Watsons drugstore, but

Clean & Clear used to be my go-to skincare brand during my adolescent years, but I have long since outgrown their formula and have tried and loved other brands. That's why I wasn't expecting much from Clean & Clear's newest facial wash called the Deep Action Cleanser.

However, surprise surprise! It's pretty awesome. I've been using it fairly regularly this past month. 

What I love about the product

• Amazing oil control. When I use this, my face holds up better under extreme heat and humidity. I still oil up of course, but let's say, only half as much as when I use other cleansers. I get and oil-free face for a good two to three hours with zero makeup; longer with makeup on, at four to six hours. That's nowhere near the promised 8 hours, but that's still quite an achievement! Please note though that I am not super oily. At best I only have combination-oily skin.
• Leaves my skin soft and glowy immediately after washing.

Do you know that Estee Lauder is actually more popular for its skincare products than its makeup? The brand was born when Joseph Lauder and his wife Estee started selling skincare in 1946. Six decades of experience and technology later, Estee Lauder has produced a cutting-edge skincare product called Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lift Age Correcting Creme.

The new Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lift Age-Correcting Creme designed to repair, recharge, and restore. It is a fusion of Estée Lauder’s exclusive Life Re‑Newing Molecules™, the most advanced lifting technologies, and precious Black Tourmaline, a charged mineral known for its energetic properties. Together, they deliver a revolution in luxury skincare with Estée Lauder’s most dramatic age-correcting results ever.

The launch was held at The Establishment, The Fort, where members of the print media and bloggers where invited to a classy dinner all dressed in black. We all got to sample the Re-Nutriv Creme by way of a relaxing hand massage by EL assistants. I felt a difference in my skin texture immediately after the product was applied; it wasn't just absorbed, like most skincare products are.