When it comes to beauty and the dedication that goes into the pursuit of it, no one understands the zest and inspiration it requires more than beauty experts who know what is required behind the scenes of beauty" - Victoria Encarnacion, Beauty By SM Director for Marketing

Wanna know what my top two favorite makeup places in Manila are? The SM Mall of Asia and the SM Makati beauty aisles! I also love their Watson branches. First, the makeup counters and personal care stands are always well-stocked and updated. Second, the aisles are wide and easy to navigate. Lastly, the place looks bright, airy, and clean. Very conducive to makeup shopping since we need good lighting to see how the product looks on our faces.

Thus, it was with great excitement that I attended the official launch of Beauty By SM. Basically, it's the upgraded SM Makati beauty area with new brands, new interior design, and more organized divisions. The place is now snazzy and posh, thanks to the people behind SM. They realized that the modern women's needs and tastes have evolved so they evolved right along with it.

Loved what they did with the place! It's definitely worth a visit. Now, I'm sure you're curious about the new, exclusive brands that they have onboard. I took pictures of the counters so you can check them out. 

This is the most interesting brand that I saw. It's marketed as makeup for professional artists and, what do you know, the quality actually seems to be up to par. The price is quite nice, too.

Extremely silky! The small eyeshadows were P350 while the big version is P399. If you're sick of neutrals not showing up, this is something you should try

Blushes at P450. Not bad eh? They're quite big.

Colorescience has perhaps been one of the best-reviewed mineral makeup brands out there! I've tested some of their products and I'm seriously blown away by the quality. I was also blown away by the price.

Click click!

Let's cut to the chase: I don't like the the Ellana Mineral Stick Concealer in Alive. The coverage is unbearably light, not quite buildable, and the texture is closer to a balm than a cream. It doesn't dry quickly (if at all), so you need to set it with powder or else it will slide off.

What else don't I like? The packaging IS cheap - they didn't even bother to put the sticker on properly! There's smaller text in the sticker but you won't be able to read it since the text is too faint. I guess you get what you pay for, since it's only P250.

5 grams in the tube! Quite a lot of product.

It does have some merits, however. It's nice to use as an undereye concealer since it doesn't set into fine lines and looks natural. Don't expect a lot of coverage though! Ellana suggests using their powder concealers to set this and add coverage, but I don't know if you want to take that extra step.

This concealer has tea tree oil and you can smell it. I personally don't mind. In fact, I like that it has anti-blemish and anti-pimple properties aside from it being healthy for the skin. It's pure mineral makeup so that's a huge plus.

Anyway, here's a demo of how it is for eyebag use. Click click.

Having my own online store can be quite taxing, believe me. When I started out with Lauren I thought that it wouldn't be too hard since I've been shopping online for some time now, and thus have experience. It was not too long until I found out that managing an online store could be a nightmare - supplying, taking care of the logistics, demanding customers - the list is endless! We have a shopping cart store though so it's a little easier.

It's for sellers like me that Platform2U made their advanced e-commerce platform called SMilDS. It's a comprehensive online shopping system that provides you with a user-friendly CMS (Content Management System), allowing you to upload content, customize your store's design, organize orders, basically manage your website. It also provides logistics solutions in terms of payments and shipping - your buyers can pay you through credit cards and other mainstream means, and SMilDS is affiliated with the major shipping companies as well. It has customer support that monitors your sales too.

The starter kit with the manual and CD. SMilDS also provides their own debit card for customers!