My friend, AJ,posted on Facebook a throwback photo from our college days and, boy, I didn’t realize I looked so different back then. No wonder a former high school classmate said she heard a rumor saying I must’ve had stuff done to my face. Well, I did. I got braces to straighten my teeth, a dermatologist to address my cystic acne, a hairstylist to give me fabulous cuts and colors, and the best skin care products and makeup.

One of the more amusing side effects of the stay-at-home order is our collective renewed interest in K-dramas and, subsequently, Korean cuisine and K-beauty. The demand for the latter is so that a lot of us are blind buying our Korean products straight from the Land of the Morning Calm.

When it comes down to it, we have to accept that the new normal makes acne management a little trickier. The hulas mode of the daily commute and exposure to the elements have always been challenging, but we now also have the threat of maskne to contend with.

It’s about time for a refresher on how to treat acne, and we’ve got some solid tips to take to heart!

Hi everyone, today I’ll be discussing some skincare myths I’ve come across my practice or from people I know. There’s a great deal of misinformation being spread from one person to another about skin and skincare thru either word of mouth or from skincare forums. There are a lot of myths out there but here the ones I’ve read and heard recently.

Asian beauty is rich in ingredients derived from nature. Here in the Philippines, coconut oil, aloe vera and papaya are used in a wide array of products. K-Beauty products, which are also widely available, contain a lot of green tea, ginseng and centella extract.

The Japanese love their skincare too and it shows. Their secret ingredient? As it turns out, it’s rice! You might be familiar with sake-infused skincare. There’s also rice oil, which is produced by extracting oil from the hull of rice grains.

Collaborations have been the name of the game in the beauty industry lately, so a lot of people expected one when Detail Cosmetics (formerly Detail Makeover) teased an upcoming launch on Instagram. What took everyone by surprise, however, was how the collaboration was with 12 Filipino beauty gurus!

Called Powder Pout (P199), the newest lipstick line of Detail Cosmetics features 12 of the biggest names in the local beauty community scene with their respective signature lipstick shades. I have a lot of things to say about this collaboration, so let’s go straight into the review and lip swatches, shall we?

Doing my makeup on a day to day basis is a breeze. I can do smokey eyes in less than ten minutes, and I have even mastered the art of glamming up inside a moving vehicle. I love the art of putting on makeup, like buffing foundation to make my skin look seamless, concealing my eyebags to hide yesterday’s drama, drawing my brows to make it go wow, flicking that wing liner oh-so-perfectly, or blending eyeshadows layer after layer like there is no tomorrow.

Is there a star ingredient that you always look for when shopping for skincare products? As soon as I heard about the hydrating capabilities of Hyaluronic Acid (HA), I wanted it in as many of my skincare steps as possible. I find that specifically having Hyaluron in my serum gives me a more potent hydration boost (and gets me one step closer to my glass skin goals). So I'm thrilled to share that the #1 serum sold in the US is finally coming to the Philippines on October 21!

I try not to write overly personal posts here on Project Vanity. I’ve moved most of it to lizlanuzo.com, my personal blog, because I wanted to separate my thoughts about my own life from Project Vanity’s stories about beauty. Today I was going to write about another beauty story here, something about my current skincare routine or my thoughts about wedding makeup, perhaps - but I couldn’t. Instead I want to talk about the beauty of grief.

If you’ve been reading Project Vanity for a while now, then you know how we stress the importance of good skincare. We’re always looking for ways on how to get smooth skin that is also bright and firm. Smooth and firm skin are pretty self-explanatory, but what does bright skin mean and why would you want to achieve it?

As a dermatologist, I come across patients seeking consult for brighter and smoother skin. More often than not, they would ask me what I think of rejuvenating sets and which one I can recommend them. If you’re not familiar with these, rejuvenating sets are skincare products that are grouped together as a set, usually containing a cleanser, toner, bleaching/whitening cream, and sunblock gel/cream. Here’s my take on them - they’re not meant for every skin type, for every skin concern, and for long-term use.

Beauty fridges started popping up on everybody’s Instagram feeds about a couple of years ago. It’s not that we can’t - or didn’t - use to store our skincare and makeup in an ol’ regular fridge, but there’s just something so luxurious and thus covetable about having a mini fridge specifically made to house our prized beauty possessions right on our desk. But do we really need it aside from the pretty IG content that we can get out of it?

Having a Zoom Makeup Kit at the ready eliminates the stress in deciding what makeup to put on for your online meetings. Trust me, I’ve been there. There was a time when I was informed about a meeting just three minutes prior. I wasted the entire three minutes rummaging through my lipstick stash. And yes, I ended up attending the meeting with no makeup on.

I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely living for the comeback of shiny lips. I spent most of the early naughts obsessing over finding the best lip gloss and wet-look lipstick (remember Watershine?), so I get instant nostalgia from a glassy pout. But what makes the 2020 trend resurrection so much better is how the current technology allows for us to get equal amounts of pigment and shine, where we used to have to top a lipstick with gloss to get a similar effect.

Since I became a dermatologist, there have only been two topics that strangers consistently ask me when they find out what I do for a living. The first one is all about achieving that smooth and younger-looking skin, and the second one is about warts. For today, let me discuss the latter!

Warts are mostly skin- or dark-colored growths on the skin caused by a virus, the Human Papillomavirus. And just like the flu, this virus has several strains.

There’s a new local makeup line in town called Spotlight and I’m here to walk you through it! This is a pretty extensive line, which is great, because it even has some interesting eye makeup formulations. Everything is under P500 so it’s quite affordable. Still, this is targeted for those looking to level up their makeup collection as it has that pro MUA vibe to it (at least to me). You can check it out in Lazada and Shopee online.

Let’s see what Spotlight has to offer!

My sons love to watch “Cobra Kai” on Netflix. It’s a sequel to the Karate Kid movies in the 80s. It’s still the same protagonist and antagonist, Larusso and Lawrence, but there’s a twist. It looks like they’ve changed roles and it’s hard to root for anyone since everyone seems to be the bad guy and the good guy all at once.

Anyway, remember Karate Kid was in the 80s. So my middle son asked me who was older: me or Danny Larusso. I said, “Oh, he’s much older than me. He’s 58. I’m 43.”

“Woah, Mama! I thought you were older. Your eye bags make you look like you’re 60!”