I spend serious time taking product photos that I even have it down to a science. So understandably I'm not happy whenever an online store filches my photos to earn money. I mean, how hard is it to take your own product photos or even just ask permission from the owners? 

Those are my Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter photos. Do not approve  ಠ_ಠ

Not meaning to be a bitch here, actually. I'm not mad, just baffled. All my photos are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. It means that:

I think that the Internet should be a free place to share our ideas and output, and to police it by banning people from using your photos is just pointless.

I first heard about Purse Podium when a friend retweeted a link to its Facebook page. It was quite the serendipitous moment because I was Googling for designer bags at that time! What are the odds. :P Anyway, I scoured through the Purse Podium site for the perfect bag for me, one that fit my size and budget, and I chanced upon the Marc by Marc Twisted Q Riz Hobo in a sort of bronze/gold color.

At first I wasn't too sure about the color since it may be difficult to pair up with my outfits, but my fears were baseless. Like a gold necklace or bronze bangle, the bag goes with (more or less) everything!

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!

A friend of mine recently launched her own online shop called Streets of Seoul. Chrissy is a professional fashion merchandiser venturing in the world of e-commerce, and I have to say, she does a wonderful job! The clothes are edgy, looking like something you can find off Topshop or Mango. Nonetheless, they're very affordable, selling for only an average of P500-700.

Check out my top picks:

Everyone needs a faux leather biker jacket in their life. Now that the biker look is hot stuff at 2011, there's no reason not to get one that looks like it will fit gorgeously - for only P900, too!

Exciting news! Beauty Bar, the Philippines' closest thing to Sephora, is now selling online. Brands like Burt's Bees, Smashbox, Styli-Style, Youngblood, Prestige, etc. can now be purchased directly from Beauty Bar's online store. Neat huh? 

I like that the prices are prominently displayed, with clear pictures of the product one can zoom in. I also appreciate the feature on top ten best sellers in front; very useful for those who come just to browse. Lastly, I like that the online store pretty much has everything a walk-in Beauty Bar store has. The selection is pretty comprehensive!

Of course, the shipping is door-to-door, so this saves us busy gals from having to go out of our way to visit Beauty Bar. This is also good news for those who live in the provinces.

Now on to the cons.

This is an old post from the old Project Vanity blog. Thought to put it here in case you haven't read it yet - I think it's useful!

Good makeup is usually expensive. Of course there are exceptions, but any make-up guru will tell you that it’s often a safe bet to invest your money on high-priced, but quality products out in the market (like MAC, Shiseido, Shu Uemura, and so on). But then, there’s eBay! It’s like you died and went to make-up heaven, with all the cheap but branded stuff they’re selling over there. All you need to do is browse, click, send your payment via your cellphone or computer, and voila! Your order is at your door.

You have to realize, though, that buying online is risky business. For one, you can never really know if the product that looks so pretty on the computer screen is authentic. Buying cosmetics online is not like buying a shirt—if it doesn’t fit, no biggie, no harm done (unless it’s to your pocket). But once you buy bad makeup and use it on your face, terrible things like zits, allergies, skin darkening and peeling may occur.

I got bored with my current shoe collection - which is not much to begin with - so I decided to get new pairs. Since I had some Gcash credits to spare, I decided to look in an eBay store I've been following for sometime now: teamchi.

I love that she has trendy, edgy shoes that are nicely made for under P800. The tan mary jane boots are only P750 while the gray studded peeptoes are only P650. How cool is that? I only spent P1,400!

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!