Vice Cosmetics is on a roll! After just releasing a powder makeup collection just a few weeks ago, this hot and local brand is ending the year with a bang by coming out with new lip kits to complete our holiday looks.

If you can recall, the brand originally launched their lip kits late last year with a tandem of a Phenomenal Matte Liquid Lipstick and matching lip liner. This time, they’ve created a Velvet Matte Lip Kit consisting of two all-new products: a Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick and a matching, retractable lip liner!

Bobbi Brown is your best bet when it comes to high quality neutrals and classic looks. We’ve done a lot of rave reviews about their products, including their Luxe Lip Colors which remain a favorite even to this day. One would think that 30 satin shades is a good number to pick from, but these tubes are so successful that Bobbi Brown added three more lines under the House of Luxe Lip Color!

I am absolutely weak for minis (see Exhibits 1, 2, and 3). Since I like lugging my beauty essentials around, collecting travel-sized skincare and makeup has always been my happy pill. Recently, I swooned over the new shades of blk Cosmetics #blktravels when I spotted them on Instagram. Paris, Los Angeles, New York, and London are bold additions to their initial collection of MLBBs and more classic hues.

Rejoice, Mainenatics! MAC Cosmetics has finally unveiled their lipstick collaboration with Maine Mendoza. Welcome @MaineDCM: a muted peachy beige shade with a Matte finish. She chose this shade because she wanted an MLBB that will flatter Pinay skin tones. 

Here's a fact of life: women don't buy lipstick because they need one. They buy because of the way it makes them feel. We tend to pick up our bullet of the day because of our mood or even according to who we want to be like; is it chic and elegant, sexy and hot, smart and practical? The permutations are endless, which is why lipstick is one of the easiest beauty products to sell even in an already crowded market. We can't have too much of it because we assign a unique and personal value to each of our carefully chosen shades.

Are you the kind of person who hates retouching lipstick during the day? Do you hate the feeling of greasy or waxy lips as you eat your food? If your answer to both questions is yes, then you're in luck with Revlon's Colorstay Overtime Lipcolor (P575). This is designed to be food-proof, water-proof and pretty much resistant to anything you throw at it until you remove it. It's not exactly a new concept (remember the Make Up For Ever Aqua Rouge Waterproof Liquid Lip Color?) but it comes at an affordable price point and lots of shades to choose from.

I had a lot of not-so-positive misconceptions about going to the Chinese mainland for the first time last month. I thought it was going to be dirty, noisy, and full of rude people, but that was certainly not the case! I found Shanghai to be a beautiful city that was as mighty as it was poetic. I loved the food, the painfully fashionable Chinese wandering the streets, and the amazing architecture. The Bund, a waterfront area facing the Huangpu River and looking out to the Lujiazui skyline, is a sight to see at night. I wasn't able to explore the city very long but one thing is for sure: I will definitely visit Shanghai again!

While comparisons to similar celeb-preneur labels such as Kylie Cosmetics and Jeffree Star abound, there’s no denying that Vice Cosmetics - much like its famously unkabogable founder - is a brand all its own. Formulated based on the #GandaForAll philosophy, Vice Cosmetics’ debut launch promised luxury quality at mass-market friendly prices, and featured true-matte shades that were simultaneously trendy and wearable. Still, while this first launch definitely brought fashion-forward mattes to the mainstream market, there was a conscious effort to “tone down” on the hues and finishes: to be “relatable” instead of reflecting Vice Ganda’s trademark edgy style.

Have you ever experienced falling in love with makeup in a very real, heartbeat-skipping sort of way? I've been a fan for a long time but something about luxury lipsticks just stop my heart. Now, I honestly don't get excited over lip products because I'm more of a face base fan, but when the sleek black box stamped with Tom Ford in gold lettering arrived for the PV team, I knew this was going to be a very different experience.

I was a little surprised to learn that Eye of Horus is actually an indie brand. We’ve featured them extensively on the site and are always blown away by the quality of the items, so it’s easy to assume that there’s a gigantic team of chemists and researchers slaving away to perfect their powerhouse collection of eye enhancers.

But no! The secret to Eye of Horus is the hands-on mother-daughter tandem of Heather and Holly Spierings, who make it their duty to know all about the exotic and health-beneficial oils that they incorporate into the products.

I can be a little - okay maybe more than a little - judgy at times. When I received the new Ever Bilena Liquid Lipsticks (P185 in stores) I immediately had low expectations. It's not because of the brand. Ever Bilena has proven itself as a drugstore name to beat this year in terms of quality, but I did not expect much because the colors look pretty dark in the tube. Dark colors in liquid lipstick form tend to be streaky and sad. Not these Ever Bilena ones, though!

Browsing through lipsticks online and in the malls can be an overwhelming experience for a makeup newbie. Which lipstick should I get? What will look good on me? Which formula should I go for? These questions run through our heads like crazy especially since lipsticks these days come in every color imaginable (even white!) and some look very similar to others. So how do you begin choosing the colors for your core lipstick wardrobe? Let’s start with the basics!

We hunt for the perfect reds, count our pinks by the dozen, and maybe even add a statement purple or black to our lipstick collections. Given that we have a full spectrum of colors to choose from, why would we ever want a lipstick that almost-exactly matches the natural color of our pouts? Why not just wear a clear lip balm or gloss instead?

Tom Ford Beauty is coming to the Philippines on October 6, in Rustan's Makati. If you've always wanted to experience the brand full stop then you must visit the soft launch! There are bigger plans early next year (*wink*) but by next month, you'll be able to try on the brand's famous perfumes, Lips & Boys Lipstick, Lip Color, Patent Finish Lip Color, and selected pieces from the Soleil Collection.

As a teen with a student's allowance, I loved haunting department store makeup sections for beauty finds that fit into my limited budget. That's how I discovered Ever Bilena’s “little sister”, Careline Cosmetics. The cutesy packaging and affordable price made it the perfect jump-off point for a beginner’s makeup adventure! I've long since moved on to more "grown up" brands so it was exciting to get reacquainted with Careline, now looking better than ever.

Have you ever finished a lipstick bullet down to the very bottom? If so, you've probably dug in with a lip brush to get as much as you can. If you're a thrifty beauty nerd, then you would've scraped out what you can with a small knife. But how much, exactly, is left over when you're done with a lipstick tube? How does this amount vary compared to the stated number of grams on the label, what you see with your eyes, and what's down below the bullet?

Well, since I can be a tinge (just a little) bit OC about things like this, I found out thanks to my trusty digital scale!

With the beauty industry constantly producing new products at breakneck speed, we're very much spoiled for choice. Sometimes though, the feeling of having so many options can be overwhelming. I think this is especially true when it comes to lipsticks. Color options are a beautiful nightmare in and of itself but finishes compound that situation tenfold.

To beauty shopaholics like us, having a favorite is key to narrowing down the “financial blackholes” we can potentially sink into. Unfortunately, bankruptcy by lipstick is just not a socially acceptable incapacity (yet.) Today, we’re going to break down the world of lipsticks and hopefully help you, dear reader, edit your lipstick wardrobe and stick to pieces you'll actually use.