Month: August 2014

Getting Pixyfied

Last week, I got invited to Pixy’s Launch here in Manila. I rarely get to go to events because of prior commitments and work deadlines, but I’m glad I got to swing by this one. If you recall, BDJ released a Pixy-centric box back in April. I enjoyed a lot of the products I got in that box, so I’m glad that they’ve finally reached our shores. Pixy is an Asian cosmetics line—formulated in Japan and manufactured in Indonesia, geared towards Asian skin tones and skin types, bringing out “truly Asian beauty” while striving to be on trend as well. Beauty Blossoms in Manila with Pixy! I was lucky enough to have been there for the Pixy launch in White Space last week. It was decked out in cherry blossoms and pink—a Pixy touch, representing the best of the ladylike “gal” trend with a twist, and of course its Asian slant. Hiroyuki Mitsuoka, President of Mandom Philippines (under which Pixy belongs), shares “Mandom is excited to bring Pixy here to the Philippines because we believe …

Recent Acquisitions / Currently Testing

Hello there! A new batch of “recent acquisitions” and stuff I’ve been testing recently. These are accumulated previous purchases as well as stuff I’ve received from several awesome companies. 🙂 MAKE Colour Post-Impression Palette by We See Beauty I’ve been jonesin’ for these makeup items since the dawn of time (jk, 2013) but never got around to purchasing them because the website doesn’t want to take my money/credit card info. Anyway, I had such a hard time picking a palette—mostly because I wanted them all—but I ended up with this one. It’s freaking beautiful and it’s very “out of the box” for me, but I’m liking it so far. If I love it remains to be seen!

Nosy Beauty Vol. 34: Mikka

Hey everyone! For today’s Nosy Beauty, I’ve got my friend, Mikka. Although we went to the same university and belonged to the same batch, we didn’t meet until after we graduated… all because of our mutual friend Karen, and a love for Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. 🙂 Read on to see what’s inside her makeup bag! Mikka Wee, Managing Editor of Pepper.ph, travel writer at mikkawee.com where I go by “The Tiny Traveler”. Aside from eating and traveling, I love books (that’s how we connected, Carina!). I like holing myself up in coffee shops and read. I’ve also gotten into surfing lately—can’t get enough of it. I guess it’s partly responsible for the drastic change in my skin color, hahaha. I used to be on the fairer side, but now, people describe my skin tone as kayumanggi, and I absolutely love it. Here’s my Kikay Kit from Too Cool for School. I know it’s pretty tiny, so I just dump everything I can in there. Trust me, I knew what I was getting into …

4 Skin Care Items I’ve Been Enjoying Lately

I have a bad habit of toying around with my skin care quite a bit, but along with my mainstays (Human Nature Nourishing Facial Wash, Aesop Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque, some type of scrub), I’ve been using these bits quite a lot in the past month or so and enjoying them quite a lot. LUSH TEA TREE WATER I’ve mentioned this before and it is just a really great spray to follow up cleansing with. Tea Tree Water is one of the main ingredients of this toner water. It’s made by “dispersing the essential oil in water,” and is included because of its clarifying and antibacterial properties. I quite like this, even though it’s meant for oily or spot-prone skin—I notice a big difference in the clarity of my skin. And we all want that! LE MÉTIER DE BEAUTÉ DAILY REFRESH TONIC This is something I received in the Beauty Vault VIP Subscription, and it is basically something you use to prep the skin to “receive topical restorative treatments” such as creams, moisturizers, serums, etc, …

My Eyeshadow Diagram

So, Tellie asked me to make a quick diagram of my “eye makeup” because she was confuddled about where to put what color. I was kind of surprised she asked me because I don’t think my technique (lol) has evolved that much, but here is a general sketch of how I do things ‘round these parts. Here are my eyes. As you can see, I have just a little bit of lid space. It’s pretty fun to add different shades and levels of haziness (more on that later) right above the crease, but for the lid space, I observe the rule of thirds. By the way—I tried so many times to make a video demonstration of this. It was really hard, and I had to wash my right eye three times before I gave up trying because it was itching so damn much from all the soap. So, I did it some other day. YER WELCOME. http://youtu.be/9-U-qalkUGk When I was starting out, I would shade in the inner third with a darker color as well, …

Quickie: Mattify Your Lipsticks with MAKE by We See Beauty

I wasn’t planning on talking about this just yet but when something great compels you, you tell the world about it. By ‘world,’ I mean my readership. Heh. Anyway, matte lipsticks… are kind of a tricky subject, I feel. I personally love matte lips, but a lot of people have said that they can be drying etc. Sometimes, I’ll even find a color I like that would be perfect, save for the glossy shininess. Anyway, I was looking at We See Beauty’s site, mainly for their cosmetics line, MAKE. I posted about them a long time ago but never got around to purchasing because they don’t accept credit cards outside the US. One night, my hankering for a palette led me to order from a third-party~ and now we are here. In case you were wondering, I picked up two other items, which I’ll talk about later, maybe. So back to the pencil. I have a MAKE Colour Super Matte Lip Pencil, which is basically “the ultimate lip adjuster.” It turns your lipsticks matte… or, …

5 Product Face No. 2

BareMinerals Prime Time in Bronzed Twig // Illamasqua Cream Blusher in Dixie // K-Palette 24H Real Lasting 2-Way Eyebrow Liner // KATE Super Sharp Liquid Liner // Kjaer Weis Cream Foundation in Just Sheer A nice trick when looking for products for a 5-product face is to consider application. The ones I used for this particular look, I could use without brushes. For my base, I’ve got the Kjaer Weis Cream Foundation, which I sometimes apply with a flat foundation brush but works just as well when applied with fingers. Then, I’ve got the K-Palette 24H Real Lasting 2-Way Eyebrow Liner* for my brows. I appreciate it when my eyes are defined, so for that, I went with this gorgeous cream shadow (in atrocious packaging) from bareMinerals and a very thin, very slight wing using a liquid liner by KATE. I rounded out everything by using one of my favorite multi-use products—Illamasqua Cream Blusher—on my lips and cheeks. * PR Sample Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook