Latest Posts

MAKE Colour Post-Impressionism Palette

Published by

Hello, everyone, from this beautiful piece of beauty. (I mean the palette, obvs.) Where do I even begin? I mentioned it before, but I’ve been hankering for these palettes since the dawn of time (at least, in my beauty blog history anyway…) and I didn’t cave until now. I first saw Wiji with the Medieval Palette, which was on my original radar~ and then a long time after that, I saw Bea with the Celeste e Verde Palette.

And I suppose I kicked into major KID MODE because all I could see in my brain after a couple of months was “GIMME GIMME GIMME.” Now, I think this is an achievement that I actually only got ONE palette, when I wanted all four of them—yes, even the one with 3 different tones of white. I had a primal attraction to this one, the Post-Impressionism Palette, and I’ve no idea why.

Just kidding, I have a clue. This one only has two lip shades, whereas the other two have four and Aether has 1 lip shade but 3 white eyeshadows. Process of elimination, I guess. But really, this one really called out 2 me. Ahem.

MAKE Palette

So, this one has two lip shades there, up top: Scarlet Oak a warm, orange-toned red, and Velvet Noise, which is a deep purple. The rest of the squares are eyeshadows. The yellow (Acid) and purple (Thunder) shades are satin finish eyeshadows, whereas everything else on that other square is a matte. Storm is a deep blue-green, Hudson Green is a medium moss green, Midnight is a deep midnight blue, and Poison Oak is a blackened deep green. Read More

5 Product Face No. 3

Published by

bareMinerals READY 2.0 (The Scenic Route) // Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil (Mars) // BECCA Beach Tint (Raspberry) // NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil (Dolce Vita) // K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Eyebrow Mascara (102 Natural Brown)*

I’ll share something with you: I really enjoy coming up with these 5-product looks! I didn’t want to use foundation for this one (I had quite a large, bulbous cystic pimple on one side of my nose), so I blotted my face with an oil sheet and proceeded to use the aforementioned products. As you can see, my hair was a bit longer here, so to be honest, this is an old photo set. I just didn’t want to bombard y’all with 5 Product Faces. I hope you like these just the same, though! Read More

Getting Pixyfied

Published by

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 our purpose is to contribute to the beautiful, healthy and pleasant living. Filipinas have an innate happiness and natural beauty. Pixy allows women to enhance this beauty by offering quality products to highlight their Truly Asian Beauty.”

Pixy Launch 1
L-R: Olaiza Sunga (Marketing Associate for all of Mandom Philippines Corporations’s ladies brands), Ana Leticia (model for “Tokyo Glam” look), Hiroyuki Mitsuoka (president and CEO of Mandom Philippines Corporation), Luany Ayumi (model for “Tokyo Kawaii” look), Hirotsugu Ohashi (General Manager for Mandom Corporation’s Sales and Marketing Division), Jacqueline David Calanoc (Product Planning Specialist for Mandom Philippines Corporation), and Xeng Zulueta (makeup artist)

Pixy Launch 2

We were actually able to see two demos of looks created by Xeng Zulueta using Pixy products, inspired by current Asian trends namely “Tokyo Kawaii” and “Tokyo Glam,” which were basically a day and night look with a bit of a Japanese twist. I definitely picked up a few tricks from her, and it was quite interesting though a bit long.

Pixy Launch 3

And here is a magnificent pail. These are the items I got to bring home and try. From that BDJ Box last April, I really loved the Volumizing Waterproof Mascara* and a few lipsticks. I’ve been testing out these items already since getting them and here are a few first impressions of some of the newer items on my radar, I suppose. Read More

Recent Acquisitions / Currently Testing

Published by

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. 🙂

recent acquisitions no 4

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! Read More

Nosy Beauty Vol. 34: Mikka

Published by

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!

Processed with VSCOcam with hb2 preset

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.

Kikay Kit

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 when I chose this make-up kit. But dem dinosaurs~~~

Read More

4 Skin Care Items I’ve Been Enjoying Lately

Published by

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.

4SkinCareItems

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, although it has a bunch of great active ingredients on its own. It is supposed to stimulate circulation, restore balance to the complexion, and condition and hydrate. This baby takes off every freaking stitch of makeup you might have leftover, too.

ONE LOVE ORGANICS MORNING GLORY BRIGHTENING COMPLEXION BOOSTER
If you asked me why I picked this out of all the serums and oils by One Love Organics, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, but I’m glad I did because this stuff is great! It brightens, depuffs and helps protect your skin, supposedly, and is made of only 7 ingredients, 3 of which are essential oils. I only got a small size to try, but I will definitely look into a bigger size of this or something else from their range.

ELIZABETH DEHN FOR ONE LOVE ORGANICS ACTIVE MOISTURE VITAMIN E EYE BALM
I got this to try and replace the eye creams that I currently use, both of which are not cruelty-free (Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream and Benefit It’s Potent!), and this wins over them both by miles. It’s a waterless balm that hydrates and works to restore radiance to the delicate eye area. It’s freaking fantastic, and great to use in the mornings and evenings.

I got my One Love Organics stuff from Eco Diva Beauty, which gives part of the proceeds to a charity they support (you can pick from their list of supported charities). They also have sampler packs for One Love Organics, if you are as lost as me when it comes to picking which things to try.

For now, I’m pretty happy with my skin care stuff. I tend to set aside some items that I don’t chuck or give away, coming back to them when I feel the need to change it up. I think the important things to remember when it comes to skin care are that a) all of us have different skin types and reactions, and b) you have to pay attention to your skin and give it what it needs.

Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook

My Eyeshadow Diagram

Published by

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.

eye diagram

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.

When I was starting out, I would shade in the inner third with a darker color as well, but I don’t do that so much anymore. I basically shade in the inner 2/3 of the eye (the edge towards the nose and the middle third) with the lighter color, and blend it out to the outer 1/3, where I have placed my darker shade. It works best if there’s high contrast between the two shades (in my opinion), just because you can see the effect really well:

I mostly try to keep that ratio and I do so by just blending over the part where they meet. I don’t “over blend,” or go over each of the sides with the other color all that much. That’s pretty much it.

I observe the same thing with the lower lash line, usually. I just make sure not to bring a medium or dark color all the way into the inner 1/3 because it makes my eyes look weird and squinty.

Of course, this formula can get a bit boring, so I do the darker shade in the inner 1/3 thing (but not frequently), do halfsies (again, not frequently), or I go about my usual business (2/3 light, 1/3 dark ratio) and just blow up my “above-the-crease” color, or where byuti goo-roos usually place their “transition shade.” This creates a pretty cute soft hazy look, like I’ve done so here:

And, that’s mostly it! Sometimes I do one shadow looks, lol, but this is usually my go-to method. 🙂 How about you? Are you more experimental with eyeshadow placement or do you have a preferred way of placing colors?

Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook