All posts filed under: Miscellaneous

To Buy or Not to Buy: New Things in My Email Inbox

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That is the age-old question. Do I succumb to consumerism or do I make like an adult and resist? I’m not quite sure as to which camp I belong to, but I do like seeing pictures of pretty things in my inbox every once in a while. If I like it enough, I’m glad that there’s an option for me to get it. Take the newly-released edition from ofakind, Furies Ring by Unearthen, which is all sorts of beautiful and charming. I love that the gem is a little bit bigger and unpolished than what I’m used to seeing. I love that it’s all held up together by something that looks like a claw, and that it’s balancing on one edge instead of being in perfect equilibrium. Still thinking on this, but if you want to gobble it up, head on over to ofakind, since there’s only 40 of these in existence. ($ 160) I don’t even remember subscribing to the Barneys newsletter. I think I subscribed when I was eyeing a pair of Citizens …

October Favorites

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Maybe kind of late, but still helpful, I think. There’s not a lot I can say about my October favorites, because while I did hoard towards the end of the month, I only got to use most of them extensively in November, pre-makeup ban*. Here are a few stand-outs that I have loved last month. 1. Guerlain Écrin 4 Coueleurs Eyeshadow in Turandot (Reviewed here) Turandot is part of Guerlain’s Holiday 2012 collection. It’s a “Écrin 4 Coueleurs Eyeshadow,” which is just a fancy way of saying “eyeshadow quad.” How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Actually, it’s not all that complicated. It’s an upstanding palette, with a very warm and neutral overall look, but all the individual shades are still quite different from each other. There’s a pretty shimmery goldenrod, a rust-rose satin pink, a matte deep mauve, and a shimmery dark grey-brown, all rolled into one delicious pocket-sized wonder, mmm. How happy am I that this isn’t limited edition? Very. 2. Bronzer No specific brand—just the wonder of bronzer in …

EOTD: Something Out of Nothing

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Here is today’s EOTD featuring the Avon True Color Quad in Sandy Corals (reviewed here) and my new favorite weapon, Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus 12! I have practically no relationship with mascara, because I never understood how to use it. Every time I tried one on, my lashes would look the same and I’d end up with black brush imprints on my lid or under eye area. I never knew I wanted lusher lashes until now! Luckily, my mom had an extra bottle because of a sale purchase a few months ago. So now, I have my own. 🙂 It’s got a two-sided applicator, one side a comb and the other a coil. I haven’t used it all that much to master application, though. There’s a slight blue-grey tinge to it that I don’t mind and actually enjoy quite a bit. It’s also a fibre-based formula, which has fibres that stick to your lashes, helping to elongate them. At first, I thought they were hairs from my mom’s lashes! Here’s my whole FOTD, …

Makeup Raves from the Unlikeliest Or, Why This Blog Exists

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I have had apprehensions about this descent into makeup madness, especially about actually writing about cosmetics and other girly things. It’s partly because it was a foreign sort of obsession, in that it was far removed from things I usually liked. Also, I didn’t really know all that much about it yet, so I didn’t know if I “deserved” to talk about it like I was an expert. Mainly though, I shied away from the idea because there’s a certain stigma associated with “frivolous” endeavors like this. I suppose things that focus on physicality and vanity, instead of “nobler pursuits” like literature, culture, art or whatever else people think falls in that category. I finally put this blog up less than a month ago because makeup made me happy. That’s the simplest reason there is. It made me happy to talk about it and to share the great and not-so-great things I’ve tried. I liked writing about makeup and discovering new things about it. Since it’s not a conversation staple with people I hang out …

A Tiny Lament: bareMinerals’ Ready 8.0 in The Playlist

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Ever since I swatched a couple of bareMinerals’ Ready 2.0 shadows, I have been increasingly obsessed at looking at swatches and thinking of what to buy next (lol, I know), but holding off until December 15, which is when my makeup ban will be lifted. I think I’ve been pretty good at keeping it, faltering only once for a MAC Paint Pot, and lipstick and gloss from NARS. (My new Revlon sale stash doesn’t count because it was from my mom!) ANYWAY. My obsessive self checked the bareMinerals website again today and the 8-pan palette I was eyeing—bareMinerals Ready 8.0 in The Playlist—was nowhere to be found! Panic-stricken, I found it on Amazon, but with an added $5 for shipping to the US and only 6 stocks left. Why do I want it so much? Introducing an extraordinary limited-edition palette, featuring 8 pure, intense, provocative shades in a glitzy gold case. An innovative new solid mineral technology that delivers spectacular stay-true color with seamless blendability and anti-aging benefits. I had the bright idea of checking …

Browhaus: House of Construction

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I haven’t had my eyebrows done—general threading—since fourth year high school for senior prom, so I thought it was time for another session. I mean, it’s been around seven years. (Also, the eyeshadow close-ups I’ve been posting make me look like a super fancy scruffy puppy.) I went to Browhaus in Greenbelt 5! It was kind of hard to find, but I think we are just geographically-challenged. The store is located at the 4th floor, near other salons and cosmetic places. It was pretty small and fuss-free. There was a receiving area, a small nook for sitting down, and a wall with a row of rooms where the treatments are done. They looked like doors inside a chartreuse submarine! I kind of really love the name, because it’s a play on Bauhaus, the German school responsible for the clean, minimal aesthetic that’s still somehow visually striking and arresting. Bauhaus, in German, literally means “House of Construction,” so I think Browhaus was a clever little name. How freaking cooler would it have been if the interiors …

Counter Swatch: NARS x Andy Warhol

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I dropped by the NARS counter yesterday and took a few quick swatches of their holiday collection, which is a collaboration with Andy Warhol. Sarie asked Robbie, the SA, to hold an Edie Set for me, but I wanted to look at some of the other products, too. The sets are rather pretty. The two collections that are not exclusive to Sephora seem to be available here, except for the polishes. TV Party, an orange shade, is the only individual polish that seems to be available in Manila. The Larger Than Life Lipglosses (Php 1450) are the first ones I swatched. In order, from the top: Viva, Penny Arcade, International Velvet, Candy Says, and Holly Woodlawn. The formulation is rather nice, though sticky. I was turned off by gloss a few years ago, and this is the first one I’ve tried—and liked—since “going off” of glosses. The Soft Touch Shadow Pencils are a tricky subject, something I’m willing to try, but perhaps not right now. Top to bottom, Calabria (not part of this collection, but …