All posts tagged: personal

Making space for makeup

Hello. I’ve been meaning to make a comeback on this little slice of the Internet for a while now, but I think I kept getting stuck on the why. It made little sense to resurrect a space that was dedicated to makeup and beauty when I had slowly been, in a way, weaning myself off of it over the last couple of years. Which isn’t to say that I’ve stopped consuming or using beauty-adjacent products… I’ve just reined in the monster, so to speak. I moved to London to pursue a masters degree in late 2017, bringing along some key items, with full intention on moving back home once the programme finished in 2019. Well, I’m still here, and the collection I’ve amassed is back home in Manila. At some point, I did a “big” clear out, and I intended to bring some more of them back here, but I haven’t been able to leave the U.K. since late 2019. Anyway, my point is, I have so much crap and I can’t use them. Which …

A couple of FOTDs and a hi!

Long time, no see. I don’t know if you remember me (haha), but hi! I haven’t been around because… I haven’t been buying new stuff and I guess I went through (am going through?) a few crises at the moment that don’t leave me much time for beauty pursuits. I’m making an effort again, though. Because it turns out that I actually really like doing this. So, hi! Again. So, I guess I wanted to say that yes, I’ve been wearing makeup still though not as much as I used to, and no, I haven’t been taking care of my skin as well as I ought to, maybe. I’m working on it, though, do not judge. I’ve been wearing a few staples lately, though, namely the Urban Decay Naked 3 and the shu uemura ME medium brown 885 mainly, for eyeshadow. I’ve also been going to town with winged liner. I like it! For this look, I wore my OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil in Lydia, but I took this after I got home from dinner …

Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP May 2015: Sexy Eye Palette + Why I Won’t Be Signing Up Again

Hello all! I come bearing a really beautiful thing today. This is the thing that came in the May box (sooo articulate…) for the Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP subscription. May was also conveniently the month that sign-ups for current subscribers opened back up for the next round. You can sign up here, if this interests you, but I’ve decided not to re-sub. More on that later, but believe me, this month’s offering nearly made me sign up again. For this month, I received an 18-pan palette called Sexy Eye Palette. If it looks familiar, I have a similar palette called Melange de Colour Fashion Eye Palette, which retailed for $95, like the LMdB Kaleidoscopes. They’re pretty different, but someone on MakeupTalk.com found a Neiman Marcus GWP that looks a whole lot like the Sexy Eye Palette, but it was named Galore.

Packing for Taiwan

Hey all! Apologies for the radio silence, but if you’ve been following me on Instagram (@presidents, if you are so inclined), you’d know that I was in Taiwan. And between that, shuffling around the Art Fair last week, and getting work stuff done, I’ve neglected this space a little bit. Sorry about that. Anyway, as is customary, here’s what I brought along on this trip to Taipei. We flew on the 10th and got back on the 16th. I feel like it looks like a lot for that length of time, and honestly, I could have left a few things home. I still didn’t go crazy packing eyeshadows and palettes, so I’m a little bit proud of that. Face/Blush Stuff: Kosé Suncut Water in UV Protect Essence SPF 50+, Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint in Medium, Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Correcter in Medium, Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Anti-Aging Pressed Powder in Shade 2, Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Exposed Eye Stuff: K-Palette 24H Real Lasting 2-Way Eyebrow in G101*, NARS Pro-Prime …

On not giving a shit:

When I first got into makeup, I didn’t think it would make me think this hard. I know that’s kinda funny, but it’s true. I’ve had many episodes of what felt like existential crises, all thanks to something that most people would deem frivolous and shallow. And OK, maybe these personal observations and this “”inner turmoil”” are pretty petty in the grand scheme of things… but even deeming that shallow is part of what brings about this line of questioning. Let me explain: Makeup and beauty have always been linked to vanity even if we, as beauty lovers and enthusiasts, know that that’s not always the case. Still, this outside judgement somehow makes me feel guilty, sometimes, even about just merely liking makeup. One of my earliest posts, Makeup Raves from the Unlikeliest, kind of delves into that incongruity of my apparent personality and this sudden interest in makeup. There is a stigma attached to makeup that automatically stamps people who are into it as rilly, rilly shallow and ditzy people. Then, I feel really …

Thank you, some news + a quick review of 3 Concept Eyes x Pink I’m Good Mascara*

Hey everyone! First of all, I just wanted to thank all of you who read one of my latest posts, called All the Things: On Beauty, Buying & Blogging. The response and discussion have been amazing, and I just feel really good that the people who read this blog are super smart and wonderful. 🙂 I’m still a little confused and conflicted about this space, in that I’m not sure how to shape it, but I like that questions are being asked and points are being raised and so on. For the next bit of news… I’ve been holding off announcing this bit of news for a while, but I applied to be part of the next round of the BNT Girls Network and I got in! 🙂 I’m actually joined by two members of the previous batch of which I was also part, namely, Kine and Joanne, as well as two new girls, Doris and Bella. If you’re not familiar, BNT Girls is a Global Beauty Editors Group set up by BNT News, an …

On Consumerism & Spring Cleaning

I’ve been going back and forth on this topic for quite a while now, and have been sitting on this particular blog post for about a month. I don’t really know what to say about “it,” but I do know that I want to take part in the conversation. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on the matter of consumerism and over-consumption, all of which, at least in part, echo what I feel as a person and as a… how do I say it? Mindless drone? Sheep? Just kidding. I’m not here to berate myself for liking material things, but I do want to examine my personal habits as someone who does enjoy, in some measure, shopping, acquisitions, and beautiful things. First off: I hate to admit it, but I think this blog is a big indicator that I am a hoarder. When I was drafting this post, I felt like I wanted to “out” myself as a terrible person who collects useless things only to abandon them later. Then I backtracked and …