PoshPinay

Apparently, impulse-buying Steve Madden wedge shoes five minutes after laying eyes on ‘em (at a budget-busting P1,900.00) failed to purge me of my shopping demons. So splurge again, I did. Yet I really can’t regret my latest buy; I’ve already written about it in a past entry as the best lip balm I’ve come across.

Yupyup, I got me a tube of Kiehl’s bestselling lip balm with SPF 15, plus…it’s tinted. =) The first one I had served me exceedingly well for a couple of months until it got lost. It was just a pasalubong as Kiehl’s didn’t yet have a local store then. Last week I passed by the Greenbelt 5 store after merienda at Cafe Breton (really great crepes there by the way, try the Canadian smoked bacon with egg and sundried tomatoes) and left with my new baby.

Let me correct myself first - while I previously quoted it to be almost a thousand, the tinted lip balm actually only costs P650. The non-tinted ones sell for P450, I think. They also had lip gloss in cherry shades, but I opted to go for the lip balm as the colder weather has my lips cracking and drying up like baked clay bricks (hmm, weird metaphor, me thinks).

Kiehl

Now that I’ve been using it for several days, I’m pleased to report that my baked clay bricks slash lips have gotten as soft and pliant as play-doh. The tint has also gotten good feedback. I chose Hue No. 58B which leaves a brownish-plumish wash of color on your lips. That description doesn’t visualize too well, but I like it. For those who prefer a lighter/brighter shade, there is Hue 30G which is pinkish-peach.

Another good thing was I got freebies. =) Apparently, Kiehl’s gives out product testers whenever you make a purchase. I got two types of moisturizers, Abyssine and a moisturizer for all skin types. I gave the last one to my mom to try and used the Abyssine cream. Reviews on those items to follow, for now, I’m just loving my lip balm.

Natural Beauty Remedys

Here are some kitchen-beauty remedies I’ve personally tested and rate highly in terms of effectivity. I’ll go so far as saying they work better than stuff you can buy in the drugstore, so try them out!

Facial scrub: Finely ground coffee and olive oil

A teaspoonful of finely ground coffee (I use Great Taste) mixed with a dash of olive oil makes for a very good exfoliator. The coffee has just the right consistency for sloughing off old skin layers without scratching up your face. And as we all know, olive oil is a great emollient. Read the rest of this entry »

1. A stain in the mind

You shit. You crowd out my own thoughts. Memories, sticky little suckers. Tell me, can I wash out the dirt in my mind? can I wring out my brain and hang it up to dry? No. It’s never gonna be like new. I’ve got a stain in my mind. Fuck you

    2. Deliverance

Nothing but a myth. Sorry

    3. Synchronicity

Who lost. Who won. No such synchronicity here. Get past your modernist delusions, there;re no more simple binary oppositions. In the continuum of space and time. Two, mayhaps even three or more, can meet and flirt and fuck and  share a smoke. No need to judge. For god’s sake don’t meta analyze! There are no losers, only players in a game with no stakes

So ever since my hormones took over I started getting all persnickety about odors and I became very particular about deodorants and antiperspirants (yes! there is a difference between the two!!). My all time fave used to be Secret (unscented) until for some reason (don’t know if my olfactory system got damaged or I bought a couple of bad batches..) the unscented, how do I say this eloquently… (dangit! I can’t! ) started getting all scenty ( loling over the choice of words).

I’ve never been too fond of floral or powder scents in deodorants because it only masks the odor. Imagine acrylic paint if you will,apply blue paint on a canvass, then layer on some yellow (that’s your deodorant). You see the yellow paint, but you can see there’s some blue too, now mix that together and what do you get? Green… the color of someone whose getting ready to barf (say.. that was a great innuendo if I do say so myself ). The point that I’m trying to get across is that the end result is a revolting scent. Obviously sour, musty, and floral or powder don’t do so well combined.

It wasn’t only until midway through high school that I found a anti-perspirant that my nose approved of. I found a really great dermatologist, Dr. Edna Talavera Nisce, MD, FPDS,that at the time only held business at LaUnion and Dagupan Pangasinan. It was referred to her by a family member because of a disgusting skin allergy triggered by some sort of parasite I contracted from a public pool , but that’s a different story. So after she cured me of what ever it was that was causing intolerable pruritus I started going to her for my skin care. Long story short I bought the deodorant she sells.

Aluminum Chlorohydrate Deodorant

It’s mainly made up of Aluminum chlorohydrate (I know this “supposedly” absorbed through your skin and thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease through a process we can discuss if you want to be lulled to sleep, but we can’t have everything.. and that theory hasn’t been proven ) and is sold in a variety percentages (20%, 30%, 50%). The prices vary according to the percentage amounts. I usually buy the one with 30% aluminum chlorohydrate content and that’s sold for Php115.00. The main ingredient retards your sweat glands (No sweat, no odor!) so obviously you buy the product depending on how much you sweat. The best part about it is that it doesn’t give you the stink effect I was describing above.

Due to her business only operating in the province I used to buy the stuff in bulks. Fortunately for me she’s opened a branch at SM Megamall. Nisce Skin ‘N Face Beauty and Wellness Center can be found at the 5th floor. Like any other establishment of the sort the Beauty and Wellness Center also offers a line of facial treatments that range from Diamond peels to hair removals!

I stumbled upon this product quite by accident, more accurately, due to a little Beauty Bar fiasco I had.

The craziness of that encounter proved to be propituous as the item I randomly picked to buy turned out to be another inexpensive product (Php150) that actually does what its supposed to.

J.R. Watkins Lemon Hand & Cuticle Salve is touted as an all natural cure for scaly hands and unruly, curled up cuticles (I’m prone to this and I have the bad habit of picking or nibbling at them with my teeth which makes it even worse) usually caused by the cold and washing with harsh soaps.

J.R. Watkins Lemon Hand & Cuticle Salve

It comes in a round tin package, smelling sweetly of the natural lemon oil incorportaed into the salve . Once applied, it takes only a few minutes (no kidding!) to notice the difference - skin is softer and recalcitrant cuticles are smoothed over.

My mom was so impressed that she went and bought her own and uses it for her arms and elbows too. Your toes and the soles of your feet would love this product as well (a tip: apply the salve to your feet at night before going to bed and put on some socks to slough off really dry skin). With the onset of colder weather, this product would be a great addition to Christmas goodie bags.

Great Beauty Finds from Beauty Bar (Part 1)

Burt’s Bees Lip shimmer

Its packaging proclaims Burt’s Bees Lip Balm as the world’s best. Personally, I feel that the title still goes to Kiehl’s Lip Balm No. 1 (at the time I started using Kiehl’s I had gone through several drugstore brands and despaired of even finding one that could stand up to my severely dry and chapped lips - this almost sounds like a blurb for an ad, but really true.)

Still the best lip balm - but pricey

Burt’s Bees balm comes pretty close to Kiehl’s in terms of efficacy and at a fraction of the price too (Php295.00 compared to about Php1,000 for Kiehl’s).

It’s ingredients include Vit. E, coco butter, rosemary and peppermint oil. The last lends a slight pleasant tingle to your lips. It smells pretty good without a cloying, overly artificial scent unlike other balms and lipsticks in the market.

Multi-use and all-natural lip tint

The best thing I discovered about it is it doubles really well as a cheek tint! Again, this product trumps similar items from other brands in the price department (think Body Shop lip & cheek tint at almost Php800 and Benefit Benetint). The texture and color tone is just right for smoothing over the cheeks to leave a very natural looking flush. Plus, the peppermint “tingle” serves as a good wake-me-up when the balm is applied to lips and cheeks in the morning.

As colors range from nude to pinks to deep reds (mine is called raisin and leaves a deep berry tint to the lips), it should suit almost any completion.

Burt’s Bees lip balm is a great beauty find for me - its a multitasking product that won’t break your bank account.

So whats the lowdown on this highly sought after product whose popularity is still on the rise? What can mineral make up give you that other branded cosmetic products don’t?

.. Well it’s all natural baby! So it claims, since the ingredients are supposed to be from minerals (I know.. the name already suggests that.. duh! ) and inorganic substances it promises to go easy on your skin. But is that really so or is this another marketing strategy to sell?! Hmnn.. Not to sound paranoid or anything I just like to look at everything in a two way perspective. I refuse to be one of those ignorant consumers who are oblivious to the sales strategy they’ve bought into by buying a product due to the influence of marketing tactics.

That’s besides the point though. Lemme tell you what I do like.. Me like mineral make up! (Whoa to the sudden shift of mood! Talk about bipolar..) I have sensitive skin, thanks to the bad genes I inherited from my mother, my skin reacts to sudden changes in temperature, climate, bad facial wash, cosmetics, and at other times when it feels like it. I can’t avert nor predict it so when my skin decides to have another anaphylactic reaction to something or maybe nothing, applying make up aggravates it so I have to go all day with out make up (thanks again mother!).

One of the shades (shroom) we tried

I swear mineral make up feels like no other cosmetic product in the market. It gives you a very good mimicry of a light natural long lasting glow. It hasn’t cause an allergic reaction so far and another thing I like about it is that it comes off easier than traditional cosmetic products. I haven’t tried mineral products for the big brands in the market but from a matte to a sheer effect the stuff I’m using gives really impressive output.

Multi-Use Minerals

Here are a couple websites that sell mineral make up locally and internationally online. These are multiply sellers:

• Dream Collection
• Beauty and Minerals
• Beauty Box
• Bare Escascentuals

Now there’s a product thats true to its name. The L’Oreal Infalible Never Fail Lipstick comes in 12 different shades and has recently been re-packaged to include an extra tube of the topcoat. Along the line of “long- lasting” lipsticks this has been ranked #1 in my list!

 
L’Oreal Infalible Never Fail Lipstick Compact

The compact doubles as a mirror which I find great since  I’m the kind who likes to travel light, if everything I need fits into my pockets then I won’t bring a purse. It’s like a nifty little beauty gadget!The color is instructed to be applied thinly but you can apply a generous amount to darken the shade just be sure to let it dry. It’ll  sort of leave a sticky feel on your lips but thats what the topcoat is for.

It’ll seal the color and moisturize your lips leaving it with natural looking shine. This can last up to a full 8 hours with out re-applying. You’d have to touch up with another application of the topcoat between meals to maintain the polished look of your lips which is ok since its so compact you can take it with you anywhere making it easier to avoid the hassles that come with retouching. 

As for the cons; I can imagine the running out of the topcoat before you use up the lipcolor itself but now that it comes with an extra tube  of gloss that pretty much solves the problem. Its also really hard to remove the color with out causing irritation and redness to the skin surrounding your lips but I’ve recently been informed that an oil base make-up remover should do the trick. Truly infallible - Loreal’s Never Fail Lipstick will never disappoints.