PoshPinay

Look what I got my hands on.. This, my beloved readers, is my new favorite thing… the most wonderful-lest and the greatest all in one cosmetic thingy magig you will ever find. Your guaranteed great mileage with a tube of NARS The Multiple.

The NARS Multiple is an all in one solution for you eyes, cheeks, lips and body. With the different shades available you can get glamorous highlights and accents no matter the skin tone.  So far, I have liked using The Multiple because of the oil free formula (I’m big on oil free anything.)

The one I got is Nars The Multiple in Palm Beach. This is a brown shade with a semi matte finish that can be used as a bronzer for a sun kissed glow. It’s a great shade for morenas and if applied properly on the fair skin, will give you a savaged california tan. I plan on getting  myself the South Beach shade as well, this is a lighter variation and it looks like it applies sheer. I want something I can use as a blush, Palm beach is a bit too dark for my skin tone to pass as an every day blush on so I thought to try the next shade up, lucky for me South Beach is sold at Cosme-de.com!!

Nars The Multiple is available in 12 shades; Cannes, Maui, South Beach, Copacabana, Palm Beach, St Barts, Maldives, Portofino, Mistyque. Click here to see what they look like.

I received a white piece of paper from the post office the same day I got my iPod nano telling me that I needed to claim a parcel. Knowing the process all too well, I put it off thinking that it was the screen protector for the iPod I ordered from an eBay seller in Hong Kong. Today, I finally got around to claiming my stuff and to my surprise it was my Cosme-de.com order.

Such a big box from small contents… After the routine inspection and paying Php35.00 in customs fee, I received my Burt Bee’s Lip Shimmer and the Stila Shadow Pot in pristine condition. I guess the shipping time wasn’t so bad after all considering that it was for free.

The shadow pot in Taupe is really a nice sheer color, just the way I like it. I usually don’t buy cream eye shadow because I hate the creasing effect you get on your lids after a couple of minutes from application. The Stila Shadow Pot is almost cream, but frothier (if that makes any sense). It’s actually advertised as “mousse”, hence the froth. It looks a bit silvery in the picture, but don’t be fooled, It has a nice natural nude sheer-ness that can be applied in layers for intensity in color.

Next time I’ll make sure to make my trip to the post office during the Philippines’ notorious summer heat worth it by adding on to my purchased goodies!

So get this.. I finally found a site that carries makeup , skin care products, perfume, hair care and the likes from a long list of prominent brand names in the cosmetic world. Best part is they ship to the Philippines, FOR FREE, no minimum purchase!!! I don’t know how, but they actually ship world wide for free. You can visit COSME-DE.COM to find out if they service your country.

Other than on eBay.com I find it hard to find online merchants that ship to the philippines and charge reasonable shipping fees, let alone for free so as shallow as it may seem I’m totally psyched!

I’ve actually know about this site since late last year but only today did I make my first purchase.  Since they are new merchant I only made a small purchase, sort of like a test run to see if I’d get my items and how much I’d have to pay in custom fees. I ordered Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Nutmeg for $7.00 (Php360) because they had it on sale, original price is $10.00. The item is actually available locally but what the heck! I bought it anyways. I also ordered Stila Shadow Pots for 20 (Php967) bucks. They only had one color, Taupe, luckily I like the color so that went into my shopping cart too. I paid my order through PayPal and presto, purchase made. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Your purchase at Cosme-de.com is paid in USD but during  shopping you’ll see the equivalent of the amount in your local currency. Cosme-de.com accepts payments through PayPal, Alipay, IPS, Amzon Payments, Visa and MasterCard! You can check out all the cool products they carry here.
.

A large majority of us, in us I mean us Filipinas, view Red as too vibrant a color to wear on our lips. But a deep rich red lipstick is actually a nice way of accessorizing a simple look.I my self am a fan of nude lipstick but it doesn’t hurt to be adventurous at times.

My “nude lipstick” may not look so nude on someone else’s lips. This brings us to the first mistake people make when wearing red lipstick and that is choosing the wrong color. For darker skin go for plums, wines, and deep red. Light skin go best with beige, pink, and orange undertone. If you’re in between with an olive skin tone, colors with brownish reds,light browns, and raisins complement your skin best. Use this as a basis for picking you red lipstick.

Second mistake? Coloring outside the line. If you’ve ever worn red lipstick before you’ll notice that no matter how careful you are you’ll get ugly pink smudges around your lips. Guess what gals, that why they invented lip liners! Lipstick that tend to “bleed” can be manged with a lip liner, I like using clear lip liners with my red lipstick.

As a rule of thumb, when you embellish a feature one your face you’ll have to downplay the rest. So if you’re gonna wear red on your lips then go with earth colors on your eyes and vice versa. Since my favorite feature to glam up are my eyes I frequently wear nude colors on my lips.

One last tip.. Make sure you accessorize properly. For example red lipstick and red nail polish is a little too melodramatic for out outfit to carry so choose your outfit carefully

Pretty shades of Ellana Mineral Blush

Mineral makeup was a big trend last 2008, with big name makeup companies like L’Oreal, Neutrogena and Revlon jumping on the bandwagon. The thing is they’re quite expensive and most of them contain ingredients that mineral makeup is NOT supposed to have. Checkout this brand for good quality mineral makeup: Ellana Minerals.

As far as I know, Ellana Minerals is the first and only local mineral makeup company in the Philippines. They have their own site (www.ellanaminerals.com) which features a very shopper-friendly layout, clear color presentations of products (always a good thing when shopping for makeup online), plus, a nifty tips and tricks section. They also send out free samples - no need to buy anything first.

Ellana Lipgloss

Their powder stuff comes in 6, 3, and 1 gram sizes, with the 1g sampler costing either P100 or P120. Shimmery lipgloss is P160. Brushes start at P200. For the quality, I’d say that their pricepoints are way beyond competitive.

I’ve tried Lumiere (made my skin itch) and Monave (good, but kinda pricey) before and I can say Ellana does not cause itchiness or other skin problems. I like that it has a wide range of tones and colors to choose from (particularly with eyeshadow - over 30 shades!).

Ellana Concealer, Foundation and Finishing Powder

So far, I’ve tested their foundation, concealer and finishing powder and give each one high scores. Check out my previous blog on customizing mineral makeup for more info. I can’t wait to try their blush - comes in 12 shades with sheer, satin, frost, and shimmery finishes. Give yourself a beauty treat, try out some mineral makeup today

Ellana Mineral Foundation (in chai tea latte), Concealer (in cheer), Myra E moisturizer, some eye shimmer and voila!

Ever plunked down hard-earned cash for foundation that caused breakouts or gave you that dreaded two-toned look? Here’s a great discovery: making your own makeup means you can blend shades to perfectly match your skin tone and set coverage level too.

I’m a mineral makeup convert - the benefits of which have been discussed at length all over the net, but if you guys wanna read more about healthy beauty, I recommend this site for their very informative articles. I hadn’t known how a lot of famous brands and conventional makeup is made with harmful ingredients - some are known neurotoxins, others carcinogenic. This made me more discerning about the stuff we put on our faces and how it can harm us in the long run.

Customized mineral foundation- slash- moisturizer

The bad thing about mineral makeup for me is that in powder form, it dried up my skin and emphasized fine lines. So I decided to mix my mineral makeup with moisturizer and it turned out really well! After a few trial runs, I’ve come upon my best formulation: Myra E facial moisturizer which is cheap but effective, and a combination of Ellana Mineral foundation and concealer powders (check out Ellana’s website for the first Pinoy-made mineral makeup brand and affordable at that!).

Cathy’s before and after pics - btw, I used mineral blush as lipgloss using colorless lipbalm dabbed with mineral blush powder

The great thing about customizing makeup this way is you can buy two or more shades to blend in order to perfectly match your skin tone and you can choose how much of the powder to mix in relation to the moisturizer base to get the coverage you need - the thicker and creamier it is, the heavier your coverage. And for a little shimmer, I added in a pinch of beige glimmer eyeshadow to my customized foundation - awesome, if I say so myself.

Now this is the best part, good foundation can cost an arm and a leg, mine cost me less than five hundred bucks and lasts for 2-3 months with daily use. Customized makeup is kewl!!!

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.

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.

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.