December 2012 Empties

Good morning everyone! It’s the last day of the year. Are you excited for tonight’s festivities? As for us, we will be celebrating tomorrow. Today, I will run some errands and do the groceries. I also hope to inject some paperwork when I come back (that includes blogging). I guess this post is fitting as it’s the end of the year. So here are the last of my empties this year:

I know I only bought this but I told you that we are big users of shower gels. We were able to finish this in less than 2 weeks. This costs less than 200 pesos, I think and it was totally worth it. It does not dry up my skin too much (it’s cold so my skin is drier than usual). The scent is not overwhelming and lingers for a while on my skin.

I just finished these two yesterday. This is a big bottle of Clinique Clarifying Lotion 3. MB and I share this. It lasted us for around 6 months. The jar is Clinique’s All About Eyes Rich which is my favorite eye cream. I have a new jar of eye cream, also from Clinique and my Clinique consultant, Baby, said that this new one is better. We will see.

I also finished another bottle of TFS nail polish remover and another bottle of shower gel. This is Victoria’s Secret Amber Romance. I am not a huge fan of this but it was not going anywhere at Hyphen so I decided to use it. The scent is for more mature women. It’s something that my grandmother would like. It was too strong for me at first but I learned to tolerate it.

Finally, this Nivea Intensive Body Milk and Etude House Mascara Remover. The Nivea body milk is designed for Dry to Very Dry Skin but it did absolutely nothing for my super dry skin. I can use this when the weather is not too cold and not too hot but not in extremes.

I also finished a small bottle of hand sanitizer and another huge one. The small bottle I put in my purse and the big one, we use at home. I didn’t bother taking a photo as these will always be in my empties post. Ever since I saw that movie Contagion, I’ve been obsessed with sanitizing my hands every now and then especially if I shake other people’s hands or come into contact with them or hold a public thing such as the escalator or buttons of an elevator. Yes, I’m that praning!

So that ends my year. I did not do much blogging this year but I will really try to make it regular starting tomorrow. I still have a few product reviews left. I already took the pictures. I just need to sit down and write.

Happy New Year everyone! God bless us all!

Awesome Friends

Merry Christmas everyone! I finally had some down time to blog. I’ve been very busy these past few weeks leading up to Christmas with paperwork, last-minute shopping, tending to the store, etc. Yesterday, I spent around 8 hours cooking for our Christmas dinner. We usually have Christmas dinner on the 25th but MB and I have some things to attend to today so we had the dinner last night. I will blog about the dishes that I cooked in my food blog soon.

Anyway, a few days back, I receive two awesome gifts from 2 of my my best friends. I consider them family and I love them dearly. I have very few friends and the ones that I have, I can truly say that they are for keeps. I don’t have a lot of Facebook friends, I don’t have a lot of friends in the real world but these two, I know they will be there for me no matter what.

So yeah, I got these awesome gifts because they know me very well.

This is a set of Body Souffle from A. She just recently had a trip to Australia and brought home this gift.



I love it!I am obsessed with lotions and bath products these days and these are perfect. These will have to wait though as I have to finish some of my opened products first.

This other set is from M. It’s a complete set of bath and body care products. It even comes in a cute makeup bag. I saw this at S&R back in November but I didn’t have the budget for it. Plus, I didn’t want to keep buying as my stockpile was still intact that time. M got this at Robinson’s Place Manila and I was thrilled when I opened the bag! She was really happy that I liked her gift. She said that she really thought about what to give me this year. I love it M! I will be bringing this to my out-of-town trip this January.

Thank you ladies! I truly appreciate your gifts! I love them and I love you both!

How about you? What awesome gifts have you received so far?

Cover Everything

This is the ELF Cover Everything Concealer:

It’s very affordable for less than Php150 plus I got this on sale at 20% off. There’s nothing special about this concealer. It works but I have to re-apply every now and then. For that price, you can’t expect much right? But for everyday use, this is a good concealer. I just don’t like the clay smell so I stopped using it. I used to put this in my makeup kit so I can have a midday touchup. I apply a combination of Benefit Boi-ing 1 and 2 at home then use this ELF concealer for touchups.

This concealer also does not react too much to my acidic skin so that’s a plus for me. This is a good budget concealer to have in your stash.

Oh, I also noticed that there are a lot of Filipinas that are not familiar with concealers. We carry a lot of concealers in Hyphen and in the store, a lot of customers ask me what the concealer sticks are for. I explain to them how it’s used and then they exclaim, “so that’s how actresses hide their eye bags!” It’s really surprising that something as important as a concealer is unbeknownst to a lot of women. If you have perfect skin but have a few dark spots on your face and under the eyes, a concealer is all you need. You don’t need to spend money on foundations.  So yeah, if you’re not using a concealer, try it. It will change your life.

Pink Lipbalms

I recently blogged about the Hello Kitty lipbalm being a disaster (just for me). This is another Hello Kitty lipbalm but in cherry flavor.

It’s more pink than the strawberry one but still goes on clear. I also didn’t like this lipbalm because of the overwhelming smell and flavor. If I wanted to eat candy, I will eat candy. I just don’t like lipbalms that have too much flavor in them.

On the other hand, I truly love this:

This is Maybelline Baby Lips Pink Glow in Mixed Berry. It smells and tastes just right. I’m not sure if the 8-hour promise of moisture is true because I’ve been using all red lipsticks and they tend to dry out my lips. I guess this lipbalm works with other lipsticks just not matte ones. If I’m not mistaken, this costs only Php89 while the Hello Kitty lipbalm costs Php99. I have another Baby Lips lipbalm which is also great. I’ll blog about that soon.

Blog Sale!

I finally found the time to photograph the things I want to sell:

ELF 100 palette, slightly used Php350

LA Colors Artist palette, slightly used; applicators not used; Php350 (Php800 value); awesome pigmentation

Top: L – R F21 blush (Php80), ELF blush in Coy (Php50)
Bottom: L-R Etude House blush (NARS Orgasm dupe) Php 100; Maybelline Clear Smooth Fresh Apricot (Php100)



From L-R: The Face Shop eyeshadow in PK102, Etude House eyeshadow, The Face Shop eyeshadow in PP402. Php80 each



Hello Kitty Lipbalms in cherry and strawberry. Php50 each. Used once, sanitized.



In2It eyebrow kit, slightly used; with applicator; Php200

Lip Ice lip glosses, Php50 for the 2 tubes

Majolica Majorca Cream Eyeliner in black and brown. Used once. Php300 each

Tony Moly nail polish; unused, Php50 each.

Shipping is Php40 in Metro Manila. Inquire for provincial rates. Oh, and if you purchase at least Php400, I will give you this for free:

Brand new, sealed, worth Php350

Dove Hair Fall Rescue

Photo from Google

After several years of taking steroids, I felt the effects when I finally stopped. My hair started falling into small clumps and I could really see my hair thinning out. I have no idea how the effects of the steroids would stop but I gotta do something, right? It was fortunate that Dove hair care was launching in the Philippines and so I bought the shampoo and conditioner for hair fall and this tub of Hair Fall Rescue.

I used this treatment twice a week. On the tub it says to leave for a minute or two. I leave it on longer and rinse it out thoroughly.

I did not see the effects immediately but I can really say that I had less hair fall overtime. This treatment plus the Kerastase Age Recharge (which I blogged about a few days ago) really saved my hair.

When I went back to my stylist for a hair cut a few weeks ago, he commented that my hair was so thick that he was going to put a lot of layers to it. I was really glad to hear that. I used to have a full, thick head of hair before the steroids and I’m really happy that my body is healing.

The best part of this treatment is it does not make my scalp itch unlike other treatments. My hair is really hiyang to the Dove hair care line. I‘d like to try TRESemme but I’m afraid that I may have itching and flakes from it. I did buy the TRESemme hair treatment for dry and fizzy hair and I used it once. I will use it again today. On the first try, it was wonderful. I hope it will have that same effect until I finish the jar.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Hey, everyone! How was your weekend? I had fun – did a lot of malling and shopping and on Sunday night, we watched Ramahari at CCP.

Do you feel the Christmas spirit? Honestly, I don’t. Aside from the weather being hot, I just don’t feel cheery enough to feel that Christmas is just a few days away. I guess most people feel the same way too.

Anyhoo, every end of the year, I stock up on supplies. I almost always raid Bench for their Christmas offerings. This year, I went crazy over these:

Yep, aside from the ones I hoard at Watsons, I even went to Bench to get my shower gel fix. These shower gels and bottles of hand wash will probably last us before summer. My Watsons supply has ran out so I will be opening one Bench bottle soon.

Christmas is also coming when I start raiding National Bookstore for supplies:

Although I already finished Christmas shopping, I still need to find the time to start wrapping presents. With my daily routine with work and home chores and what-have-you, I have no idea how I’m gonna get that done.

Oh, and this is a completely unrelated topic. I bought a new phone (nothing fancy, I’m not too fussy with phones) last week at Glorietta (BPI Madness) from Electroworld. After 3 days, I noticed that the on/off button gets stuck so I went back to have the unit replaced. The SA said that I should go to Nokia Care to have the problem fixed. I told her that it’s only 3 days old and they should just give me a replacement. She said that she needed a technical report. So I went to Nokia Care where they checked my phone. The girl said that it will only take 2-3 hours then my phone will be released. I told her I will just get it the next day. So we went the next day and the guy tells me that they needed to replace some parts and they will text me on Monday regarding the status of my phone. So I received a text yesterday saying that they need to wait 1-2 weeks for the parts to arrive. I asked if it would be possible to have the unit replaced by Electroworld. It’s a new phone. I shouldn’t be going through all this hassle! I told the SA that I only need a technical report from them. She then told me to ask for the name of the requesting personnel from Electroworld so that they can address the report to her. Yesterday, I was planning to go back to Electroworld but after a few hours, I decided that I cannot deal with all the stress. Just writing about it now is giving me a lot of stress, actually. So I will just probably wait until they get my phone fixed. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Yes, this season comes with a lot of stress too...

You’re Cute But…

I’m a sucker for lip balms especially cute ones like the one in the photo above. I got this at Watsons for Php99. This is strawberry flavored.

It’s cute but I don’t like it. I am not a huge fan of strawberry flavored products but I can tolerate most of the products that I tried (i.e. Nivea lip balm) but this one was really overwhelming. The smell and the taste were just too much for me.

I’ve only used this once. It’s a good lip moisturizer but it’s just not for me. I’m thinking of giving this to my cousin or just selling it in a blog sale.

December Lippies

I’m trying something new this month. I’m putting more effort into blogging my choice cosmetics so I will be presenting them by batch. Let’s start off with the lipsticks. Since it’s December, I will be using all my red lippies:



Here are swatches:

From left to right: MAC WonderWoman, MAC Russian Red, Estee Lauder Pure Color Berry Pink, Maybelline Rose Pearl, Maybelline Wine, Maybelline Brick Rose, Avon Rose Gold and Avon Ruby in Gold.

I just discovered that the Ruby in Gold lippy came off the tube so that will probably be melted and put into a palette.

My every day lipstick is pink so this December is really a welcome change. I don’t know why even after years of wearing red lipstick, I still get intimidated by it. I guess wearing red everyday will change that.

Benefit That Gal

I have no idea why I don’t have blog posts of products that I like. One example is this Benefit That Gal brightening face primer. I’ve been using it for a long time now and I was surprised that it wasn’t in the archives.

I finished this travel tube last November. I have a full sized one waiting to be opened. I finished this first because I opened this first. Right now, I’m using Girl Meets Pearl which is also another great product. Will blog about that soon.

Anyway, this primer is pink. I avoided using face primers for some time because of my acidic skin. I found this tube again after a few months and decided to give it a second try. It turns out, I need to have the right combination of products in order for this to work. I’m happy to say that all my current foundations and BB creams go with this product nicely. I no longer suffer from skin darkening due to acidity. I guess it’s the combination of products and my diet that has changed my skin’s condition dramatically. My skin is still acidic but not as bad as before.

This primer is pink but goes on invisible on my skin. It’s very light. I have a very oily T-zone and this product does not do anything to change that. It does not give my skin breakouts. You only need a small amount to cover your entire face and neck area (if you put foundation on your neck as well).

I sold this at Hyphen way before Benefit came to the Philippines. I have no idea how much this costs in the boutique now. I also stopped carrying Benefit products in Hyphen as a sign of respect to them when they entered the local market. I just got all the remaining Benefit products for myself.

My usual face primer is NARS but that’s too expensive so this is a good every day alternative. I reserve NARS for special occasions.

Kerastase Age Recharge

This is the best hair treatment I’ve tried so far. My hair was damaged after I used the Etude House Bubble Hair Color. The effect was not immediate. My hair dried up over time. I went to my stylist to have it fixed. I was in the salon for one treatment and then his assistant recommended that I try the Kerastase Age Recharge.

I can’t remember the exact price but it’s at least Php2,500. This is actually cheaper than going to the salon every week to have my hair treated as that will cost Php1,200-Php1,8oo. I’m glad I invested in this product. It lasted several months!

You only need to apply a small amount to the tips of your hair. Then I massage my hair up so that the tips will touch other parts of my hair. The stylist’s assistant taught me this trick. He said this is a good way to distribute product and make it last longer as you only need a small amount every application. I just add a little bit more when needed.

This product made my hair softer. I used this twice a week. After I finished the tub, my stylist was satisfied with the result but wanted to cut my hair to get rid of the colored ends and some of the damaged hairs that were beyond repair. So now I’m sporting a shorter do. I’m growing it back so that I can have it curled again.

Don’t be intimidated by the price range of Kerastase products. They are definitely worth it and they will last you a long time. Plus, think of all the money you will save from salon trips. You don’t need to go to the salon, pay for the service and give tips.

Weekend Haul

Last weekend, MB took me shopping. I always stock on clothes and other stuff during December. Stuff like house clothes, etc., I don’t like buying in the middle of the year. I like to buy them at the end of the year when there are specials. MB was sweet enough to take me shopping this year. But before that, we had a snack at Starbucks and MB got me this:



He insisted that I take a blow by blow account of the unboxing.



Green is my favorite color. MB liked the green one best, too.






This planner is way bigger than last year’s. MB makes this his yearly tradition. He gets the booklet and fills it up with stickers then gives me the planner. This year he got the planner early. I guess he’s too excited.

Next, we went to Bench Body and got these:



I got 5 boxers. They all come packaged in the sipping cups at the back. Those are boxed undies and a camisole.



The boxers in cups cost Php199.75. I asked MB how much the regular ones were and he said they were the same so I got the cups. I gave 2 cups to my cousin C that’s why there are only 3 left in the photo. I got the boxers, of course.

Cute boxes that will house my knickknacks

The next day, MB got me pj’s. I wasn’t planning on buying the Minnie dress shirt but it was too cute on the mannequin . The white Hello Kitty is also a dress shirt. The pink HK is a shirt/pj’s pair.

I also did a bit of shopping at Watsons. I’m still not yet done with my stockpile.



Finally, I got this:



My hair is still damaged and too short for a perm. I really don’t like straight hair and it’s a pain to blow dry every single day. Plus, I really miss my curls. This was on sale at only Php2,500. The original price is Php3,295.

I got these as GWP’s.

Huge metallic pink tote

Love this mustard purse. The front flap opens up into a card case. The inside also has a few card slots. I don’t like using wallets but I might give this a shot.

I’m still not yet done with my end of the year shopping. I found a few things at Bench that would be perfect for my stockpile. I will buy them when I’m with Mom or with my cousin C. Boys are just no fun to shop with.

How’s your Christmas shopping coming along?

November Pan

Or should I say empties?

I was really happy in November as I got to finish a lot of products in my stock:

This lasted me 2 years!

If you can get your hands on this product, go for it! It’s amazing!

I will review the Kerastase in my next post

I will give a short review of That Gal in a future post. A quick search in my blog resulted to an absence of a review.

I hope I can finish more products before the year ends. I will also show you my December picks!