Beauty finds & breakthroughs

The SOUQ organics

This is not one product but a store — my favorite new one-stop to score organic beauty finds. Not only can you find pure argan oil sourced directly from Morocco, owners John Amante, wife Angeli Yap-Amante and TJ Sulit have brought in a carefully curated selection of eco-certified brands from all over the world. Already flying off the shelves is the Really Good Cellulite Oil from Fushi (London) with circulation-boosting gotu kola and diuretic green coffee bean oil, and the in-house Moroccan Argan Oil, which customers have said reduces keloid scars and prevents stretch marks.

The boutique that argan oil built: (clockwise from top left) TJ Sulit, John Amante, Angeli Yap-Amante and Em Matias, directors of The Souq Organics

Other brands I’m excited to delve into are Pangea Organics (USA) — their Skincare Discovery Kit is perfect for travel; Mukti Botanicals (Australia), a heavenly-smelling bath, body and skincare line that targets different skin types; Huiles & Baumes (France), an anti-aging range that uses pure spring water from the French Alps and antioxidant rosehip oil; and Babies Only (Australia), formulated especially to coddle your precious little ones.

The Souq Organics boutique is at Unit B, Bellitudo, No. 79, Katipunan St., White Plains, Quezon City, tel. nos. 421-5745 and 0917-526-2683.

Neutrogena fine fairness bb cream UV

Ever since Korean actors made BB creams a sensation, every beauty brand of note has put out its own “blemish balm,” which has gone so far beyond blemish-fighting that BB should now stand for “beauty balm.” Neutrogena’s multitasking BB cream not only fights and hides blemishes with skintone-matching minerals, it also incorporates the Fine Fairness line’s HealthyWhite Complex to provide additional whitening benefits. Talk about shedding light on the problem.

Neutrogena is exclusively available at Watsons.

K-palette 24h real lasting eyebrow liner & eyeliner waterproof

I’ve seen it on even the best beauty editors: eyebrows drawn on so severely they look faker than Pamela Anderson’s boobs. Faux brows will never happen with K-Palette, a fabulous brand from Japan that is being called the “holy grail” — and rightly so — of eyebrow fillers and eyeliners. The eyebrow liner pen shapes brows like a dream — in shades like natural and grayish brown, the liquid has just the right amount of translucence to fill in sparse areas but never gives you a severe look, plus it’s smudge-proof, water-resistant, and washes off with soap and water.

K-Palette’s eyeliner is equally dreamy. Applying liquid liner is all about control, and K-Palette’s micro-fiber brush lets you draw the finest lines or build it up to get the sexy cat’s-eye look of the moment, making this is the easiest liquid liner I’ve ever applied. Even a beginner with shaky hands will feel like a pro. It never smears either, not even through the sweatiest workout.

K-Palette products retail for P895 each at Beauty Bar.

The body shop extra virgin minerals foundation

There’s a lot to like about The Body Shop’s mineral makeup. The crucial diff? They come by the Extra Virgin moniker by using actual 100-percent Community Fair Trade pure cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil blended with finely milled mineral pigments. Thus, the foundations are very easy to blend, look natural and are good for your complexion, since they contain SPF, are non-comedogenic (won’t block pores so they won’t cause pimples), fragrance-free and paraben-free so they’re suitable for all skin types, including sensitive and blemished skin. What I like best, though, is the vastness of the range: there’s powder for the lightest coverage, liquid for medium coverage and a cream compact with brush for full coverage, and each iteration comes in eight shades so you’re sure to find a tone that suits you.

Extra Virgin Minerals foundations are available at The Body Shop.

Avon ideal oil control pressed powder SPF 17

Now that summer is upon us, we need blotters to halt our skid into sweat-and-oil-slick-dom. This compact does the job nicely: the finely milled powder absorbs oil and erases shine, leaving a clean, satiny finish. Powders by themselves don’t fully cover blemishes and imperfections, so I love to layer this over Avon’s Healthy Makeup BB Cream SPF 20, which I’ve also fallen in love with for its lightweight texture, age-fighting vitamin complex and the way it blends seamlessly into Asian skin. I just press the powder on my T-zone and I’m ready to go.

Available from your Avon lady, or visit www.avon.com.ph to find one.

Flawless skin whitening kit

Flawless specializes in facials, so their face care is of particular interest. This P1,200 kit includes four products that are fragranced but contain ingredients acknowledged to have skin-lightening properties: the Flawless Skin Whitening Soap lightens skin with kojic acid and moisturizes with refined coconut oil; the Whitening Toner features bearberry extract, a botanical with natural lightener hydroquinone; the White Plus Cream evens out discoloration and hyperpigmentation with similar plant extracts and antioxidant vitamins C and E; while the last step — Skin Protect Cream — helps to shield you from further sun damage. Sizes are on the small side but the modern packaging looks world-class.

The Flawless Skin Whitening Kit is available at Flawless Facial Centers.

Dermalogica total eye care with SPF 15

I was never a fan of eye creams because they never did anything for my dark circles … until now. Dermalogica’s wonder product has everything I could want from an eye cream: gentle alpha hydroxy acids to re-texturize fine lines, plant extracts to reduce puffiness, a chemical-free sunscreen to protect against further damage and best of all, it’s tinted with optical light diffusers that instantly diminish the appearance of dark circles. If you’re not a fan of the tint, Dermalogica has a colorless Intensive Eye Repair cream. What can I say? I’ve found “the one.”

Dermalogica is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source.

Clarins face treatment oils

It may seem counterproductive to put oil on an already oily face, but after the cleansing-oil phenomenon comes the face treatment oil. Clarins, which made its name in botanical oils, has gone back to its roots (1965, to be exact) for a novel line of three oils aimed at rebalancing off-kilter complexions. Composed of 100-percent pure plant extracts and essential oils, Blue Orchid revitalizes dehydrated skin, Santal targets dry skin and redness, while Lotus purifies oily skin. The accompanying dropper ensures that you get exactly the right amount, and in addition to smelling heavenly, these oils have relaxing aromatherapy benefits. Though it takes about three weeks to see results, I could swear my skin looks fresher and more radiant already.

Clarins Face Oils are exclusively available at all Rustan’s Department Stores: Ayala Center Makati, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Alabang Town Center, Essenses Rockwell, Ayala Center Cebu, Gateway Mall and Robinson’s Place Manila.