A successful Valentine’s Day requires that the date remains interested and attracted for at least a couple more hours after the appetizer appears on the dinner table. And looking good and feeling good about yourself should make him realize that you are the main course.
Here are some beauty bets that are sure to spice up your V-Day. Because, face it, sometimes Cupid’s arrow isn’t enough to seal the deal.
Blush prettily. Blushing has always been symbolical of romance: blushing brides, a young girl in love for the first time, a red-faced lad admitting affection for a girl, ASG (go figure this one for yourself). Thus, Valentine’s Day should be a legitimate enough excuse to wear your heart on your cheeks. And to keep us in vogue for this day of hearts: Laura Mercier’s Face Tint. Formulated like a translucent loose powder, this tint was created to help enhance or recreate the way you would naturally blush. The "soft focus" powder, applied with a powder or cheek brush gives a quick, "just pinched" blush of natural color to the face. Dabbed on with the finger tips over moisturizer, it gives a shimmery, healthy glow that’s sure to shine through the candle-lit dinner table. Available at Rustan’s Essenses.
Pucker up. We expect a lot of lip-locking on this day of hook-ups. But pre-kiss strategies require attraction of some sorts, and Guerlain’s Kiss Kiss Maxi Shine lipsticks has got you covered. These lip colors are infused with shine-boosting iridiscent particles that give off a light and dazzling finish, as well as a luscious invitation to sample. Three weeks of everyday use also promise lips that are noticeably fuller, thanks to an exceptional Lip Booster active complex. In vitro tests show that this complex closely resembles the structure of the skin and is renowned for its effectiveness in stimulating collagen synthesis (for firmness) and glycosaminoglycan synthesis (for hydration).
Prior to puckering up, prep up the lips with the Kiss Kiss Liplift Beautifying Fixative for lips. This moisturizes the lips and improves the lip color’s long-lasting hold. The hold on his heart, we leave to your feminine wiles. Available at Rustan’s Tower, Shangri-La Plaza and soon at Rustan’s Makati.
Hug tight. If your strict dating code doesn’t allow even the most chaste of kisses, even on Valentine’s Day, then just give a Hug. Give lots of them. Lush’s Big Hug soap is a sweet reminder to "be lovely to each other," especially in the season reserved for lovin’. This seasonal special is scented with jasmine fragrance, and speckled with many, many hearts and a smattering of green smiley soap faces with irresistible grins. Give it away on Valentines or buy it for yourself when you could do with a hug. (Available at Lush boutiques in Greenbelt, Glorietta 4, and Shangri-La Plaza.)
Take on the scrubs. We mean the exfoliating type that your body enjoys, not those lackluster uniforms medical personnel wear. When trying to plan an amorous rendezvous for V-Day, ditch the dinner plans and just romantically rejuvenate with one of Neo Spa’s new Zen Body Natural Scrubs. These beneficial body scrubs stimulate skin circulation, clean out epidermal pores and remove the dead, scaly outer layer of skin. Aside from providing exfoliating benefits, each of the main Japanese-inspired ingredients of these Zen treatments also offers secondary therapeutical benefits.
The Ginger Body Scrub is known to relieve muscle aches and pains. Warming and invigorating, ginger penetrates the skin to increase blood circulation, and has been used for centuries for healing purposes. Anti-inflammatory properties in ginger are also known to relieve arthritis.
Whitening buffs would enjoy the Young Rice Body Scrub. The young version of the country staple sloughs off dead skin cells, evens out the skin tone and minimizes wrinkles.
The Green Tea Scrub is rich in antioxidant properties and contains a wide variety of vitamins and minerals that can protect your skin from damage. This potent antibacterial and detoxifying scrub lifts dead skin cells naturally and leaves your skin radiant and purified.
Those in need of detoxifying should book a Wasabi Body Polish. Wasabi may burn the mouth when ingested as a sushi spiker, but wasabi as an extract actually carries cooling and soothing properties. This body polish renews the skin through cellular repair, eliminates toxins, and reduces skin puffiness.
Each body scrub takes 30 minutes, but if you want to luxuriate a little bit more, Neo Spa offers a Zen spa package, inclusive of a Zen Body Treatment combined with a 90-minute Zen Bodywork massage, another excellent Neo Spa original made up of acupressure and long soothing strokes. The combined treatment and massage makes up two hours of pure bliss, and a V-Day worth foregoing the romantic dinner. Neo Spa is located at Wilson St., Greenhills; Net One Center, Bonifacio Global City; and Pearl of the Pacific Resort, Boracay. Call 815-8233 for reservations or more information.
Take hope from the flower. Let’s forget for a while that Valentine’s Day belongs to the rose and its infinite commercial incarnations. This V-Day, joy is provided by an unlikely flower that is visible enough but often taken for granted: the orchid.
Our gardening grandmothers may be on to something good. The orchid is an enigmatic flower that symbolizes ever-lasting endurance (wild orchids stay lastingly fresh and beautiful even in a tropical storm, while some greenhouse orchids are known to live to almost a hundred years). Guerlain, intrigued by this bloom’s longevity, discovered that the orchid’s secret lies in its roots, from where it draws all it needs to protect the "original composition of its cells." Orchid cells have the ability to remain unchanged and function perfectly over time, ensuring the plant’s survival and life-long beauty.
This discovery ensued in the creation of Guerlain’s Orchidee Imperiale, a skin elixir containing Imperial Orchid molecular extract designed to provide excellent anti-aging benefits. The Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care cream promises firmer, wrinkle-free, velvety skin within a month of continued use, although some users claim a noticeable difference in their skin only after a week’s use. The Imperial Orchid molecular extract also aids in epidermal cell regeneration, and protects skin against damage caused to the DNA by internal and external aggressors. Available at Rustan’s Tower, Shangri-La Plaza and soon at Rustan’s Makati.
Make a promise. This is the scenario Promesse, Cacharel’s new fragrance for women presents: you’re past falling in love at first sight, survived the puppy love stage, and making as if every bell toll is portentous of your wedding bells ringing. You’re a woman seriously willing to commit, a woman that knows she is about to be presented with symbolical jewelry, a woman about to make a promise.
Each V-Day is an invitation to indulge in a romantic cliché; the fantasy of being proposed to on the most romance-riddled day of the year may be cheesy but it still melts most female hearts. But if this particular occasion doesn’t present a proposal, the energetic blend of bergamot, tangerine, and blackberry, the feminine accord of jasmine, and the sensual white cedar undernote, all within Promesse, will keep the fantasy running. Available at Rustan’s Makati and Shangri-La Plaza.
Go full bloom. If you’re not of the mold that accepts flowers graciously, then ask to receive or give L’Occitane’s Fragrance Merchant line. Inspired by the legend of the Fragrance Merchant, a botanist and a perfumer who travels through Provence collecting plants, flowers and spices, the full, bath, body, and home line combines the sweetest blossom scents: vanilla from the Vannillier orchid, magnolia, mimosa, orange blossom, and roses from Grasse, Bulgaria, Morocco and Turkey. These wonderful scents give new meaning to luxurious home baths, and boast a longer life span than any floral bouquet. Available at Rustan’s Essenses.
Play naughty and nice. Gorgeously glossy lips with a sensual glass-like shine. Naughty. Sheer lush color that smoothes on exactly where you want it. Nice. Maybelline’s new Fruity Jelly Lip Gloss. Naughty and nice.
This shiny lip gloss may up your pout power but it’s well-behaved enough to stay put on your lips, thanks to an exclusive new soft-touch tip for precision application. A breakthrough no-wax formula assures constant hydration to lips and easy application.
This is one time you’ll relish playing both sides. Available at major department stores.