The L'oreal Colour Riche Collection Star lipsticks available in the Philippines were specially chosen to suit a wide array of Filipina skintone and hair color. Five shades, worn by five amazing celebrities, are available for those going for the barely-there lip look.

Product Information:

"Collection Star gathers the most beautiful female icons of our time to design these five nudes to ensure that Filipinas get only the most glamorous take on nude fashion."

Price: P400.00
Weight: 4.2g
Packaging: Plastic, gold

Perfect Nudes? - The Collection Star Experience

The packaging isn't really something I fancy but the stars' signatures and the little square color info that tells you the lipstick shade are quite nice to look at. The bullets seal quick and tight so I don't have to worry about it getting wrecked even if I carelessly chuck it in my bag in a hurry.

 L-R: L'oreal Colour Riche Collection Star Lipsticks in Barely Plum (by Sonam Kapoor), Barely Moka (by Gong Li), Barely Coral (by Fan Bingbing), Barely Greige (by Jennifer Lopez), and Barely Pink (by Doutzen Kroes)
 
On the actual lipsticks-- all lipsticks are rich and creamy, which I don't really prefer as I'm more of a matte-lip girl, but I was able to choose a few nudes I know I can wear. Only Barely Plum and Barely Moka were opaque-at-first-swipe, the rest had to be swiped on at least thrice to show up on my pigmented lips. Wear time is about 3-4hours.

Let's review each L'oreal Colour Riche Collection Star shade:

Barely Plum - a beautiful, universal nude. It is a nice pop of color and I like how it doesn't emphasize some dry areas of my lips. This one has got to be less glossier than the others and probably is my favorite of the lot.

Barely Moka - I loved it when I first used it but when I figured it had too much sheen to my liking, I picked it up less frequently. This lipstick has superb formulation but the finish is just too glossy for me. I know girls with really thin lips will like this though.

Barely Coral - My true nude color. However, I am not fully sold on the formulation. I will need a couple of swipes to make it pretty on my lips and add a few more on drier areas. I don't understand why this swatches on my arm well but translates differently on my lips.

Barely Greige - lovely when swatched, awful on the tube, more awful on my lips. This has the most chunks of glitters on the tube and I don't understand why. Luckily, the glitters help create an illuminated nude look, almost like 3D lips even. HOWEVER, the color hardly shows up on my lips. That's not really the kind of nude I'm looking for.

Barely Pink - The colour is cotton candy pink and will definitely be a nice nude for girls with the fairest skin. It looks funny on me so I'm passing.

Overall Thoughts

P400 is not a hefty price tag considering the L'oreal Colour Riche Collection Star lipsticks have decent formulation and wear time. I wouldn't depend on swatches (either on arms or on lips) as these colours vary depending on one's pigmentation and lip moisture levels. Go try them out at counters before purchasing!

Personally, I love L'oreal Colour Riche Collection Star Barely Plum the most. I like Barely Greige the least and if I should choose a 2nd and 3rd favorite, it will have to be Barely Coral and Moka respectively. I'm neutral on Barely Pink since I am not fair, and if I were, it will probably be as good as Barely Plum on me.


Disclaimer: Products were sent to me by L'oreal Philippines. A review/post was optional.

Ever since I had my hair colored using Revlon Colorsilk in Light ash Brown 50, I was tipped by a colorist that using hair masks once a week can help lock in moisture to the dyed hair. Unpleasant hair dryness can result from hair coloring and your best bet in avoiding this problem is to get a product that can generously moisturize the scalp.

For the past 9 months, I've tried three affordable hair masks that made others clueless about the drying effects of constant hair coloring on my locks:

Elseve Re-Nutrition Hair Mask, Cream Silk Hair Mask and
Purederm Nourishing Repair Hair Mask

Creamsilk Precision Repair Treatment

Cream Silk Precion Repair Mask, ~P14, 20mL sachet

cheapest of the lot at ~P14/20mL sachet
special instructions from Creamsilk: for severely damaged hair, use consecutively for 3 days and every 7 days thereafter.

L'oreal Elseve Re-Nutrition w/Royal Jelly

L'oreal Elseve Re-Nutrition Hair Mask, ~P21/ 15mL sachet

L'oreal Elseve has around 3 or 4 varieties of hair masks you can choose from
This Royal Jelly variant worked well for me compared to the pink/red one

Purederm Chamomile Nourishing Repair Mask

Purederm Nourishing Repair Hair Mask (chamomile), ~P80 20mL

This hair mask has the most divine scent! It is both an effective hair treatment product and an aromatherapy treat!

So, Which Hair Mask To Choose?

Since all three I've tried worked wonderfully in moisturizing my scalp, and none of the three gave me breakouts, it's up to my budget which among these I should purchase.

Get Creamsilk if you want a cheap treatment mask that works. Grab L'oreal if you have a few extra pesos to spare and you feel that Creamsilk's rather fluid consistency seems substandard compared to L'oreal's thick cream. And if you want some cooling effect on the scalp plus the feeling of having been given a royal hair treatment, get Purederm's.

A eureka moment for me...

Introducing, a Smashbox Photofinish Primer dupe (in my opinion) --- L'oreal's True Match Smooth Up Makeup Base! This is definitely waaay better than Monistat Anti-Chaffing Gel's infamous thick texture and heavy feel.

Checking its ingredients, L'oreal True Match Smooth Up Base is a cross between Smashbox Photofinish Primer Original and Light. It has Light's water-based feature (good for oily skin) and Original's silicone derivatives.

L'oreal True Match Smooth Up Makeup Base, 30mL, 425php (~$9)

From the box:

"A supple, light and gliding texture that smooths out pores and fine lines for an impeccable make up finish to last all day."

What I love about it:

• held my makeup in place for around 7 hours; makeup never turned dark on me (which always does whenever I skip primers)
• locally available and cheap (425php!)
• can blur pore diameter
• lightweight
• the silky feel it creates on my skin
• creates a perfect canvas for my face makeup
• hygienic tube
• has a version for dry skin -- L'oreal True Match Moist Up Makeup Base

Uh-ohs:

• a pea-size isn't enough
• the silicone content may cause breakouts for some users
• silicone-based primers are not recommended for daily use

This is how the product looks like:

looks perfectly like Smashbox Photofinish Primer Light out of the tube

feels like Smashbox Photofinish Primer Original when slathered on the face

I wore this in an FOTD I posted a while back and the shots were taken 5 hours (or was it 6?) after makeup application. To think that I commuted to and from my patient's residence.

This is a good primer to get since you're getting loads of benefits without splurging. I will definitely buy again after finishing the tube.

Most girls have a long line of prods for primping and prettifying. Since earning money is rather tough these days, we must make sure that these beauty agents that we spend so much moolah on will be as efficient as it was made to be.

Our skin needs exfoliation at least once every two weeks to slough off icky dead skin cells. Gentle exfoliation removes unwanted elements in the skin (thick dead skin cells plus dirt) so that our creams and lotions will work best to give us that soft, supple and glowing look.

My exfoliation regimen? I gently scrub my face and neck using St. Ives Apricot scrub every week and dry brush the entire body every other day. Facial and neck skin are relatively thinner than the rest of the body, hence, the once a week regimen (it's still okay to exfoliate these thinner areas twice a month).

Face and Neck Exfoliation


St. Ives Apricot Scrub has microbeads to aid in scrubbing the skin. Since this is the case, I don't really understand why most girls need to exert so much force in applying the scrub onto their poor faces. Just gently rub the scrub onto your face and neck in an upward circular motion and let your face and neck bask in the glory of exfoliation!

Don't forget to wash the scrub off thoroughly. You wouldn't want the tiny beads to block the pores.


I love St. Ives Apricot scrub because:

- I instantly notice that my face and neck become softer
- I feel like a huge amount of the metro's dirt has been sloughed off my face
- it has a menthol-y scent and feel that calms and relaxes my skin

Dry Brushing the Body

Scrubbing the skin with loofah prior to wetting it can make a huge difference! I also exfoliate with a wet skin using L'oreal Exfotonic (done every two weeks), but the idea of removing dirt off your body is more optimal when the skin isn't wet. Dry brushing makes it easier to remove dirt and dead skin clls off your thick body skin.



A daily dose of this technique is okay since you get to use light strokes. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Using a loofah or a scrubbing glove, work your way up the body using light strokes beginning with the feet.

2. Provide imaginary bodily divisions as you work your way up (i.e., toes going up towards ankle, ankle going up towards knees, etc). Working your way up activates the technique's detoxifying effect (the skin is the largest organ that excretes waste products, you can just imagine how much detoxification it needs!).

3. Do seven light sweeping motions on every body division.

4. Use a long handled loofah scrubber to exfoliate the back.

A few pointers:

• be sure to use LIGHT, CIRCULAR STROKING MOTIONS. too much pressure will not only scratch your precious skin, it may even stress the valves in your veins (varicose veins, anyone?)
• you may want to dry brush the tummy area using a counter-clockwise stroke to improve digestion
• keep your loofah off wounds and infections

Why I love dry brushing:

- it gives me a certain kind of glow after using my fave Olay shower cream. I tried scratching off dry brushing from my bath routine for several weeks and I was able to conclude that this method does a HUGE difference...and I finally decided to continue this exfoliating regimen even if it eats up a couple of my precious minutes.
- it softens and makes my skin supple
- i feel uber clean!

Now that you've warded off dirt and dead skin cells from your face and bod, it's time to slather on those expensive beauty stuff and experience better skin!

Exfoliation isn't much of a rave when it comes to prettifying. Now that you know what big difference it makes, maybe you'll stop thinking twice about purchasing that funny loofah scrub.


Royally yours, Bleak