10 ways to look and feel your WFH best skincare
1. BRITORY: Get the glass skin of a K-drama star
When actress Bela Padilla shot a film in Korea last February, the K-drama and K-beauty fan noticed the flawless complexions of her Korean costars.
“They had perfect skin,” she says. “They had no pores, they looked amazing even without makeup, and they gave me some real tips on how to achieve that.”
Armed with their knowhow, she partnered with a Korean beauty manufacturer and actually started her own skincare line, Britory (a mash-up of the words “bright” + “laboratory”), the first two products of which promise to give you the glass skin of a K-drama star, and the glow of Bela’s own, much-complimented complexion.
Britory Like Snow Serum for Glass Skin (P899) treats skin appearance, aging, and acne with niacinamide, glutathione, arbutin, ceramide, neem tree flower extract, walnut leaf extract, and Galactomyces ferment filtrate.
Britory Like Snow Cream for Glass Skin (P990) has additional panthenol and lactobacillus ferment filtrate to help soften and lighten skin.
And since Britory’s tagline is “glass skin that glows like snow,” the serum is packaged as an adorable snowman, while the cream is in an igloo-like glass jar.
Britory is available at Shopee, Lazada and other leading online platforms.
2. BIOTEN: Vegan, sustainable and affordable European skincare
Bioten (pronounced “BEE-yo-ten”) is a vegan-friendly, sustainable and cruelty-free brand from Greece that is predominantly natural and transparent about it (on their recyclable packaging they put exactly how much content is of natural origin, i.e. 96-percent-natural ingredients in the Skin Moisture Micellar water).
Another difference is that Bioten is the only mass brand that has prebiotics, or food for the good bacteria that keeps our skin balanced and healthy. They color-code their lines for easy understanding: Green is for normal/combination skin and features quince, which helps renew, repair, and keep skin hydrated. A must-try is the green Skin Moisture Micellar cleansing gel, which is an innovative way to cleanse.
The pink range for dry and sensitive skin has saffron, which has antioxidant, anti-aging and collagen-boosting benefits.
Bioten also offers a face-plumping, anti-aging Hyaluronic Gold line, and a body-slimming CelluFight line that boosts microcirculation.
Yet another plus is that this European brand is quite affordable, costing around P350 per product for large sizes and such high quality.
Bioten is available at Watsons, SM Beauty, Amorfiaph.online, and Lazada.
3. CLARINS: Eye do for screen addicts
Did you know that everything about quarantine — being glued to our screens, stress and anxiety — could lead to a much earlier onset of eye slackening and droopiness?
To combat this, Clarins has innovated Total Eye Lift (replacing its Super Restorative Eye Concentrate), a silky gel with tightening Cassie wax and organic Harungana to lift the eye area, smooth wrinkles and increase collagen synthesis.
“It’s like natural retinol with high-speed performance,” say Clarins education manager Pam Aguirre and merchandise assistant Alex Tankeh. “On women tested, 86 percent said they had firmer skin, 80 percent had reduced wrinkles, and 80 percent had less-puffy eyes.”
You can even apply it to your lashes because it has lash-enhancing Panthenol. With a light gel texture that melts into skin, discreet fragrance and stunning red pump bottle, Total Eye Lift has become an indispensable part of my skincare routine, along with my other Clarins go-to, Double Serum.
Clarins is available at Rustans.com and Rustan’s The Beauty Source.
ANESSA: The world’s first beautifying sunscreen
Japan’s No. 1 sunscreen for 19 years straight is here. Shiseido, a pioneer in sunscreen research, put all its expertise in sun protection and skincare into Anessa SPF50+ PA++++, the world’s first beautifying sunscreen.
At the virtual launch, sun care expert Yosuke Ikebe, Shiseido Asia-Pacific Innovation Center’s regional director for product development, showed how Anessa outperformed a generic sunscreen. Instead of being washed away by water and sweat, Anessa’s UV protection is actually strengthened by water, sweat and heat, and won’t wash off, even when submerged in water.
With its triple-defense technology against photo aging, it protects against wrinkle-causing UVA rays, skin cancer-causing UVB, and sunburn-causing UVC damage. And 50 percent of it is composed of skincare actives: anti-aging yellow flower extract and Kyoto Uji green tea leaf extract, which prevents wrinkles, sagging and spots.
“It’s important to wear sunscreen even with a mask,” Ikebe advised. “Anessa works even harder to protect you when you sweat.”
Anessa is now available at Lazada, and soon at Watsons and The SM Store.
5. KIEHL’S: You have to ‘C’ it to believe it
If lack of sleep is wreaking havoc on your eye area, Kiehl’s duo of Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing & Dark Circle-Diminishing Vitamin C Eye Serum and Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate for face are doubly potent, layer-able, and clinically proven to help decrease the appearance of lines, crow’s feet, and dark circles in just seven days.
The serum has pure vitamin C, an antioxidant highly regarded for its ability to restore the appearance of aging skin; Tri-Peptide, an essential amino-acid building block that stimulates keratin, elastin, and collagen; and Fragmented Hyaluronic Acid, which quickly absorbs 1,000 times its weight in water to plump and hydrate skin.
The concentrate — a customer favorite with more than one sold per minute and over five million bottles sold to date — has been improved to increase the vitamin C level to 12.5 percent with the addition of hyaluronic acid, which gives the skin an added boost of radiance and smoothness.
Kiehl’s is available at Lazada and Kiehl’s stores nationwide. For more info, visit Kiehl’s Philippines on Facebook and http://www.kiehls.com.ph.
Scent
6. DOLCE & GABBANA: Jon Snow meets the Dragon Queen
What would Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen smell like? You’d have a pretty good idea with D&G’s The One and The Only One Eaux de Parfum Intense, whose ambassadors are their real-life counterparts, Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke, respectively.
For him, deep black leather, cashmere and fresh cypress conjure up Jon Snow’s patrols on horseback around the wintry Wall. For her, lush, creamy coconut and sweet dark vanilla are redolent of the femme-fatale Dragon Queen, who probably smelled so good a multitude of men wanted to devour her.
Dolce & Gabbana perfumes are available at Rustans.com.
7. MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN: A rose scent for men
With his fresh and bright L’Homme À la Rose, Francis Kurkdjian gives men the power to wear a rose.
Kurkdjian’s interpretation of a rose for men opens with a burst of fresh, green notes laced with zesty grapefruit. Then comes the main bloom of romantic Damask rose from Bulgaria — complete with its woody stem — gradually enhanced by more woody-amber notes to surround the wearer in a cloud of sensuality.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian L’Homme À la Rose is available at Adora.
8. NARCISO RODRIGUEZ: A powdery perfume to seduce
If you love powdery scents like I do, Narciso Rouge is for you. This is probably the most seductive powder you’ll ever spray on, laid on top of Narciso Rodiguez’s signature sexy musk base and further feminized with Bulgarian rose and warm amber. I totally love this crimson stunner.
Narciso Rodriguez fragrances are available at Rustans.com.
9. SOLINOTES: Fun, positive and creative perfumery
Solinotes is a fragrance brand born from a simple ambition: to offer a new, 100-percent positive, 100-percent creative, 100-percent fun vision of perfumery. This approach led them to create 15 “notes,” with each Solinotes perfume serving as the interpretation of a key note so that you could use each perfume solo or layer with other scents from the collection to create your own unique blend.
Solinotes Fleur de Coton is a clean comfort scent with notes of rice powder, rosebud and musk, while Solinotes Magnolia features a fresh bouquet of white flowers and blond woods for the modern, confident woman.
Solinotes is available at ecommerce sites and department stores nationwide. For updates, follow @RustanMarketingCorp on Facebook and Instagram.
10. 1902: Classic French colognes for men and women
Berdoues is a French fragrance house that started in 1902, and for four generations has passed on their savoir-faire with perfumery. A classic for women is 1902 Rose Eau de Cologne, which is delicate and passionate at the same time with rose petals caressing magnolia, while wood cashmere and musk complete its intensely feminine, soft wake.
For men, 1902 Vetiver Eau de Cologne is an undisputed classic, with its fresh, masculine and herbal notes of verbena, rosemary and citrusy vetiver.
Exclusively distributed by Rustan Marketing Corporation, 1902 is available at Rustans.com.
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