Beauty Picks

The brow code

MANILA, Philippines - I started experimenting with my eyebrows in sixth grade. Much to the horror of my mother, I debuted my new look one day, holding a photo of Linda Evangelista in my hand. Fast forward to 2013, fall/winter in particular –– substantial eyebrows are in, over-plucked, boomerang brows are out. Playing unofficial sherpa to the brazen-browed pack is 20-year-old Cara Delevingne, who claims to be obsessed with eyebrows. Big this season and seasons to come, eyebrows have become the beauty highlight of F/W fashion shows like Rochas and Jean Paul Gaultier. Glamour.com even devoted an entire story on the best eyebrows of the 2013 Oscars (but the story was thin and snooty, like ‘90s Linda’s now-outdated brows.) To get the full-brow look without overdoing it, fill in sparse brows by drawing featherlike lines in the direction of hair growth with a translucent liner like K-Palette Lasting 2-Way Eyebrow Liner and then beef them up with powder bronzer.

BB comeback

Just when we thought there’s nothing more to look forward to in the BB cream department, Pond’s launches its first BB creams –– Pond’s White Beauty BB Cream and Pond’s Age Miracle BB Cream –– and they’re kind of awesome. Other affordable BB creams are too white. They don’t care about your skin color; their only mission is to make you look like an image model for Chin Chun Su. Pond’s BB creams are translucent and highlighting, like a good BB cream should be. While the shade is still a little light for morenas, you can still benefit from it by using it as a highlighter or, as its name implies, a blemish balm, to even out skin tone and brighten –– not whiten –– the face. It also contains SPF 30 PA++ (most drugstore BBs only have SPF 15).

Professionnel care

Whether long or short, hair is at its best when it has these three: freshness, bounce and shine. After a haircut the other day, my stylist a.k.a. barbero applied a product that delivered all three. L’Oreal Professionnel Mythic Oil has avocado and grapeseed oils, which make it extra light and add shine without the gunk. If you’re not a fan of oils, try L’Oreal Professionnel Tecni Art Crystal Gloss. Don’t let the aerosol spray can put you off. In fact, the packaging helps distribute shine evenly so that hair looks delicate and fresh, not weighed down by product.

What is vitamin G, really?

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say the G stands for “green,” and that one can reap the benefits of this “vitamin” by spending time around nature and being in the great outdoors. Benefits include reduced levels of stress, tranquility, mental energy and physical calm, which together contribute to a healthy glow. Other researchers say vitamin G (in their studies, an actual vitamin you can get from fish, eggs, meat, poultry, bananas, green vegetables, whole grains and mushrooms –– so basically every item on “Bahay Kubo”) deficiency causes cataracts, poor cell respiration, and various forms of dermatitis like dry skin. It turns out, vitamin G is just a so-last-season name for riboflavin or vitamin B2. So for skin health, go out more, avoid stress and maintain a balanced diet? We want our money back, experts.

Just add bacteria

An article that appeared in Time.com dropped a nerd bomb on skin buffs everywhere: The bacteria P. acnes, responsible for triggering breakouts especially in teenagers, actually grows on both acne-prone and clear-skinned people. “It comprises 90 percent of the microbes that live in the pores,” said the article. UCLA’s department of molecular and medical pharmacology were able to isolate two strains from P. acnes –– one that caused breakouts and one that was more dominant in clear-skinned people. So in the same way that parents are advised to expose their kids to a daily dose of germs to stay healthy (or is that an urban legend?), this good strain of P.acnes can be added to creams to make the ultimate zit zapper. Thank you, science!