I needed a few business cards, not willing to commit to 250 pieces but also not feeling creative enough to go the DIY route. Enter MOO, a business card creator that lets customers customize the look of their card with an in-browser editor that is incredibly easy to use. They've also branched out to print greeting cards and postcards. I chose to print 50 glossy business cards with a different photo on each. Since I was linked by my About.me account, I only had to pay for the US $5 shipping fee. I checked out a sample pack of their different papers as well. The variety of paper they carry is delicious. And the best part: they ship to the Philippines as well!

I now understand the popularity of DIY here. Not like in the Philippines; DIY there is usually confined to arts and crafts. Here it's anything that requires manual labor -- haircuts, hair dye, manicures, electrical wiring, assembling all the furniture in your house (hello Ikea). Because anything that needs a human is expensive.

My small leap into DIY is painting my own nails. Don't laugh! I miss seeing my hands clean and manicured. And you know those ads that come up when you're browsing sites like 9gag... io9... ahaha my surfing haunts are becoming painfully apparent. Anyway, I clicked on one for a free beauty box from a nail lacquer company.

Julep is an independent polish brand with a 4-free formula in lots of gorgeous colors. Yesterday I mentioned availing of the free Julep Maven box. (Click the link to read about how to do the same and the options available to you.) I was assigned the Boho Glam starter box but the colors didn't appeal to me, so I chose It Girl which comes with 3 bottles of polish. I later found out that each box also includes an extra gift.

This started with me clicking on an ad. Who knew those things actually work, lol. Anyway, I got a beauty box and a set of business cards, paying only for shipping. The closest thing the Philippines has to services like this is Sample Room. Read on for a sneak peek.

Kate Moss has been working with Rimmel London for the past 13 years. In 2011 she created her own lipstick range for the cosmetics giant. The Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipsticks by Kate Moss are meant to have high intensity color that should last for up to 8 hours. I'm no lipstick fiend, preferring a more practical lip-moisturizing approach. But while on the hunt for something matte, these looked really pretty -- and cheap -- in the drugstore. That they've received solid reviews convinced me to get 4 shades. Which is already 4 shades too many because I really don't wear lipstick often. The black tubes have the regular gloss/satin finish; the reds have the matte finish.

I made these for some happy snail mail a while back. I had a lot of paper scraps I wanted to repurpose so I them up with fresh stationery for some mini-books.

Benefit's popular Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup is a water-based liquid foundation that brightens complexion. When I tanned my sallowness deepened so that BB cream became too ashy on me. Hello Flawless has shades with yellow undertones, and I found one that was perfect for me.

This is one of my bath favorites. This is a gentle exfoliating scrub applied onto dry skin, then rinsed off. I've tried a few other scrubs since, but I keep coming back to this.

Introducing my favorite face brush! I picked this up last year, right after reading Marge/Kikay Trekkie's glowing review. The Face Shop Circle Face Brush is an all-around tool for applying liquid, cream, even powder foundation. I've also used it to apply concealer and even blush! On lazy non-eyeshadow days it's the only brush I use.

I don't know if it's just the product drying up or I never noticed it before, but my usual Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer balls up on me. So I ditched it in favor of the Lorac Behind the Scenes Eye Primer. This is a mini size (5.5 g) that I got with the Lorac PRO Palette. Which reminds me, Ulta has this palette as part of their Lorac Rockin' Red Hot PRO Set for only US $39! That's a palette, eye primer, and eye liner for less than the cost of the palette alone. Great, great deal.

This is a long-delayed entry from the time I was still in Carmel, CA. We had lunch at Nepenthe, a family-owned restaurant in Big Sur that was founded more than 60 years ago. It was designed by by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, then purchased by Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth on a whim. As legend has it, they spent one night in the area and never returned. The property was sold to the family that currently owns Nepenthe.

The restaurant's main attraction are the panoramic views of the Pacific from indoor and outdoor seating. Strangers I met on a train insisted I dine here, as did my preceptor. And I was very glad to have had that opportunity.

My exam is over and I am resigned to 2 long months of waiting for the results and preparing for interviews. I am taking this time to learn a new craft and a new language. But first! This is what's occupying my time these days: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.


This modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice comes in the form of 3-5 minute YouTube vlogs. Totaling 100 episodes and launching spin-offs, it won an Emmy award for Original Interactive Program. Interactive.

As someone who's read the novel and watched 3 adaptations (the two TV miniseries by the BBC and the Keira Knightley Hollywood version), I appreciate this fresh take on the source material. Obviously it couldn't be entirely faithful to the book, and the tangents it took were credible and interesting.

This is going to be a long post, because I have ~feels.

I'm prone to hyperpigmentation after pimples resolve, so I slap on a spot treatment as soon as I sense a little bugger making its way to the surface. Here I'm reviewing two cult favorites, so this gets a bit long.

This episode of Skincare Sneaks is long-awaited, for me at least. Today we have Khristine, a teacher/homemaker/incidental blogger. I met Khristine during Liz's Project Vanity Anniversary. Her flawless skin was immediately evident, as she was sporting just eyeliner, no face base. She looked positively poreless.

For her sensitive skin, Khristine keeps things simple. She focuses organic and natural products -- that actually work. She's also breastfeeding, so the mommies out there might find this extra interesting. Check out her skincare recs, tips, and more after the jump!

Hello folks! It'll be quiet here for another few weeks, until after I take an exam that I have not adequately prepared for AT ALL it's making me so anxious. In the meantime, here are some randomly weird beauty shenanigans!

The braid trend hits mainstream with salons offering "braid bars." Huffpost reports on a Manhattan salon that offers hair braiding services for upwards of $50. Call me a cheapskate but I wouldn't pay big bucks for something prepubescent girls master during sleepovers.