Korea is one of the best places in the world to shop. Not only are the products affordable, but they are of good quality, too. Staying in Myeongdong, Seoul this 2018 allowed us to access so many shops within walking distance from our hotel.

When I shop in Korea, I usually spend a bigger percentage on skincare items because I use them daily. Although Korean fashion is so cute and feminine, it’s usually focused on trendy pieces which can go out of style quickly. Being the basic human being that I am, I skipped on clothes. Nonetheless, I still got myself a few items on a whim! After all, I was only in Seoul for four days.

Other than my usual must-buy in Korea, I also picked out new things I’ve yet to try. So what have I spent my money on? Keep reading to find out!

Lip products are my weakness when it comes to makeup. They’re cheaper than any type of makeup and they come in different colors and finishes. They’re very affordable so it’s easy to build a humongous collection just by buying lipstick, lip pencils, and all those kinds of makeup creation intended for your lips. If I have to choose only one makeup that I can’t live without, it’s got to be a lip product.

I used to own nearly a hundred lipsticks from different brands and I’m not even a beauty blogger nor a makeup artist. I’m just addicted to makeup! But I sold and threw out many of those because I can’t finish everything in my makeup stash. One thing’s for sure – from using local, drugstore, mid-range, high-end to a couple of luxury brands – I can now share with you my 6 holy grail lip products.

When it comes to getting my full makeup done, I always spend more time on my eyes than the rest of my face. My tiny eyelid space has gone through many eye makeup products, but now I’m glad I don’t have to spend too much money figuring out what works for me.

Eye makeup is very important to learn, because it can transform one’s look from dainty to dramatic. Whether I’m aiming for a simple everyday look or I want to show my makeup blending skills, I always find myself gearing towards these five holy grail eye makeup products.

These days, people often comment on how good your makeup is just by looking at your brows. It’s true. I get complimented with my makeup, but they first look at how well I shape or did my brows. Makeup techniques have definitely evolved over the years but one can’t deny the fact that when you have good eyebrows, your whole makeup game perks up.

Even if you don’t have a full makeup on, you will still look put-together just by having brows that are well-groomed and well-shaped. Over the years, I tried a TON of different eyebrow products to make my #browgamestrong. From affordable to high-end ones, I narrowed them down to these four types of holy grail eyebrow products.

Picking my holy grail makeup products was three years in the making. I have combination skin (oily on the t-zone and normal to dry on the perimeter of the face) which made it difficult for me to find the perfect foundation that doesn’t easily melt on the face, especially under the hot and humid weather of the Philippines. In addition to that, I have yellow undertone so it was difficult to find a drugstore foundation that matches the color of my face and neck.

Being a makeup enthusiast, I’ve been trying out and collecting makeup for years. I think it started about two years ago when I began to seriously collect drugstore, high-end, and Korean makeup. I got a lot of help from watching beauty vloggers on YouTube and made a handful of trial and error myself. Right now, I seldom test new makeup anymore because I find myself gravitating to these holy grail base makeup products I swear by.

The Face Shop is a Korean beauty brand that’s widely popular and available here in Manila. It’s very common to see The Face Shop in malls where you can easily get attracted to their ever so popular 1 + 1 makeup deals (or 5 + 5 deals for their sheet masks!) and vast range of nail polishes. Plus, they have great makeup products such as their Lovely me:ex eyebrow pencil and Ink Graffi liquid liner (which I have been using for years).  So when I found out that their Moisture Touch Lipstick range is on sale, I knew I had to try one!

I didn’t own any Korean lipstick prior to this, mainly because most of the Korean lipstick shades available in stores (here in Manila) are either too bright or too pale for those with medium or morena skin tone.  Plus, the color range is very limited. The formulation is sometimes a bit off, too. I’m sure you've encountered lipstick testers which are either too soft/too messy or too dry to swatch.