I don't know what to call this type of post. Basically, this is a compilation of short beauty-related stories that will make a few half-assed posts if I write about them separately. But I think they're still worth sharing.

Some are tips I randomly stumbled upon, some are stuff I tried out in the store but didn't buy, and some are road tests. Many of these were taken from my instagram. My phone doesn't have a good camera so bear with me. Today it's gonna be all about lips:

Sponge-tip Applicators.  I have come to accept that my lips are not anatomically made for shiny goop. Even basic lipbalm looks like drool on my lips. It doesn't matter whether I put the gloss all over or just in the middle.

I have a few shiny lip stuff in my stash and I make them more forgivable on me by smacking a paper towel between my lips and recently, by this new trick I learned from Allure Magazine: Don't Throw Out Your Sponge-Tip Applicators Just Yet. The sponge takes away the shininess and suede-ifies the look of the lipstick on the lips. I also use the sponge-tip applicator to blur out the lip line. I'm not so much a fan of sharp lips and the sponge makes a better job than a lip brush in blurring out the perimeters.
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Franken Lips.  I was not supposed to buy another tube of lipstick but my 30th birthday is coming up and I thought that a classic matte red lipstick is in order. I got a Mac Ruby Woo and I love it, but it can be overwhelming on the face sometimes. It's a really bright bold red so I tame it down a little by blending in a tiny bit of Wet n' Wild 919B - Vamp It Up. The color turned out to be something I like better than Ruby Woo. Maybe it could pass off as Guerlain G L'Extrait in Orgueil? I haven't worn Orgueil yet but here's a beautiful FOTD by Carina wearing it. It looks very very similar to the color I ended up with.
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Maybelline Bold Matte.  I got curious when I knew about Maybelline's latest additions to their Color Sensational line: Bold Matte. As I said, I like matte lipsticks. I thought maybe they could have dupes for some of Mac's bright-colored matte lipsticks like Candy Yum-yum or Quick Sizzle.

Thank goodness testers were available coz these babies aren't matte. As soon as I swatched each of them, the lipsticks kind of melted and you end up with a sheen. Sheen is in no way synonymous to matte. If you're looking for a good drugstore matte lipstick, stick with Wet 'n Wild Megalast.

I was also disappointed by how sheer the colors were. In the swatches above, you can see my skin showing through.

Since I didn't buy them and I didn't swatch the testers on my lips, here's a review from someone who did: Don't Buy Those Color Sensational Bold Matte Lipsticks.

Ironically, snowcake soap started this whole summer lush obsession.

As soon as the first onslaught of this year's summer heat, my mind went -- I have a winter soap here somewhere!!! I rummaged through drawers looking for a bar of white soap with gold dust on it.

If not for my super bright yet illogical idea that winter soap could work for summer, I wouldn't have found out how Lush can make Philippine summer so much more bearable.

I haven't experienced snow and winter so I don't have anything to associate this with. My first whiff of this soap didn't conjure images of snowmen, Game of Thrones, and the north pole.

On days when I was deliberately in a zen-like be-present mindset, it smelled like vanilla almond cake that is not straight up vanilla almond (I hope I made sense there). It had just the right amount of sweetness perfect for people who don't like in-your-face sweet scents.

On other days, it smelled like the classic Ivory soap with hints of nuts and milk.

Lush Snowcake Soap

If there was Lush back in the roman times, Cleopatra might have chosen this over bathing in milk.  The soap is very creamy but it doesn't leave a slippery residue.

Unlike Honey I Washed The Kids Soap, this one is not drying.

It leaves its scent for a good few hours enough for me to forget that it's summer, and humid, and not alone to publicly smell my forearm incessantly.

I would repurchase but the soap is seasonal so I have to wait til the Christmas season -- or wait even longer for the holiday 50% off sale season.

If there's one thing I don't like, it's the price. But you already know that with Lush soaps, you're not buying just a soap -- you're buying an experience.

I've been keeping all of my Lush stash in clothes drawers.

I had no plans of using them for the purpose they were intended for because they were making all my clothes smell like they were made in a bakery. But, after going home one day, reeking in sweat and smelling like crap, I realized that this year's summer required something beyond the usual bath stuff I use.

I never thought Lush and summer would go well together. Specially because most of the Lush stuff I own were part of the Christmas collection. I received most of them as gifts and the rest were extras of the soaps I was supposed to give as holiday gifts (so, we do get what we give... literally).

In only a month and a half, E and I already used up 3 mini-sized shower gels and 2 bar soaps. Initially, I was going to write about all 5 of them in one post but I was inspired by Beauty by Tellie's Lipstick Week so I decided to do something similar by having a lush month of May.

I know I'm a little late since we're already 15 days in and the monsoon season already started but I don't think anyone cares. Let's get this moving!