January zipped by super fast! In month-end/start-of-the-month fashion, I thought I'd share with you some old and new favorites in the past few weeks.

Forever 21 cotton pads

I picked these up on a whim from one of the bins of knickknacks that Forever 21 traps you with while you're queuing to pay. I swear I'm not obsessed with these just because they have the cutest little bunnies embossed on them. With my usual night toner and serum, these pads do an awesome job at lifting off the last makeup and dirt from my face. They somehow do it better than the cotton balls or other cotton pads I've used, without using more toner or serum. I only wish they were cheaper. These are P160 for a box of 110 pads. That's still not really expensive since 110 pieces will last for about three months with daily use, but that's more than I usually spend for cotton pads.

NYX Cosmetics blush in Taupe

My skin is too light at the moment to use my orangey bronzers, so I've been reaching for my trusty old Taupe powder blush by NYX for my cheek contour. If you have fair to medium skin with neutral to cool undertones, this is a good affordable powder to contour with. It's not heavily pigmented, so most people won't be able to tell you've been sculpting your features with this!

K Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow pen

I previously reviewed and have since used up the K Palette two-way eyebrow pen, but I think I like this one better without the powdery eyebrow base. If you hate the dark, ultra sculpted brows that were all the rage last year thanks to a certain Jenner, you'll love this super natural-looking pen eyebrow pen that lasts all day and through Zumba class. Natural brows are much more 2017, by the way! 

Morphe 35T eyeshadow palette

This is a recent acquisition, but I loved it from first use. Many people talk about the 35O palette, which is all warm neutrals, but the purple, bronze and taupe (the "T" in 35T) colors in this palette are more appealing to me. This is my first encounter with Morphe eyeshadows and I'm definitely already a fan. Some are more pigmented than others, but they apply evenly and blend so incredibly smoothly together. On me, these shadows last all day. You don't always get that softness and longevity from less expensive palettes. The 35 pans in the palette are as big as single MAC shadow pans, but you get this entire palette for the price of two MAC singles. 

A version of this post was previously published in SunStar Cebu.