Landmark Great Finds

Landmark offers a lot of budget-friendly stuff just waiting to be snatched up by the ever-patient and curious crowd. With locations in Makati and Q.C., this wonderful department store reaches beauty and fashion shoppers from different walks of life. One of them is me, and while I've been one who likes to splurge every now and again, I'm also someone who can be excruciatingly stingy. I'm so frugal I'd rather DIY a dress than buy one, in fact! (And I was able to do just that, plenty of years ago.)

With today's economy, though, who can afford to spend a fortune on beauty products all the time? Here are my current faves for the record:

1. Sembem Cosmetic Cotton (Php 84.75 / 200 sheets) A container houses one long roll of "spunlace nonwoven" absorbent material that looks a lot like cotton. The long roll is riddled with perforations so I can just easily tear off little sheets for my daily beauty ritual. Cotton-like sheets for more than 80 pesos may be a bit too much, but the super thin pieces (that seem like a cross between durable tissue and cotton) are great for removing makeup around the eyes. I'd say these dry, Wet Wipe things are worth it.
2. Nail Buffer Block (Php 34.75) I've found that a lot of posh boutiques sell four-step buffer blocks for hundreds of pesos. And this little thing from Landmark provides the same results at a fraction of a percentage of the price.
3. Ocean Potion Face Potion with SPF45 (Php 249.00 / 1 oz.) Here's a splurge. An ounce is equivalent to what, 30 grams? And here I am raving about this product. I know it's been available in the Philippines for several years now. But I just can't get over the fact that its new and improved formula contains a lot of zinc oxide (a physical sunblock) and NO oxybenzone. Oxybenzone is a compound capable of penetrating the skin and acting as a photosensitizer, which in turn increases the amount of free radicals that may cause melanoma. It's kind of freaky when you think about it. There's a lot of controversy surrounding sunscreens, and it can get me really paranoid sometimes.

Very creamy consistency

Regardless of the controversy, I love this sunscreen! It doesn't smell bad at all, and the expiration date's printed right on the side of the container. It's very sweat resistant to boot!

Buff your nails with this great find!

Care to share other "Landmark Great Finds" in the comments below?