New Page and Changes

After much thought and consideration, and at the recommendation of a good friend, I've decided to retire this url and relocate to tumblr. Also, in addition to posting about makeup, I'll also be covering/writing about my new "career" of sorts - events. I hope that the people who have visited and read posts on this page will follow me to tumblr. I just feel that writing and posting will be much easier there.

Visit me on tumblr @ Lady Flash Electrico

Cheers!

At the Speed of A Yellow Bullet: Work, Fun, and more Work

Let me first start by saying: I AM SO SORRY!

I know I haven't updated in a really long time, but worry not, for I have made my (triumphant?) return! I've been incredibly busy ever since I signed on to be the Manila Coordinator for the Luna Musikalawaig Full Moon Festival. It's an arts and music festival that will be held in Cagayan de Oro for the benefit of Sendong Victims. To be honest, it really is heartbreaking that even until now, there are people in CDO that are still suffering the consequences of Sendong.

What I love about this festival is that the prod team is making the venue the star of the event, because at the end of the day, nature really is the most important thing. If the tree line by the river of Kalawaig wasn't so bare, maybe the flooding wouldn't have been as bad. So if you live in Cagayan or have the time and cash to head over to CDO, come and check the event out. 

On to other things! Here's what I've been up to while I wasn't updating!

I was incredibly touched and honored that my cousin, Tish, asked me to do her daughter's (Andie) makeup for her graduation ball. I'm particularly close with this family because we pretty much have everything in common, so of course I said yes. 

Andie's dress was dark purple (I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of her in her dress!), and she's not very fond of make up because she has sensitive eyes. So instead of caking on the makeup, like some students like to do at their graduation balls, I kept Andie's makeup light and just decided to enhance her features since they're gorgeous already. No joke, Andie's eyes are gorgeous. 

I used my favorite and prized foundation from Lancome on Andie - just a teensy bit for the lightest coverage possible. For the brush, I just used my foundation brush from E.L.F. For Andie's eyes, I used a light purple from In2it on the lid and then contoured with a darker, slightly maroon hued, purple shadow also from In2it. Rather than using liquid, pencil or gel liner on Andie, I used a black shadow from Maybelline. Nude lipstick, a nice coat of clear gloss from Clinique, and a dust of Tomato blush from Nichido later and Andie was done.

My little sister, Tasha, is a genius with hair (I'm hopeless hair), so she took care of that part. It was humid so I kept having to go over Andie's face with some loose powder (which I let her have) to keep the oil away. 

In other news, remember that portfolio shoot I mentioned in a previous entry? The one I did with Jeruel Pingol? Well, the photos are finally out! I have to say, Jeruel is an incredibly talented photographer. 

 Check my previous entry for details on the makeup I did on the model, Mafia. We were pressed for time during this shoot but it was still so much fun! Actually, just to give credit where credit is due, Enzo did a fantastic job styling this shoot. He basically guerilla styled the entire thing due to the lack of pieces, accessories and shoes to choose from. Enzo literally was picking accessories and clothes off of all of the people at the shoot in order to style Mafia for the shoot. A job well done. [Cue: Applause.]

Photographed by: Jeruel Pingol
Styled by: Enzo Montano
Hair by: Adam Seth Teh
Model: Mafia Escasinas

Just a few random things from the past month:

This is my friend, Roy. He desperately wanted a haircut but didn't have the time to go all the way to Greenhills to get his hair cut by his usual stylist. Since he's never tried a Filipino salon before, he's Korean, you see, and is extremely vain when it comes to his hair, he asked that I go with him. Seeing as he's one of the best friends I have, I complied with his wishes.

On the same note, Roy never has food in his house. He did me a huge favor last weekend and he says I make amazing kimchi. Thus, I made him two big tubs of two different kinds of kimchi as a thank you to him - and in an effort to help him gain weight. 

I haven't gone "out" out in a while, so I went to Opus with a few friends. Can you guess which lipstick I used based on the picture? 

I thought I had left my kpop fandom phase behind. Apparently, not. Big Bang made a comeback and I've been addicted to their song "Fantastic Baby" ever since. I listen to this now while I'm making face charts. Actually gets the creative juices flowing. 

Just one more thing! I was invited to take part in The Body Shop's blogger event last Thursday. Thank you to The Body Shop for inviting me to that event. I'm already testing the products out, so expect an entry on that very soon. All I can say at this moment is: I absolutely love The Body Shop skin care products. To die for, seriously!

Work: Folio Shoot

A few days ago, I was contacted by my friend, Chinx Nunag, to do the makeup for her friend, Jeruel's, portfolio shoot. Since I didn't have anything to do and always enjoy the atmosphere of a shoot, no matter how simple or elaborate, I instantly agreed.

The peg was a dark smokey eye to accompany an androgynous wardrobe. Accompanied by the brilliant stylist and men's wear designer, Enzo Montano, we arrived at The Bulb Studios in Pasong Tamo at 1:00 in the afternoon.

Since Jeruel wanted all of the photos to be in black and white, I concentrated on contouring for Mafia's makeup. After applying a primer and foundation, I used a dark brown pigment to enhance Mafia's cheekbones and temples. I also used the same pigment to go around her jaw and contour her nose. To match the theme of androgyny, I used an angled brush and brow powder to shape her brow. By decreasing the arch of the eyebrow, it gives Mafia a more masculine appearance. 

For Mafia's eyes, I used  some gel liner and then smudged that all over the lid. I then went over it with a very dark shadow, took some of it under the eye as well, and then blended outwards while slowly building on the color. I left Mafia's lips alone in terms of color, but I did give them a nice coating of clear gloss. 

I don't have access to all of the photos yet, in fact the photo you see above was edited by Enzo, so when Jeruel releases them, I'll be sure to post them all on here.

Model: Mafia
Photographer: Jeruel Pingol
Hair: Adam Seth Teh
Styling: Enzo Montano
Makeup: Meg Mendoza

PS.

It hasn't been long since I started this blog so it kind of blows my mind that the blog has been viewed by 300 Filipinos, 190 Americans, 6 Russians, 1 Spaniard, 1 German and 1 Slovakian (is that the right way to say it?). Thank you so much for those that have taken the time to read and even more so to those that continue to check the blog.

KONY 2012 - Make Him Visible

Who are you to end a war? Well, who are you not to?

Hi guys,

Today's post isn't going to be anything about makeup, but I hope that you take the time to read and just be informed (if you aren't already) anyways.

I just watched a video on youtube a little earlier and couldn't help but be affected by what I watched. There is so many things that have gone wrong in the history of our world and, maybe I'm being idealistic here but I don't care, I just can't help but believe that if enough people cared to try and make a difference, we can prevent history from repeating itself. 

If you have heard anything about Uganda or the L.R.A. you may know that a lot of children are being taken from their homes with the girls forced to become sex slaves and the boys forced to kill and join an army. And all for what? For no other reason than to ensure Joseph Kony's retaining power in the African continent. I have to believe that if enough people can spread the word about this, that the government, and not just the American government, will take notice and assist in the bringing of Joseph Kony to justice. 

Please, just take thirty minutes to watch this video. I know it's long, but it's worth it.

By the way, I know there's a lot of controversy in terms of whether or not the Invisible Children organization is actually using all of the donated money for the cause. Let me just share how I feel about all this controversy:

Honestly, it's not about the money for me. It's about being able to get the word out, to bring attention to it, to make people want to make a change and make the world a (uh oh cliche here) better place. I like to believe that they do use the money for the cause. It costs money to make fliers, produce documentaries, to get the word out there. I like to think that the money is going towards the cause and just because you can't see all of it in the work done in Uganda, doesn't mean it isn't  being used properly to spread the word elsewhere.

Work: COSA's Limelight Event

Remember that fashion show I told you guys about? Well, it's over and boy was it an exciting, tiring and fulfilling experience. 

The gnarly truck bar at the events hall.

The Ateneo CoSA's Limelight was held at the Ford Autohaus in Fort Bonifacio last Saturday evening. I've never worked a show that was held in a car dealership before so it was a bit of a surprise walking in and out of the venue and seeing all these gorgeous cars. I have to admit, I wondered once or twice if it was smart to have the party there. People could get drunk and damage could have been done to the cars. Lucky, there were no problems.

Perhaps the only photo of me that evening since I was too busy to talk to anyone else.

This was actually a show that I did pro-bono as a favor to a good friend of mine, Martha Ignacio. Originally, the deal was that I, along with two other makeup artists, would work on nine models meaning three models per makeup artist. Josh Orbeta, I've mentioned him a fair amount of times now, also came to the event as the hair stylist. In the beginning, I felt bad for Josh because he would be working on nine girls and I only had to worry about three.

The modest kit I took with me. Didn't want to bring the whole thing and didn't think I would need to.

The tables were turned when the organizers informed me that the one of the makeup artists had backed out and the other makeup artist didn't have anything with her, only her hairstyling kit. Imagine my panic when it was past 6:00 call time, there were no models and I was the only one around to get nine of them made up by  9:30. To top it all off, I made the stupid mistake of wearing heeled boots thinking I would only be on my feet for a short while since I only had to worry about three girls.

Luckily, the number of models I had to worry about was cut down to seven since one girl didn't show up and the other already had her makeup done. However, I was asked by the host to do her makeup (I didn't have the heart to say no despite the pain in my feet) and Martha did ask me to fix her eyeliner (haha, thanks for the extra hassle dude).  I didn't have my camera with me and everything was so rushed that I didn't get a chance to take the kind of close up photos that I wanted to, but the event organizers were kind enough to provide me with photos of some of the girls.

Gai Pardilla

Gai was one of my favorite girls of the night. Gorgeous personality, gorgeous skin, gorgeous face, gorgeous hair, gorgeous everything. I also finally got to use the lightest shade of foundation I had in the kit I brought for her (that was really what got me excited over her actually because I hadn't had the chance to use that shade on ANYONE yet - I've had delusions of using it on my own skin but it doesn't turn out pretty...at all.)

Andrea Wong

Andrea Wong was another sweetheart in the bunch. She even went to my facebook page to thank me the day after the event which I really appreciated. I had worked with Andrea before when I asked her to model for the Ateneo Women's Week (AWW) culminating event: The V-Show. I wasn't doing makeup back then because I was too busy running the whole event, but I did wish I did makeup instead because the makeup team we had then trashed the ready rooms and totally overcharged for their poor quality services (never AGAIN!).

Alayne Maxino

Alayne was the first girl to show up at the venue and possibly the sweetest. I enjoyed talking to her while I treated her as my guinea pig since I didn't have a clear peg for the event other than bright lips. Perhaps the most stand-out thing about her was the way she ate awkwardly (poor girl was starving) just to avoid messing her lipstick up.

Kolleen Feria

I have to admit, when I first saw Kolleen walk through the curtain and into the room, I was a little worried because I knew for a fact that I didn't have a foundation for her skin tone in my kit. I was fresh out of the shade for her skin. Luckily, she told me she was anticipating the problem and brought her own foundation (Laura Mercier no less!), so thank you Kolleen, for being the most prepared girl in the room. We even used her lipstick from MAC.

I didn't stick around for the actual fashion show because I was dead tired, but I was happy with what I saw when the pictures from the event came out.

Model Maiqui Pineda

Model Leonora Virata

Model Patty Lloren

Model Andrea Wong

Hosts JJ Kaufman and Panjee Summer Lim

Thanks again to the Ateneo de Manila CoSA for having me at the event and to Martha Ignacio for inviting me to do the makeup. Thanks also to Matthew Lee for providing the photos and to the girls for being so nice and fun to talk to. 

Updates!

Hello everybody!

A lot of exciting things have been happening recently and it feels like life has spun into overdrive all of a sudden. Thank God I've got a seatbelt to harness me into place while this all goes down. I just wanted to let you all know that there are a few things for you to look forward to if you're a reader of the blog.

First, and I've talked about this before, the photos from Josh Orbeta's lookbook shoot are almost done! I can post photos from the shoot soon and let you all get a glimpse at the makeup that was done for that.

Second is another shoot. I was asked to be the makeup artist for a small editorial shoot just yesterday. The team was great and I made some new friends that I'll introduce to you guys when the photos come out.

And lastly, I was invited to be a makeup artist for a fashion show on Saturday hosted by COSA of the Ateneo de Manila University. Apparently there will be several makeup artists around to get the monumental job of fixing dozens of girls up for the show and I'm humbled to have been asked to be a part of what I'm sure will be a stellar team.


Now, just a thing I wanted to suggest you guys check out...

If you guys are into fashion, menswear in particular, I would definitely recommend that you visit the tumblr of my good friend, Enzo Montano. Enzo has taken part in the fashion shows for Lee during Philippine Fashion Week in 2010 and 2011 first as a designer and then as a mentor.  He has a lot of thoughts to share from his Gemini mind and I've gone to him many a time for fashion advice. 

Being a girl doesn't mean you can't be interested in menswear fashion! And remember, lots of women's wear is actually inspired by the looks found on the runways of mens wear fashion shows. 

Actually one more thing,  I added a flag counter to the page because in the stats page of blogspot I've just seen that I actually got some page views from Russia and Slovakia of all places (in addition to readers from the US and Philippines) of all places. Then I realized that the flag counter doesn't count visits from before it was put on the site so now it just looks kind of sad with two counts from the Philippines. Haha! Oh well, I hope that'll improve soon. :)

How-To: Simple Everyday Makeup

Hola amigos!

Do you remember my last post when I reviewed the makeup brushes I got from E.L.F and Marionnaud? If you do, do you remember that look that I posted and described as my go-to look as of late? Well, if you don't, here's a reminder:

I actually wore this look again today since I've grown so fond of it. It doesn't take much time either. If you want to recreate a look similar to this or copy this look, here's a quick little tutorial/how-to of the look. 

Here we go!

The very first thing I do before I put on makeup is I wash my face and I moisturize (even if I've already done this in the morning when I wake up). I've always believed that everyone should moisturize, whether you have dry skin, oily skin or a little of both. This is especially true when you're going to put makeup on. I use the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. 

I got this as a part of my three step skincare set from Clinique for Php5,000.  I'm not quite sure how much it costs on its own, but I'm guesstimating it to be somewhere in between Php1,500 - Php2,000. Definitely get the set if you need a good skincare set if you want to save money. The bottles of face wash, toner and moisturizer you get are humongous. 

If you have dry skin, it keeps your skin hydrated as makeup really can suffocate your skin. If you have oily skin, like me, moisturizer helps to keep your face from getting even oilier. Your skin naturally produces oil after you wash your face, so the moisturizer ensures that your skin doesn't produce excess oil. 

After topping the moisturizer off with an oil-controlling primer, I use the Dr. Oil Solution Shine Free Dual Primer), I take a foundation brush to apply a light layer of foundation or tinted moisturizer.  

Dr. Oil Solution Shine Free Dual Primer (Php498) from Etude House

Lancome Teint Renergie Lift R.A.R.E. (Php2,395).

Recently, I've taken a renewed liking to my Lancome Teint Renergie Lift R.A.R.E., so I've been using that more often. For my skin color, I use the O-04. You have to work relatively fast with this product as it tends to set quickly.

Then after that I typically give my face a quick brush of some loose powder just to make sure that I'm not shiny in places it's not appealing to be shiny (for example around my nose or on my forehead). 

Shu Uemura Face Powder Sheer. It was a gift from my mom, but I'll drop by Shu Uemura soon to get the retail price here since it's not available online. 

The powder I've been using since the beginning of time is the Shu Uemura Face Powder Sheer in 7YR light. It's a fantastic powder to use for a soft, matte finish. On a completely different note, I love the way Shu Uemura powder smells. Some people say it doesn't smell like anything, but I just adore it. Maybe I'm just livin' la vida loca when it comes to Shu Uemura powder.

I tend to go in with a little MAC concealer (check out the kind of concealer I use here) under my eyes or wherever I need it after the powder. I haven't been sleeping well recently because there's so much work to do so I'm getting really bad dark circles. If you have dark circles under your eyes that are have a gray or blueish tint, you can use a peach tinted concealer to counteract the discoloration. Just make sure you put that on before you go in with your foundation.

Next, with a blending brush, I dust a bit of black shadow in the crease of my eye. If you have a parallel crease like I do, you can do what I did and do the entire crease line. If you have a tapered crease, you can concentrate on the outer crease alone or bring the shadow across to the inner part of the lid above the crease line. 

Shu Uemura Pressed Eye Shadow in M Black 990. (Also a gift from my mom.)

The eyeshadow I've been using consistently for this look is the Shu Uemura Pressed Eye Shadow in M Black 990. Not too much though. Just a teeny bit of the eyeshadow on your blending  brush will go a long way. 

Learn more about my Hengfang Liquid Eyeliner in my previous post here. 

Next step is eyeliner. I use my Hengfang liquid liner for this look and keep it simple by just following the natural shape of my eye. No tricky flicks or fancy cat-eye liner for this look. The felt tipped applicator of my liquid liner provides me with a bit of a nice simple shape so I don't have to worry about getting the eyeliner even (thus saving me time).

Then I line my lower lashes with whatever black pencil liner I have on hand. I only line the lower lash line halfway and blend the end out with my finger just so that it doesn't look so harsh. 

After that I give my cheeks some color using my Nichido blush in Sun Kissed (Php88). The blush is great and really lives up to its name since it gives me just that right shade of pink. Like you've been in the sun just a little longer than you should have. Actually, think Evangeline Lilly from Lost.

A quick run through lashes with mascara, I use my Estee Lauder Mascara (which you can read more about here), is all you really need. If you want thicker lashes, of course you can keep building or use a more high impact mascara. 

Lastly, I'll go over my lips with a nice coating of lipstick. The lipstick that I use for this look (which is the focus of the look, really, and my favorite part of it) is a matte MAC lipstick in Snob. 

MAC Lipstick in Snob (Php999)

Now my love for this lipstick could give my MAC Ruby Woo lipstick a run for its money. Snob is definitely a well loved cosmetic in my makeup arsenal and I've already gone through two tubes of it since I noticed it in the stands (I've gone through four tubes of Ruby Woo to date). If you like pink lipsticks and haven't tried any from MAC yet, I highly recommend you try this one. 

And le voila! That is pretty much it. Definitely let me know if you decide to try this look out. I'd be interested to hear if it suited you. Remember, a look I post may not be for everybody. 

My camera problems still have not been solved (I really need to get a new one, any suggestions?), so I'm really sorry if the pictures aren't as great as they should be or if you can't see something clearly. 

Just remember that you can always leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail if you want a more detailed explanation or whatnot. Then again, it's a really simple, easy look to do (five to ten minutes, tops), so I'm hoping there aren't any problems. 

Ta-ta!