Make up School Exercise #3 - Contour and Highlight

Out of all the techniques in make up, I must say Contour and Highlight is my favorite. According to my wonderful make up guru RB Chanco my face shape is square face that is heart shaped, so I really love to contour and highlight.

This session, my model was my good friend Kara. Or more commonly known as Krista's look alike hehe. Kara is naturally gifted with beautiful skin so make up on her face was exquisite. Her face shape is long therefore contour and highlight was also best for her to achieve a smaller looking face. We basically did the whole prime look again on our model and then added the contour and highlight. :)

Here are the pics from that session. :)

Beautiful RB and Kara :)

Kara's light contour :)

Me and Kara

Please forgive the weird lighting of the pictures, i'm still trying to figure out my new camera but amidst the weird lighting, Kara was even more beautiful with just the right amount of emphasis by contour and highlight.

My goal was not ake her look made up, I wanted her to look as natural as possible. And I'm glad I achieved it. :) She was ready to go on her date right after the class. :)


Toodles! :)

A shielding lotion that really shields

I have been on constant search for skin care products for my problematic skin. I have oily skin, prone to blemishes and sometimes I get dry spots on my face. In other words my skin is unpredictable and has a life of its own. Controlling it seems really hard to do. I have gone through my fair shares of cleansers, soaps, toners and moisturizers but somehow not one of those garnered a repurchase. Until I met, and fell in love with Skin MD Natural Shielding lotion.

Taken from website

I have been using this product for approximately a month now and I must say, it has changed my life (okay that sounds too dramatic, but it really has). Why do I say this? Simple. Yes it is the word "Simple". It is not complicated and it is very easy to use. The fact that I can use this lotion for my face, hands, legs, feet and practically all over my body is so simple that it cuts my beauty products in half.

I mainly use this product on my face in the hopes that it will even out my skin's complicated condition. And from the first application, i felt how wonderfully easy it was to use. The product is absorbed by your skin like water! It is so refreshing and light it feels like you have nothing on. In fact, it feels so light and refreshing that you want to just keep putting some on. And the next day after using the lotion, wow, my skin was baby soft!! I couldn't get enough of the product! It was so easy to use and effective! By one week of using the product, my skin's condition was even, my random dry spots all over my face was cured. My oily skin, I noticed was less oilier than previous to using the Shielding Lotion. It was great! I could use this product before my make up and at the end of the day, when make up needs to be taken off already, I experienced no break outs what so ever. Isn't that what you call shielding? :)

Another plus I can say about this product is that it works perfectly amidst the weather you are in. I have read reviews of this product from people who live in cold weather and wondered how this product would work in hot weather like The Philippines. And the answer? Yes, it achieved its purpose and did the job well done even in a hot place like Manila. Amazing. The product is that consistent!

Since this product isn't available in Manila yet, the only way to purchase it was online. This was the only downside for me. But I was able to make a repurchase (take note I made a repurchase when the bottle was still half full, i love it that much!!). Where? In Singapore! Since I just recently had a trip to Singapore, I was ecstatic and elated to see Skin Natural MD on the shelves of Drug Stores in Singapore. Without hesitation, I grabbed a bottle and purchased it right away. I need the backup because I'm scared to run out!!! :)

Overall, I am really in love with this product because it does what it says it will do. It's no frills, it is simple. It protects, heals and cures your skin problems all over your body. You do not need anything else. Just a lotion that really shields. I love my Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion. I have found my Holy Grail of moisturizers with Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion. :)

If you want to purchase or learn more about the product, you can visit their website at:

http://www.skinmdnatural.com

Everyone should be using this product! :)

Toodles! :)

Valentines means Red Lips!

Who will deny that the color most associated with Valentines is Red? Red is a color so vibrant which depict emotions as love, passion and sexy! But honestly, it was never really a color that I favored and sported, especially when it comes to make up.

I have never worn red lipstick until the other day. In the spirit of Valentines, I decided to sport red lips. The occasion? My friend's birthday celebration and gathering with friends. :) Too bad I had no Valentines plans since the other half is still in SFO and comes home next month. But it's all good. :)


Anyway, without further a do. I present to you, my red lipstick moment:




It's not so much seen in the photos but my lips were red-er in person. I must say, red lips sort of gives you a confidence boost. I'm definitely sporting red lips again soon. :)

Anyway here's the products used on my face:
RCMA Foundation
RCMA Invisible Powder
Ben Nye Concealer
Ben Nye Banana Visage Poudre
NARS Casino Bronzer
MAC Sun basque Blush
In2It Brow Powder

Eyes:
MAC Paint pot in Soft Ochre
MAC Photo realism quad e/s
Stila Smudgepot in Black
Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara
Face Shop Falsies

Lips:
32 Lip Palette Red Color

How did you guys spend your valentines? :)


Toodles! :)

P.S I'll be flying out to SIngapore tomorrow, i'll be there for 5 days. I can't wait to go shopping at Sephora and SASA!!!! :)

Styli Style + Accessories + Clothes Haul + FOTD

Hey Girls, today I'll be doing a haul post from my recent purchases. If you remember from a few months back, I made an entry about Styli Style liners and how awesome they were. I had bought those for PHP400+ each at Beauty Bar and now I found out that these were selling on ebay at PHP60 - PHP75 each!!! So here's my Styli Style Haul from MEG, an awesome seller from Ebay. :)

Styli Style Brow Liner in Esspresso
Styli Style Flat Lip Liner in Nude
Styli Style Flat Liner in Soho
Stylu Style Flat Liner in Hamptons
Styli Style Flat Liner in Midtown
Styli Style Flat Liner in Marbella

Freebie:
Meg is so nice she gave me a Creme Eye Trio as a freebie. :) So Sweet. :)


Review and swatch of each liner to follow. :)

Today I also received my Young Hollywood inspired bracelet from Aika. :) It is so beautiful I can't wait to sport it. :)

Moving on to other items, I was at my favorite Department Store: SM earlier today to do a little shopping. Here are the things I bought:

2 headbands with funky designs that can pass as statement pieces :)

Leopard print cotton bubble dress

Cotton vest with Stud design

Jersey Cotton top with zipper sleeve detail

There were so much more clothes I wanted to buy at SM but I had to stop myself since I plan to go clothes and accessory shopping in Singapore since I'll be there next week. SM has the most wicked clothing ever. I hardly go clothes shopping but I like being a little fashionista with classic pieces. I'm more of an accessories girl hence the bling bling head bands. I am into statement pieces and I am hard to please when it comes to clothing. I want each piece of clothing to be a statement piece on its own. But SM is an exception when it comes to clothing. I loveeee their clothes because they are so funky! Oh and don't forget about their shoes! They have such affordable funky shoes too! :) I am a certified SM Department store fan hehe. :)

Just to end my post, here's my FOTD doing the Prime Look that we did during makeup class last Saturday. I basically used the same products as my model Kathy except the different color of Graftobian Foundation. :)




Toodles! :)


P.S my Schedule will be crazy starting Thursday, I do hope to find time to blog within those days!

Button Earrings

Aside from make up, another thing I enjoy is making my own accessories. I've made a couple of necklaces and earrings for my personal use. Just wanna share with everyone some button earrings I made last night. I'm really into button earrings and vintage-ish earrings. Nice ones are pretty hard to find therefore I made some. :)

I went on a search to look for very nice looking buttons to turn into earring and here's what I found. :)

Closer look of each

Ive made a couple of other button earrings a few weeks ago but can't find them. I really love button earrings coz they're classy looking because of its vintage-ish feel and at the same time very fashionable.

How about for everyone else? Aside from make up, what else tickles your fancy? :)


Toodles! :)

BEDAZZ Valentine Promo for all of February!

Catch this special Valentine offering now! :)

Click image to redirect you to


On other updates, check out Anna's review on
Stippling Brush here:


Anna's Stippling Brush Review

Make Up School Exercise #2 - The Prime Look (pic heavy)

It was a long and very fun day spent at school. We spent the first hour putting the base of the makeup up to the eye shadow, from what we learned in the last exercise. Everyone was on their toes since it was our first evaluation. It was soooo fun, after that we proceeded to our next exercise which is the Prime Look.

The prime look is the most basic of all basics when it comes to full makeup application. This is also called the 'No makeup look,' 'Natural Look' or 'Bridal'. This look uses the most simplest of products, with just using 2 shades of Natural eye shadow, 1 highlighter, 1 blush, 1 lipstick, eye liner and mascara. Of course all this on top of the base you created.

Here's a photo walk through of what happened. :)

Kathy's Before Photo

Kathy after the first evaluation (Base up to Eyebrows) Still need to do a little work on eye brows though. Practice Practice Practice!!



Me and Kathy while waiting for others' evaluations to finish



Then we did a half of the face in a step-by step lecture with RB, here's how mine looks on Kathy


On the right side is the finished product :)


Once we completed one side of the face, the task now was to be able to repeat the whole process on the other side of the face, but we were timed, we had to accomplish this in 15 minutes! The more pressure part is, that right after this came our 2nd evaluation! Yes that's right 2 evaluations in 1 Day!!



Here's the final look :)

By this time amidst all the pressure in the time limit and making sure both eyes and both sides of the face was even, I was a happy happy girl. :) When RB came over to evaluate my work, she took a 2 seconder look at Kathy then said EXCELLENT and gave me all 5's. I was shocked and I wanted to cry!! I swear it felt so good all the hard work reaps its rewards. I thanked RB so much and then we proceeded to the photo shoot area where some Photography students were having an exercise. They took pictures of our models with some accessories they brought along. I guess some exercise for their class. :)

Here's some of Kathy's behind the scenes images from that:

Products used on Kathy

Face:
Graftobian Creme Foundation in Buttermilk
Ben Nye Cover All Wheel Concealer
Ben Nye Banana Visage Poudre
Ever Bilena Powder Foundation in Oriental
NARS Blush in Desire
In2It Brow powder

Eyes:
UDPP
MAC e/s Shroom
MAC e/s Cork
MAC e/s Yogurt
Stila Smudgepot in Black
Fanny Serrano Black Eye Liner
Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara

Lips:
NYX B52

It was a long, fun, tiring but rewarding day at school today and I can't wait for next week! :) Till then, I will continue practicing the things I have learned and also work on areas where I struggle still. Yayyyy for school! :)


Toodles! :)

Boredom FOTD

I have been pretty bored the past few days considering class was postponed last Saturday, we all wanted our makeup fix. Since I'm undergoing skin recuperation the past couple of days I've been avoiding makeup. Although I really couldn't help myself last night I just needed to put on make up. Just decided to do a simple look since all I wanted was to try my RCMA foundation.

What I used

Face:

RCMA Shinto 2-3 applied with a Stippling Brush

Ben Nye Cover All Wheel concealer applied with a beauty blender
RCMA Setting powder for face
Ben Nye Banana Visage Poudre for under eye, forehead and chin
Nars Casino Bronzer
Flormar Terracotta Blush in 45
In2It Brow Powder

Eyes:
Udpp
MAC e/s Soba base of lid
MAC e/s All that glitters for lid
MAC e/s Sable for crease
MAC e/s Vanilla for brow highlighter
Stila gel liner in black
Estee Lauder Mascara
Ben Nye fantasy fireworks wheel in gold for water line

Lips:
Nichido lip liner in Rosette
MAC lip glass in Oyster Girl

I therefore conclude RCMA is HG quality. It photographs well, enough said! :)


Toodles! :)

RCMA Color Process Foundation

One of the most favorite brands of makeup amongst MUA's in hollywood is RCMA. RCMA or Research Council of Makeup Artist Professional Products is a line created by Vincent Kehoe in the 60's. The line caters to 139 foundation shades, Blushes and about everything you will need for fx in films. RCMA was created for the profession of film, tv and print thus it is not commercially available. It has no marketing strategy what so ever, not even the packaging is attractive. RCMA is no frills and mainly focused on the development of the product. The most evident reason why this is a favorite amongst artist in the industry is the ability of the foundation to photograph well and how flawless the skin looks on camera whether video or still. Besides, RCMA foundation is 50% Pigmented! Definitely higher than those commercially marketed brands.

The first time RCMA was tried on my skin was when Maui and I had a make-up weekend when she got back from the states. And I was sold. I was crazy flawless, and the best part was If my skin was flawless in person, the better it looked on camera. So now I'm so happy I have them in my train case. :)

I ordered 2 RCMA weels, Wheel 1 is KO 5-8 and wheel 2 is Shinto 1-4. Shinto shades are created for the people who have yellowish-green undertones. Since that line became so famous, the KO line was created as fillers for the lacking shades on the current Shinto line.

Both wheels look very similar and actually almost identical, but after swatching and testing, you will see how different the wheels are from each other. Now proceeding closer at each wheel.

This is wheel KO 5-8, I bought this because I wanted a line that I could use for men. And upon reasearch, the KO 5-8 and Shinto 5-8 wheel were the ones recomended for males. But none the less this can also be used for females. :) I initially chose KO 5-8 instead of Shinto 5-8 because I was already getting Shinto 1-4 and didn't want another Shinto Wheel.


This is the Shinto 1-4 wheel with its corresponding swatch. Maui used Shinto 2-3 for my face months ago when it was first tried on me. And I am still Shinto 2-3. :)

Here's a photo of the KO and Shinto swatch together for comparisson.

Without Flash

With Flash

KO 5-8 Top Row
Shinto 1-4 Bottom Row

Now from the swatch they look very very very similar, but from what I have noticed, the Shinto line is a tad bit more yellow and warer than the KO shades. To illustrate further their differences, I mixed the first 3 shades of the top and bottom (since from the swatch the first 3 colors of KO 5-8 and Shinto 1-4 are very similar to each other).

Without Flash

With Flash

After mixing the first 3 colors each from the KO (top row) and Shinto (bottom row), the difference can now be clearly seen. The Shinto (bottom row) shows that it is warmer than the KO (top row). The KO definitely is the "in-betweens" of the Shinto shades. This is useful for those who aren't too keen on mixing their foundations.


Overall, I am very excited to use this and happy looking in my train case with these RCMA inside. I'll definitely use my RCMA foundation when I know I'll be taking pictures. Haha.

As a bonus, here's an image of me and my girls using RCMA foundation (taken months ago).



Toodles! :)