Survey!

Grabbed this little survey from Liz.
These are my favorites or the ones I reach for the most.

My Foundation: Mac Mineralize Satinfinish in NC35, Makeup Forever Mat Velvet Mattifying Foundation

My Mascara: Lancome Definicils Mascara, L'Oreal Double Extension Mascara

My Blush:L'Oreal Blush in Pink Grapefruit, NARS Orgasm, MAC Pinch o Peach, Shu Umeura P Orange 58D

My Eye Shadow: Prestige Eyeshadows and MAC eyeshadows

My Day Cream: Olay Total Effects

My Lipstick: Guerlain KissKiss lipsticks

My Beauty Product Brand: MAC, L'Oreal, Guerlain

My Essential Beauty Product: This is so hard.... um, I'd say moisturizer with SPF because skin care is still the most important thing.

My Favorite Makeup Product: Concealer. Or eyelash curler. I can't decide!

My Perfume: J.Lo Live, Lancome Miracle

My Nails: Essie Wicked and Orly Platinum

My Feet & My Hands: The Face Shop Fragrant Nail Enamel Remover. Smells yummy and does the job well.

Three Products to bring on a deserted island: Lip balm, sunscreen, toothpaste. Or mouthwash. Hehe.

Women I admire for their beauty: Gong Li and Monica Bellucci because they are GORGEOUS. Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls and Jessica Alba because they have the most amazing bodies. Uma Thurma because she has an interesting face: it's beautiful but it's not nakakasawa. Same goes for Gwyneth Paltrow.

Woman with the Best Sense of Style: Tough! I like Gwen Stefani a whole lot though. She can rock absolutely anything. I like Cameron Diaz's style too. It's quirky and classy at the same time.

My Ultimate Dream: To work for the UN.

How Do I Define Womanhood: To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, it's about floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee.

My Favorite Fashion Publication: Vanity Fair, although it's not particularly a fashion magazine

I'm tagging just about anyone who reads this! What are YOUR faves?

Cheap eyeshadow

Once again, hooray for cheap stuff!

Qianyu, a cheap brand that sells eyehsadows for a grand total of P50-70 bucks, is almost as pigmented as other eyeshadows that retail for a higher price. It lasts for a good couple of hours, too, maybe not as long as other expensive brands but good enough given it is uber-cheap. Its sister brands are Aily and Baxi, which are worth checking out too.

You can find it in your friendly neighborhood tiangge.

Here's one I especially like for its colors.



Just trying it out... forgive the unruly brows. I have yet to set a date with Mae, eyebrow shaper extraordinaire of Emphasis Salon.

I used three colors from the palette: the first peach one, the red and the dark brown.

Makeup SOS

My cousin Tish asked me to help her with her makeup for a dinner party. She wanted a no-makeup look ("Makeup na hindi mukhang naka make-up masyado"), an eye makeup that would look natural but would still emphasize her eyes, and an overall look that would match her white and gold outfit.

She's not morena but I'm posting it here anyway because we were both pretty happy with the outcome. She really is the only model I get to practice on so this will have to do.

Here's the finished product: (no flash)



The eye makeup:



With flash:



Makeup/tools used:

1. I evened out her skintone using MAC Mineralize Satinfinish NC30, dabbed on YSL Touche Eclat on her undereyes, then topped everything off with Laura Mercier setting powder.

2. Next I did her eye makeup. I used MAC Prep+Prime in Light to well, prep and prime her eyes. Hehe. Next I brushed gold eyeshadow all over her lids, to match her top. Then I used an olive eyeshadow at the Outer V. I wanted something different from the usual brown/dark brown family so I opted for olive instead. Then I lined her lashline using a dark brown shadow. I used eyeshadows from two different palettes, Red Earth Sunset Glamour Eyeshadow Quad and Guerlain Divinora eyeshadow quad. I added a beige eyeshadow as highlight. I curled her lashes using Fanny Serrano eyelash curler and applied Max Factor Masterpiece Mascara after.

3. I didn't have to do much with her eyebrows because they're groomed perfectly already. I just filled in some areas using Laura Mercier eyebrow pencil.

4. As for blush, we used NARS Orgasm. Using a nice stippling brush, I just dabbed a little on the apples of her cheeks.

5. Lastly, I used my favorite lipliner, Guerlain Lip Pencil in Beige Rose to outline her lips. Then finally I used my favorite golden lipstick to complement her outfit. It's Guerlain KissKiss gloss in 801.

I wanted to use a bronzer but she didn't want to anymore, so we skipped that part.

Anyhow, she was happy and that's the most important thing. I guess that's it for an easy peasy no-makeup look.