this is me

evenness is the essence of foundation. heehee.

celebrating finally a foundation that is my color.

another side to the bunny ears

just when i thought that there was nothing beauty-related (my life has taken a most practical but restful turn) that i really could write about anymore, this article caught my eye.

A canadian-born make-up artist has started a halal cosmetics line, OnePure. Layla Mandi converted to Islam and found that supposedly much of our luxury cosmetics contain alcohol and ingredients derived from pigs.

It’s an interesting thought really, and one that did make me wonder about cruelty-free cosmetics. Urban Decay, The Body Shop and Smashbox all bear logos that attest to this, which I do like. The same way I like sentiments of saving the whales or the pandas, and such. But in the same manner that people are skeptical about OnePure and its ilk—I’m not sure what to make of this.

i don't think bunnies have hearts for ears.

Though I am willing to listen to and consider the points raised by PETA and other animal rights activists, I am not going to decide  to buy an eyeshadow just because it contains a cruelty-free insignia. [the label itself is a linguistic, metaphoric doozy altogether] But of course, the concept of halal is tied to so many more aspects of life. though I wish that all religions didn’t appear to somehow subjugate women and others who do not necessarily follow their teachings, I can’t help feeling that this is a great marketing ploy. Even if my capitalist self  believes in a freedom of religion, but more importantly is surprised that religion would be in conversations about make-up. revealing just how facetious that capitalista fashionista is.

The word, overdetermined comes to mind. just to reveal how pretentious i am din pala in the end. though my frequent citing of wikipedia makes that pretentiousness seem toothless.

But just to say that this is more intricate than easier seen.

Make-up is a manifestation of the complexities of being a women, beauty and even desire. Because really, one of the biggest and darkest valleys that religions tries to cross (or negate altogether) is wanting in all its seemingly infinite power.

[and in that case, makes capitalism and its best friend consumerism seem like a religion altogether but one living right smack in the middle of the valley.]

why not multi-task?

what is the cake made of though?

if you’re wondering where i am, i’m around. just mostly hiding—though i still spend time putting on a face, and really my blond/brown hair will always remind me i’m vain. find me on FISH FOOD .

beauty soon. i promise. more for me really.

it takes a man.

Well in my case.

Though sometimes gripped with paralyzing self-consciousness, I—for the most part—can ignore my body. My legs aren’t waxed, get over it. My feet are dirty, I like walking around barefoot. My eyebrows have gone unruly, hey you can still the shape anyway.

Until you put a man—even of average attractiveness or interestingness, just amp up his kindness factor—in front of me or better yet, put a body part into his hands. And I suddenly start caring.

I’ve been having problems with the dry skin for the longest time,always getting manang-type tut-tuts for not putting lotion ( t always tells me when the elbow looks ashy) or really just taking care of myself.

But now faced with thrice weekly sessions where someone else is forced to look at my sausage legs and touch it even, accompanying I to the dermatologist seemed fortuitous.

So am now on a strange regimen to undo years and years of distracted scratching. A change of soap (Dove Extra Sensitive), a mixture of hardcore emollients and even ointment twice daily. just because. well. just because someone will hold my leg.

make-up i know i do for myself. since men usually prefer the fresh-faced. drag queen hood or 80’s soap opera is definitely for me.

but this really does seem like it’s for someone else. though i have a feeling, mr. physical barely even sees me as a piece of meat, let alone a living, breathing body.

hahahaha. i have hope for my legs and their thickened skin. let’s see what happens.

though on my first day on the regimen—the petroleum jelly and mineral oil mixture—has made a difference. I haven’t wanted to scratch my legs the whole even being stuck in the drying airconditioned office.

it’s a twice a day regimen, and yes i think it works better if you put it immediately after a bath.

a beauty round-up

THE DRAG QUEEN MOMENTS OF 2009

1. Finally starting this beauty blog. It was definitely one of those things that made me happy last year. And something I want to do more of this year—be more regular about it and though I may not update with hauls or tutorials as most beauty blogs do, I think beauty is still something I could discuss. Especially since I think this is part of my own quest (naks!) to truly be the drag queen I want to be. Unapologetic mostly. And strong.
2. Discovering bronzer and that though it isn’t  as much fun as my full-on face—I can do the natural look. Yes, that does include embracing the morena that I am. With chocolate hair now, but still refusing to go the straight and narrow path. [thought i really do hope that I will stop feeling the need to put on war paint to gird myself for the workday]
3. Color. Yes POPS of color. Thanks to Urban Decay (and Smashbox teal) and its neonification of eyeshadow. Extra points for the Urban Decay naming aesthetic.
4. Sustainable, organic and handmade beauty. Because of a new writing gig, I had to interview two fantastic women and was able to test facial care and body care products. And am now a convert. Apart from distilling a more realistic sense of beauty for myself (I am not and will never be a fragile girl with long straight hair and porcelain skin,) I’ve started to think about where, who and what goes into my beauty products. Which doesn’t necessarily mean I’m giving up on commercial beauty. hahahaha! [but look out for my entries on Neva and Bea.]
5. Old favorites making their comeback. Dove and Johnson’s! Fabulous supermarket brands that I am so glad have grown up with me (heehee. look who just drank the kool-aid.)

I am praying that I—

• get through my physical therapy, definitely stronger and literally (and figuratively) more sure on my feet.
• take care of myself better. I realize that much of my health and economic problems this year was that I was too tense and desperate to make the right choices.
• continue learning to take myself less seriously—let’s kill the stupid self-conscious  imp sneaking inside my head. oooh fighting words.
• do this more regularly. This being writing (and reading, absorbing, etc) in general. Because yes, that’s what keeps me alive.

yes, because i am projecting straight into the next millenium even.

Happy 2010!

ooooh shoulder action!

i’ve been feeling extremely unglamorous, with my shuffling and slightly bent back. and i’m still getting used to my shorter and lighter hair. so this makes my day.

size ain't nothing but a number.

ooooh tangga!

go to V Magazine for the rest of the spread. do look at the natalie portman cover story, she is fabulous.

via Pixiwoo

some small changes or when i discovered that i was a natural blonde

So i haven’t been writing, which is strange considering that it is usually the make-up blog that makes me better. but somehow my make-up doesn’t seem to help to ease the discontent. so i tried something else.

before!

after!

so i finally submitted myself to the capable hands of my stylist. Roli from Basement Salon, Shangri-la Plaza (Call 638-2222)! I need to devote an entire entry just to him and what he has done for my life. I swear, you know how some girls become devoted to their stylists, not because they’re machika or anything (i am entirely too afraid of Roli to tell him my issues) but because they do well by them? well, i swear after Roli, he totally increased my princess points, upped my drag queen ante. After i had a haircut with him, I saw myself in the mirror and began to giggle.

Girls, if you’re not blessed with ramrod straight hair, he can do you good. So now I have some blonde streaks, some chocolate hair—and as my friends tell me, I’ve got the brazilian vibe going. heehee. after a whole bunch of doughnuts. but still it helps. I’m teeter-totalling around right now, having injured my knee.

and like a true girl, i go to a parlor with a girlfriend and ask for some magic, especially after tales of another girlfriend’s good hair story. hahahaha.

i think womanhood came with the hair.

more soon, christmas is coming up. and i think i will have more lovely time to write and gush!

some dose of pre-history

but before that, can someone tell me if its snowing in the wordpress hello page?

As if to continue our lotion motion (heehee. too easy.) it seems that the oldest cosmetic has been found. Made up of animal fat, starch and tin oxide, the cosmetic is 200o years old.

Read more from The Beauty Brains

Though they did mention texture, I wonder why there was no mention of smell. After 2000 years, I’d expect sentience. perhaps even adolescence.

where I discover old brands, and scents bowl me over

With the weather going cold (then hot!) I’ve been having extremely dry skin. Which is why I’m so glad to have found these:

yes, that's my zebra print laptop case. it just colors anyone's opinions of Bubba.

I do find that lotions can be a tedious thing (there’s a lot to cover—so sue me.) But that they smell so good, I made it into a habit. Notice the tiny one (it came free with the 24-hour variant,) it goes into my bag. The 24-hour variant I discovered when I had a trip to Anvaya Cove, so it will always make me think of sunlight, golf carts and just the tall tall trees and enormous skies of that weekend. And I already liked how it smelled (I’m thinking it’s the Shea butter which smells great and amkes it work)  Except when I tried the Melt Away Stress Daily Calming Lotion (I’m really an anxious person,) I couldn’t stop smelling myself. It’s fabulous scent comes from what they call AROMASOOTHE (yes, i know. but it’s a trademark!) but it’s a combination of lavender and moonflower. I loved the moonflower line of Body Shop so this was just incredible. They’re not cheap, but I think they’re worth their P250 ceiling.

Speaking of Body Shop scents, they released something called Love Etc. which of course just drew me in. And it smells great! It’s about  P1250++. Read this for more information. I’m subscribing to the blog, there’s just enough obsession and self-deprecation for me!

I always seem to wax poetic about scents, and I’m genuine glad to have found these staples (such mood boosters!)—but I found something even better. Be back soon with that.

in which i pretend that I can spend on make-up

Oh happy day! Beauty Bar is on sale again, they have items that are 25-45% off!

And today, I just breezed in hoping to find a sale (in Gateway!) and was rewarded. I was thinking about getting the purple jetset eyeliner (their waterproof, long-wearing and created for the waterline gel eyeliner) since it was PhP100—but I balked. Why was it so cheap? They said it was the last piece. Still sounds like it’s going to dry up on me soon.

They did have a couple of lipsticks, cream eyeliners and eye pencils from the permanent collection and skincare (primers, cleansing oil and their whitening line.) But what interested me for a while was Stylist blush—which looks almost like a bronzer, it is described as a shimmering bronze—since it was a decent price (P650++) Until I saw the palettes from the Green Room Collection (P550++)—so i picked up the eyeshadow quad in bamboo (shimmery gold, forest green, bronze, dark brown) and the bronzer in deep bronze. Such ladylike pieces, not kikay, but like you’re always in a crisp white shirt or a soft shift dress. And completed it with the gloss in marigold (golden shimmer—i love love the little gold flecks )

This collection is packaged in recycleable plastic containers, and every time you buy a piece, a Moringa Tree is supposedly planted in a developing country (like ours?) Though I wonder if it still applies when it is sold in a third world country. hahahaha. I spent a good amount of money, but it was 65% less than what I would have spent if I bought them at regular price, so am happy.

I might go back to get Stylist. But girls and boys, do visit your closest Beauty Bar, you might find yourself some goodies.

I wonder if I bought them just so I could write about them. Hahaha! But they’re a soft lovely contrast to my day-glo self with Urban Decay, which of course still rocks my socks off!

People have been complaining about the waves, but I think they’re pretty! Also perfect gold shade for me.

look at the lovely leaf pattern!

I really think it’s the leaf pattern that got to me ano?

stylist ano?

a good dose of blue

I’ve always loved the blue. It really does seem to go well with the morena coloring, and brown eyes. But even in a creative workplace, I felt that the Painkiller hue from Show Pony was a little much. Tonight though I’m free to play.

Electric teal ano? And mermaid pink lips.

So here’s the breakdown,
1. EYES: UD Painkiller patted on the lid, then MAC Cork on the crease, and UD Snatch as a highlighter (and with the falldown, highlighter for everything else—always make sure to shake it off and pat lightly) then line the lower lashline with UD 24/7 Eyeliner Pencil in Binge. Then clean up and conceal!
2. CHEEK: The blush side from the Smashbox Cosmopolitan Duo
3. LIPS: CD shade 578 (a really cool light pink) with Smashbox Hybrid 2-in-1 Color&Shine Gloss in Pink Lily

Another shot:

maybe some mascara, ano?

eye open!

Interesting thing was that when I swiped off the lid color, I found another look which I really liked. The navy glory of Binge gave me a fabulous drop shadow.

fabulous navy!

speaking of drop shadow, click me.

well hey there bright eyes!

Bright looks from Urban Decay Show Pony Shadowbox and 24/7 Glide-on Eyeliner Pencils

i look sleepy here.

i just needed to show how loud and almost neon this was!

a painkiller binge!

From left to right: Mildew lined with Zero, Flash lined with Rockstar and Painkiller lined with Binge
All uberhighlighted with Snatch. And yes you can see just how much glitter, like you can feel the chunky glitter it has.

a purple pony ride.

One of the wowza things about the Show Pony Shadowbox is that it comes with a mini version of one of Urban Decay’s most notorious product—Eyeshadow Primer Portion so was psyched to try it out. Though I was half-hoping that it wouldn’t be the life-saving product that people have touted it to be, just so I won’t feel bad that it isn’t readily available here in Manila.

Though creasing was never really a problem with me and eyeshadow—more that it faded or darkened. Using a cream base did extend its life, but not take away the problem completely. Today I used it, and it’s now 7:35 pm, almost 12 hours since I applied it, and Flash (purple shade from Show Pony) is still on my lids, even the chunky (so I was not free from the glitter problem) shimmer of Snatch (peachy-pink as highlight) is steady. Binge (24/7 liner), in all its navy glory has faded slightly, but I’m not really complaining.

Here’s the look:

look at that pigmentation! fabulous purple.

So I got it! The purple-ish halo.

This was yesterday’s mermaid number, thanks to UD’s mildew (the olive-green)

i don't have even eyes pala talaga ano?

and later on the same day:

mildew and mermaids.

just shifting colors around

most of the time, the color to go in your crease, or in the outer v of your eye should be a matte neutral shade that’s only slightly darker then your actual skin color. it creates the shadow that makes your eye seem wider, deeper set.

i popped a teal on the crease to accent the espresso brown of the lid, and was surprised at how it made my eye look especially since it became a forest green—a color i really really love. it can look dangerously outdated, and perhaps even bruised, but i liked how it turned out. especially since it seems i created a cat-eye by really focusing the crease color on the outer corner of my eye, emphasizing that triangle.

look at that cat eye! a bit uneven, but hey, i'm happy!

it was a hella lot of blending. like more than you think you should. you just keep blending, then patting some more color in, then blending again, then patting some color in, then blend blend blend. it also lasted much of the day perhaps with just how much i ended up putting in.

here’s how the face looked in the morning with my eyes shut to show the smoke.

eyes shut, but still smiling like the ditz that i am.

though i must give credit to the newly shaped brows. i swear by Susan at Grand Salon, it’s this tiny place near Mag:Net Katipunan. And she really does good by me and my fuzzy-ness in general.

colors used:

LID/CREASE/HIGHLIGHT: NARS mekong (espresso brown) over a brown cream liner as base, teal from smashbox oasis palette, MAC shroom (light goldy color)

CHEEK: [new thing i learned!] Chanel Bronzer as blush, then NARS Dolce Vita on apples (high on apples on cheeks) and MAC Margin as a highlight. And yes, blend out then re-apply.

LIPS: Balm then Smashbox Hybrid 2 in 1 color & shine gloss with moringa seed extract in Pink Lily (pink with gold flecks, smells like coffeeee!)

so play around and see what you end up with. oh and make sure to wash your brushes soon after, the major blending takes a lot out of your brushes.

two trick pony

i’ve been thinking that one reason why i don’t beauty blog as much as the pros is that i don’t buy make-up as much (anymore!) so many MAC season releases have come and gone. i’ve gone and said hello, and walked away.

i’m not big on following trends because i’m a creature of habit, don’t have money and really, don’t know how.

but sometimes the skies open and someone comes home from the states. to bring you something that actually is trendy! or was a couple of months ago. and i’m just ecstatic!

g brought me two happy things from Urban Decay. One was the Show Pony Shadow Box

the graphics kinda scare me, but that's only because they're crying make-up.

(L to R, Top row first) taupe, copper-y brown, bluish teal | purple, olive green and peachy pink

The limited edition palette contains: Snatch (peachy-pink w/glitter), Mildew (deep green), Flash (electric purple), Painkiller (turquoise shimmer), Smog (deep bronze), and Toasted (copper), 24/7 Eye Pencil: Zero (black), Eyeshadow Primer Potion (i finally get to try it!)

reviews raved about everything except the peachy-pink, saying that it was too glittery to be a highlighter but i found i had no problems. maybe it’s the morena luck?

and the other great UD thing was the 24/7 super stash!! i so have a thing for eyeliners.

Nine different colors! Count it!

This drool-worthy set contains four exclusive shades—Corrupt (brown sparkle), Binge (navy), Eldorado (gold) Oil Slick (black sparkle). Also includes Zero (zealous black), Graffiti (bright green with silver sparkle), Ransom (bright iridescent purple), Rockstar (darkest eggplant), and  Stash (dark green/gold).

i tried zero  and its really really really soft. i was afraid i would smoosh it with my huge sausage fingers. and stories are as good as they say. if you’d like to see swatches, please go to k’s entry. i’m a little punch drunk with happiness!

one last look!

the show pony shadow box art is by kime buzzeli

and of course, a youtube video too: