After all the health issues in the family I made sure we make it to the strictly formal affair lined up that weekend. I figured it would energize me. Some "me" time with the husband. Would allow me to get out from the sweat pants and into that long dress (thanks to the big mall who had a big sale that week...).

But don't get me wrong, Im not one to be spending a whole hour or more in front of the mirror just to put on make up. For one thing it now only takes me 20 minutes to do my hair ( if I shampoo the night before and condition on the hour...).

I have always been proud of my 7.5-minute make up. Ahihi (so is my husband, seriously). Doesn't take much really. What I have in my arsenal is just as simple. Must of them gifts, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford them.

The 7.5-minute make up. For my formal affair. 

  Two days prior I have already cleaned my face. A simple DIY facial at home, nothing complicated really. This would give any redness the chance to disappear two days later. Dark circles under the eyes are my worst enemies. Took me years and a lot of searching on the net what other ladies are wearing. And what I could afford. Two years ago a friend of mine from New York got me All About Eyes by Clinique. Luckily it works good for me. Lessens the puffiness and moisturizes the eyebags. I didnt have to look far for the cover up as I got the more affordable BB cream specifically for eyes by Garnier. But then of course knowing me, one must not presume I use it for my eyes alone. ahihihi.. works good for the eyebrow and nostril areas, corners of the mouth and under the lower lip, where shadows always form. I usually use my brushes to apply. I love the MAC brushes. But lately Ive been favoring dubbing the cover ups with my fingers. It absorbs and blends better that way.

One treasured possession is the Sheer Cashmere foundation by L'Oreal. It's matte and blends well. But  only apply it in certain areas which need attention. To set everything I love Covergirl's Trublend Mineral Loose Powder, applied with my Kabuki brush by Everbelena. 

Sometimes I like to play with colors as I have demonstrated in old entries of the blog but not during formal affairs. So I stick with the basics. You know the highlight on the middle of the lid and dark contours on the side of the lid routine.... I used to do a lot of winged-tip eyeliners but lately I've been favoring the more circular one. Wherein I just follow my natural curve of the lid up to the tip. I first saw it on Jinky Pacquiao on her controversial cover. No kidding. I said, "wow! Those eyes are not photoshopped. They're remarkably made up and lined! So I decided I like that..."

Gigi, my friend from Singapore gifted me with my now every-reliable color palette. I use them all the time. By Etude House.

Like I said, I always go for the more affordable stuff so I buy my stash at the Face Shop. Eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, the works...

It's a no brainer thing. I just go over some tutorials on Youtube and Im done. hehehe Seriously, 7.5 minutes. That quick. That easy...

Allow me to share some instagram photos taken by PA friend Annie during the LifeDance team victory pool party yesterday...

Coz summer never actually stops in this part of the world...

I would barely see where I was going but we just had to put on those sunglasses for the photo op. This was already 7 in the evening.

I love you LifeDance team!!!

If the 33 C degrees temperature this part of the world has been having any indication...it is officially summer. Yes, we have the tendency to skip the season that is spring and jump right into the hot hot summer.

For yesterday's lunch with the trusty photographer friends (none brought along a dslr) I decided to debut the summer look. As you may have noticed, I chopped off another 2 inches from my already short hair. Im loving it!!!

A cool see thru gypsy inspired blouse I got from a flea market tops the look.

My friends give me make up. Most recent gift was a navy blue and frosted blue eye shadows from Doctor Ann/photographer. Oh my dear make up artist/designer friend Sidney Gonzales I hope you will be proud of me, how I have learned from you. The make up look I can do in 7 minutes. Yes, a swoosh swoosh of light foundation with a big round brush does the trick for my skin.

(Well, let me just leave you a cheesy spaced out photo of me. Ahihihi it was a hot morning, I have a big foam on top which we were drying out which acted as a diffuser...)

Blue eyeshadow by Elf, brown eyeshadow by Estee Lauder, foundation and loose powder both by Maybelline, black eyeliner and brown eyeliner both by MAC, lipglass by Forever 21 and lipstick by Clinique.

Have a fun and safe summer y'all!!!

Christmas holidays everyone! Have you gotten your shopping done already?...

Have you decided how your look will be this season?

Moi. I have decided this year's look will be based on make up Christmas gifts I got. My favorite south sea pearls from my mother will be dressing up ears.

Hair gets the extra wave after being ties up in a bun all day...

The compact with eyeshadow and cheek blush I got pretty much defined everything... it will be neutral on the eyes. With the black eyeliner as accent. Much as I want to keep doing the winged tip style I will opt to take the advise of my make up artist friend to just avoid the wings. It will make my eyes smaller. There will be times for it though. But for the Christmas family card, I will stick with the regular and simple line above the eyelashes for a fuller look, ala Adele. (oh, she's my most fave!!!).

Shimmery pink lipstick...

Layers and layers of mascara...

Neutral palatte...

The H&M ring is from a girlfriend...

How about for a more casual ensemble.

No change in make up. Just the accessories.

Golden studded tiger bangle from Doc Ann...

Merry Christmas to my dear friends from all over the world!!!

It's been a quiet week leading up to this one blast of an event at Ayala Center Cebu. Took a few shoots with my ipod touch.

8am call time with us checking and cleaning up the artist's tent. Tracy, assistant director, came from Manila. Yeah, no matter how early call time is, we always get our faces made up. hehehe

...one reason being...you see people during the pre-prod briefing, hehehe.

...and during lunch. We had one hearty meal at Siam! Delicious Thai restaurant located at the Terraces. I would like to commend the very gracious attendants...

4 o'clock. 1 hour before the gates open. With all those preps (I sometimes help out aside from being the photographer), the heat, humidity and flowing sweat I always want to freshen up. But there was just not enough time to do everything over. And my smudged eyeliner was bothering me too much. Disappointing really. One of the pricey brands. Oh well. What better thing to do than run to the Rustan's (we were just outside the mall) make up counter. It was a quick decision when the girl at the Chanel counter smiled at me. Graciously pleaded with her she take out my smudged eyeliner. Aside from putting on fresh eyeliner on me she let me test a rockin' shade of red lipstick! Smudge proof liquid eyeliner and lipstick no. 28 (Romantic) from Chanel and a quick dash of powder, I was ready full-on!!! hahaha...thank you pretty lady at Chanel. They are always ever so pleasant. Sometimes you just have to trust the pricey tags. hehehe. Yep, when the heat is on, a 1700-peso Chanel eyeliner is your ammo!

Here's a shot of the concert:

And the eyeliner? Yep, it was definitely smudge proof. Got home after midnight and eyes were still rockin' !!!

The past 4 days I had been singing one song...out loud and in my mind. Even in my sleep. The moment I wake up. While driving. Editing.

Even the 4-year-old kid is starting to shout out the chorus.

The help has started to memorize it.

The photography group has grown tired of it. Except for Sidney. And Lulu. So guys... this one's for you:

My Adele look for the Halloween!!!

30 minutes tops. The industrial foundation was a breeze in giving me the flawless dewey complexion of Adele. Racked on the false eyelashes, a few strokes of eye shadow (tutorials from Youtube) and a mean dash of eyeliner... I was set!

The hair took longer though...

Im channeling the earlier cloths of Adele. As we can all see she has lost a bit of weight these past months...

Im a happy trick o treater!!!

How about you? Have you decided what you're gonna be this Sunday?

The real Adele at the Grammy's

To all the fans... let me share with you my LSS (last song syndrome)

How I dress up for an event. I have a certain uniform. I always, always go event-appropriate. Yesterday's event was no exception. It was indoor. Airconditioned. It was good for moisturizer/BB cream/powder combo, in that order. I don't usually do the winged tip during work, I keep it simple.

Event was in an airconditioned room so I figured (correctly) that it was safe to wear eyeliner on the lower eyelid. I go matchy-matchy, so yesterday was light and frosty blue ( I wore my ever realiable blue Rajo Laurel blouse). Layered the eyeliners blue and black on the upper lid.

Regardless of the venue I almost always load up on the mascara, just for some extra kick on the eyes. That will be where my clients/subjects be looking most of the time as I snap their photos...

Dressing up for work also nurtures my love for make up and accessories (although I tone the jewelry down to be more appropriate with my role, hehehe).

(Eye make up from Smashbox, lipstick from Mac)

My friends feed my love for hats and such. They bring me one from their trips. Bless my dear friends. hehehe. This fuzzy cute fuschia/teal/purple number is from Ann. Yes, dear Ann. She got it from their trip to Baguio last summer (well, a month ago to be precise).

How could I resist taking a photo!

Goes very well with my lipstick eh?

We live in a tropical country. But the weather had been copying more like the foreign windy chilly at times kind of days and nights so this one should be a perfect accessory. Hmm... a trip abroad after Christmas perhaps? I do hope hubby reads this...hahaha!

Thank you Ann! You know I love you...

(Thank you Lulubelle for the lipstick!)

Thank You Boss!

Thank You for love and friendship.

I used to favor wearing false eyelashes on special occasions. But somehow I have developed some kind of "allergy". I get a headache whenever I wear them. The last time I wore falsies was last January at a wedding. By the middle of the mass I had to go to the bathroom to take my falsies off as they were really giving me a terrible headache. Good thing I had my dark black eyeliner in my purse!!!That kinda bummed me out. How could I do without them falsies?

My answer: a really good mascara.

But which one?

False eyelashes was a no brainer. I always went for the natural looking kind.

With mascaras there are just too many choices. But then of course, I automatically eliminated the way too pricey brands.

It didn't make the choices easier though...

Then I bumped into Maybelline Magnum Volume Express.

Affordable at P399!

But would it deliver?

Today's errands was a good excuse for a test drive...

For it's price it is indeed a good mascara. As like any other mascara (expensive or affordable), you would need to do 2 to 4 applications for the result to be evident. That's fine by me actually. I judge a mascara on it's smoothness. The less clumps on application, the closer to an approval. By habit I always manually separate the lashes after the application of the mascara with a toothbrush for a more pronounced result.

It does deliver! I love it! Affordable and sweet indeed.

Mascara and eyeliner are pretty much what I have going during meetings and events. I almost always never put anything on the lower lid. I just want everything heavy on the top.

I love the sleepy heavy darkness of mascara and eyeliner on the upper lids.

As inspired by Ms Sophia Loren.

Fooling around with Photoshop and plug-ins...

Nothing major actually. Clearly I need more practice.

It's the Topaz Simplify. I chose the watercolor effect. I find it cute, although I don't think I would be using these for work. Just for kicks I spent an afternoon tinkering with the controls...

The left photo is the original photoshopped image. The right photo is "watercolored"...

Make up looks good, creamy. But the chain details have disappeared.

You may recognize the photograph from the spring make up entry I did months back.

Like I said...

more practice please. ahihihi...

These days I have embraced tradition in our country to wear either black or white or any color you might want to honor the deceased with. It be in one whole year or 40 days. I have not decided for how long yet. You will be seeing me in dark colors this summer though in respect to my late father who passed away almost a month ago. So what do I play up? It's the eyes. Or the lips that gets the color treatment. Lately, it's been my eyes. I play up with just about any color. Usually when I'm most lazy, which is most of the time by the way, it's just one stroke of a vivid colored eyeliner and the usual winged black liner to seal it.

It's been my uniform of late. As you might have guessed, cheapskate that I am, I have stacked up on them very affordable colorful eyeliners. Sometimes I combine 2 or 3 colors at a time. Especially when Im in an all black ensemble.

There's just actually no reason to go drab this summer. Gotta lighten up, especially I dont think I have gotten the life back into my eyes yet...

And to those in the same boat as I am these days, I hope I answered your questions.

I have always loved you all for caring.

Another one from the MAC Wonder Woman treasure chest.

The Secret Identity Lipglass.

Orangey, rusty.

Simply all make up counter ladies has tagged me 'the one who doesn't like orange'. In anything.

Except for this one. hehehehe

It is more dark rusty on my lips and I like it! It has become my alternate for nudes.

After 5 hours of wear, this is how it looked: