Thursday, May 31, 2012

E-Sessions: Mike+Kaycee



I met Mike and Kaycee last year at my first wedding fair ever with iSnap Creatives. They were such a cute and fun couple to work with. Kaycee loves makeup and she was game with a bit of experiments. They booked me that day even if their wedding would be the year after (July 2012 to be exact). I was one of the suppliers they first booked, that's why I'm so happy.

Their wedding is definitely a dream team and their e-session shoot was styled by Lifestyle by Feliz (whose studio I fell in love with when we passed by there during our shoot).

Our shoot was a rainy summer Friday. Traffic northbound was crazy since there was a sale at Megamall. Thankfully, the cab driver knew how to bypass EDSA while getting to the place. I did Mike and Kaycee's makeup at a hotel in QC and then proceeded to the location of the shoot - Cubao Expo. I've been to Cubao Expo already for a fashion photoshoot and it's such an interesting place if you're looking for artsy and unique knick-knacks that you can't find in the mall.



With the right angle, it doesn't look like you're right smack in one of Metro Manila's busiest cities with a bus terminal a stone throw's away from the location. It looks like a quiet artist's village, yes?

Since it was raining, we had to time everything to make sure our couple and photographer's gear doesn't get wet. The rainy weather provided a good background though. There were some stores and galleries that allowed us to borrow their pretty backgrounds for us to shoot.



Vintage mini coopers are just too cute! Thanks to the owner too for lending his wheels as a cute prop.



Mike and Kaycee ordered helium balloons for this shoot. Balloons are scary when they explode but they do brighten any atmosphere right?




A pop of red lip and hair pulled back for Kaycee's neutral-colored outfit. Who says you can't wear brights in a prenup? 


This location too, turned out to be a blessing for me. As you all know, Cubao Expo not only has ukay and gift stores but also shoe stores that sell shoes at a fraction of what department stores sell. I was able to get my boots for my Stellar show here for only Php 1,000 (It's priced at Php 2,000 usually in malls) and they had my size! More on the shoes later.

Credits:

photography by Bobby Delos Santos | MavAsia Photography
Styling by Tine Cortes and Penny Bunag of Lifestyle By Feliz 
prints and graphic designs by Purge inks 




Friday, May 25, 2012

Avon Summer Giveaway Winners

Hey everyone? So how's everyone enjoying the summer? Anyway, it's time for contest results and we're here to announce the winners!!!!! Looks like there are 6 contestants and 6 prizes so everyone's a winner yay!!! I hope people get to join more contests too. It's gonna be my birthday in a few weeks so I think I'll throw in a raffle again. Hopefully, I'm not too busy.



Anyway, I chose the winners randomly and here they are.

Item 1: Avon Fashions Spice Market Collection Necklace and Earrings:

Helen Blas

Item 2: Smokes and Mirrors Eyeshadow Quad

Jen Lapis

Item 3:  Avon Naturals Antibacterial Hand Gels

Azaza Rodriguez

Item 4: Six Bottles of Avon Heaven Scent Splash Colognes

Mary Grace Elardo

Item 5: Avon Style Essentials Nail Buffer and Nail Clipper Set  and Avon Naturals Shake Body Lotion in Strawberry Guava

Rhania Chang

Item 6:  Outspoken Intense By Fergie Shower Gel

Genn Delizo

Yay! awesome! I'm contacting the winners now via email as to how they can claim their prizes. Congratulations ladies! Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

3D Lips With Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist


Make Up For Ever, known for their awesome makeup line that could be used for bridal or runway has launched their lipstick line called Rouge Artist. If you're a Make Up For Ever user, you've probably heard of Rouge Artist Intense, with ultra-pigmented colors that scream "I'm here!" 










Swatches of Rouge Artist Intense. Yes, they have it in black too.






This time, they added Rouge Artist Natural, inspired by a return to naturalness, focusing on fresh, vibrant tones in wardobes and vanity cases. If you're a fan of natural lippies, you can use this sheer one to enhance your natural color. It feels cushy on the lips and delivers 8-our hydration to the lips so lips stay lush without the annoying drying skin you peel off after.




Sharing expertise and technique in maximizing this product, trainer Mikee Raymundo shares to us a new technique in applying your color (another technique if you have too much lip products in your stash). Mikee combines several lip shades to give lips a 3-dimensional effect, so they appear fuller and more defined.


 

First up, prime lips by applying concealer on the lip area. This makes the color more vibrant. This also helps if you have the two-toned lip, that is if your upper lip's color is different from your lower lip.




Set it with powder. Mikee used White Definition powder here. You can use loose powder, pressed powder, or powder foundation. The choice is yours.


Next, apply lipliner. Mikee used lipliner darker than the lip color to be used. Now wait a minute, isn't it supposed to be lighter lipliner? A half-step darker liner would be good for this one in the same color family as the lip color. Let's not make it seem that we mistook or pencil liner for lipliner. Blend this in towards the center.


Apply main lip color. Mikee used a nice pink as the main lip color and used a brush when applying to ensure precise lines. She then warmed this up by applying peachy-pink color on the center and blended it outwards but not too much so that the gradation disappears. 


For a touch of poutiness, Mikee dabbed clear lip gloss on the center followed by Make Up For Ever Star Powder on the center for more sparkle and shine (yes! you can use a bit of Star Powder on the fingers and dab a bit on the center).







Mikee also demonstrated another lip look, which could be used for high fashion and avante garde shoots. she used in conjunction with this Make Up for Ever Aqua Cream color, a cream color makeup that will not budge with water.


After playing with the colors, I did my own version using plum as the main color, since I had purple liner that night.


Defined plummy lips! I think I could define it more by cleaning the edges with powder.

SRP for this is Php 1,280 both for Rouge Artist Natural and Rouge Artist Intense at the Make Up for Ever branches at  Level 3 Shangri-la Plaza Mall and B8 Bonifacio High Street.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Meeting The Members of The Trey McIntryre Project

I love it how people in their own way get to learn about different cultures instead of just reading books or documentaries. Amazingly, it imbibes into us more if we learn it in a language that we understand. I'm not talking about written or spoken language, but the language of dance and body movement. The meeting of two different dance groups from two opposite sides of the globe was an interesting opportunity that I had the pleasure to witness.

The U.S. Embassy and the Cultural Center of the Philippines are proud to announce the visit of the American contemporary ballet company, Trey McIntrye Project, an awesome, awesome dance group based in Idaho. They are currently on an Asian tour for a month and would be conducting master classes in ballet, modern dance, and technical direction in Manila and Iloilo City. Aside from sharing their knowledge, they are going to each country to learn about their dances. 




Here, they would be working collaboratively with the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Dance Group. This group specializes in folk dance, dances I myself have yet to see and those that don't seem to have passed my grade school P.E. lessons (or probably maybe I scrimped on them).

The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Dance Group Center is a quaint place in Paranaque near NAIA 2 terminal. It aims to preserve Filipino folk dance and encourage kids at a very young age to learn these dances. Learning isn't just knowing the steps but maintaining discipline and executing it properly - perfect lines, arched backs, and hair neatly pulled back for girls with no stray strands. 



Dance costumes on display. 

The Trey McIntyre Project first performed a number to the song of The Beatles. As choreographer Trey McIntyre shared with us, his inspiration for this number was the feeling of joy.

  Wee I love those pretty lines.


They all look so happy! Joy indeed! They seemed to enjoy that number.

They learned three dances from the teachers of the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Dance Group. I forgot what these dances were called but they are from the Northern provinces. Noticeably, the fingers were closed or the hands balled up in fists in most of the movements, a characteristic the teachers were very particular about, as opposite to those from the South with the hands more open.



Ballet is all about pointed toes, but for folk, it's more flexed, but when flexing, flex with uttmost prettiness. 

As I watched them practice, It was interesting to learn about the dances though. Some of the dances mimic animals or elements of nature and there are some that tell a story, either dances that reminded me of battle or fighting moves. 

 This dance reminded me of fighting and marital arts.



Folk dance is not that easy. It's more than just stomping and doing the moves. You have to look pretty while doing that. Also, in the case of the hands, we have to make sure everything's right because there are certain positions of the hands and fingers that are characteristic of that region the dance originated from. I guess that's what Trey McIntyre meant that they're learning the culture of a place through dance, a language they understood. 

Hannah and I posed for a photo op with Trey McIntrye and John Michael, one of the dancers. We so short compared to them.



The Trey McIntrye Project will also have two showcase performances here in the Philippines, both this weekend.
  • May 10, at 5:30 p.m., Central Philippine University, Rose Memorial Auditorium, Iloilo
  • May 12, at 6:00 p.m., Market! Market! Mall Activity Center, Taguig City.

Both performances are open to the public and free of charge, presented through the support of Central Philippine University and Station Square East Commerical Corporation.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

A Night of Relaxation with Nourishing Night Oil


A recent discovery on skin care was found last Tuesday, when I was invited in an intimate and relaxing night at Blue Water Day Spa in Greenhills as I, along with a few bloggers, was introduced to a product called Nourishing Night Oil or NNO, a skin oil with each dosage enclosed in softgel capsules to help replenish moisture and rejuvenate skin. As we all know, our skin needs moisture to maintain that supple and smooth look we all want, and achieving the perfect balance of moisture in the skin. During the cold months, it’s a natural reflex to slather moisturizer as our skin parches and chaps but we also need moisturizer too during the hot and humid summer season when our skin is exposed to heat, sun (i.e. burning and wrinkle-causing factors), and not to mention the pollutants and environmental factors that harm, parch,  and dehydrate the skin. It’s impossible to live life in a super close and controlled environment so we need reinforcements like skin care to maintain its soft and supple condition.

Hello spa theater! Such a pretty and relaxing environment. It’s so tempting to doze off in those huge and comfy seats. My injured knee loved the footrest too.



Here’s proof that the environment affects our skin. We opted to take a skin test using a machine that determines the real age of our skin. We may be in our 20s or 30s, but depending on our lifestyle and daily habits, our skin may be a different age.




First, it captures an image (macro setting, eek!) of the skin in your inner arm, which is the skin that’s relatively less exposed.  That would be the control subject, or basis of comparison. Then, an image capture of the skin on the cheek would be taken, and that would determine the skin’s age.

Just to let you know, Nourishing Night Oil  is brought by the company Mega Lifesciences Ltd. They’re the company behind Gloww capsules. They use the best quality ingredients and ensure the best quality for their customers. This is exemplified in NNO’s softgel capsule form. Each dosage is fresh and uncontaminated unlike if it’s kept in bottles where unused portions have risk of being exposed to the elements as the bottle or pot is opened.



NNO’s ingredients are simple: Natural Vitamin E and Jojoba oil. Jojoba oil isn’t actually oil (yay!) but a wax ester and we all are aware of vitamin E’s benefits on the skin, which stems from how our moms, aunts, or older sisters would break a vitamin E capsule and put the oil on the skin and encourage us to do the same. These ingredients resemble the skin’s natural oils chemically and structurally so basically, it’s like putting or replenishing stuff that’s there already instead of putting other chemicals that may cause an allergic reaction. This characteristic makes it safe to use on any skin type, whether it be oily, dry, combination, or sensitive. I was also told that pregnant and breastfeeding women who are quite scared to use skincare need not worry that they have to sacrifice their beauty regimen for this new role in life – they can use this too! Yay! (Of course, they should consult their doctors on what products to use first).

Being in softgel capsule form, we are ensured that we get the right dosage each time we apply it to our faces. The capsules, the capsules are really tiny when I saw them, almost like pearls, or in this case, golden pearls.



Yay! Tiny! If you’re travelling, you don’t need to transfer bottles if you love this so much that you have to use it everyday. As that evening’s host, Divine Lee suggested, just bring a few capsules with you during travel. These capsules could be kept in a pill box, the same one you keep vitamins in, so it doesn’t get squashed and the contents spilled out during transport.



We were also given a demonstration on how to use NNO. We should start with a clean face first. As suggested by the name, it is best to use the product at night, before going to bed. During nighttime, the skin’s more receptive to treatments when we’re more relaxed plus there’s little chance of encountering pollution, sun, antioxidants, and dirt since we’re in a relatively closed environment, like our house or bedroom.

  
To release the product, break the softgel capsule by pulling that little tag. Apply the oil on your face and neck, gently massaging the skin around the eyes and nose in about 4 minutes, until the oil is absorbed. Too long? Think of it as a relaxing treat after a hard day’s work as our body gets to rest.

I told you that this is a nongreasy oil right? Well, you can see that the skin has a sort of sheen after being applied. I asked our model if I could touch her skin with my (clean, of course) hands to see or feel for myself how this oil feels.



It didn’t feel slick and oily, and she said it felt okay on the face. I then tried the oil myself by breaking one capsule. Since I had makeup on that event, I tried the NNO on the back of my hand. I was surprised at one teeny tiny capsule had enough product for both of my forearms and half of one leg. The parts where I had it applied had a sheen, but it didn’t feel like I submerged myself in a vat of cooking oil or I had hot bricks on my face. It has no annoying smell as well so if you’re going to use this at night, you have a good night’s sleep with no smell bothering you.

NNO could be purchased at Mercury Drug Stores and South Star drug stores. At Php450 for a box of 30 capsules (good for approximately 1 month), this is quite affordable. Come to think of it, it’s just Php15 per day, and as I told you, one capsule has a lot of product already. We took samples home and when I did use this on the face when I got home, half a capsule went to my face and neck. The other half to my décolletage and a shoulder. Why up to the chest and bust area? Well, think of wearing low-cut or plunging necklines. It can be used on the delicate undereye area, if you guys are asking. No need for extra eye cream or neck cream too, since this can be used on the delicate skin around the eyes. It’s a bit richer though than the usual day cream, so although some of my friends might use this during the day, on a personal choice, I’d use this at night. It’s recommended that a person use 1-2 capsules daily, but I think from the amount of product inside the capsule, one per night would be enough.

The night ended with us bloggers being treated to Swedish massages to relax us after a long day’s work. By the time our treatments were done, we were Zen and relaxed and ready to rest and reset our systems, but not forgetting to remove all our makeup and sleep with a clean face (with NNO of course!).

And yes, I did have a good night’s sleep! J