Updates, Recent Shoots, and New Features

Hi all! How's the weekend hitting everyone? I hope you're all okay because there seems to be a bug going around. I'm seeing in Facebook that a lot of people have been getting sick either flu, fever, or cough and colds. Maybe it's the temperature change as we go from super hot summer to rainy season and towards the cold -ber months where it will be very chilly even at noon. However, the weather's also quite weird because we still get bursts of hot sunny in the mid morning then the rain will just blast down like crazy. I got sick as well - the flu for like just a day last week making me miss yoga classes. Then the flu went away like magic but was replaced by cough days later then cough and laryngitis for a day then the laryngitis went away but not the phlegmy cough. Super weird! Lately I'm also feeling like a limp noodle and I can't seem to keep up with my warmups and conditioning. Be sure to get lots of vitamins and antioxidants (natural of course, including fruits and veggies) and get lots of rest so your body gets time to repair its tissues. It's so hard to be sick, especially when you need to work! Thankfully, I didn't have work this weekend so I took it easy and restful because I'll be teaching some classes next week. Not only do I need my voice, I need to get better so I don't infect my students!

I'm just glad to be doing more test shoots and collaborations to get my makeup mojo up and continuously running (that will also tell me to get better). I did two shoots last week with Yeoh and Alvin and I got to hang out with them for dinner after so I get in tabs with the fashion world, since this lola hardly goes out. I also got to meet a lot of Yeoh's newest models and they are just gorgeous! Some of them call me tita ("auntie"). It's weird in a way coz it was just a few years ago that I was the one getting photos taken and sometimes, I'm as old as the makeup artist (or even older) or sometimes, I was my own makeup artist. I like doing collabs with these guys.

Here are some photos from our shoots:

Dianne

Aldaine

Steph

Bianca

Nikki

All photos by Alvin Chua
Special thanks to Yeoh Models

I've got new toys in the food department as well. I finally after 6 years have a mini food processor and it's powerful enough to grind nuts, coffee, and meats. I'm actually more excited to finally make my own cauli-rice and cauliflower couscous as well as fresh pesto and red pesto sauce, salsa, sherbets, granitas, and so on. I've made so many cauli-rice meals. It's got the carby feel and surprisingly, I get full easily so I can't have too much of it.

Lime cilantro cauliflower rice and pan-fried salmon. The flavors are so alive with the buttery mellowness of the fish. The dish even looks so gorgeous for Instagram.

I made also the sushi pizza from Blogilates. The real version uses sashimi-grade fish but there was none in Little Tokyo so I used the vegan version instead, which used mushrooms. It tastes like teriyaki. I'll be posting more homemade stuff in Instagram

If you've seen as well this update in Instagram, you'll know that there's going to be a new feature.

Cooking up a few things for my blog. Watch out for my #BambikityMovingMakeovers! #bambidelacruzmakeup #muathatblogs #makeupartistlife #beautyblogger #beautybloggerphilippines #fitmua

A photo posted by Bambi De la Cruz 🐱🐯 (@bambikitty) on Sep 7, 2016 at 10:13pm PDT

I'd like to present #BambikittyMovingMakeovers! I would be doing makeovers of several ladies which will be featured in my blog, very Kevyn Aucoin style. It started out as well as a little thing my pole friends and I were talking about, that I do makeup playtime on them after class. I used to do that before to my pole friends whenever I have my kit with me when I go to the studio, so I thought I'd do the same in my blog, also featuring the ladies that inspire me. It also gives me more chances to practice my skills on other faces aside from me. I call it Moving Makeovers because I'm like a moving salon, since I go from one place to the other. This also resets my energy.

I'm still thinking of a look for One Look, Two Different Price Ranges to do. Should I go smoky or stick to a clean, rosy look? Should I go Hollywood glam? Let me know in the comments below what I can do.

Here's what I'm reading while at rest mode: Hot SOS, a book written by one of my fitspirations, Solenn Heussaff.

This will incorporate new workouts in my routine when I have no time to go to the pole studio or do a full yoga practice in the studio, so I still keep my strength in check. There are also new recipes to try, and I love that it's a local book using locally grown ingredients that are readily available in our groceries so I wouldn't have to look high and low for most of them.

So that's it for today! Enjoy the rest of the week!

E-Session: Kris + Niki

Kris is one of my pole dance teachers. I still remember the day she announced that she was engaged. It happened during I think the first of April. I kinda sensed things because the Polecats were sending hearts and kilig expressions in her Facebook wall, but no final announcement yet. It was then that I confirmed my hunch when she changed her relationship status and posted a video of how Niki proposed to her. It was absolutely a cute and romantic video that had friends and family involved.  From that day on, Kris, despite the stress of wedding preparations, classes, Polecats gigs, and organizing plus performing at the Polecats third anniversary show was a picture of happiness and love. You could tell how excited she is. Being her student and her friend, I can't help but be happy for her.

I felt really flattered that I got to do Kris and Niki's prenup photoshoot. I've done Kris's makeup countless times already as she performs in many of their gigs and also our shoots. This time, the loud colors, glitter, and  heavy lip colors are replaced by neutral palettes enhancing her natural beauty and super-happy glow.

Usually, prenup photoshoots have a certain theme or concept or done at a remote place that requires the crew to go out of town. Kris and Niki decided to have their prenup right smack at Metro Manila with a very cute concept - it would be showcasing their future life together as a married couple.

What a pretty way to wake up in the morning!

I love that they are such a very laid back couple. Everyone was so relaxed in this shoot and enjoying every minute of it.

Dinner out. At this point, I pegged an Angelina Jolie look for Kris. I was inspired by her dress.

The shoot was awesome, pretty, and fast. Kris and Niki took care of us and fed us and I probably stuffed myself with five servings of pasta that day.

Niki and Kris got their friends Gino and Marco to help with the set up. They did such an amazing job! And yep, that's me hiding my makeup-less face with glasses and a default Hello Kitty shirt. :) 

Congratulations Kris and Niki! Thank you so much for trusting me to do your makeup!

Image Credits:

Photos: Bokehbug Wedding and Lifestyle Photography

Set Design: Gino Nacianceno and Marco Ortiga

Spikes, Bodysuits, Bling, and Bang!

I was watching Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 when my phone rang in the middle of a very intense scene (I'm sorry guys! I really forget to put my phone on silent!) After putting my phone in silent then texting that I'll be on conversation after the movie, it was my awesomest Dennis asking me if I would like to do a shoot with him with Christine as a photographer. I love Dennis a lot and I know I'm in for a really fabulous shoot so I said yes.

The day of the shoot, I met up with Christine first and we went to the venue after my Wendy's to go. Our model for the day is Fatima, one of Dennis's close friends and actually, I did her makeup 3 years ago. She looks really great now, very happy, content, and confident. It was very easy to transform her into the ravishing beauty Dennis wanted.

Dennis's accessories are beyond my wildest imagination, like this skull ring with a spike on top. If it were an engagement ring, it would perfectly say "Till death do us part"

Dazzling bodysuit with jewels and baubles.

Fatima's gotten really good with posing. Her lines are amazing, it's really cool because in my first ever shoot with her, she was very shy and timid. She knows now her angles and what works for her. She's also super prepared. When I left the house, I forgot my dramatic falsies for the smoky eyes for her, and brought my wispy bridal falsies instead. Good thing she has a stock too at home, cut to her eye shape.

Preserving the color in this photo, here's how my makeup looked on her. She bears resemblance to two very famous beauty queens, and you could guess who.

Dennis is a bundle of energy on his own, and he does kid around in shoots, making me giggle every so often but when it's time to work, he's very serious, passionate, and hands-on, making sure that everything is not just alright, but perfect.

The shoot ended when the sun decided to dip down the horizon. After packing up, it was a lot of more catching up with everyone without me hurling into laughter every so often. I really love working with fabulous and talented people. They give me such positive energy, especially needed for me to be inspired.

Saturday Shoot: Julie

My polemate Ida asked me if I was game to help out in her fun shoot last Saturday with her friends. Since I wasn't doing anything that day, I obliged, I just told her I need to go to class first before heading off home to shower, change, and grab my stuff.

Braving traffic and going through Makati Ave traffic (I didn't know Saturdays are heavy now. WHY???? WHY????), I wolfed my way to get to the venue after which I was up and ready for work.

Fresh look is always first for a casual setting:

with natural daylight too. :)

I like doing transformations so her glam look, I changed up sweet for oomph.

Smoky eyes+nude lips+ high and tight ponytail + strong contours. These are pictures taken from Ida's camera. Makeup here was done using the traditional manner, trying to get my groove first since I haven't done makeup on another girl for weeks.

Thanks guys for taking good care of me and making my Saturday really great and fab.

Of Pink Tutus, Sad Fairy Tales, and Going Drag

Christine and I had another shoot together. At first, I was informed that it's going to be a sexy Calvin Klein inspired shoot. Just the same, I had my palettes together and basic makeup kit in case we decide to go colorful in a snap. At first, Christine and Aisa were thinking of renting a hotel first, since it was CK sexy. However, by the turn of events, the male model got sick the morning of the shoot so we had to improvise. As soon as I grabbed my phone and checked it for messages (I asked Christine to text me directions to her house), she said that we're going to turn the girl model into a guy in the next layout. So we do drag today. Horray!

Without traffic, Christine is about 3 backflips from my cat cave. I was the first to arrive at the scene, which is perfect since I get to set up my gear and my gun.

Christine said that the model would be portraying a soldier and a ballerina. I was like, "This reminds me of a fairytale, with the tin soldier, the ballerina, and the creepy Jack In The Box." She affirmed that the fairy tale was The Steadfast Tin Soldier, a bittersweet sad love story.

Aisa and Mitch arrived lugging their trolleys of props - accessories, shoes, and gowns and all. I really love these two girls. Aisa's got ideas that spring from the creative world I have yet to conquer and Mitch is such a dear in helping us and being so supportive of Aisa.

The two assemble the clothes and accessories.

Our lovely model Kate is a chameleon and she's so game to portray a guy as well.

First up, I told Kate I'll do the girlie look first and I'll transform her to a girl. Set the hair in curls and here's me airbrushing her. Grabbed this photo from Aisa.

Kate looks like a doll. She's too cute! I'd want to put her inside a glass case like a porcelein doll.

Mitch with the reflector and Aisa doing last-minute touches.

Aisa doing BTS as Christine shoots away.

Sherrif Woody tone: Reeaaaaccchhh for the sky....errr... toes.

Kate as a guy. Omigod... she's so gwapo. She's got a hawt Johnny Depp vibe. Johnny Depp dressed like the Nutcracker prince.

Can't believe that layouts ago, Kate had candy pink lips, curls, and wore a pretty pink dress.

We were laughing during the guy layouts. It was funny too since she looked like the guy model we originally had. I love the transformation too. Imagine what a few little strokes could do too.

After the shoot, Christine and I got hungry and since she craved for a good hot plate of sisig and garlic rice, she drove over to Laiya in BF for an early dinner. I craved for green mango and bagoong and had a serving. Yummmm!!!!! My day ended early and since I was pooped I just fell right asleep after cleaning my brushes. good thing that tomorrow was rest day for a full weekend. :)

My Fairy Dusts and Gusts of Cheery-uppers

Hey everyone! The long weekend is up and I'm sure most of us are now back to work. I just got back home from work as well. I currently am part of a project that's going on this week and I'm pretty much excited about it, learning new things along the way, especially aspects on health. I just washed my brushes and I thought, maybe I'd catch up as well on my blogging backlog.

It was an almost-rest week last week though, as I was pretty much bombarded with so many things the week before. On top of that, I had a horrid reaction to a multivitamin and what I thought was dyspepsia was actually my body reacting negatively to it. Apparently, the vitamin was too strong. So, I'm now sticking to natural sources for my vitamins (i.e. fruits and vegetables) and less stronger supplements. I found out when my bodily reactions returned to normal days after taking the vitamin when it finally got purged out of my system. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, pretty much a lot has happened though, good and bad, but I'd like to share what made me happy during my lag period.

First up were little angels that came my way in the form of cutesy little toddlers.

I attended a Pampers event two weeks ago. I couldn't miss it. I love babies and children and I'm sometimes seen just saying hi to random little kids and making friends with them. A roomful of babies free to play around just brightened my day, and yes, that was one of the days where I had the stomach problem.

Yet angels like these make owies go away right?

Sharing is good!

Kiddies are taught how to share. Awwww...

Karel and her little baby girl, who's equally as pretty as her mom. Cutesy cherry print ruffly dress!

RJ's little Fortune (carried by her yaya here) couldn't wait to play with the others. Curly curly locks!!!!!

It's so cute to see the Pampers peeking out of the skirts too. Heeheehee. I must say that Pampers really did its job here, as I hardly saw tantrums from the babies.

The following day was another happy day for me. Marc's making a comeback in photography after an almost a year of hiatus. He got two models first and showed me the pegs a week before. Then, he told me he saved a peg for me that he thought would be perfect. Hence, I reveal my newest picture:

[Photo by Marc Yu]

Marc made me the persona of my Hollywood twin. :P I weighed my hair down here with smoothening serums and straighteners to get Sayuri's poker straight look. I didn't want the plain eye the original picture had so I thought of doing something on my own to tweak it a bit. And yes, I did a tad of contouring here, so it's not that flat. Once I get some colored headshots out, I'll post them as well. The only bad thing that day was that I had to eat fruit the entire day because my stomach hasn't subsided yet.

Oh, and I've got a little critter that's been keeping me busy:

Most of my Facebook friends know him by Kitty. He sorta adopted me when I started leaving food out for him. He's so cute and fat. He's a bit aloof though, and such a diva. He's pesco-vegan I think since it doesn't seem to take a liking to chicken and beef and I'm suspecting he might be lactose intolerant too. I love taking ninja shots of him.

Lookie how fat he is now! He could hardly fit through the gate grills and sometimes I have to open the gate to let him in.

A friend told me that cats have unique personalities. I think Kitty's taking after me being mataray and teritorial.

Things like these are just little reminders that life is good. The little babies that I befriend, friends who are there by my side, and seeing my cat healthy and full each day and how he continues to visit me are some of my many little destressers. Any destressers that come by too?

Spending My Sunday with Yeoh, Tin, and Diana

I was chatting with Tin last week and she asked me if I'm okay to shoot Sunday afternoon. It's just one model for her set cards and a few glam shots. I love Tin, I love her work and she's my friend. Of course I'd say yes. I was just a bit late since I had a fitting in the morning and I needed to take shots of fabric swatches. Nevertheless, I got to the place and I was able to chat with Yeoh and Tin before setting up.

Our model, Diana arrived looking fresh with little makeup (some girls are lucky). First up, we had to do a very basic, clean fresh headshot. I just found out that models need clean headshots that need to be updated periodically. For the headshots, I had to make my model look like herself, with minimal makeup and simple hair. "No smokey eyes," Yeoh told me. The smoky eyes would come later of course.I skipped the falsies for the clean headshot. I wanted Diana to look like how she usually appears in her go-sees. Yeoh was kind enough to iron her hair and he definitely did a good job. Some of the raw shots looked like a shampoo advertorial. No shimmer overload here, but I did place shimmer on strategic places for highlights .
Tin asks Yeoh's approval of the light settings.

Here's a look of my makeup on Diana taken using my phone.


Clean, pretty, and simple. :)

Diana also had a few more glamour and fierce shots. In between, we got hungry and ordered McDonald's. Multitasking, here's how we are:
Yeoh: Ordering McDonald's while curling Diana's hair
Bambi: Holding the phone while retouching Diana.
Diana: Browsing through my Bobbi Brown book.

This is a darker Diana from the former look. I gave Diana a Lara Stone inspired look with the light brows and dark eyes. The peg called for dark lips so I mixed plum and black for this color. The shoot ended at around 5:30 p.m. with four layouts. Definitely couldn't wait for the pictures. Looks like I'll be doing another set card layout pretty soon.

Mantra's Shoot Staple

I realized I've been talking a lot about my shoots in Mantra but never really stated much about it. Actually, Mantra is Mike's photography group, hence his studio at his house in Bel Air is called Mantra studio. Most of my work is done here and through my work here, I've been both proud and happy to not only have fun while working (due to its relaxed environment) but also I get to know more people.

When I entered Mike's house for the first time, I've noticed how models have been feeling much at home there for the first time and also, the abundance of food. Apparently, Mike has a rule that his co-workers should not get hungry, thirsty, or faint due to crash diet and starvation. I carried on that rule myself (i.e. "You don't eat, I don't do makeup.")

Another thing I've noticed too with the studio is the abundance of Coca Cola cans and litre bottles in his ref... another staple in the house. He orders cases of it, too. :) I guess it's been a classic refresher for all of us, whether it be the red regular kind, the diet kind, the caffeine-free kind, and even the flavored ones (who remembers the sweet taste of Vanilla Coke or Cherry Coke?), whatever situation may be. I remember ordering a can of Vanilla Coke before my Departmental Exam in Clinical Parasitology and chugging it down at the org office while I burry myself on the slides and reviewers. It has been with me with both my work as a scientist and an artist.

Mantra Photography staples: Hakaw and a can of coke per crew.

Okay, as I was checking some of my Mantra behind-the-scenes, look what I found omnipresent in the shots.

Look at what Apy's holding. :)

lunchtime break :)

And even videos show our red can staple :)

I'll be there at the studio again tomorrow for more work. Yep, with this weather, we definitely need something to cool us down. :)

Right now, it's back to work again for me.

A Saturday at Mantra

Saturday was so much fun since Mike and I did this shoot for model portraits. :) The shoot was fast, quick, and fun, with very clean makeup looks and impeccable lighting. Here are some of the shots:

Smile and I have been friends for a long time via Multiply but it wasn't until this shoot that we actually worked together. If you think she's familiar, she's walked the catwalk for two Philippine Fashion Week seasons in a row. Supermodel. :)

These four boys were fun to work with as well as fierce when the camera starts to click and click.

Clowns after the shoot. It was tiring and hot but sure was fun. :) Good company too

My hand has healed though and it was pretty functional that day. I don't need to bandage it and it was a lot easier to do hair now that it doesn't sting much. :) Work made me have a 10-pound weight loss in a week but I'm glad it wasn't the type of deadly weight loss. I noticed the tone in my arms getting back. Looks like makeup artistry is also a good workout with a wholelot of endorphin rush because it's a lot of fun too.

Portraits by Mike Yu of Mantra Photography.