My Own Lash-Perming Experience

I was invited to try Nail To Toe's lash perming service last Friday. It was one of their new roster of services offered along with their winner mani-pedis and thai massages. I've never had my lashes permed or had extensions done. I opted for the former rather than the latter since I tend to be quite OC with makeup removal and going OD with eye makeup remover on myself could dislodge the extensions. I've heard about eyelash perming from my friends who swear that it really made a lot of difference. I've heard good reviews and bad reviews too depending on where they went, so I was pretty nervous with my own experience. Lash perming is similar to head hair perming, so lashes stay curled for a longer period of time, which gives our curlers a rest.

When I arrived, I lay comfortably on the bed. Prior to that, the therapist asked me if I had any makeup on. I told her I came prepared with clean skin and only eye cream on my eyes (before lash perming, it's strongly advised to arrive with no makeup on, as in zilch, most especially eye makeup, waterproof mascara, mascara, eyeliner included). Still, my lids were cleansed so they're 100% clean.

So what's perming without rollers right? Of course, they didn't use the pink perming rods for me here. For lashes, we had sticks that look like cut-up barbecue sticks to serve as our lash "rollers" These were (temporarily) glued on the lid and our lashes were formed so they follow the form of the rollers. Don't worry, the glue came off without harming my eyes or lashes.

First up, my lashes were permed with a cold wave lotion. My eyes were closed most of the time here though, so I'll be describing based on the answers I got. The perming lotion used is similar to the one used for hair (I would joke that it's like Pagoda Cold Wave Lotion, only not that strong) and it was applied using a cotton bud on my lashes and then the lashes were moulded to the rollers so that they're shaped according to the curl. My lids were covered in plastic and the lotion was left for a good 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, the wrap was peeled off and neutralizer was applied on my lashes. Neutralizer, from the very word, neutralizes the pH balance of the solution and also locks the curl so the curl stays longer. It was then left for a while as I had my brows shaped while waiting. After that, the solution was rinsed off with lukewarm water on a cotton bud. The rollers were removed and my lids and lashes were cleaned of any glue residue.

Pre-perming, this is how my lashes looked:Without anything, they're stickstraight and practically invisible. However, after the curl, here's what I got:
This is without mascara, but my eyes were relatively more open. My therapist told me it's okay to wet my lashes tonight and even apply mascara, but I thought I'd leave my lashes for a while. I like how my lashes look like they've been curled well by a good lash curler. The curl is graceful and I get that perfect curve instead of the annoying check-shape.

Procedures like this usually last for 3 months. It's a relatively painless procedure. There's a very faint chemical smell though, due to the chemicals used, but no big deal. Lash perming at Nail to Toe usually costs Php350. The threading is a separate service though, for a very affordable price. The location is very convenient for me, since I live quite near the place. For a first-timer, they were able to orient me well, especially since it involves chemicals being applied on my lashes.

The Body Shop's Fall Makeup Trends

Now that the colder season approaches, the scorching sun being replaced by cloudy skies, rainshowers, giving us more excuse to bring out the sweaters, makeup trends also change. For spring and summer we have a very fresh and bright palette signifying life and all things blooming. Fall's actually a darker palette. Smoky eyes, warm colors, smolder, sexy, and all things RARR!

I got invited yesterday to have a sneak peek of The Body Shop's fall collection. Yes, hypoglycemia and anemia begone I still travelled for this. Makeup is love and nothing could stop me, make it hell or high water. *evil cackle*

Before anything else, I took pictures of the display:

The palette still had the traditional The Body Shop shimmery texture but this time, colors are warmer and eyes are smokier. The collection is aptly named "Smoke and Fire" Rar. Fierce.

If you're wondering what those tubes are on the bottom right, these are the Kajal pencils. I'm a Kajal user, and I go to an Indian store to source out my black Kajals. Kajals are the Holy Grail of the smoldering eyeliners. So Bollywood. An Indian friend of mine told me that Kajals were used to line eyes to make them appear bigger. Traditionally in India, even babies have their eyes lined with Kajal to make the eyes appear bigger, making them look awake hence protecting them from evil spirits.

The Body Shop's Kajals that I swatched were the gray and green one, which glide on like butter to the eye. I really recommend setting this with powder because they tend to get too creamy and travel. They also work as a fabulous eye base so eye makeup's more intense.

While on the talk of eyes, check out the eyeshadows.I like the shade of peach, which is a great lid color for weddings. It warms up the eye quite nicely. I'll be test-driving this later. We've also got the blue-grey color, which gives a great dimension to a smoky eye so it's not all flat black. The green is a refreshing take to the smoky eye. Most Asian eyes look great with green eyeshadow, and this pine color gives a deeper smoky eye than usual spring-y fresh green.

Swatches of the Colourglide lip color over here. Just like the name, these lipsticks glide on smoothly. Color payoff is quite fabulous, which is yay for those with uber dry lips who still want color. Instead of candy pop colors, we have natural-colored lips. So in contrast with intense rar smoky eyes, we have the our-lips-but-better look.

The Autumn Leaves Compact are absolutely fabulously cute, I'm kinda hesitant to use them at first because the design's too precious! Anyway, you could create 3d shimmery cheek color by swirling the brush on the compact then blending the color on your cheeks or use them individually as eyeshadows.

I swatched the peach compact for you guys. The swatches on top are the individual colors and the swatch below the four stripes on top is the swatch of all the colors together. Personally, I like this one since it flatters our yellow-toned complexions more, enhancing golden undertones. Besides, it makes our un-tanned skin look healthier since there's no access to beaches due to periodic raining.

I was able to use this too on myself as a subtle contour. For a rosy glow, the pink compact would be adviseable.

Here's Billie, our lovely model, as makeup artists show us all how to do a very basic look using The Body Shop products from foundation down to lipstick.

Then, we were shown how to create a smokey eye look using The Body Shop's Smoke and Fire Collection.

After the makeover, we see a smokey-eyed Billie. Billie here sported blue-gray smokey eyes, which went well with her monochromatic outfit and black boots. The smokey eye was quite easy to do. All it took was blending, practice, and of course just having fun with makeup. In contrast, Billie sported nude lips with just a kiss of gloss to make her lips look lush.

Intrigued? Interested? Do check out The Body Shop's Smoke and Fire collection to welcome fall and have fun with creating a sexy, smoldering look.

Malas In The Morning and the Importance of Eating

My morning spelled malas with another incident, hence I'll be typing a whole wall of text here. Figured out I ought to share this since this could happen to anyone, health-wise. This rarely occurs and only happens once every half a decade. So I woke up and with my usual routine, I worked out. Usually, my workouts are low-impact but they target very specific body parts. Yesterday I did 30 minutes cardio plus 20 minutes of very intense pilates but I was practically normal. Today, was cardio and toning of the upper body. Nothing special. In fact, I've done more intense workouts than that and I'm not the type to see stars after.

After workout, I went downstairs to do the laundry and make tea. While soaking the laundry, I suddenly felt pain on my lower abdomen, similar to dysmenorrhea. I was thinking, it's prolly my period coming in. I made tea and went to the bathroom. Typical normal but still painful. But hello, I have this every single freagin' month so no biggie. Besides, even if I wanted to take painkillers, I still can't because I haven't eaten anything yet.

Okay, so here's what happened. I sat down and started feeling dizzy, and I was home alone. Malas! Pero again, it wasn't anything bad. I still was able to let our cleaning lady in. Buti na lang. When I sat down, everything kinda went dark and the whole place looked like it was moving. Okay. So this was bad. I called our cleaning lady and told her I was feeling dizzy. When she looked at me, she was like "Ate, namumutla ka!" She's not the type to make me bola or exaggerate so I knew she wasn't saying crap. In fact, I was feeling cold all over and I was sweating buckets. It's the sweat that kept on pouring, in fact it wasn't even the sweat after cardio. It was pouring talaga and I was cold and clammy all over.

"Kuha mo ko ng water dali!" She ran back with water and my tea. I gulped down the water. I knew this was something I couldn't handle anymore myself So I asked her to get my phones on my bed. Kawawa naman she kept running back and forth. Here's when the malas started: We both had no idea to give first aid to dizzy spells. I haven't had this episode since 1998, and I passed out at that time so I had no idea what was the first aid they did to me. At that time, I wished I paid attention to my cell biology and biochem class where they discussed respiration and cellular stuff which I think would benefit my condition. Okay, I did pay attention but my brain couldn't comprehend abstract science.

I immediately decided to call Terry, my doctor friend from college. Ang malas ko naman my Globe had no load, my Smart couldn't connect, and my Sun had no signal. I had to wait till I'm able to stand up (at that point I was squatting with my head down) and walk the stairs. Our cleaning lady told me to eat at least because I might be hungry. So I grabbed a piece of bread and started eating it alternating drinking tea and water.

When I got to my room I immediately plopped on the bed and called Terry. No answer. I called his wife, and she answered and she said he's in QC and gave the number to the landline. I woke Terry up and he asked me what was wrong. I told him what happened to me minutes ago. I told him I have never experienced episodes like that and the last time it happened was a long time ago. I didn't do anything more than usual. I'm used to intense physical activity and I have a very active lifestyle so working out is pretty normal for me. "Yesterday's workout was more cardio pa nga eh." I also told him that it was the first day of my period as well.

Apparently, Terry assessed that I experienced hypoglycemia (lowering of blood sugar). Coupled by my blood drop due to my period, that's why I got all the dizzy spells and all. Terry told me to take iron pills and drink orange juice.

"Pwede tubig?"

"Orange juice! You need sugar!"

Good thing I had orange juice in the ref, which I bought last Saturday since I was craving for orange juice that didn't taste fake. I added brown sugar. If that's not enough sugar, I don't know what that is.

It was really weird that something like that happened to me because I don't see anything in my lifestyle that could trigger a hypoglycemic attack. I'm not diabetic. Everyone who knows me knows how much I eat, that I live on not 3 meals a day but five to six meals a day. I had adobo and rice after that incident plus donuts and juice. I'm very used to exercising and of course, I eat after exercising, especially with yoga or pilates, which needs an empty stomach. Bawal magutom, and all my friends know that. Maybe I was just malas that morning, or probably it was a sign for me not to take my lifestyle for granted, even on days out.

Key points learned:

• Always have load. Wag na magkuripot at ipasabukas ang pagloload. This incident happened early in the morning.
• I need extra jolts of iron during these times of the month. Hence, ferrous sulfate supplements.
• Anorexia is not a good thing. I just want to stress this a lot. Kailangan kumain ng tao. Not eating is not cool. It's unhealthy. Diets are different from starvation. Diets are specialized food plans that can make you lose weight but if you notice, they are planned to fit your lifestyle too. If this could happen to someone who eats six meals a day what more to someone who doesn't eat at all? This incident made me stress the importance of keeping the body nourished.
• Call for help. Malas ko I was at home alone at that time. Good thing the cleaning lady arrived and at least she was able to fetch for my phones so I could call Terry and get me water and food. At that time, I didn't think of orange juice yet but water to combat the dehydration I'm about to get from sweating.
• Have a regular eating schedule. I sometimes tend to push lunch to like 3 pm if I'm working straight. If I can't drop everything to eat, at least I should keep food at hand like crackers, snack cakes like Twinkies or stuff like that.

So that's what I learned this morning. I'm all okay now. In fact, I'm off to work in a bit. But that incident stressed to me the importance of food, which I really appreciate. I love food, I love eating, and I think I'm loving it more. I'm glad I was lucky today that my pockets were saved from hospitalization. I just spent probably on ferrous sulfate and more on food since I'm keeping myself nourished. But all's well now. I'm just enjoying my day.

Clean lines and Short Hemlines

So here's what I wore to the Downy event last Monday. The night before, I stared at my closet for what to wear. As usual, I'm more of the clean silhouette type when it comes to clothes. I knew I was going to eat, so I didn't want anything cinching my waist or abdomen yet since it was a hotel event, I still had to look good.

I settled for my favorite classic: The (very) little black dress:

My nice and naughty dress from Carlotta Manila walks the red carpet with me. The hemline's up to the midthigh already, elongating and exaggerating my height. Throw in wedge leopard sandals to add more height and if anyone asks me, I'm 5'11".

The bareback dress enhances toned shoulders and balances my wide hips too. It's a good contrast to the relatively high neckline the dress has. I kept accessories simple with not too much blings and baubles. I just had a watch that day and that's it, one of my staples and something I can't live the house without, superstitions and old wives' tales begone. I'll wear a watch even if it's old as long as it works. My shoes were quite comfortable and they provided me better support than stilettos.

In contrast to the clean lines and shapes, My hair was pincurled with lots and lots of volume. I take inspiration from Angelina Jolie's trademark long and wavy locks. I wanted hair with shape and character. Curls made my hair shorter than it usually is though, but it's long enough for the effect I wanted. I don't want curls that are too structured and I just pulled the top part back to give a bit of height. Okay, now I'm 6'1".

With the hair wavy and voluminous, I thought makeup should be clean this time. The dress is already short, even though the cut is very clean, so I wanted makeup that's fresh. Besides, it still is a daytime event. Pinks and peaches was the color of my palette here. Pure pink might be too cool for my skin tone and I bronzed prior to this event so I wanted a tad of warmth too.

On Face:

• Olay Total Effects with Cooling essence as Moisturizer
• MAC Just a Pinch Gel blush for a rosy glow from within
• MAC Studiofinish concealer in NC30
• MUD Corrector in BC3 on undereyes to neutralize only 5 hours of sleep.
• MUD foundation in YG1.
• MAC Studiofix powder foundation in NC35 to set and then topped with MAC Select Sheer in NC30

Contour:

• MAC MSF in Dark to contour cheeks, nose bridge, jawline, and forehead.
• MAC MSF in Light to highlight

Blush:

• The Body Shop Blush #06
• MAC MSF in Blonde as a highlight

Brows:

• Make Up For Ever Eyebrow Corrector in #0
• Paul and Joe Eyebrow Pencil #04
• MAC Brow Set in Beguile

Eyes:

• Laura Mercier Eye Base in Eyebright
• MAC Paradisico on lid
• MAC Amber Lights on crease
• MAC Espresso on Outer V and lower lashline
• MAC Bountiful brown to line top and bottom lashes
• MAC Ricepaper to highlight brows.
• MAC Blacktrack for top lash only

Lips:

• MAC Pink Nouveau

I forgot to put mascara here. At first I thought I'd do that at the restroom, but since I was wearing glasses, I got lazy. Anyway, I'm glad for the Blacktrack, which created the illusion of full lashes even though I haven't curled them yet. If you've notice how much fond I am of layering blush, I like to focus on creating a 3D look by combining several colors and textures.

A little trivia I had for you with my dress was that prior to wearing, I washed the scent and used Downy Attraction fabric conditioner, which I purchased a few weeks ago at the grocery so I could try it out. The light and fresh floral scent combined well with my fragrance at that time, which was D&G Light Blue.

Downy Launches the All-New Perfume Series

When Monday holidays were chosen by a few to snuggle on their lazy covers, I was dashing off to the Manila Peninsula doing my makeup, removing my pincurls, and jumping on to my shoes while wearing a tiny black dress inside a Nissan March as the car zoomed past the quasi-empty streets of Metro Manila. A hotel event would be to start my day, an event I made sure to RSVP via SMS and email as soon as I got it.

At the middle of the frenzy of me packing my metal makeup kit and equipment and fixing my hair, my phone rings. It's Arpee, telling me that he's already at the venue (ahead of me, darn) and what seat are we in. That and the rest of the guys were there already. I told him I'll be there in a few minutes. "Naglaba pa ko e!"

As soon as I got there, I asked the staff of the Manila Peninsula where the Rigodon Ballroom was. It was quite easy to spot since all I had to do was follow the scent of flowers, fruits, and clean laundry. That day was the unveiling of Downy's all-new Perfume Series in an event they called "Scents To Remember".

After registry, I grabbed a glass of wine and then looked for the guys. I was able to spot Arpee a few tables near the stage. He was already there with Jane, Kell, Jonel, and Carl. After I sat down, We were offered red iced tea. I then noticed that there were tags at the base of the glasses, which described the ingredients infused in the drink. Much of the menu descriptions could be found here. A scent museum was also displayed where the guests were able to see some of the ingredients in Downy's Perfume Series.

The program started with a dance number with an instrumental version of Lady Gaga's Alejandro.

The event was hosted by Christine Jacob-Sandejas. She was joined later by P&G's Hector Esquinca and Shingo Ishii, who developed the scents in Downy's Perfume Series. She asked the ladies in the audience what scents they were wearing. The first one she asked was me. I was wearing D&G Light Blue at that time, and Shingo broke down the scents for me and the audience. D&G Light Blue is a light and citrusy scent that smells clean and fresh instead of overpowering. It's usually worn more of as a day fragrance and it's described as having notes of Sicilian citron, bluebell, Granny Smith apple, jasmine sambac, bamboo, and white rose before it fades to the bottom note of cedarwood, amber, and musk. Shingo describes it as something you would wear if you're happy or want to feel happy. No wonder it sorta put me in the mood to be all giggly and upbeat, and that's not the rose wine. :P Maybe the Alejandro song.

After that, they described to us what Downy Perfume series was. Hector Esquinca created the fragrance of Passion.


I had the chance to take a whiff of Passion days before the event when we were asked to take the scent challenge, which I blogged before. Passion had a fruity floral scent, a scent which reminds me of home. Passion's scent is sweet and vibrant. It takes its inspiration from things yummy - fruits, French pastries, and flowers. Apple blossom, pear, raspberries, and vanilla are some of the ingredients so the smell is sort of sweet and comforting.

Here's Shingo Ishii describing the scent he created, Attraction, which takes its inspiration from the gardens of Grasse, France. Coincidentally, this is also the perfume capital of the world. Attraction is more floral with different flower notes like jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, and iris. It fades off to an Oriental woody scent as its bottom notes. It was also said that Attraction takes its inspiration from a very beautiful and elegant French actress.

Sniffing the two variants, the scents are a bit more elegant than the original clean Downy we're used to. Prior to this event, I was able to use Downy Attraction in my laundry and the smell is quite floral instead of fruity. Floral not in a dead way, of course. Anyway, I did notice though that aside from the fabric being softer than being washed with just laundry soap, the scent lingered on even after being inside the closet for quite a while, while my other clothes lost the clean fresh laundry scent, even though they were still clean, hence that's why I often spray my clothes with linen spray. This is due to the Perfume Microcapsume Technology, which gives the clothes a long-lasting fragrance. In fact, these capsules slowly release more fragrance upon contact so we get fresh bursts of fragrance all day. This I proved when I accidentally dropped a bit of Downy Attraction on my slacks one time and the scent did last almost the entire day.

I guess my towels and makeup bags would be smelling nicer the next time I get to dump them in the laundry. And guess what? You could also use Downy when washing wigs and deodorizing new brushes as soon as I purchased them. I washed some of my wigs with Downy and they smell really nice. Another thing I also used with them that after I washed some of my shawls, instead of throwing away the water I used to soak the clothes in use it to wash garage floors or rinse off dirty flipflops.

The choice of fabric conditioner scent would be up to you. Arpee and Noreen prefer Downy Attraction's floriental scent. Here at home, the comforting fruity sweet scents of Downy Passion was the scent our laundry had the following day. Me personally, it really depends on my mood. At first, I like Attraction when I'm feeling all elegant and pretty. Passion would be if I want to snuggle under the covers on a lazy rainy morning or just be laid back.

Sharing Some Of My August Shoots

Sharing a few of my shoots for the month of August with two of my pretty model friends.

Last Sunday, I had a shoot with my Buhay Baboy friends Jho and Ram. The pegs were amazing and we all know how well Jho registers in pictures (she's got a billboard right smack in EDSA to prove it).

I love the Spanish Senorita peg. would you believe it was supposed to be a plum scheme originally from the peg but when I saw the Spanish fan props, I had to do my own alterations.

Peacock feathers definitely. The lips are a mix of MAC Ruby Woo (which I found out had a retro-matte finish, which explains why it's drier than Russian Red or Viva Glam I) and topped off with Shu Uemura RD 165, Jho's favorite red lipstick from my kit. For her foundation, I used my MUD foundation which clears skin almost instantly.

The second peg was totally not the sunshine-y Jho we know. Dark lips, dark eyes, black fabric, black lace gloves, and yes... black eyebrows (a matte black eyeshadow was used here) were used to change the sweet Jho to someone like this:I love playing with eyebrows since they totally alter the face of a person. Jho's lighter brows during the first peg created a totally different and more subtle beauty shot. This concept shot totally changed her face.

We're cooking up a new shoot soon, this time more colorful and fun.

All of you remember my shoot with Diana right?

Her basic, clean headshot spells fierce.

Models are required to have basic and clean headshots all the time and to keep it updated. The clean headshot should have simple hair and makeup with minimal postprocessing, just basic cleaning and contrast. Here's Diana with super-clear skin that glows and not a hair out of place.

From clean, Diana goes vampy and glam. I think she reminds me of Angelina Jolie here, with dark smoky eyes and nude pink lips, a very Angie trademark look.

And here's Diana chanelling Lara Stone


I used plummy lipstick here topped with a bit of my black lipstick so it still registers dark on black and white photos.

I'm off to go to an event in a bit. It's a national holiday today, and there's no work for me today. I guess it's time for everyone to relax. Enjoy everyone!

A Little Nose Exercise and Special Surprise from Downy

I don't know if it's just me but I'm the type of girl who likes to get high on fabric softener. If you're rolling your eyes or raising eyebrows at the thought of me getting high over a grocery item, probably you could relate when you get your laundry and sink your face on the clean sheets and sniffing the scent. I'm one of those individuals too. When I lived in California a few years back, my favorite chore was doing the laundry. Everytime it's laundry day, I get all excited. I didn't mind the slight handwashing before I dunk everything in the washer. My favorite part was getting them babies out of the dryer and folding the towels and linen and I'd sniff through those sheets.

Whenever I'm in the grocery, I'd sniff through the bottles of fabric conditioner. I admit the household has had its favorite scents and brands. Among them though, Downy has been a household staple already since they were washing my baby clothes up to my short shorts now (:P) We'd have a stock of these iconic blue bottles with the pink cap and I'd have an occasional boo-boo of staining white towels with the blue liquid. Downy has evolved from the original scent to other variants. Imported ones have an aromatherapy line and we even have our local varieties.

Okay, so you guys might find it funny for me to be talking about laundry stuff when this is a makeup blog. Actually, here's a little thing: I wash my makeup bags, towels, and (fabric) brush rolls myself. My work stuff is actually a separate load from the house linens so as not to involve a mixup.

And speaking of laundry, I was doing the laundry this afternoon when this pretty little basket came for me:
I guess it's with Downy's promotion of the Perfume series with two new scents: Passion and Attraction, which smells almost as if you're wearing luxury perfume when it's actually just fabric softener.

Anyway, the pretty basket is actually a challenge for us bloggers. The first challenge asked us to take a sniff between the two towels provided in the pack. One of them has been sprinkled with perfume and the other one was washed with new Passion from Downy. As soon as I pried the basket off the protective plastic wrap, I got too excited I almost mismatched the two plastic wraps from the two protective towels. Good thing the scent sorta lingered through the plastic. Whew!Here are the two test subjects - towel #1 and towel #2. Both smelled absolutely fantastic and I was sniffing through them a good deal (getting high 8-}) hahaha. As I'm typing this, towel #1 is right by my nose because I couldn't stop sniffing. Addict...

It was quite hard to test as both smelled really good. After weighing my choices and deciding, I decided to go with these guesses:

Towel #1 as the one being washed with Downy Attraction
Towel #2 was the one sprinkled with perfume.

Anyway, question #2 also checked out knowledge on the perfume notes and how sensitive our noses were. It was given that Passion (i.e. the red variety) has jasmine, ylang-ylang, and soft musk. They made us guess the fourth ingredient between the three choices: a) cinnamon b) rose and c) lavander. I'm guessing rose here. (Crossing fingers hoping on getting them right). It was quite tricky for me though, since I was bordering on rose and lavander but I thought rose. Anyway, I do hope I get it right (*fingers crossed*)

The pretty basket also came with an invitation for me to an event at the unveiling of Passion and Attraction. :) This looks pretty exciting too!