#THESISIT: The Drifter

The Drifter is about a boy wanting to explore the outdoors out of the confines of home, and is a reflection of children's innocence and how they are capable of making an adventure out of anything. It has themes of wanderlust and was inspired by the Lost Boys of Peter Pan. I was actually watching the film Hook when I came up with the concept, and said film was probably the first and closest thing I got to having Peter Pan in my childhood. I never actually saw the Disney Peter Pan as a kid, and besides Hook I only have Kingdom Hearts to bring me to Peter Pan.

Story aside, THIS IS FINALLY THE LAST OF THE #THESISIT POSTS! This is major overdue, but one of the reasons I always put off posting this was because I absolutely hate this shoot. I hate it. HATE IT. It's the one I like the least amongst all my thesis shoots, but I think a major factor for this dislike is because this was actually a re-shoot, and the first shoot I had with Kevin was heaps better. That could be because cigarette smoke was involved and I have a bias towards that because I think it photographs beautifully, but I really think the first shoot was much better than this one. I hope I'll be able to blog about that shoot soon.

There were some things that worked against us with this shoot, and one of them was the weather. It showered on and off when we were shooting, and the lighting wasn't as good as it could be. Also, the location where we had our shoot was supposed to have a cool bridge which I thought would work so well with the concept, but when we got there IT WAS GONE. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY BECAUSE I WAS SO SURE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THERE. I EVEN CALLED UP ANA WHILE I WAS FREAKING OUT AND SHE WAS CONFUSED AS WELL BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THE STUPID BRIDGE EXISTED IN THE AREA. Major disappoint.

At least the venue was still pretty to begin with. And it's a good thing Kevin's so attractive. So. Without further ado, here are the fruits of our rained-on-with-a-migraine-to-boot labor.

This was actually the very shoot that caused a hiccup during my defense. Yeah, that word vomit episode I mentioned. (I feel like as long as I will talk about anything #THESISIT, I will always be linking back to that post.) It wasn't anything about the concept, or approach, or execution. It was the very loophole in my study that I worried about and the jury caught on just as I feared and a question was asked and I JUST. WORD VOMIT. DUG MY OWN GRAVE. Let's just not go there.

And as we casually turn away from that subject, here are some outtakes. This isn't all of them because some were too similar to others and the rest I just really dislike? Mmm yeah.

Another reason why I hate this shoot is because I unintentionally made the makeup look like sage mode!Naruto. Yeah. Yeeaaahhh you see it now? Yeah. You're welcome. I hate myself too.

It's been so long since I last touched any of my thesis files, and looking back at it all, this shoot especially, has made me realize how... how HORRIBLE I am when it comes to planning shoots. I mean, okay, you've gotta give me some credit for being able to pull everything off all on my own (besides our thesis being the individual kind of thing, all my shoots were just me and the model with an occasional assistant, which meant I did the hairmakeupstyling for everything because I suck and I mean a lot of photographers do that too but with #THESISIT it was just extra stressful) with a spankin' good grade despite cramming every shoot and everything in between. But gosh, I was rather awful with the pre-production of shoots. A lot of them were only finalized the night before. Sometimes on those 'night before's nothing is actually 'finalized' and a concept is only formulated. It's really terrible. I need to get this out of my system.

Biggest of thanks to Kevin for agreeing to model for me again despite the last minute call. And to Terry for always helping out. And to Patco too, because he held up an umbrella for us. And to everyone who somehow assisted and involved themselves in my thesis. Thank you so much. I would not have graduated on time if it weren't for you all. Hugs and kisses and cotton candy.

Internationally Legal

So five days ago, I officially became internationally legal. Some time in those five days, I dyed my hair pink.

It was a little spontaneous, to be honest. I stumbled upon Manic Panic sellers in Hong Kong, the price was cheaper, I figured I should make the most of my still-blonde hair while I'm still unemployed and not bound by work on what my appearance should be (of course, that depends on where I end up working, but you know.) I've known about Manic Panic since my high school days (thanks to a certain LiveJournal hair community hohoho) but never tried them out because of, duh, SCHOOL. Even in college I wasn't permitted to have bright hair. Oh what years of creative oppression can do to you LOLJK

Talking makeup, I used one of the Maybelline Color Tattoos I mentioned here as a base and placed a similar, if not slightly lighter, shimmery shadow over it. Then I used a shimmery taupe shade in my crease and just did the usual liner routine. On the lips I have a mix of the blue and pink Pout Paints from Sleek Cosmetics.

This is the loudest my hair color has been, at least to me. When my hair was red it was pretty saturated, although I never realized just how red it became until it was gone because it was the kind of color that would only really show up under the light. This pink hair is independent from whatever lighting there is, but of course, that comes with bleached hair. The blue hair I had was pretty opaque too, but I always had to hide that in school so it wasn't like I could prance around in it as much as I'd like.

Pink was always one of the colors I've wanted for hair. I've already said that all of my dream hair colors are pastels (mint green, powder blue, lavender, etc.) and while this hair dye's name is "Cotton Candy Pink", it's not as light as I'd like it to be because my hair was light enough to begin with. Not that I could be bothered to bleach again anyway, but hey, at least I can say my hair went pink already! That's like two dream colors off the bucket list (I only wish my ash color stayed longer), and next year I wanna go for a really vibrant, light blue.

This is what my hair went through, basically. I really liked the pink at first but I feel like it makes my dark roots more prominent. So maybe I miss my blonde hair? Or maybe my roots looked less like a wreck with my blonde hair is why I think I might miss it. This pink hair is really enjoyable though, and I'm interested in seeing how it'll transition out.

As for my birthday, my parents and I spent it at the mall and watching Fast & Furious 6. At least now I can say I turned a year older AND saw a movie at the cinemas in another country. It's a little crazy how I'm considered an ~*~adult~*~ everywhere now, and lately I find myself looking back on my life. Mostly schooling life, grade school included. When I look back on it, I've come to realize that I do NOT want to go back there again because it's just awkward and tiring to have to deal with all those emotions and angst and friendlessness and shyness. I am verrily nostalgic, but I like where I am now. I only hope I manage to improve myself in the years to come without completely losing myself to ~*~wisdom~*~ and becoming a drag.

I might be an adult now, but I feel like I'll always see myself as a kid. Or maybe it's just my short stature talking.

FOTD: Blushing Blossom

Surprise! Another blog post just a day after the previous one! Except it's another FOTD post, which means it's a lot of my face, which means it's another annoying post, but that's okay, I think we can deal.

So this was a look I wore early on in my Hong Kong trip, back when it was still major sweater weather. (For the record, the weather in Hong Kong as of this post is stormy, however some time last week it was a bit humid.) I did the whole blush-high-up-reaching-the-eyes look that I've always seen on Japanese girls. Like, always. Okay, not always and not on all Japanese girls, but I've seen them a lot. I think it's a pretty look so I don't know why I never tried it before.

Oh and remember that Too Cool For School gloss I talked about? I was wearing it here, with the stain on the inside of the lips/gradient lips thing that I love doing. I remember trying that look out for the first time in... 2011? Yeah, around that time, except back then I muted the rest of my lip color. I don't know the relevance of that story with this look, BUT THE GLOSS OF THIS THING IS AMAZANG I MEAN LOOK AT DEM JUICY LIPS unless that's not really your thing I can totes understand that too.

I mentioned in this post that I've picked up a new method of wearing eyeliner, and this is it. Just some minor lining on the outer corners fading in. For years I would line my entire eye and I'm not really sure why I suddenly decided to switch it up. Maybe I just grew out of the old method? Occasionally I'll still line my entire eye, but that's pretty rare now.

Besides this method, I sometimes like to make a sharp, long wing and fading it inwards as well without lining the entire eye. I like how both methods sort of allow your ~*~natural eye look~*~ (pfft Ina dafuq r u sayin') to surface while still providing definition.

Check out dat sexy bruise Tofu gave me when I was bathing him a few weeks back. He hates baths and while I was carrying him to the bathroom he latched onto me and one of his claws dug just a little too deep.

I think the floral headband worked well with the makeup look. Very ~*~spring~*~-y-esque. Hahaha no Ina no don't even try.

I almost forgot to mention that this is my last post before becoming internationally legal! SEE Y'ALL IN MY NEXT LIFE, KIDDIES!

Collective Makeup Acquisitions

By 'collective' I mean stuff from... late last year. So some of these might be half a year old already. Please note that some of these were gifts; Christmas gifts even. I've been meaning to post some of these but I never got around to, so now I just put them together to make a collective post.

The gloss and MAC (it's fake, so don't go all "woah ~*~MAC~*~" on me kids) lippie were gifts, and the two L.A. Girl lipsticks were from Eastwood's tiangge. They were P150 each, and that's pretty cheap 'cause I saw the exact same tubes at Watsons and the price was hiked to about double the amount.

Aaand a swatch of all four! The gloss is pretty sheer (well, sheer enough for me; it looks weird on the lips on its own) so I like to wear it with another dark lip and just make everything darker and glossy when I feel like it. The MAC faker (I'm sorry if you have issues with buying fake MAC but not everyone can afford that brand MYSELF ESPECIALLY I WANT TO OWN MAC PRODUCTS BUT I CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO SPEND SO MUCH ON IT OKAY) is a nice everyday kind of color. The L.A. Girl lippies are nice and bright and obnoxious and I love it.

NYX eyeshadow bases! I FINALLY HAVE THE JUMBO EYESHADOW PENCIL IN MILK I HAVE BEEN HUNTING THIS DOWN IN FOREVER OKAY OKAY I MEAN

Forever 21 eyeshadow palette that I got as a Christmas gift last year. AAAAH DOESN'T IT LOOK SO PRETTY???

Concealer palette that I got from Terry's mom. It used to be hers, but she tried it out and basically it just burned on her face. Then she gave it to me since I could use it for shoots and whatnot; the note on the palette cover is a reminder of what happened to Terry's mom's face which means a similar effect could happen to Terry should I decide to use it on her for a shoot. Thanks for the reminder, Ted. In any case, these are pretty good concealers! I've actually already hit pan on my shade huhu.

Loose face powder from Nichido. I think it's a bargain because it's cheap but you get a ton of product!

ELF goodies! I don't have that many bronzers (I usually skip any bronzing because I kind of struggle with sculpting my face, but now I've gotten the hang of it!) and ELF's pretty affordable so I thought why not? Also, I've been needing a good face primer and I've heard ELF's is pretty good. I've been really liking it so far. (Later on I compulsively got Maybelline's Baby Face pore eraser and it works just as good and I even heard it was a good dupe for the Benefit primer? Idk. It was compulsive buy because I already had the ELF face primer but the Maybelline one was on sale so it just got to me.)

Lippies from Nichido and Ever Bilena + swatches. I'm sorry for my blotchy hand; I must've been swatching the hell out of stuff the day I photographed this hahaha.

THESE MAKEUP BRUSHES OHMYGOD THEY ARE MAGIC AND SO AFFORDABLE OKAY I MEAN WOW YOU GUYS SHOULD GET THESE They're from Landmark. As in, department store. Go on. Go. Go. Go get 'em. GO.

And then I found out Beauty Bar carried brush guards and then wow. They're not as sturdy as the originals (it can't support your brushes if you're drying them upside down in a cup or smthn) but they do the job and FINALLY I've just been needing brush guards for when I clean my brushes.

Speaking of, I am the WORST at cleaning my brushes. I just find them to be a chore, so my mom got me this brush cleaner from Japonesque. A bit of a splurge, really, considering how pricey the brand is, but the price difference between this and Beauty Bar's wasn't much so my mom went with this one instead.

And then I stocked up on makeup remover wipes because I was running out and these things just make removing your makeup so much easier really.

A beauty blender dupe from Etude House. Isn't the packaging so adorbs? This makes applying face makeup a DREAM.

A silver pigment we got from... James Cooper? Fanny Serrano? One of the two. It's a magical silver and I had never owned any pigments until this one. It's the same silver I was wearing in these pictures.

Goodies that I got in Macau but are actually available in Hong Kong as well. I wasn't really going to get these shades from Maybelline as I wanted the taupe, orange, and emerald ones, but the shades Macau and HK carry are only these two, the blue, purple, silver, and white and I tried these two and actually liked them and since the Philippines does not carry this for some strange reason, my mom pushed me to get them. (Not pictured is the blue shade that we got when we got back to HK because I caved lol.) I'll save you from any swatches because there is enough of that on the worldwideweb.

ALSO GUYS MY FIRST EVER CANMAKE PRODUCT!!! I find Canmake to be really expensive actually, so this is prolly a one-time thing. It's a cream blush that feels like it could go on to a powder finish and it has these pretty gold sparkles. It's a light pink and it's a shade that I don't have yet so yay!

So I was curious about the whole snail face mask fiasco and decided to try it out, along with another face mask for oil control and stuff. These are from Sasa, by the way. I really liked the snail mask so my mom and I went to Bonjour (some of their products are cheaper than Sasa) and stocked up on a couple more.

AND THEN I GOT MY HANDS ON TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL AND DIED AT EVERYTHING. I'm pretty sure the major appeal of this brand is its packaging because wow did they match their packaging to their brand name.

I got this pink multi color paint and it's a nice, bright pink. I swatched it and it looked so good. More than anything I'll be using this on the eyes because I already have several pinks for the lips. It looks like... a small pot of poster paint. So cute.

This lipgloss thing has a stain on one end and a gloss on the other. I saw this on a model on the brand's website and I think it's meant to make your lips kind of jelly-like and I just really liked how it looked. The gloss is pretty thick so it really does look like jelly when applied. *__*

OF COURSE, THESE STUPID LIP CRAYONS. I COULDN'T NOT GET THESE. THEY ARE THE EPITOME OF MY OLD BLOG USERNAME ("crayoneyeliner" -- alright so these aren't eyeliners but they look like crayons and CAN YOU NOT SEE THE CONNECTION?? PLEASE FREAK OUT WITH ME???) AND HOW CAN YOU NOT GET THEM

They're like tinted lip balms so the color payoff is pretty sheer. I think they're sheerer when applied on the lips, especially the pink one. I actually wanted to get the yellow crayon because it's my favorite color, but it hardly had any color payoff. Out of all the shades I think the orange one was the most saturated. Originally the pink one was my mom's, but she ended up not liking how it looked on her (she's used to more opaque pinks lol) so it ended up being mine mwahaha. I have orange lippies here and there, but nothing as subtle as this one. Overall I really like these for everyday, wala lang kind of things.

This eyeshadow is from Forever 21 and it's a duochrome. A FLIPPING DUOCHROME EVERYBODY!!! There is not enough of duochromes in makeup stores I step into, be it in Manila or HK; I think I own about two, but they're really old The Body Shop eyeshadows from my mom that I crushed into pseudo-pigments because they were already busted in the pot. SERIOUSLY THOUGH, DUOCHROME. I love duochromes and I barely have any of them in my life so I kinda freaked out at this also it was dirt cheap and it's actually pretty big and the packaging's pretty swanky too and AAAAHHHH

Seriously, I am obsessed with duochromes. Partially because they are so absent in my life.

One rainy day I was going around Causeway Bay and randomly decided to go into a Maple store. And then I found these colored mascaras by Collection 2000 (the only time I ever hear about this brand is from this one YouTuber and it's only about their concealer; I have never heard about the brand outside of this YT-er) and well I really love colored mascaras okay. There's not enough of them in the market either, though I guess that's understandable since colored eyelashes aren't everyone's kind of party. The liquid liner is this turquoise shade and looks really pretty.

When I got home though, I suddenly realized I had an extra mascara tube (the one that says "LONGER LASH" in the picture.) I was like, "NO I DIDN'T BUY THIS DON'T TELL ME I SPENT MONEY ON SOMETHING I ALREADY HAVE NO NO NO" because it's a dark brown and my Ever Bilena brown mascara's similar. And then I checked my receipt and I wasn't charged for it, but it was on the list of items purchased, so I think they just threw this one in for free? It was the only item without a price sticker on it, so I really do think they gave it for free. Score.

Here's a swatch of all of them. The green mascara's more opaque than the purple one, but both are still pretty saturated. The mascara that came for free is a little darker than my brown EB mascara, but boy does it sure live up to its 'longer lash' claim because one coat of it is enough to lengthen my lashes.

Eyebrow pencil + nude-colored pencil from NYX. The nude one can act as a nude lipliner, and a spot concealer, and a liner for the waterline. My mom and I use it for the waterline, although hers is about a shade up.

AND SO THAT IS ALL. Man when I continue to push blog posts further back they just accumulate into one big post. Whatevs. I am sorry if you come across posts like this one and think that the author is shallow and materialistic; I don't think of it that way at all but there's a possibility that others do. I just... really love makeup okay. =)) I know Terry likes posts like these so at least I know I'm not the only one who enjoys them.