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.

February 2013

DERPIN' more backlog more fun hehehe. SO! February 2013. I remember it like it was yesterday. February was mostly known as "The Month" or "Thesis Month" because early February was when The Defense happened. Ohhhh boy was that a roller coaster.

As promised, here is the second installment of my monthly (I say monthly but they never come out on time anyway) vlog recaps:



• Chinese New Year = mom coming home for a visit.
• Visiting my cousins and watching a round of Dino Crisis and Chrono Cross, and winning a round (or two) of You Don't Know Jack.
• Treating my dad out to dinner at Casa Marcos. This was the same day as my defense so it was also a bit of a celebratory dinner.
• The same night of my defense was when Mama came home, so we picked her up at the airport after hanging around for a bit at Burgos Circle.
• Random trip to Eastwood and checking out the tiangge as well as visiting Tous les Jours. ALL THE NOMS

It wasn't as eventful as January's recap, I guess? But maybe that was because I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off because of #THESISIT back in January. I personally see February 2013 as "DEFENSE", really. It was the pinnacle of my month, and I clearly remember my cramming on the way to school, and the headache and hunger I fought while defending, my stupid slip up/word vomit, the tears that came out after finding out I passed, wanting to literally sob outside the classroom because I was so relieved (I didn't do that though because I'd seem a little like I was overreacting I prolly was.) I even remember catching one of my old professors, Sir JL, at the elevator on the way down, and even seeing my then-class president for 4AD3 at the Beato facade while waiting for my dad to get the car. I remember sitting on the luggage that contained my thesis materials and still not believing I pulled everything off.

BAH I'M GETTING NOSTALGIC AND EMOTIONAL AGAIN. Oh, another highlight of February was the Stars concert!!! But I have no documentation of that save for an outfit post. So on to other random photos!

Picked these up after one of my many visits to Booksale. My cat lady is showing.

I really wanna eat bread right now.

I don't remember why this picture was taken. All I know is that it was one of the few shots taken in February, so I'm including it in the roster.

Speaking of few, I've barely done any photographing lately. I mean, besides blogging stuff, I haven't had a real shoot ever since #THESISIT, and the last shoot I did for that was in January. I don't know if I have the right to say that I might've been a little burned out from shooting, but I do miss it. I think because of #THESISIT, I slowly began to associate my photographs with the word 'stress' for a while, so after graduation I began to just take it easy first. (Well I WAS supposed to shoot someone here in HK, but that plan fell through... sob.) I HAVE SOMETHING I WANT TO DO WHEN I GET BACK TO MANILA THOUGH! Stay tuned.

FOTD: Same Old (Mostly Old)

There's something a little vain about posting so much of one's face in one post (not that I haven't done that already haha). There's something a little bad (not really) about not updating one's blog after so long despite having so much time. There's also another something, and that's the similarity of this post title to this one. That's because this FOTD was taken with that OOTD. (Bring on all the shortcuts!)

So as you can tell, this was some random makeup look I donned with the outfit I documented in the aforementioned linked post above. I've taken a liking to documenting certain makeup looks of mine that I've paired with some outfits (I have two more on the way) and it's just as fun as outfit documentation. Mostly because I'm such a makeup fanatic I guess. Also this post title is fitting because this isn't much of a makeup look, hence the same old, same old reference. It's pretty basic. I don't even remember what I did anymore because this is so old (my hairstyle should be a major indicator.) I've switched up how I wear my eyeliner now though, and I really like my new method. It doesn't line the entire eye like this look and it's a little simpler, but I love how it looks.

I'm not really sure why I haven't been blogging as much anymore. I'm currently in Hong Kong again and it's been pretty fun, but my internet here is a little wonky. Like, my internet back in Manila is heaps better. I've been documenting my outfits via video though (this is only because I forgot to bring my remote control HAHAHA FAILURES) and-- wait speaking of video I never actually got around to posting about my first HK trip. Wow, four for you Ina.

January 2013

Hey folks, here's a video diary of my January. I've made it a point to make a monthly video recap because I've had the longest frustration of making videos with good quality, and I finally had the opportunity to when I got a camera upgrade last December. It'd be a waste not to maximize this video capability, right?

I've been a little lax with posting on time though, mostly because my problems with Youtube have been so discouraging (let me tell you that a video like that up there could take a week to upload properly) that I've become lazy with video editing.

I figured I needed a little break from all the #THESISIT posts (the 'series' is coming to a close pretty soon anyway) as it might have burned me out a little. LOLJK or maybe I've become sick of seeing all those photos from my thesis, since I did have to deal with those images over and over again for months. (When I was done with my defense, I stared at my photos with delight, and then I just wanted to burn everything in sight HAHAHAHA love-hate relationship y'all.) Besides, I missed blogging about actual life happenings.

So, a recap of what mostly took place in January, according to this vlog:

• Tofu keeping me company on the dining table a.k.a. #THESISIT work place.
• I could not remember much about InDesign for the life of me, so I had to layout my thesis book by scratch via Photoshop. It's not as accurate as it could be, but it was better than nothing.
• My sister and her family moved to a new place and we paid them a visit.
• Re-visiting Little Tokyo and having lunch at this restaurant called Seryna.
• Buying my ticket for the Stars concert!!!
• Re-shooting Kevin for thesis.
• Watching my cousin play the first Resident Evil game and laughing at the horrible acting. (To their credit, their Wesker actor at least actually looks like Wesker.)
• Randomly having lunch with one of my godfathers at this bay/marina/idek restaurant after running some thesis errands. The weather was nice and cool that day.
• Driving to Katips for some friends' thesis exhibit. See this post.

The little note I left myself on my planner was a reminder that I had to persevere and not give up on thesis. I nearly considered dropping -- or it crossed my mind at the most -- because I was THAT deep in shat. I understood why some of my batchmates had dropped out of the race along the way, and I had to keep telling myself to fight on because I could NOT do thesis all over again after coming so close to the finish line. I just couldn't do that to myself.

Anyway, a couple of pictures:

I love passing this corridor. It's just a little bit of my childhood, as my dad and I would often have lunch at this one restaurant in the area (I can't even remember the name!) whenever I'd come along with him to work.

This makes me happy. Hehe.

Cat nap at Becky's, where we were chilling with the rain after our shoot. Related post here.

More cats.

Snacking on milk tea and lemon squares while working on thesis.

Now the thing with vlogging with magical quality is that I can't seem to find middle ground between what to document as a video and what to photograph. I'm struggling to find the balance, and I've just recently come up with a formula (by recently, I mean while I was making this post) as to which medium is to be used for what content. Except it's already mid-April so future monthly recaps will still be a little fuzzy with content.

#THESISIT: Damsel In This Dress

Going back to regular programming (M.I.A. on the wordwideweb because I've been enjoying life a.k.a. spending time with my mom while she was in town, an out-of-town trip with la familia, etc.), we have the beautiful Mica Ting as the Damsel In This Dress. This shoot was more of a contemporary play to the classic filipiniana/terno/Maria Clara-esque look, with juuuust a tiny study on the femininity of lace. I found that Mica would be such a perfect subject for this theme, and she was such a dream to shoot. Literally. I have always wanted to photograph Mica, ever since my freshman year of college. I first encountered her through my friend Aaron and his photography (Mica modeled for him from time to time), and have always really loved her look since then. (Funny story on how Aaron and I met: he was schoolmates with TerryJamMae, and so the three became our mutual friends and we'd hear about each other from them, but the first time we met in person was in Medical City. I looked like trash confined to the hospital bed with an IV stuck to my hand, but it was an interesting first meeting.)

Mica was such a darling. She was so game and even drove up to my place (which was where we shot) and even got lost along the way but she was just so lovely about it, especially considering how we had never met before this and hardly talked (save for our text messaging about the theme a few weeks prior to the shoot) and I JUST THINK THERE'S SOMETHING REALLY SHADY ABOUT ME TEXTING HER OUT OF THE BLUE SAYING I WAS FRIENDS WITH HER FRIENDS (although technically it was the truth) AND INVITING HER TO COME TO MY HOUSE I MEAN AM I THAT MUCH OF A CREEP?!??!??? i probably am loljk

What makes this shoot special are the following details: 1.) It was my first shoot with Mica; 2.) It was my first time shooting someone I contacted outside my circle of friends/usual roster of models/someone I had never met irl; 3.) It was my first shoot with my new camera. I kid you not when I say I only received my camera just a few hours (maybe idk 2 hours including lunchtime??? IT'S ALL AN EMOTIONAL BLUR) before Mica arrived, so there might've been a tiny bit of ~*~wingin' it~*~ vibes. Canon's pretty user-friendly but I was so accustomed to my 400D that my shooting with this theme wasn't as fluid as it could've been since I had to fumble with where certain controls are and whatnot as I didn't have time to thoroughly study the manual.

Mica being so naturally gorgeous made everything easy though. So many shots from this shoot are pretty much some all-time favorites from my entire thesis. Anyway, here are some outtakes:

Thank you so much Mica for being so game!!! You are so, so beautiful, and I look forward to working with you again in the future!

Powderpuff

There comes a time in every person's life when they decide to cut their hair short.

Lolz, I'm jk, I had short hair last summer, I decided on this haircut some time last year in July or something, w/e. But hey, I got one of my dream hair colors today! Well yesterday, according to the time of this post being typed up. My friend called me a powderpuff when he saw a picture of me with my new hair, and I find it so rad and magical and appropriate. Powderpuff. Has a nice ring to it.

I've always wanted gray hair. And mint green. And powder blue. And lavender. And cotton candy pink. Pastels, obviously. BASICALLY, ALL THE HAIR COLORS I'VE ALWAYS WANTED REQUIRED SEVERE BLEACHING. But heeeyyy I went for it anyway. The bleaching process took so long (apparently they were trying to get rid of the red pigments in my hair from my previous dye job), and at first I didn't even realize my hair was being bleached. All I knew was that my hair was getting colored to an ash blonde, and I thought the dye that was being placed in would be the color itself without any bleaching (so naive right), but then I wondered why the dye didn't reach up to my very roots. Later on I felt an itch on my scalp (I suppose the bleach was leaking) and then the hairstylist added on more dye, this time to the roots itself. And then my entire scalp began to burn, and that was when I realized my hair was actually being bleached. (Also because I noticed that my hair turned blonde. Duh Ina, duh.)

That wasn't the worst of it though. When they placed the ash dye after bleaching was when my scalp REALLY began to burn. So much that after a few minutes I was getting sleepy because my scalp was numbing and the burning sensation was beginning to feel like a cooling sensation LOL Totes worth it because happiness. They also placed some black dye near my roots or some other layers and it felt like heaven because the cool dye was such a relief after all the burning. My scalp's still a little sore after these hair escapades.

Back and side view! In a nutshell, my haircut is a bowl cut with an undercut. There is a wonderful satisfaction from chopping off so much hair after having to deal with a thick mane for several months. Also, my hair color seems to register as gray in photos. In real life it comes off greenish, sometimes near-white under some lightning, and other times I don't even know.

I have no intention of maintaining this hair color or cut, mostly because doing so will be such a pain, literally and figuratively. I think it'll be fun to see how this color fades (my blue hair faded nicely into blonde) and how the cut grows out, and that way I get to experience several colors and cuts along the way. My deader than dead hair needs to recuperate as well anyway.

This is the shortest I've ever cut my hair since I was a kid -- shorter than when I hacked off my long hair last summer -- and I find it slightly ironic that I choose to cut my hair so short when I'm not even at my slimmest. (I gained approximately 10+ pounds last year and haven't been able to shake it off. #THESISIT stress eating, curse you.) I already have a vague idea for my next haircut (by vague, I mean a 0.01% semblance of an idea), and now that I've gone to the dark side (loljk, more like light side) of bleaching, I might end up dyeing my hair into another dream shade!

Anyway, I just got back from an out-of-town trip the other day, and I haven't found any time to sit down and go through my computer. I seem to go out a lot whenever my mom's in town; in fact we'll be out again later, and it'll most likely stretch on into the night again. I think I've been out of the house everyday since she got back, and that was on the 22nd of March. The 'clickety-clack' that I hear from my laptop when I type sounds so foreign to me now, and I'm having a hard time getting back into the groove of the worldwideweb. I haven't touched my laptop in almost a week until today, and going through so much backlog is a little... menacing. How people can maintain a fluid amount of posts on their blog on an almost daily basis, I'll never know.