June 2013

June 2013 vlog! It's strange; it's already August yet June feels like a distant memory now, despite it being relatively recent. In June I was back in Manila, only to fly back to HK that same month. Here's a recap of what this vlog includes:

• I met up with some blockmates for a brief hangout. (Actually, we met up for some concealer. No joke.)
• Met up with Camille once more! Getting to meet up with her brings me so much joy, and the clip that includes her was funny because it was shot prior to her Daily Grind shoot.
• I also got to hang out with Ana again, and I got to see gameplay of the new Devil May Cry game for the first time. I even got to play and helped Ana get through a boss fight. (Anina power y'all.) I also met Ana's friend Maysie that same day, and she is mega cool.
• Also in June was that shoot I did with Young Star! I got to meet Mye Chung and her beautiful cats, and for the record: Mye, her cats, and her studio are all very, very pleasant. It was a joy getting to meet her, yet also a little... peculiar, I'd say, as I had heard of her back in my high school days (then her college days) when we were both still on DeviantArt.
• I FINALLY got to play Alice: Madness Returns... except ever since I went back to Hong Kong and come back from there I haven't resumed playing it.
• And then there was the B.A.P LOE HK concert a.k.a. THE HIGHLIGHT OF JUNE 2013 AND MAYBE EVEN 2013 ITSELF??? More at the beginning of this post on how I ended up in HK after only two weeks back in Manila.

Here is a photo of Bel, Anette, and... I will assume this is Korra, but I could be wrong.

Ana's friend Maysie, from what I know, is a photographer as well. Ana was insistent that we meet each other because of this similarity, plus our hair colors, and the fact that we both have tattoos. I don't know what Maysie's current hair color is, but I loved this faded mint green. Hair envy!

Together, we were cotton candy heads. (Also, deets of what I was wearing are here!)

That day was also the weirdest and most awkward Anina day to date. It involved spices, family members, the word 'bitches', and... other things. Thank you always, Anette.

June was also my friend Stephy's birthday month, and some of my favorite people and I met up to celebrate it. I could only stay for a brief coffee date in the afternoon though as I had my cousin's graduation party to attend to later that night.

Terry!

Tintin!

More Terry! (Her outfit deets are here.)

And more Tintin!

These are Mye Chung's beautiful cats. I don't remember their names anymore, but they were such darlings. Such fluffballs. I wanted to hug them all afternoon. They are beautiful and majestic.

Every Sunday (okay maybe just most Sundays) my dad and I are at Shang for mass, and usually my dad gets these hotdog things at the nacho stall where Sabrett is located. Said stall has been there ever since I was a kid, though they did go through a name change of a sort.

My wallpaper for a while. This was still pre-LOE HK, so you can imagine how hyped I already was. (Currently, my phone wallpaper is now a photo of EXO's maknae from the repackaged album. Prior to that it was blonde!Kai.)

I think June was really good to me. Maybe I'm just subconsciously referencing LOE HK, but really! June was good for the most part, I'd like to think. It was insane when I realized that half of the year had come and gone by the end of June though, and it felt more ridiculous when I also realized I wasn't in school in the month of June. So surreal.

Macau/May 2013

Better late than never! Here I present to you my May 2013 vlog, which is actually mostly composed of my Macau trip. Only the last three clips were in Hong Kong. That said, I figured I may as well blog about my first time in Macau!

FFF (Forever 21, Fruits, Flowers)

Forever 21: Kam in ur best F21 outfit pls

Ina: Dafuq does dat even entail bro

Ina: Imma just wear my THUG LIFE tank since it's from F21

Ina: Iz dat coo

F21: We coo

Ina: Ok

F21: Ok

I got to attend the Forever 21 party last night thanks to some work (read: YStyle next Friday, August 16 -- photos by me!) and while I am hardly a ~*~party girl~*~ (you have no idea, NO IDEA, how wrong it would be to even associate me with that label), I very much enjoyed myself because I had a horrible, horrible day. It was a bad day, and it was crummy even until the very moment I stepped into the building where the party was held. (No really, stuff took place even en route to the party.) There were tears. And slight profanity, which only made this party a much-needed escape even if I was on the job.

From Hong Kong collared top, Forever 21 tank top and shoes, H&M skirt and bag

There is something about working with PhilStar that allows me to meet some really rad people. Seriously, this is the fourth time I've been blessed with the opportunity to work with them and for all four times I got to meet some cool beans kids. Last night, I finally got to befriend someone whom I had only admired from afar on the world wide web, met several other bloggers (this is already a given considering the event), a U.N. Ambassador (??!!!?!?!?!), people at SM, and I even got to see some college friends which was totes the highlight of my day. I even got to see Jacque of Stylebible, and she remembered me!!! (Omg sorry I didn't really think I was rememberable especially considering how brief my interning stint was.)

Kate Torralba for Leg Love tights, from HK neon socks

Tofu says hi. I'm pretty sure these tights/stockings are KT, and my mom found them on sale which is cool because I mean we get to feed my tights/socks obsession for less right?

H&M ring, Regina's spike bracelet, Bershka neon cuff

Guys. I am not much of a fruits person. If anything, I really enjoy mostly mangoes and oranges, and grapes if I could have them. But that's it. You know how nearly every kid loved apple juice? Nope, not this one. Hated apple juice (but I'm okay with it now.) I eat apples but not often. I don't even like pineapples. Or watermelons. BUT I AM OBSESSED WITH FRUIT-PRINTED FASHION OKAY CAN WE JUST MAKE THIS A THING??? I need mango-printed clothing to profess my love for the fruit okay. (Actually, just food-printed clothing in general will make me happy.)

To be honest I would've blogged this over on CS, but I didn't want to use up any precious battery juice for the night ahead. It would've been fun to film this outfit though!

The option for heels did not cross my mind at all because my mindset was comfort, obviously because I was going to be working. And I mean these sneaks are F21! If I don't really want to fit the F21 brand image then I figured wearing some pieces from the brand would be enough compensation.

Forever 21 headband, Secondhand (Bloggers United) earrings

I was supposed to wear my fruits headband (it has bananas on it -- I don't eat that often, either) but then I spotted this baby and I was like OH HEEEEY THIS SEEMS MORE FOREVER 21 and the only time I got to wear this out was during my flight home from HK. It was a good decision because it was a big hit with the crowd HAHAHA no joke, a lot of people liked it! And then they gushed over my hair which made me happy. Thank you.

Even my makeup was partially F21! All of the eyeshadows I used were from F21; I went with some purple on the lids then blue on the bottom lashline, while I opted for a bright pink on the lips with some purple on the inner part.

I may not party but I really enjoyed myself. (Admittedly, I found myself semi-dancing -- definition of this term is highly subjective -- some time in the night. One of the DJs even played some Gorillaz and I was like UM OMG I LUV GORILLAS PLS!!!!!!) It was a great kick-off to the long weekend, and now after a night of staying up late, my body is recuperating because it is no longer used to staying up. I am a grandma who goes to sleep early and wakes up early now, which is a far cry from that kid in college who lacked sleep all the time. Am I growing up yet? No? Okay.

Congrats again Forever 21 PH! You are now three years old even if it feels like you were established here for much longer. Three years ago I was just wrapping up my first year in college. Ah how time flies...

The Traveling Velvet

It's been a while since I last blogged about anything under the 'outfits' tag over here, mostly because I mainly blog about my personal style over on CS. I've recently been thinking about how much I've neglected my digicam, Kite (guys it should be normal by now to have nicknames for your gadgets okay), ever since I got a camera upgrade last December. Seriously, I prolly didn't touch Kite since last year. I felt really bad because I've had said camera since 2009 and it was always a lot of fun to bring during my senior year in high school, especially since I was one of the few who could 'legally' bring a camera all the time to school.

I think I neglected Kite a lot more because my new camera, Hanabi, has a magical HD video capability, which was a big upper hand that Kite lacked, considering I used to depend on my digicam for filming things. But anyway, I thought I should stop neglecting my beloved digicam and figured I could go back to documenting some 'wala lang' outfits that I don't deem worthy enough of all the bloodsweateffort that I put into documenting CS outfits and blog about them over here instead.

Uniqlo shirt, Cotton On leggings, People Are People shoes, Human hat, Regina's backpack

Yes, that is my thesis behind me. No, don't ask me why it's there. My mom insisted even if I half-wanted to burn my thesis back then. (Some days, I still do.) I wore this outfit yesterday (Yes, yesterday! So recent!) to run some errands and meet up with a friend for a brief catch up. I purposely bought this shirt in a much bigger size with the intent of wearing it as a shirtdress, and I'm glad the hem stops just at the right length.

Forever 21 sunglasses, H&M chain necklace

For a sunglasses option I went with this sort of cat eye pair. It's rare that I get to document an outfit with my shades on, and that's because I just can't be bothered to switch from my regular glasses to my sunglasses. It's such a hassle, but also such a shame because I don't get to show off my sunnies to the internet world. I should put more effort in doing so.

Also, I think my hair is really that blue. It seems to be capable of being very saturated under the light, be it natural or flash. Though I suppose it DOES seem very, very blue in this photograph, doesn't it?

You may or may not be aware of my obsession with velvet clothing. Welp, I scored a pair on sale at Cotton On during my stay in HK, and they are now known as The Traveling Velvet. Only Terry knows the story behind that name.

Forever 21 scissors necklace, fron HK rings, TAGHeuer (hand-me-down) watch

I am going to be very unapologetic about my K-pop influences (and my fandom in general) and declare that I got this shirt because it reminded me so much of what Kris (EXO) wore in the XOXO album, even if what he wore was basically just the Wolf shirt in gray version. (The whole scarf print thing helped, I guess?) Really, when I saw this at Uniqlo, I immediately thought, "KRIS!" and decided to get it oversized like how he wore it too. This is why this shirt has been and will be referred to as 'The Kris Shirt', especially during this shoot.

I don't think there's anything bad in having external influences in your personal style. Heck, I'm heavily influenced by Japanese street style. Always have been. I think it's just a matter of finding the right inspiration and working it into your own little spectrum. I think it's also in the way you carry it? But then a lot about someone's personal style also lies in how they carry themselves in general anyway.

Like I always say, you can never have too much polka dots. I got this bag for cheap -- so cheap that I sometimes struggle a bit with the zipper, but that's okay. You get what you pay for sometimes.

Shirtdresses are cool. They're so perfect for lazy days.

Fast (Food) and the Furious

Welcome to the Fast (Food) and the Furious blog post, which was supposed to be called "Cute Chicks and Fast Food" because I'm a cheeky brat who wanted to be straightforward, but the current title of this shoot was more fitting because one: obviously, this involves fast food. Two: the word for that afternoon was 'enggry', which is basically angry. No, we weren't mad. We just have a lot of feelings so we manifest those feelings in consuming food like everyone else.

You may or may not be able to tell, because that may depend on your K-pop knowledge, but this shoot was inspired by EXO's XOXO album shoot. The part with food. Because K-pop has taken over even this aspect of my life. To be honest there really is nothing special about this shoot because just how many photographs are there of chicks eating food with flash photography? Nothing unique about it, but it was still fun to do. I've done several shoots with this kind of lighting though, so there still just a tiiiiny bit of me innit (not that I'm reputable for this kind of lighting in particular, nor am I reputable for anything, nor do I even have a reputation to begin with), except the concept was obviously inspired by XOXO. So I guess this is the Camanina take on that part of the XOXO album shoot.

In short, this short made me hungry because I've been craving sweets really bad, donuts especially. And chocolate, but just sweets in general. Enjoy.

Thank you Camille for shooting with me twice that day, and thank you Ana for consuming pastries even if they weren't going to help you with your then-predicament. I love you both!

Street Smart (Outtakes)

Just some spare shots from the Street Smart shoot that I wanted to share that were either too redundant (like the blue wall shot) or were so out of concept (you will see in the grass shots) that they just didn't belong in the set. Also, I will talk about the shoot in general.

We shot around Fort Bonifacio High Street area, which, I know, is probably much overdone, but we had to work around each other's schedules. Camille and her family were there for some stuff and since I lived nearby it was an ideal location. Camille's appointment there was in the morning which was also ideal because BHS is notorious for not letting any photoshoots in, so the guerilla shoot went smoothly without any hiccups.

It was hot. We melted. One of the reasons why we were so wiped out after shooting - and I think we shot for maybe just 2 or 3 hours - was because it was so hot out. The heat really takes a lot out of you, and by the time we were done I didn't even want to move anymore. (That would not do though because we still had a second shoot in the afternoon.)

I was really excited to take Camille to this spot with grass innit, except before I knew it we were completely out of theme and it just wasn't going to work. I was head/desking when I reviewed the pictures, but we did get a few gems out of it despite going out of concept.

LIKE THIS SHOT. It is my absolute favorite from this set, except wtf how is this anyway near the street culture or ~*~thug life~*~ or anything akin to that. No. No. No. But I had to post this, because I absolutely LOVE this shot, and I am so glad the 'THUG LIFE' print on the tank top I had Camille wear is blocked out or else it would be so contradictory to the overall image. (So contradictory that it would be hilarious though. Epic hipster Tumblr time.)

So that wraps up this shoot, which means we get to move on to the next shoot we had that day! That's for a separate post, obvs. Thank you again Camille for being so game and WEARING A BLAZER IN THE HEAT (??!!?) and oh man I hope we get to shoot again in the near future! (Maybe in SG next time... omg would that be magic...)

Street Smart

Let me tell you something about my friend Camille. We first met at an anime convention, back when I'd still actually attend such conventions (the reason for my absence was mostly because of school) and my convention blog was still alive. She cosplayed Luffy from One Piece and while I'm not a fan of One Piece, I liked how she looked anyway and photographed her. After that she found my Tumblr(s) and a pseudo-online romance spouted from there.

The next time we met was at another convention. By then we knew a bit about each other (though not by much really) and she even handed me a small drawing (which I think I have now misplaced... sob) which made me really happy because I have always loved her art style. She also gave me some Lip Smackers lol. I still remember which flavor I kept.

Since then we had always wanted to have a shoot together, but it never happened because of schedules and availability, location-wise. I mean it's already strict enough to shoot at casual locations here, add to the fact that Camille comes in and out of the area because of school. And it wasn't even just for a shoot; for some reason our plans to simply hang out always fell through.

Then one day, with Camille in town, we saw each other at random, completely unplanned and all. I was ecstatic because we finally got to at least hang out, even if it wasn't for long. I mean, before this accidental meeting, we had only met face to face for a total of two times, and both were at conventions so it's not like we could completely bask in each other's company.

A week following that pleasant surprise, we talked a lot more. She gave me these two Korean songs that were up my alley because of my current music tastes ("I don't know why but I'm so into hiphop THUG STUFF THUG THUG WHAT IS HAPPENING") and they were her tastes too so that's cool. And I'm the type of person who doesn't expand their music collection unless a recommendation comes up, which is why I had never given K-pop a chance (save for a select few) despite having always seen it from afar. (I was always more into the Japanese really.)

So you may know Camille as The Girl That (Unknowingly) Got Me Into K-Pop. Since then we've been talking much, much more and have inevitably grown exponentially closer. (So close that I have even shared some of my insecurities with her- insecurities that not even some of my closest friends know, only because they're the kind of issues that can only be understood when in the same situation. I'm only glad Camille's in the same boat as I am because we can cry our feels together.)

Three years down the road of that fateful cosplay and convention, and here we are. I've ~*~graduated~*~, Camille's off to ~*~university~*~, I'm a K-pop fangirl now (though still very selective with my choices), we choke each other with our feels.

Oh, and we managed to get a shoot in before she leaves for school again.

The theme we took was something that pretty much brought us together, which was the thug life. We didn't choose it, because it chose us. That's the way we thugs roll. We're fly. We got swag. Don't hate us 'cause you ain't us. Yo.

HAHAHAHA I'M JOKING but yeah, the idea was going along with a more street vibe. We both like street style, and street art, and just the culture in general, so why not take that into our first ever shoot together? Well, that, and because we really wanted to shoot in a parking lot. Actually, this shoot came to be because this was shot during Camille's last weekend before leaving for school, and she was going to be in the area for stuff so I was like LEZDODEEZ since it was near my place and it was going to be in the morning which was perf because said area is notorious for not allowing any ~*~shoots~*~. Unless you're me and pull a guerilla often.

This was the first shoot I've done since thesis, and my last thesis shoot was early in January! That's half a year of a gap, so I hope I wasn't too rusty. The unofficial hiatus just happened because I wrapped up with school then did some traveling after graduation, which was always a luxury to me that was unattainable until recently.

TL;DR: I MET THIS CHICK AT A CON THREE YEARS AGO, SHE GOT ME INTO K-POP, WE HAD A SHOOT TOGETHER, HASHTAGTHUGLIFE

I'll blog about the outtakes and other in-betweens in a separate post, because as much as I like some of the other photos, they simply took a turn for the hipster when we reached patches of grass and they hardly fit with the theme. I wanted to kick myself.

I hope you like the photos! Thanks so much Camille for being such a sport and have a safe trip back okay? UNNIE LOVES YOU!!!