Valentine's Day Tutorial

It’s finally my favorite time of the year! I always put a lot of thought into what look I’ll be doing for Valentine’s Day. The makeup can never be too much so that you don't scare guys off LOL, but of course I still tried my best to make it very pretty and romantic every year. I also love how it’s the most appropriate time of the year to bring out all the pinks, purples, and mauve shades.

So below is the tutorial I came up with for this Valentine's Day! Hopefully it will make you feel absolutely gorgeous whether you've got a big date or you're flying solo this year. I rarely get to use the shades I used for my eyes since I usually stick to neutral shades, but it was so much fun experimenting and coming up with such a girly look.

Hope you all enjoy this tutorial! For those of you who wanna do something similar, I'm sure you guys will nail this look since it's a lot simpler than some of the other looks I've done.

If you guys have any questions, you may reach me through ask.fm!

Full Face + Cream Contour

I’ve received some requests on how to use the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Cream Palette, so here is a tutorial I’ve prepared for you guys! I've decided to also take it a step further by sharing my overall base routine (foundation, concealer, cream contour) for extra special occasions wherein I want my makeup to look absolutely flawless.

Note that a really good cream contour requires a lot of patience in order for it to not look muddy or unnatural. Good things take time ladies! Hopefully this tutorial will guide you guys so you can achieve a contour that's Kardashian-worthy. You can watch it here:

Sorry if it's a little lengthy, I just wanted to explain every single detail properly for you guys! If you still have any questions though, you could always reach me at my ask.fm!

Black eye X Cut Lip

If you’re like me who is a major Halloween costume crammer, then you’ll know how stressful it can be to come up with a Halloween costume that you can actually be proud of in a very limited amount of time! Not only that, but we still want to turn heads while exerting minimum effort tsk tsk HAHA.

Well fear not my fellow crammers because I’ve got you covered! It’s my first time filming a Halloween tutorial so I'm really excited to be sharing this video with all of you! It's a super simple tutorial featuring me looking like I've been through hell and back. Once you've gotten a hang of how to make the bruises and cuts, then you can definitely do your own thing with them and go nuts if you want to!

Here's the tutorial! I really do hope you guys enjoy. Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe! :)

I can assure you guys that no one was hurt in the making of this video HAHA! And please excuse my messy hair! I didn't see the point of fixing it since messy hair would just add to the overall look.

Full list of products:

Dollface Cosmetics Eye Candy Palette

Majolica Majorca Blood On Lip Tint

MAC Dark Side Lipstick

MAC Carbon Eyeshadow

MAC Strawberry Malt Lipglass (from the Archie's Girls Collection)

Let me know what you guys think! Stay tuned for my next Halloween Tutorial! ♥ 

MaybellineNYWF Tutorial

Hello again beauties! It’s time to share with all of you my second entry for the Maybelline New York Fashion 

Week contest! I’ve been working really hard for it and I hope you guys could show me some love and support as I post my entries! It would be very much appreciated ♥

For my second post, I’ve filmed a tutorial showcasing this look on the gorgeous Georgina Wilson:

Don't forget to subscribe and like please!

The look made use of neutral shades which is why I'm sure it would look great on everyone! I tried my best to keep it simple for you guys since it is just a very fresh and effortless look that I hope everyone can execute!

The eyes and lips were my favorite parts of the look! The use of brown shades and thick lashes went perfectly with the matte lippy.

  I also did my best to get Georgina's messy waves so you guys could see how I was able to put the look all together.

Let me know what you guys think on my ask.fm! I'd love to hear your comments :)

Lived-In Liner Tutorial

Lived-in, party girl, or even sometimes called model
s street makeup is making a comeback this season! I really love it when everyday makeup looks can be inspired by looks seen on the runway. In this case, even by the models once they’re off the runway.

This look has always been a favorite of mine, especially when I feel like steering away from the typical girly and polished looks that I often do. To me, there’s just something so sexy about it. It’s perfectly imperfect, and it makes you look effortlessly chic. The idea of the makeup is that you look like you rushed putting it on, but you still look stunning. Here are some images of models sporting the lived-in makeup look:

As you can see, the look is heavy on the liner and usually looks best with a brow that's a little disheveled and undone. You'll also notice that cool-toned products as well as lips on the paler side are better for this look. By cool-toned, I mean colors on the stone or taupe side. If you're feeling a little adventurous and wanna try this look out, then you're in luck! Here's my guide on how to achieve this look on your own!

First thing's first, I believe the trick to really rocking this look is to have the perfect base. You can opt for a dewy or matte finish, but in my case I chose a satin finish for my skin to get the best of both worlds. You have to make sure you conceal your eye bags extremely well otherwise you'll just look like...a mess. Haha! I'll explain why later!

Starting with the brows, fill them in with a taupe or stone colored powder. Again, we're sticking to cooler toned browns. Then, it's important to take a brow gel and brush them upwards for that sort of messy disheveled look. Here I'm using MAC's brow gel in the shade Beguile, an old favorite of mine!

To contour, select a cool-toned shade. Here I'm using the shade Fawn from my Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit. You want to avoid making your contour look sharp for that effortless feel. To do so, I just took my angled brush and contoured my cheekbones in a circular motion as opposed to my usual technique of going in a straight line.

Your contour should end up looking likes this, almost undetectable but still gives definition.

For the eyes, I used a matte, taupe colored eyeshadow called Power Player from my Tartelette Palette. 

From left to right: 

1 - Blend the taupe eyeshadow all over your lids. It should be blended high enough to be able to peek through when your eyes are open. 

2 - Take a black, grey, or brown Kohl Pencil and line your lash line. It's really up to you which color you would prefer, but I love the way this MAC Eye Kohl looks in the shade Charcoal. You get the intensity of black without seeming too gothic.

It's also up to you how thick and intense the line to be, but I suggest just making it medium in thickness since we'll be smudging it out. There's no need to be super neat in this step but do remember not to neglect your upper lash line. I just hate it when there's flesh seen!

3 - Take a stiff liner brush and quickly smudge out the line you drew making sure it looks hazy and kind of smokey.

4 - Do the same steps in numbers 2 and 3 to your lower lash line.

Next, you want to make your eyelashes as dramatic as possible. To do this, curl your lashes then take your favorite black mascara and wiggle it from the root to add even more definition to your eyes. Optional: Pop on a pair of falsies like I did!

For me, applying mascara on your lower lashes is SUPER crucial for this look because it just makes the eyes so much more striking. I went a little crazy and applied about 3 coats. If you're wondering, I'm using my K-Palette One Day Tattoo Mascara. This is also one of my all time faves!

As for my lips, I wanted to add just a little bit of color so I used my current favorite lipliner from MAC in the shade Whirl. To keep it looking as natural and "lived-in" as possible, I diffused the color using a lip brush.

So here's the finished makeup look so far:

BUT WAIT! No lived-in look is complete without hair that looks like you haven't washed it in 2 days LOL. It really puts the whole look together. So I decided to spray some volumizing dry shampoo on my hair too add more life and character. I used my favorite XXL Batiste dry shampoo.

And there you have it! Perfectly messy hair!

Hope you guys wont be scared to give this look a try! You'll never know, you may just love changing up your look once in a while. Just make sure you wear it to the appropriate occasions! This is definitely not "meet the parents" kind of makeup HEHE.

Bigger Looking Eyes

If there’s one thing over 90% of my clients always ask me, it’s to make their eyes look bigger. There’s just something about big striking eyes that everyone loves. So here’s a quick 5 step guide I made for you guys so that you can all make your eyes appear bigger as well! I’ve adapted several tips and tricks I’ve learned through the years for something simple yet foolproof!

1. Apply highlighter on the inner corners

One of the most well known tips for achieving bigger and wider looking eyes is applying a highlighter to the inner corners of your eyes. It's so simple but works so well! Here I used a soft champagne shade with just the right amount of shimmer. I didn't want it to be too shiny or sparkly because i just wanted it to appear quite subtle for this look.

2. Liquid Liner (for top and bottom)

 The next step would be to master the art of liquid liner. Dun dun duuuun. I used to dread using liquid liner before because my eye makeup would always end up being so messy. But with enough practice, I've come to really appreciate liquid liner and the many wonders it can do for the shape of your eyes. Most girls think that when it comes to eyeliner, as long as you get it on in a straight liner, then your job is done. While that works for some girls, learning how to vary the thickness of your liner can create a world of a difference for others. 

So since we're trying to get bigger looking eyes, then you'll find that I made my eyeliner really thin in the inner corners and  thicker towards the center part of my eye. This will give it a bigger and rounder appearance. Then I made the liner get thinner again as i approached the end of my eye and finished off with a tiny wing which will also make a huge difference in making the eyes look bigger. Be careful though, because if you make the wing long, it could elongate your eyes and make them look very feline (think Angelina Jolie), and that's not the look we're going for here.

This next trick using liquid liner is one I kind of adapted from Japanese Gyaru style makeup. What they do it use a very thin liquid liner pen and make thin strokes on the outer part of their lower lash line to mimic the appearance of eyelashes. Normally they go lower than their natural lash line, but for this look I decided to just stick to my natural lash line. Japanese women only go about 2/3 of the way along their lower lash line.

Whenever you add makeup to your lower lash line whether it's drawing more lashes or simply applying eyeshadow or eyeliner, a rule of thumb is that closing the entire lower lash line will make your eyes look smaller while only going 2/3 in and leaving the inner corners bare will really open them up.

3. Eyelash Curler and Mascara...lots of it

I'd like to think of myself as a pro when it comes to using my eyelash curler. It's really one of the tools I can't live without. Even without mascara, it can instantly make you look more awake and fresh. But for now since I have liquid liner on, I feel like a few good coats of mascara is a must! Try to add more towards the outer corners of your eyes to go perfectly with the wing. And also add a few coats on your lower lashes. Don't skip this step cause it makes a huge difference!

4. Nude or white liner on the lower waterline

Another popular trick that I decided to do for this look is to add a white or nude liner on the lower waterline. We see this a lot in Lana Del Rey's makeup looks and I think it's really effective for bigger looking eyes. Careful not to go overboard with this because it could look too obvious at times.

5. Falsies on the outer edge

This step is totally optional but adding falsies even just to the outer edge of your eye will really make your eyes look even better. You can use a full strip of lashes if you prefer, but I think using the kind that just flares out on the outer edge keeps the eye looking kinda flirty and not too round/ Bambi like. Lol.

The falsies really complete the look and make your eyes pop even more.

Here's another shot of the finished look

And that's it for my 5 step guide for big beautiful eyes! Hope you all enjoyed this post. Feel free to email me or head on over to my ask.fm for any questions :)

FOTD: Jennifer Lopez

I’ve decided to make a Face of the Day post for the makeup look I wore for the Happy Skin event I attended last Thursday. There will be a post on that soon, I promise! Anyway, ever since I saw Jennifer Lopez's makeup for the Oscars last February, I knew I had to try it some time! I couldn't think of a better event to use it on than on Happy Skin's launch of their new Beauty in Bloom collection. Here are some photos of Jlo which I used for reference.

And here's the twitpic I posted when I was on the way to the event.

The product I used to achieve Jlo's goddess-like skin is the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette. I am obsessed with this product! All three powders are finishing powders and they're job is to mimic perfect flattering lighting on your face so you literally look like your skin has been photoshopped in real life. I used Radiant Light (the one on the rightmost) to get the same golden warmth that Jlo had. 

For lashes, which is a major element for this look, I used a long pair which has strands that criss-cross for it to look even thicker. I get my packs of falsies from Pure Beauty in Serendra. They're around P680 for a box of 10. That's a pretty good deal since these falsies are really durable and they don't look too fake. For the eyeshadow, stick to amber and bronze tones. 

As for the lips, I used NYX Lip Liner Pencil in the shade Rose with a hint of clear gloss to make it less matte. The lips are what really made Jlo's look very sweet and romantic. Perfect for the dress she wore.

For hair, set your hair in loose waves and tie it up in a ponytail! This part is totally optional. Even I wore my hair down at first then decided to just tie it cause it got too hot. But feel free to do whatever you want with your hair since this makeup look could go with almost anything.

So there's my quick take on Jlo's Oscar's look! Let me know what you guys think. :)

Kylie Jenner Lips

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Kardashian sisters’ makeup, but recently I’m sure you’ve all seen how Kylie Jenner has been stealing the spotlight with her amazing 90’s inspired makeup -- specifically with her super strong lipliner game.

So for today’s quick tutorial, I’ve decided to show you all how to achieve my own take on her famous full lips. I still wanted the look to be wearable since I find her lips a bit too much at times. It's surprisingly really simple to do and no one will even be able to tell you have a ton of lipliner on if you follow these steps.

First things first, here's a picture of Kylie Jenner's makeup for reference:

And here's a pic of me with the finished lip look:

So let's get started! I prepped my lips for this look by applying a lot of Carmex on my lips then lightly scrubbing it with a soft toothbrush. This ensures that there wont be any dry skin on your lips so that all the lip products you'll be applying will go on smoothly. Once you're done, wipe everything off your lips with tissue or a towel.

Next, you'll be needing lipliner. I know Kylie Jenner uses Whirl lipliner by MAC, but since I wasn't sure if this look would work on me, I just bought an inexpensive alternative from Etude House to try out it out first. The lipliner I got isn't close to Whirl, but closer to the picture I used as a peg instead. I ended up really loving it the first time I tried it. It's called Soft Touch Auto Lipliner and it's such a steal at only P98! Here I'm using shade #2.

With the lipliner, you want to overline over your natural lip line. But what's REALLY important to remember for when overlining your lips is to focus mostly on the center part of your lip and follow your real lip line as you go towards the outer corners. This is where most girls make a mistake and why some of them end up looking like a duck and IT'S AWFUL HAHAHA. If you end up looking a duck, please don't say I didn't warn you! Bottom line, DON'T OVERLINE YOUR WHOLE LIP. 

So below is what your overlined lips should look like more or less. As you can see, I focused the overlining in the center of my lips but I still followed the real shape of my cupid's bow. You may also overline your lower lip but again, don't go overboard! Blend in the lipliner to the rest of your lips but don't worry if you can still see through it because we're gonna be going over this with another product.

So now they key to really getting your lips Kylie-esque is to use a matte lipstick. My favorite matte lip product is the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream so I went on over to the store to check if they had a shade that would go with the lipliner and luckily they did! I got the shade Zurich.

Using Zurich, I went over my entire lip and waited for it to dry matte. I find that one layer isn't enough to get a really opaque finish so I went over my lips with another layer especially in the overlined parts.

But we're not done just yet! For that perfect pout, clean the edges of your lips with a small concealer brush loaded with your favorite concealer.

And once your blend the concealer out, you're all done!

I know it may seem kinda scary to try out this lip look at first. Believe me, even I had my apprehensions at first, but I've learned to have a lot of fun with the look and now I love it! I just paired it with full brows, some contouring and a full set of lashes to keep it simple. I'm really happy with how it turned out and hope you guys will feel the same way. If you guys have any questions or anything beauty related, I'm just an email or tweet away!

Valentine's Day Tutorial

Valentine’s Day is definitely my favorite time of the year because it happens to be my birthday as well! So here’s a new video for all of you featuring a sweet and romantic look perfect if you’re celebrating with a special someone or even if you’re like me who’s just flying solo this year (HUHUHU).

You can watch the video here or click below!

Like I said in the video, the makeup is really simple to do. You can also choose to style your hair in any way you want, but I went for a bouncy blowdry with mine here.

Here's a close up of the look

Hope you all have a good Valentine's Day ♥ 

Eyebrows 101

So sorry for the late post everyone! Here’s my last post for the year and it’s all about what I think is the most important part of anyone’s face — BROWS. I’m definitely no brow expert but as you can see in my description over there on the right side, I do believe that good eyebrows can sometimes be pretty life-changing. So in this post I’ve included everything I learned from books, Pinterest, YouTube videos, and the kind ladies of Browhaus who have been shaping my brows (and basically life) since I was 16.

Before we get to the fun part of filling them in, it's important to know what the proper eyebrow shape is. Of course all eyebrows vary in shape, but there are a few general rules to follow to achieve a universally flattering shape for all faces.

So below is an image of me after I've just moisturized my face. What you'll notice about my brows is that they're not the same color as my hair. The reason for that is cause I don't have my brows dyed when I get my hair done because I learned that it could possibly make your brows thinner over time. I don't take any risks when it comes to my brows haha! But that's okay cause they'll look less black later on.

To determine the right starting point for your brows, take any stick (or in my case I used the end of a thin makeup brush) and make a vertical line following the bridge of your nose. Your brows should begin to fade in right around here. To avoid making it look like a unibrow, make sure it starts out very light and gets more defined as you reach the tail. Others might argue that brows should start along the line following the edge of the bottom of your nose, but the way I was taught was to always follow the bridge. Plus, I think everyone's brows would look too far apart if we all followed the outer edges of our noses.

Next, to determine where the arch of your brow should be, create a vertical line from the outer edge of the bottom of your nose and create a diagonal line that goes through the outer part of your iris. Make sure you are looking straight into the mirror while you are doing this step. Your arch should also rest right along your brow bone. As much as possible, try to follow the natural shape of the top line of your brows.

And finally, to determine the end point of your brows, create a line from the outer edge of the bottom of your nose that also passes through the outer corner of your eye. That line is where your brows should end.

So now that you all have a general idea of how your brows should be shaped, it's time to get to filling. The thing is, I don't use just one product to fill my brows. I believe that  you can't have the same filled-in brows for every look. Each makeup look/peg requires a different approach to filling in your brows. For example, you wouldn't use a brow pencil with a natural finish to recreate let's say, Katy Perry's strong brows. 

So i'll be showing you three of the methods I use for three different looks: everyday, weekend, and evening.

First look: Everyday Makeup

For my everyday makeup to school, I usually just apply tinted sunblock and lip tint, curl my lashes, and do my brows.

Since I'm usually running late, my makeup needs to be done as quickly as possible. That's why I opt for brow gels/mascaras for my everyday look since I'm not really after a lot of definition, I just wanna turn the hairs of my brows brown to match my hair. It's my major pet peeve when brows don't match the person's hair color so I never skip this step! My favorite brow mascaras are from MAC, Bobbi Brown, and Majolica Majorca. I suggest using brow gels if you're lucky enough to be born with naturally thick brows that don't need a lot of filling in.

Second look: Weekend Makeup

. My weekend makeup is just a more polished version of my everyday makeup. Aside from filling my brows, I just add a few coats of mascara, tightline my upper lash line, lightly contour, and wear lipstick.

During the weekends when I have more time to spare, I opt for my Shu Uemura Hard Formula Eyebrow Pencil, which I call the greatest eyebrow pencil in the world. I'm not kidding, this thing is amazing. It's even sharpened like a samurai sword so that you can be really precise in filling in your brows. Also, what's amazing about this brow pencil is that it only releases pigment on hair, so it solves my problem of black eyebrow hairs showing through. 

For best results, this brow pencil requires a light hand.

Third Look: Evening Makeup

Evening makeup requires the most defined brows. That's because lightly filled brows can easily get overshadowed by heavy eye makeup. So to get the job done, I always use my MAC Fluidline Brow Gelcreme with an angled brow brush. I love this product because it also allows the hairs on my brows not to look black and at the same time, it acts like a brow gel that holds everything in place. It also lasts long so it's perfect for a long night out.

For perfectly shaped brows, once I fill my brows in, I do make sure to use the brush you can usually find on the other end of a brow comb to get a really clean shape and then I trace my brows with concealer. I also add some concealer under my brows for an additional highlight on my brow bone. Then, I blend it all out with my Sephora Pro Airbrush Concealer brush for a well-blended finish. And finally, I seal it all in with loose powder so it stays in place.

And that's it! Happy New Year to all of you and I'm wishing you all super strong brow game for 2015 :)