(Warning: Long-ass post ahead since this is about Charet AND the makeup look inspired by her song. What can I say, I’m a grateful fan, for she encouraged me to finally invest time pursuing the things that make me happy)

It’s easy for me to write about myself since I’ve had enough practice, thanks to my 4^th grade diaries filled with fantasies about Nick Carter and Tuxedo Mask. But when it involves writing about someone I care about, I feel lost for words. I’ve done this makeup look more than a month ago, but I’ve been delaying the writing part since it’s supposed to be a #FanAhrt for my rakstar friend, Zsaris (aka “Charet” for Elbi pips). But I’m running out of time since I already have a few materials set to be posted so screw it, I’ll try my best and just hope Charet would forgive me for my TMI ramblings.

Why Charet

Charet is special because she’s talented, perky, smart, perky, charismatic, AND DID I SAY PERKY? To be honest I never thought that she’d be my friend, since I’m an introvert and she got me in trouble on the day that we first met (by chatting me up in the middle of our entrance exam at the Hogwarts-like exclusive art school up in Mt. Makiling). We were high school freshmen when we met for the second time…and I still didn’t feel comfortable being around her perky self. How could I, when she served as the choreographer of our entire class who forced us to dance to S Club 7’s Bring It All Back for our mandatory Acquaintance Party performance?! (Diyos na mahabagin salamat po’t wala pang smartphones noon Lord God tenkyuuu)

Then I realized what a good friend Charet is when she started playing football for our high school Intramurals. Yes she’s perky pero hindi sya nakakapagod kasama na tipong ang sarap nang sipain sa mukha.

Then we took up the same course in UPLB (where she later graduated with honors!)

Then I found myself tagging along to their band practices so she can teach me how to play the drums. And as a true friend (who just discovered the wonders of Adobe Photoshop), I shamelessly attended one of their gigs carrying a reaaaally “cool” band poster (using Cocaine Sans for the font style of course!!!) that probably made others think “F.A.T. (Friday At Tristan’s)” was the dollar bin Linkin Park of UPLB. #EdgyEvahSince

Then she became my recruit for our college writing org.

So yeah, that’s the Charet that I know—she can dance, she can excel academically, she can play various instruments, she can play sports, she can write…she just can. The fact that we can still call her “Charet” even when her fellow artists and her fans know her as “Z” or “Zsaris”, is what makes everyone I know shamelessly flaunt the #CharetPride even more. She’s still as sweet and as Elbi as a heart-shaped Mernel’s chocolate cake (one without the yema filling para hindi nakakasuya but to each his own). We may not have played major roles in her triumphs, but we’ve been her fans even in her struggling years, for she’s “Do What You Love And Success Will Follow” personified. No Pinterest board filled with hundreds of overly-filtered inspirational crap will ever come close. 

So it wasn’t surprising for us to finally see Charet bulldoze her way to the success she rightfully deserves—from winning the 2015 Mossimo Music Summit as a one-woman band, proving to everyone that she’s the gold-winning, looping queen in an international contest, being a part of the award-winning a capella group Pinopela that starred in a Christmas ad, to releasing her own album.

Why This Makeup Look

Last November, Charet released her original song Alangan on Spotify. Being the nosy friend, I just had to ask her what the song is all about.

So…it’s about someone stupid who realized how much he/she has screwed up after all?

Of course I had to press her further since it’s her song and I wanted to, you know, make sure that I can give justice to it by enhancing or fake-mutilating my face with makeup properly.

I guess I can compare the feeling to something as mild as how this loser feels?

As much as I’d love to do something gruesome for my Alangan makeup look, I don’t have the right sfx makeup skills (and materials) for the job. And I’m not gonna shoot my head #ForAhrtsSake or for my love for Charet…

…so I went with a look that makes me appear “as if” I’m a stone-cold b*tch with a hard facade, but the truth is, there’s a warm-blooded, sensitive and feelz-feeling girl inside. Yak.

What I did:

1. Start with a clean face. Don’t take Charet’s song seriously during the entire process because tears will not work well with your water-activated facepaint (like Snazaroo).
2. Choose which facial feature to use for the Wuss Sensitive You. I chose to leave my left eye facepaint-free to signify that I’ve started seeing the truth that I’m not always right (Bullsh*t lol I just struggle when it comes to sticking a lens up my left eye). Trace an outline using NYX Retractable White Liner so you can easily avoid facepainting this area.
3. Accept that life is full of grey areas because you’re not Michael Jackson, so embrace the grey and cover the rest of your b*tch face with grey facepaint.
4. Use a big fluffy brush and dip it into a metallic grey eyeshadow that’ll serve as your setting powder for the areas of your b*tch face, like bareMinerals Mineral Eyeshadow in 1980’s.
5. Embrace your ilusyonada ways by creating the illusion of sharper cheekbones and a more prominent nose bridge by contouring with a matte black eyeshadow like Urban Decay’s Blackout. This way your face won’t look as flat as your heart after you had those foolish feelings huhubelz.
6. Nobody likes a flawless b*tch, so since your shiny grey skin can give Venus de Milo a run for her money, be like The Narrator and wreck it up by using a black liquid eyeliner for the cracks. In this case I used black facepaint so it’ll be easier for me to erase mistakes.
7. Make the cracks look more realistic by adding highlights along the sides using a thin brush dipped in white facepaint. You can even give your face a more “concrete” texture by lightly spraying your face with an old toothbrush dipped in diluted white facepaint for the white specks.
8. For your right eye, you can use the same matte black eyeshadow you used for contouring to fill in your right eyebrow, and dab a shimmery grey-brown eyeshadow (like Urban Decay’s Mushroom) on your crease and lower lashline.
9. For your left eye, fill in your left eyebrow with K-Palette Tattoo Real Lasting Eyebrow Liner in 01-Natural Brown, and create a brown-green smokey eye using: a shimmery cream eyeshadow (like Lorac Pro’s Nude) along your browbone, matte brown eyeshadows (like Lorac Pro’s Taupe & Sable) for the transition color along your crease and lower lashline, and a bright green eyeshadow (like Urban Decay Lightyears over Urban Decay Indo) on your lid.
10. Tightline both eyes with Nyx Retractable Black Liner. At this point I was starting to get tired. I obviously did a horrible blending job on my left eye makeup soo I just settled on drawing two different eyeliner wing shapes weh di mo lang napantay (done with my Benefit They’re Real Push-up Liner) and wearing a grey contact lens on my right eye to emphasize the contrast between Sensitive Me and B*tch Me. 5/6 of my entire face is covered in a mixture of gray facepaint and silver eyeshadow—what more do you want from me?! Oo na ako na yung walang follow through ako na lang lagiii anong gusto mo umiyak ako ng dugo?
11. Umiyak ka ng dugo by letting fake blood drip down your left eye.
12. Have fun with your makeup look while you can because clean-up’s gonna be a b*tch. Make sure you don’t leave silver stains on your bathroom fixtures that’ll make your housemates assume you finally invited a guest but you were too scared for proper introductions because it’s the creepy, panhandling mime from the mall.