For my 5th Halloween look, I recycled one of my concepts from last year. This one’s bloodier so we can all pretend that I’ve progressed so muchwhen it’s literally the same thing. Creating this was a very humbling moment for me, because I’ve finally accepted the truth: holy crap I AM getting old. I could’ve gone for a new idea or tried a new technique (like creating fake teeth from polymorph thermoplastic beads that I will then stick to my eye socket) but nope, let’s stick with the bloody usual…because I have responsibilities and priorities now. This is my 5th look already, and I doubt I can continue my tradition of one-upping the number of Halloween looks I created from the previous year (7 for 2018, 6 for 2017, and 5 for 2016), because alas, there are bills to be paid, work to be done, an apartment to keep free of hair and fur to prevent my cat from releasing a dangling poop train from her anus, and future plans to work on.
My maturity level now: I say “Jack *pause* o’ *pause* lantern” (my teenage self would’ve turned this into a very inappropriate Pinoy pun).
What I did:
I rummaged inside my office bag to look for tissuepaper (Yes, I’ve become the type of Tita who saves and collects and recycles free tissue from different establishments now)
I swiped a stick of Elmer’s Glue on my eyebrows to make the tissue stick and to protect my sparse-but-real eyebrows from the liquid latex and scar wax I’ll be using (and it’s what drag queens do as a pre-concealer measure in hiding their real eyebrows.
I drew the triangles (over my eye sockets and nose) and the jagged mouth with a black NYX Retractable Eyeliner and filled them with black Snazaroo facepaint.
I wanted to add a rough-looking texture for the gouged-out areas so I stuck little bits of cotton inside them with Graftobian liquid latex. Once the latex is dry, I painted the cotton bits with dark red facepaint (3 parts red facepaint + 1 part black) and red facepaint from my Flash Color Palette.
I framed the gouged areas with little rolls of myDIY scar wax (equal parts of flour + petroleum jelly and a bit of liquid foundation) that I stuck to my face using mooore liquid latex.
I veeery carefully applied L’Oreal Liquid Foundation in Golden Sande on my face with a damp beauty sponge, making sure that the sponge can also cover the scar wax’d areas so they’ll appear as if they’re my real skin…then dusted the stickiness away with Bare Minerals Mineral Foundation in Neutral Medium.
I did my usual contour routine using Fashion 21’s Contour Kit (contour for the nose line and cheeks), focusing on my cheeks & nose area so my face can still look three dimensional.
Dabbed a generous amount of Graftobian blood paste over the facepainted areas of my gouged-out face and let Graftobian blood gel drip all over my cheeks.
I feel pretty pleased that I barely had to make an effort with this step-by-step outline; seeing as I simply revised last year’s how-to. Heh.
To be compleeeetely honest, I don’t know how to craft this post without being too preachy. All I know is that I wanted something gory for my 4th Halloween makeup look…and what’s more gory than the plight of the farmers in this rice-eating nation?
OK so I wasn’t planning to use this blog unless it’s time for another round of Halloween posts. But in the weird turn of events last April, I met this stunning kid who filled me with envy. My thought process as I was conversing with her: “OMG I would have my toenails smashed until they’re dead if it means that I can go back to being a carefree 18-year-old with a very exciting social life! At bakit ganon ang haba ng pilik-mata nyaaa?!” Of course I knew that I’m no Avenger who can jump back in time. So I compensated by creating a new makeup project fit for the summer…and also so I can have an excuse to wear falsies and feel youthful again (what, I love it when my eyelashes look like elegant mutant spiders that are casting elegant shadows down my cheeks, fight me). But then, procrastinationcat obsession real life happened. And before I knew it, Unang Ulan ng Mayo arrived, so I decided to just shelve the project and delay writing about it until next summer (or until the temperature hits 36.6 Jesus-are-you-kidding-me degrees Celsius again.)
But in an even weirder and completely terrifying turn of events, this week gave us all a glimpse of how hellish the Philippines is going to be for the next three years. And then it hit me: oh shiii my Sunburn SFX makeup project from last April could be my way of expressing my pent-up anger (sa lagay na ‘to may nape-pent-up pa pala), making it the sequel to my Bullet In The Temperamental Brat’s Head SFX Makeup from THREE YEARS AGO! HAHANAPAN KO NA LANG NG TALI!! ANG SAYA-SAYA!!!! /s
Don’t cry in case you don’t have any idea about what you’ll be doing, or how you’re going to draw the shape of a pair of sunglasses on your face…it’s just simple tracing! Use a white eyeliner (I used NYX retractable white eyeliner) to trace your sunglasses. Just follow wherever that big shady bringer of darkness touches your face…and make sure the shade of your eyeliner isn’t too bright because it’s not as if you’ll need the lines to be visible for better results anyway.
Shape and fill your brows (I used Nichido Browmaster in Gingerbread and Coastal Scents Brow Palette) para ‘di ka mukhang gulat at mas dama ang pagtaas ng kilay mo ‘pag nakikita yung laki ng tax na kinakaltas sayo pero di mo ramdam kung saan ba napupunta.
Draw an inverted triangle/tatsulok under each eye using a concealer (I used Maybelline Liquid Concealer in Medium) so you can cover up the darkness that is your eyebags, tricking people into seeing you as a whole new person–your stance on death penalty and lowering the minimum age for criminal responsibility included.
You can use an eyeshadow primer (like Lorac Behind The Scenes) prior to applying your eyeshadow, but I didn’t because it’s not like I wanted my eye makeup to steal the attention from the rest of my face. Lorac eyeshadow shades used: Gold all over my lids and lower lashline so I can feel as golden as someone who got away from pocketing more than P200 million, and a coal-gray shade like Slate over the crease and outer corners (use as much as you want, it’s not like the environment is more important than pushing for coal-fired power plants!) Blend.
Tightline your upper and lower waterline with a black eyeliner pencil (like NYX retractable white eyeliner), before wingin’ it with a liquid eyeliner (like Lifeford Hi-Precise Eye Pen). Don’t feel pressured if you can’t draw the wings to be sharp as the marksmanship of Leon Guerrero; it’s not as if skills really matter.
Forget all the expensive pink lipsticks in your stash. Rather, use the pink facepaint from your Flash palette for a really girly lip color. Before you say “eww!” at the idea of painting your lips with face freakin paint, remember, you’re one of the boys so you shouldn’t be maselanfor Federalism like that. Isn’t it so convenient how visually, the facepaint can pass-off as a legit lipstick, when, unlike lipsticks, it’s not really formulated to keep lips nourished? But hey at least you’re fit AND good-looking so people can’t see your inner Umbridge…
Now that you’re done with the lips and the eye area, Select Inverse and slather a thick amount of Elmer’s transparent (!) glue all over your face. Once that transparent (!) layer dries, cover it with an orangey red facepaint. Don’t be scared to really bring out the redness because that’s how your skin responds to sun damage–it really causes extra rednessto be splattered across the streets in the capillaries. And once the facepaint dries, pinch and poke random areas in your glue mask with a tweezer so you can make it appear as if your burned skin’s falling off like those who are too poor to defend themselves are falling off the face of the earth.
Place a bottle of Graftobian F/X Gelatin in a hot waters bath until the gelatin’s fluid enough to be squeezed out (and mixed with a bit of brownish-yellow facepaint). Then pretend like you’re a masochistic cake decorator who’s in love with a cannibal and decorate your face with blobs of gelatin for the blister burns. On your nose, on your cheek, and don’t ever forget to take advantage of your fivehead’s surface area, so that at first glance, the blister burn will look like iniputan ka lang sa ulo ng mga manok na may cancer.
Pray to all the gods that your third instalment three years from now won’t be as gory and passive-aggressive as the ones from 2016 and 2019; wonder if you’ll still be around when the time comes.
I’ve finally done my 6th Halloween makeup (which makes this set up to par with the amount of Halloween makeup looks I made last year huzzaaah), and tbh, I’m not really happy with this one. See, I was planning a melted face SFX look (think skin dripping as if I’m made of wax), but unfortunately, my college years of making jello shots did not prepare me for the DIY gelatin prosthetics scene. For THREE DAYS I’ve scoured the bowels of Youtube for a recipe that will work (like I even tried cooking in May’s place in Hellmouth) without sliding off my face and I’ve even Googled for local online stores selling Mehron 3D gel just to save me from my DIY misery (result: there is none), but alas, it’s not meant to be.
So since I’ve already borrowed a crown for this look (LOL #effort), I went ahead and did it anyway (sans the skin dripping) just so I can claim that I’ve already done 6 Halloween makeup looks (…and I can peacefully obsess about how the heck am I going to execute my 7th/last one):
I drew a line in the middle of my face using my black NYX Retractable Eyeliner, and shielded my left eyebrow for the liquid latex later on with Elmer’s Glue Stick (I like using the purple variant that smells like grapes because the color change from purple-to-clear lets you know that the glue has dried)
Prepped the right side of my face using Urban Decay’s Optical Illusion Complexion Primer, then applied Maybelline’s Fit Me Liquid Foundation in Natural Beige with a damp beauty sponge all over this area. I also used a cooopious amount of Maybelline Liquid Concealer in Medium to hide my eyebags.
I shaped and groomed and filled in my right eyebrow using Nichido Browmaster in Gingerbread and Coastal Scents Brow Palette until you can see my eyebrow from Mars because I was aiming for that Brooke Shields-in-the-80s look. Then I defined it further by dabbing liquid concealer around that eyebrow. Bleeend.
I defined my nose and my cheek using Fashion 21’s Contour Kit, highlighted my browbone, cheekbone and cupid’s bow using Sleek’s Highlighting Palette in Precious Metals over Benefit’s watt’s up, and colored my cheek with the blush powder from Sleek’s Contour Kit until it looks like I was slapped in a backstage catfight.
I dabbed a bit of NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk over my lid because I’ll need a white base to make the super bright eyeshadow colors pop. Then I mixed blue and pink facepaint from my Flash palette to create the purple I applied on the crease, and applied the sky blue facepaint from the same palette on my lid. I made the colors pop out even more by dabbing a shimmery sky blue eyeshadow called Peace over my lid, and a shimmery purplish pink eyeshadow called Fishnet over the crease (both from the Urban Decay Deluxe Shadowbox Palette). I used the same colors for my lower lashline, then blend. Blend to infinity and beyond.
I tightlined using the same black eyeliner I used to divide the areas of my face earlier, created a winged eye using LifeFord Hi-Precise Eye Pen, and finished that off with #BT03 Bohktoh falsies that I applied using my favorite Nichido eyelash glue.
Because I was aiming for that 80’s look (thus the thick Brooke Shields eyebrow), aka the time when nobody batted an eye if you match a BLUE! and PURPLE! eyeshadow combo with PINK! cheeks and a RED! lipstick, I used Gloss Skin and Beyond’s Diva matte liquid lippie.
…for the left side of my face:
The rough texture is composed of uneven bits and pieces of dried tissue paper that were dipped in Elmers Glue.
Sooo basically I just covered my left face with Graftobian liquid latex and attached those bits of tissue paper to my skin. I covered my eyesocket with a round cotton pad so the liquid latex (and tissue) won’t get to my left eye, and then sandwiched that with another layer of tissue paper and liquid latex.
I traced the middle line (that I drew with my eyeliner earlier) with liquid latex, which I then covered with a thin roll of DIY scar wax (equal amounts of petroleum jelly and flour with a few drops of your liquid foundation)…which I then pressed and blended to my real skin.
Once everything’s dry, I painted my paper mache’d face and scar wax with the same liquid foundation, blush, eyeshadow and lipstick that I used on my real skin–the wonkier the better since I want the left side of my face to be disintegrating (if not melting!), and hey, I’m freakin doing this step with only one seeing eye.
Added some black drips (for the mascara) and even glued the other half of my falsies to make it look a bit more “real” (heh).
Because I’m running out of doable ideas (and because my supposed 5th Halloween makeup look should’ve involved DIY prosthetic!) I settled with another makeup look that’s a little too literal. Now, I’m just gonna go straight to the What I Did’s because I’m running out of time and I still promised to facepaint some of my colleagues for today’s kid-friendly, non-gory Halloween office party so I’ll just let my imaginary childhood boyfriends Nick and Landon explain why the idealist in me still believes in “love is blind”.
Makuha ka sa tingin.
What I Did:
I swiped a stick of Elmer’s Glue on my eyebrows to protect them from the liquid latex and scar wax I’ll be using (and it’s what drag queens do as a pre-concealer measure in hiding their real eyebrows).
I drew the lines and hearts over my eye sockets with a black NYX Retractable Eyeliner and filled them with black Snazaroo facepaint.
I wanted to add a rough-looking texture for the gouged-out eye sockets so I stuck little bits of cotton inside the black hearts with Graftobian liquid latex. Once the latex is dry, I painted the cotton bits with black facepaint too.
I framed the hearts with little rolls of myDIY scar wax (equal parts of flour + petroleum jelly and a bit of liquid foundation) that I stuck to my face using mooore liquid latex. Once they’re in place, I gently rubbed and blended the scar wax to my actual skin.
I veeery carefully applied Maybelline’s Fit Me Liquid Foundation in Natural Beige on my face with a damp beauty sponge, making sure that the sponge can also cover the scar wax’d areas so they’ll appear as if they’re my real skin.
Did my usual contour-highlight routine using Fashion 21’s Contour Kit (contour for the nose line and cheeks), Sleek’s Contour Kit (blush), Sleek’s Highlighting Palette in Precious Metals and Benefit’s watts up highlighter (for the nose and cupid’s bow).
Added a bruising effect to the frames of my gouged-out eyes using red and purple eyeshadow from the Coastal Scents Creative Me palette.
Covered my lips with a very sinister-looking, velvety dark red matte liquid lippie appropriately called Revenge from Gloss Skin and Beyond.
Dabbed a generous amount of Graftobian blood paste over the black facepainted areas of my gouged-out eyes and let Graftobian blood gel drip all over my cheeks.
Stuck bits of wire to the scar wax frame to make it appear as if the wires are holding my face together.
So I’ve finally reached my 4th Halloween makeup for 2018 (3 more to go!!!), and this time, it was inspired by the gifts I received from Gloss Skin and Beyond, a local enterprise (owned by fashionista-turned-doting-mom, Mini) offering all-natural, cruelty-free, FDA-approved skincare and cosmetic products. Now this is the part where I’ll sound pretentious with a “Mini and I go way back…” statement, but let’s not go there; I’m already trying hard not to be the Jaclyn Hill to her Kim Kardashian. All I know is that she’s the popular girl two years my senior in Rural who, in a time when Duramo slides were the norm, sported that cute pair of Nike sandals I’ve been eyeing in Planet Sports for weeeeeks so yeah,I was too intimidated to even speak to her #fashuuun nature. So you can just imagine my disbelief when I unboxed the makeup haul she sent me last Monday:
(L-R) one sunflower soap & one shea butter + cocoa butter soap, one strawberry lip scrub (I’ve stopped exfoliating my lips with a toothbrush like a barbarian. Thanks Mini!), one Wonder Lash & Brow Grower serum, four (4) lip & cheek stains, and four (4) matte liquid lipsticks. Wowza.
It was such a sweet gesture that kinda left me in a panic: how the heck can I use any of these without hurting Gloss Skin and Beyond’s pretty sweet brand image? We all know what kind of image I possess! And so I wondered, hmm since I’m the type of gullible who takes things almost always literally, then let’s create a makeup look that’s literally sweet, honey-and-bees sweet…with a dash of trypophobia:
WHAT I DID
…FOR THE FACE:
I rubbed a bit of Urban Decay’s Optical Illusion Complexion Primer on my face to make the liquid foundation + heavy contouring look more flawless, avoiding my left eye socket area because really, why would I waste my fancy primer on an area I’ll cover with a DIY eye patch later?
I applied Maybelline’s Fit Me Liquid Foundation in Natural Beige using a damp beauty sponge. Added more coverage by applying bareMinerals Mineral Foundation in Neutral Medium with a huge foundation brush. Slathered an inverted triangle of Maybelline’s liquid concealer in Medium under each eye and blended that out with my middle finger.
I used the two brown shades from Fashion 21’s Contour Kit–the lighter brown to define my nose and cheeks, the darker brown to cast a shadow that can slim down the outer area of my cheeks and make my forehead less Rihanna-ish. This is the part where I reaaally wanted to use one of Gloss Skin and Beyond’s lip and cheek stains to add color to my cheeks, but alas, I’ll be using the very sticky modeling wax on my left cheek, so a powder-based blush like that from Sleek’s Contour Kit is needed. Then I illuminated my nose bridge, cheekbones, cupid’s bow and browbone with Sleek’s Highlighting Palette in Precious Metals over Benefit’s watts up highlighter (yeah I’m a highlighter junkie so wat)
Dusted a bit of bareminerals Mineral Veil Finishing Powder with a huge fluffy brush for that airbrushed look.
…FOR THE EYES:
I shaped my brows with Nichido Browmaster in Gingerbread. Went a bit #extra and rubbed a bit of concealer around my eyebrows to make them eeeeven more defined.
I dabbed a bit of Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk over my lids so the white will make the eyeshadow colors pop.
For the eyeshadow: the neon pink shade from the Coastal Scents Creative Me palette over my lids and below my lower lash line, then the bright purple from the same palette over the crease and the outer corners of my lids. Topped them with the glitter light pink, pink & purple shades from the Urban Decay Moondust palette (applied with a wet finger so the glitters will really stick)
Tightlined with NYXRetractable black eyeliner, created my cat eyeliner look with my black, Lifeford Hi-Precise Eye Pen, and finished that off with my new favorite falsies (#BT03 Bohktoh false eyelashes) that I used with my favorite, holy-grail-of-an-eyelash-glue from Nichido.
…FOR THE LIPS (MADE SMOOTH & SOFT THANKS TO THE STRAWBERRY LIP SCRUB I USED EARLIER THAT DAY #NAKS):
I chose Gloss Skin and Beyond’s matte liquid lipstick in Go Girl (which I can describe as a Mocha Neutral Pink: “Ang pink po nya! Grabeng pink. Ah hindi naman po masyadong pink kasi neutral yung dating nya sa skin kaya sakto lang po. Parang pink na mas neutral po.”) so the color would go well with my ultra-mega-girly eyeshadow combo. When I swatched it, it reminded me of Revlon’s Ultra HD Matte Lipcolor…but unlike Revlon’s, Go Girl really delivered its lightweight & transfer-proof promise once applied on the lips. Oh, and its smell reminds me of my cat (but that’s because I bathe my cat with a honeydew-melon-yogurt scented cleansing syrup from Snoe so beh!)
…FOR THE “BEES”:
I decided to unearth the Great Nail Art Stash of 2013 for the unused, fake stick-on nails sent by my mom, which I then painted with a yellow nail polish (China Glaze’s Happy Go Lucky) and a black nail polish (Orly’s Liquid Vinyl). I let them dry while creating the beehive’d patch for my left eye…and if you’re wondering where the heck are their wings, well, “A bee’s wings move so rapidly that studying them, even seeing them, has proved difficult.” #YeaaahScienceBtch
…FOR THE BEEHIVE’D EYE PATCH:
I framed a round cotton pad (which already fits my eye socket area) with tissue paper bits and Elmer’s Glue.
I covered the cotton pad with my DIY scar wax (equal amounts of flour + petroleum jelly and a bit of liquid foundation) that I fashioned into a tiny pizza dough…because my DIY scar wax is easier to mold than the ever-sticky Graftobian modeling wax (plus it’s already pigmented thanks to the liquid foundation included in its ingredients).
I lined my actual eye socket area with Graftobian liquid latex, pressed the tissue paper frame of my eye patch over it, and sandwiched it with more liquid latex. I didn’t want to challenge gravity while the liquid latex is still wet so I just faced the ceiling while trying to send a text with one eye. 😉
Once the liquid latex’d frame of my eyepatch is dry, I smoothened out the edges and blended them to my real skin using Graftobian modeling wax. Used the same liquid foundation and mineral foundation I applied to the rest of my face earlier so the eye patch can match my actual skin…plus the mineral veil powder too, so both my DIY scar wax and Graftobian modeling wax can lose their sticky-icky nature.
To create the 3D holes, I pressed the tip of an eyeshadow makeup brush onto the waxy, fake skin surface of my eye patch; I even rolled the brush like my eye socket was one big pencil sharpener until I was satisfied that the holes were big enough. #InsertDirtyJokeHere
Then I filled the holes with black facepaint from my Flash palette and glued my fake bees with more liquid latex.
…AND FOR THE HONEY:
I’m pretty proud of this because this was a total, last-minute moment of eureka (after an hour of mixing Elmer’s Glue and hair gel and yellow facepaint to no avail!) I simply opened a pack of Garnier’s Lightening Peel Off Mask (which already comes in a translucent yellow shade) and mixed it with a few drops of yellow food coloring.
To be honest, I wasn’t so hot about this makeup look. But like I said, I’m aiming to create 7 Halloween makeup looks this year so I can’t really afford to be picky. All I know is that when I saw this makeup look in Instagram ages ago, I thought, “Hmm looks doable enough, I’ll just have to substitute the melted skin with rolls of tissue bits like the last time.”
I’m not even going to yap about Snow White because she’s my least favorite Disney princess (#MulanPaDinMgaOlol), so I’ll just go straight to the step-by-step:
WHAT I DID…
…FOR THE FACE, PART 1:
I prayed to the makeup gods above that I can still squeeze out an ample amount of Urban Decay’s Optical Illusion Complexion Primer because I don’t want to splurge on a new bottle any time soon just so my face can look flawless and make-up ready. Then I breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered that I just have a faulty pump.
I covered my face with Maybelline’s Fit Me Liquid Foundation in Natural Beigeusing a damp beauty sponge. Added more coverage by applying bareMinerals Mineral Foundation in Neutral Medium with a huge foundation brush. Raged and told myself another lie about getting more sleep when I realized that I’m three products in (primer + liquid foundation + mineral foundation) and yeeeet, my eyebags were still visible. Slathered an inverted triangle of Maybelline’s liquid concealer in Medium under each eye and blended that out with my middle finger.
I defined my cheeks and made my noseline pop like it’s for Josh Groban with the powder blush & powder contour from Sleek’s Face Contour Kit, then illuminated my browbone and cheekbones with Benefit’s watts up highlighter because I like goin extra with my highlighters.
…FOR THE EYES:
I shaped my eyebrows and filled in the sparse areas with Nichido Browmaster in Gingerbread, which has been a cheaper, guilt-free-everyday-tool for me compared to Benefit’s Gimme Brow.
I Primed my eyelids with Lorac Behind The Scenes eyeshadow primer because I need the yellow & blue colors to reaaally stick (yeah, poor choice of color combination but they were supposed to represent Snow White’s Ikea-inspired dress).
Dabbed a bit of white facepaint from my Flash palette over my lids (or else the yellow will barely show on my Azn skin). Added a layer of yellow facepaint over the white lids, then I used a lemon yellow powder eyeshadow my Creative Me palette as their setting powder, and theeen lined the crease and my lower lids with the Facebook- blue eyeshadow (also from the Creative Me palette).
Suck at blending two neon colors together, decided to just screw it and leave them looking raw rather than end up with a green eyeshadow look.
Tightlined with Nyx Retractable black eyeliner, created my cat eyeliner look with my black, Lifeford Hi-Precise Eye Pen, and finished that off with my new favorite falsies (#BT03 Bohktoh false eyelashes #ObligatoryHelloThailandILoveYouForThis), used with my favorite, holy-grail-of-an-eyelash-glue from Nichido.
…FOR THE FACE, PART 2:
I rolled bits of tissue paper into little cocoons. THEN I use the same liquid foundation I used on my face to paint all over them so they can appear as the same shade as my skin. Set to dry.
I used one of my random brown eyeliner pencils lying around to create an outline of my bloody mouth (visualize Ronald McDonald’s mouth while you’re at it).
I lined my Ronald McDonald mouth with a layer of pinky-sized tissue paper using Graftobian liquid latex. This will serve as the frame of the melted skin bits.
I mixed red, black and brown facepaint from my Flash palette and painted my Ronald McDonald mouth outline so it will appear as if it’s one gaping hole of a mouth.
Once the liquid foundation-doused tissue cocoons are dry, I started sticking them to the tissue frame of my Ronald McDonald Mouth using more liquid latex and smoothened the creases with Graftobian Modelling Wax. Oh and I also kept an o-face during this whole ordeal to make sure that the tissue cocoons/melted skin will fit nicely haha
Painted the tissue frame of my mouth with the same liquid foundation, then dabbed a geneeerous amount of Graftobian Blood Paste on the painted gaping hole.
Find a red hairband and hold an apple. Pose for a selfie and make your nosy cat wish you’re not her hooman.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the latest DRAMUH concerning the BGC community cats, particularly those that have been living in the ever-so-fancy, Two Serendra. Actually, you might’ve forgotten it already, since this has been going on for almost two months now and the management probably feels that it is beneath them to respond (unlike a Filipino senator who had the initiative to release this I-was-a-dog-lover-but-now-I-love-jail-cats-shame-on-you statement but nah let’s not get political shall we?) I’ll let this article clue you in so I can just focus on sharing a step-by-step guide for this SFX makeup look. I’ll reaaally try to just focus on my makeup. I’ll try.
OH NO I’ve been scratched after playing with this cheese grater! *scratches head* Guess I’ll just throw this poor, unassuming cheese grater away; it doesn’t deserve to co-exist with me…#StupidAnalogyForAStupidDrama
What I did:
For the face, I used Urban Decay’s Optical Illusion Complexion Primer. It’s supposed to make your skin look flawless and perfect—an optical illusion like the beauty of Two Serendra because underneath the fancy, expat-friendly facade (“Oh sh*t, that place is brimming with expats? That must be such a 1st world haven in our 3rd world nation!”–says every clueless Juan) is a management which, unfortunately, has money that couldn’t buy them class nor the animal welfare awareness of 1st world nations. What a haven indeed!
Then I used a makeup sponge to apply Maybelline’s Fit Me Liquid Foundation in Natural Beige, which resonates with what I imagine to be the Serendra management’s thought process in dealing with the community cats. “Hmmm we better set a rule that forces our residents to pay P10,000 ($185) for feeding those cats…and the retail area should probably set up a DO NOT FEED THE CATS sign so we can join High Street’s kitty bandwagon regardless if, unlike High Street, we haven’t set up a proper feeding program with the ever-willing volunteers…I mean, these cats are sooo cheap, always lounging and flaunting their bellies for the rays of sunlight that should be exclusive to us Serendra folks…Santo Dios, they don’t even have the right breed for our brand of lifestyle! So yeah, let’s make this money-grubbing penalty happen because it’s never gonna apply to me…it fits me.” #LongBuildupIsLong
Then I used Maybelline Liquid Concealer in Medium to cover my eyebags which can probably compete with the eyebags of the cat-loving, Two Serendra residents—you get caught feeding the cats and that’s $185 down the drain, hostile treatment optional. Who could sleep in peace at night?!
TIME FOR CONTOURING, BLUSH & HIGHLIGHTING! I used two products for this step. First is Sleek’s Face Contour Kit, which includes a powdered blush (which can give your cheeks a rosy effect, just like Serendra’s attempt to make things look cute and rosy lol hashtag “Fluffies of Serendra” nga daw check ittt) and a brown powder contour (that you’ll use to make your cheeks and nose look slimmer and more defined, kinda like the bone structure of the Serendra cats if they starve to death). Then of course I’m not going to forget my favorite creamy highlighter of all time which can brighten up your cheekbones, browbone, and your cupid’s bow: Benefit watts up…so, what’s up Serendra? Any updates? Since, you know, it’s been weeks and you haven’t responded to the invitations nor sent a representative to (wo)man up and digest all of the efforts of the people who are WILLING to create a humane Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) Program for the Serendra cats—with no funding or labor needed from y’all whatsoever. They are offering solutions that can keep the Serendra cat population healthy and stable so you won’t have to experience the Vaccuum Effect. Watts up???
To shape and define my eyebrows that seem to be perpetually raised thanks to Serendra’s haughty lack of action, I used the no-fuss, Nichido Browmaster in Gingerbread.
For my simple smoky eyeshadow, I used Bootycall (browbone & lower inner corner my eyes), Chopper (lids) & Tease (crease) from the Naked 2 palette of Urban Decay. Urban Decay…Urban Decay!!! Hahahaha I don’t even need to write this joke anymore. #BestOfLuckWithYourRatInfestation
I used two different eyeliners, both as black as the hearts of the cat haters of Serendra: Nyx Retractable Eyeliner for my lower waterline, and Lifeford Hi-Precise Eye Pen for the obligatory cat eyeliner look.
And now, for the grated skin (recreated from @rubymediamakeup) that resembles an exaggerated cat scratch aka The Most Overused Argument As To Why We Should Just Eliminate The Serendra Cats Year After Year When Eliminating The TNVR’d Cats Will Attract New Unvaccinated Ferals To Claim The Territory Who Are More Likely To Scratch Or Bite Unsupervised Children So It’s Like One Expensive Roofie Circle: I applied a thick layer of Graftobian Modeling Wax all over my cheek, carefully brushed a bit of setting powder & blush powder over it to make it stay put and look infected, dragged the tip of my gel eyeliner brush on the surface of the waxed area to create the 3D wound effects, filled those strips with the brown facepaint from my Flash palette, and dabbed Graftobian Blood Paste on the brown strips. Graftobian modeling wax is too sticky to be molded so I just rolled strips of my DIY scar wax (discussed here) for the strips of skin on the bloody cheese grater.
This post is dedicated to my Sandra who was an abandoned kitten discovered, fostered & spayed by some of Two Serendra’s compassionate residents. See, you Two Serendra hotshots are blessed with people who actually care about a keeping a well-maintained cat population in your vicinity. They’ve been using their own time & resources just to keep those pest-killing cats happy and healthy…but what have you done in return?
For my 6th (and final) Halloween makeup (yep I reaaaally forced myself to level up from my 5 Halloween makeup looks last yearDios mio sawang-sawa na ako humawak ng makeup brush), I decided to go as a mermaid. I was actually planning to do a mermaid look last year, but a good friend of mine whose name rhymes with cat told me to wait AFTER my inaanak‘s mermaid-themed, 2nd birthday party last December. I of course obliged because apparently, things like that are crucial in girl world.
What I love about the mermaid makeup look is that it seems so otherworldly, when it’s really not that difficult…if you have the right materials though. Of course, the first challenge was to find a freakin mermaid crown in Manila. Unlike flower crowns, I haven’t seen any mermaid crown that’s mass-produced so I knew I was gonna DIY this thing.
Googling for references can be disheartening…
Where on earth are these ladies getting all of those pretty jewels and shells…and are those starfish?!!? #RhetoricalQuestion #IKnowTheyreFromTheOceanOkay
…but then I realized, why do I need to overload my mermaid crown with jewels and pretty seashells and dead starfish? IMMA GO REALISTIC ON DIS BISH. Soo:
♫ Look at this stuff, isn’t it sh*t? Wouldn’t you think my destruction’s complete? Wouldn’t you think I’m a girl, a girl losing everythingggg…♫
What I did:
Tagay ka muna.
DO NOT THROW THIS VERY SPECIAL WRAPPER AWAY
You’ll need it because the next 2 hours will be spent gluegunning a mermaid crown together, facepainting and taking selfies.
For the mermaid crown: Find a thin plastic headband. Use a glue gun to attach the pendant & loose ends of a beaded necklace (I can’t remember where I got this because I’m not a huge fan of burloloys) to the headband’s center and ends. Find a house that decorated for Christmas way too early and swipe one of these glittery, coral-looking ornaments they’ve stuck to the Christmas tree. Cut into bits, stick to the center of your crown. Cover the headband with seashells (find a Filipino store that sells sungka and you’ll get your seashells). Hang the remnants of your dinner around the glittery corals of your crown–candy wrapper, ketchup sachet, plastic bag that carried your lumpia, etc. (I told you Tagay was needed and no, I didn’t eat a cotton bud, it’s for erasing makeup mishaps!)
For the face: Use a damp brush to cover your face with the Rural blue facepaint (aka Cerulean if you have to be Miranda Priestly all about it) from the Flash palette. Wear a hair net over your face before contouring scales to your forehead and cheekbones with a matte purple eyeshadow from the Coastal Scents Creative Me palette, and a shimmery purple eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Shadow Box palette.
For the lips: Mix a bit of blue with two bits of pink from your Flash palette. Use your new purple facepaint as your lipstick. Dab a bit of glittery purple eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Moondust palette all over your purple lips.
For the eyes: Use the same purple facepaint you mixed for your lips to draw your eyebrows, add transition shade for your smokey eye makeup, and define your lower lash line. Use a matte black eyeshadow (also from the Urban Decay Shadow Box) to cover your lids and lower lash line. Blend blend blend blend blend. Wing it with Maybelline Hypergloss black liquid eyeliner, use reaaally long falsies with Nichido eyelash glue, then set the falsies with your naturally short lashes with Benefit They’re Real black mascara.
For the extra stuff: Do you remember the jewel stickers people used to stick to their Blackberry phones that’d make Paris Hilton say, “That’s hot”? Yeah, use a few pearl-looking ones and stick them to your face. Feel glad that you made a mistake the other night by mixing a batch of DIY fake blood (hair gel + a pinch of cocoa powder + food coloring) that’s way too runny and had too much blue food coloring when you were preparing for your Stranger Things makeup look so you might as well use that green blood by attaching a plastic lid to your neck with Graftobian Liquid Latex and let your green fake blood drip all over it.
Borrow your housemates’ plastic fork and take a selfie.
Because it ain’t Halloween without zombies, I decided to update my last year’s zombie look. First because it’s been a year and there’s still nothing scarier than being a daily commuter in the Philippines…so yeah I am dedicating this look to the Philippines’ favorite Tito for defending us commuters, and my commuter friends who’ve learned how to ninja-do their makeup WHILE commuting liek watdahel?!!? Kayo ang tunay na #Petmalu!!!
Second because it only took me an hour max. I mean, the goal isn’t to look good after all…
Train to Busan? More like Train to Baclaran! #PumasokNaEmpleyadoLumabasGustongMangainNgTao
Third because I was inspired to create something messy and disgusting thanks to Make Up Pro‘s #MUPFREAKYFACE Halloween contest (they’re giving away P30,000 worth of make up yo; can you just imagine how much can that haul help me?!)
What I did:
Cover your face (and lips!) with a thin layer of white + blue + green facepaint (from the Flash palette). I didn’t want it to be too matte because I just wanted make myself appear like I’m running out of blood.
Flaunt your natural eyebags! I tightlined my eyes with red facepaint, blended that out with a bit of blue and brown. I did this using my fingers because again, the goal of this look is to appear as gross as possible. Just use your Before photo as a reference of what you should NOT look like (BTW my pa-candid, Before photo was made possible by my crispy-pata-loving housemate whose name I would rather not mention due to the addition of unnecessary letter H to the spelling, and his very patient wife. Both have gotten used to seeing me walk around the common area with crazy makeup looks so I salute the patience of these two!!)
Use a veeery thin brush to draw the veins using green, brown and red facepaint. At this point I was getting sleepy so I didn’t bother making sure the veins look more, err, veiny.
Fill in your brows like usual with Benefit Gimme Brow in 04.
Soak a cotton ball in Graftobian liquid latex, flatten it onto your neck (this will serve as the zombie bite); do the same with a smaller cotton ball for the eyebrow pencil. Roll cotton balls until they’re long enough to have the same length as your plastic shards, dip them in liquid latex, then attach to your face.
Attach the shards and brow pencil to the latexed cotton bruises, hold onto place until dry.
Paint the bruises with your usual liquid foundation, then top with red and black facepaint.
Go crazy with your fake blood (hair gel + pinch of cocoa powder + red food dye); add streaks of brown and black facepaint to appear messier.
