How to Look Flawless and Fresh? #AMWIGtv

"Though shall not pile on make up!"

That has been my make up goal ever since I started my make up journey!  I remembered Keith telling me how much blush I had on!  "Parang binugbog ka!" .  Or when I have foundation too thick that doesn't match the color of my neck, I get real feedbacks (On time pa!)  I appreciate that a lot because I learn so much through this journey!

Today, after more than a decade of testing, reviewing and using makeup!  I am surprised how I can't get enough of this profession.  There's always something new to share and learn and I'm sharing yet another makeup tricks and tips for those who wants to create Flawless Looking Skin!  Key phrase ---
"Less is indeed more!"  

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I hope you enjoyed this and let me know if you learn something from me!

I'll share more tips and tricks soon!  Please do follow me on Instagram for real updates!
Shameless plug - I'm really funny on IG Stories :P

Keep smilin'

Stay happy!

 

How to Cut Your Own Bangs and Ways to Style it! #AMWIGTV

Dear Bangs:

I've loved you for so long!  I've had you since nursery and was the only girl in class who have bangs when I was in College.

I tried to hide you after I became a mom (ponytail + bangs clip and all!)  Then my son turned 6 and I knew I had to have you back!  

I did, 3-4 years ago and I never looked back!  Most people felt irritated by you because you cover their eyes and cause a couple of zits!  For me, you do irritate my eyes especially when I drive and you do give me occasional pimples...but I am more comfortable with you.  

Love,

AskMeWhats

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This letter, I don't know why I'm even writing a letter to my bangs but yeah, we are that close so I had to learn to trim you because going to a salon every 2-3 weeks is a huge hassle and obviously expensive!

Just so you know, I studied haircutting way back before I studied Make Up, so yes, you can trust me on this!  And I've been trimming my bangs for many many years now so hope you learn something from me!

Holler if you want to cut your own bangs too!

Which style do you like the most?

Keep smilin'

Stay happy!

 

How to: Korean Glowing Skin #AMWIGtv

Finally answered all your requests on “How to Create Glowing Skin with makeup”! Please bear in mind you don’t need to use the exact products I used! This is just 1 in a million ways you can create a nice glow! Enjoy!!! 

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Products used:
• @brtcph Vitalizer C-10 ampoule
• @pixibeautyph On-The-Glow Stick Moisturizer available @glamourboxph
• Kora Organics Face Oil available at @BeautybyFreyja
• @maccosmeticsph Studio Fix Plus NC30
• @pinksugarph concealer
• @lauramercier Highlighter available @rustansthebeautysource • @makeupforeverphilippines Matte Velvet Compact Foundation
@inher_element Rose Water Moisture Mist (to keep skin hydrated all day)

If you do the K-Beauty Glow differently, do share to me your tips and tricks! 
We'd love to do some sharing down here!

Keep smilin'

Stay happy!

Natural Beauty Look the Pixi-way

If you follow me on Instagram, you knew that I unboxed the Huge Pixi box and even given away an eyeshadow palette and a brush set! 

Yes, shameless plus but it helps to follow me on Instagram as I do a lot of giveaways there!

Leaving myself the Reflex Light palette, I was inspired to create a very simple, natural yet-fresh eyeshadow look using some of my favorite shadow shades from this palette.

 Eye Reflection Shadow Palette With specially curated colors, these eye shadow formulas are highly blendable and incredibly rich in pigment and payoff! Super silky mineral shadows in light reflective shades make it easy to create stunning looks with a few sweeps. The mix of creamy metallic colours ranging from light to dark help create a 3D glow and shimmer, making your eyes the center of attention. Swish on these gorgeous shades to brighten, define, and enliven!

How to use Make Up For Ever's GLITZY Palette

How many times do I have to stress to you the importance of subtle contouring, highlighting and blushing?

If not a lot of times, well I'm doing my part today!  

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT since this is the social media times - everyone's taking photos of their food, their clothes and most of all, their faces!  

And to have your photos taken on a smart phone, you'll want your skin to look healthy and fresh!  And I've got news for you --- it takes a bit of work sometimes and this palette I recently tried got its' own space at my dresser table!  I have been reaching out for this almost everyday!

Subtle look by Yours truly!

Make Up For Ever Glitzy Face Palette

Php3,950.00 (approximate)

Discover the all-in-one pro palette with 9 universal shades to create appealing makeup looks for all skin tones. Highlight, Sculpt, Blush, Glitz: 4 steps is all it takes to #glitzitup 

Makeup That (Literally) Sparks Joy!

When #AltheaMakeup was launched.  There are a couple of items I really love! 
Aside from the concealer that I loved so much and repurchased a even before I ran out of it, another item that got 2 thumbs of approval from me sparkles! 

The Althea Spotlight Eye Glitter

Shades: 01 Gold Light and 02 Pink Light

Php300.00

Available here

This sparkly number doubles up as both an eyeshadow and a liner to light up the eyes for some perky, glamorous peepers. Whether you like a subtle glow or a full-on glitter look, these have a hydrating formula that glides on like butter over the lids, allowing for an easy blend. Don't wait too long though, as they do set down, making them virtually budge-proof after. Pick from two pretty shades to suit your look! 

How to: Quick and Easy "Glass Skin"

Glass Skin is now a craze!  I have never thought of getting into the bandwagon of creating one because who really appreciates Glass Skin?  Those living in North Pole and South Pole maybe?  Those who don't mind piling on serums, moisturizers, oil on top of that, adding more "glowing" makeup products to create that clear, luminous and glowing skin!

Then, recently, I've noticed that my makeup application is creating more "glow", I even caught a lot of you sending DMs to me over Instagram asking me to do a tutorial on "How to Create Glass Skin."

Baka "Accidental Glass Skin" is what you mean.  As I never intend to really have that Glass Skin effect, I'm just one busy gal who wants to cut-short my makeup routine and thus, created something really nice as an effect!  

Would you believe that you can create Glass Skin with skincare (long term) but you can fake one with makeup?  I DID!  And best of all, it was a combination of Skincare + Makeup so my skin gets benefited from it!

My Version of a Glass Skin!

And you don't need gazillion products to create one!  All you need is a ---

1. Matte Foundation.

2. A Whitening Cream that gives instant whitening effect.

The products I picked to create this tutorial is The Body Shop Matte Clay Skin Clarifying Foundation  and my newfound perfect-looking skin discovery - Esfolio Snow Whitening Cream!

Quick and Easy: How To Contour the Eye Area

Whenever I do workshops, the most requested tutorial is "How to apply eyeshadow quickly?"
It is a question and request I want to tackle on because I kind of perfected the simple, quick and easy eyeshadow application for so many years!  (Thank goodness I"m lazy!) :P

Would you believe that you can actually define and contour the eye area with just a single shadow?  If you get a small, nifty eyeshadow duo like this from Essence, things will even be easier and you get an additional highlight for the eyes!

Yes, we contour and highlight the eyes!

Essence Contouring Eyeshadow Set 

Shade: Roses  Meet Mahogany

contour the eyes! the eyeshadow duo offers two perfectly aligned shades for contouring the eyes. easier than ever thanks to the step-by-step instructions!

When Highlighting Is Life, You Need This Palette

If you are like me who thinks "highlighting" is a very important step for daily makeup look, brace yourself as I've found a palette that gives you all your highlighting needs! 

Subtle Highlight, A bit dramatic highlight and the super spotlight-type of highlight.  Name it!  You got it all in this palette.

I know some of you thinks highlighting is the least important step so feel free just to scroll down and check out photos as I hope to change your mind!  For someone with fair yet very sallow skin, this extra step I do to get the "Ang Fresh mo naman!"  compliment.  I'm a girl, I crave for compliments every now and then! *winks*

But seriously, highlighting gives me the instant high especially when I feel tired and sleepy from my gazillion tasks!  It's just me giving my skin an "uplifting mood" on a blah day!  Just like coffee for my system, highlight for my skin!  (I hope you get my comparison :P)

Smashbox co-created this palette with highlighting guru and YouTube star Casey Holmes to create such palette inspired by Casey's ideal lighting to create that glowing look.  This palette includes 3 shades of highlighting to work for all skin tones!

Want Fuller-Looking, yet Natural Brows?

I have full bows to start with --- that's one thing I am very proud of!  I wish it'll look that way until I turn 60!

To my friends and clients who have very few strands of brows or who has brows but each brow strands tend to be fine and almost invisible, you may want to look into this newest Benefit brow product that I got to try and use for the past weeks.

The Benefit Foolproof Brow Powder

Php1,500.00

I got mine in shade 3 because I always like the lighter shades!  

Description 

How to Make An Orange Concealer Work!

How scary could a corrector get?

Well, if you own a deep orange corrector/concealer, you'll know it's scary especially since I have fair skintone.

I have an L.A. Girl PRO.conceal HD.High Definition Concealer (Php399.00) sitting inside my "to review products" basket.  It was there for quite some time before I decided to whip it out especially on those 2 weeks that I was extremely sick!  

Dark circles enhanced from all the coughing and lack of sleep....I knew it was the best time to try this conconcealer...well, the name states concealer but I would like to call this a corrector.

Housed in a tube packaging with brush just like that of a Stila Lip Glaze where product comes out from the center of the brush on each squeeze, I am not sure if I like this packaging or not.  Honestly speaking, I like how the brush is easy-to-use and how it the tube can easily dispense the right amount of product needed, I am just on the "OC" side worrying about the excess product left on brush.  I personally prefer this to be in just a simple plastic tube packaging without a brush BUT, this is perfect if you do not have a separate brush to apply your concealer.

What do you think about the packaging?

Swatch: Orange

AMW Saves: Maybelline FashionBrow + Brow Precise

 You know how much of a brow lover I am because I use at least 2-3 brow products a day!  That's why I fully  understood why companies like Benefit, Make Up For Ever and now, drugstore giant brand Maybelline came up with their own version of a complete brow range!

If you've seen my most recent post on how to use the 3 newest brow products I owned from Make Up For Ever, well, that technically is the "Splurge" post and I'm not continuing the post with a "Save" portion.

I didn't create a "versus" post like other because both set of products aren't exactly the same plus the shades I got are completely different so it is difficult to do a side by side comparison because if you ask me now --- ONE BRAND WON without a doubt due to shade match (hint: the splurge brand).

But that doesn't stop me from sharing how I use the 3 Maybelline brow products even if the shade matching is a bit off, so please don't rant about how "off" the color of my brows are, let's focus on the technique instead on how I would use all 3 products called ----

Maybelline Fashion Brow Precise Shaping Pencil 

Maybelline FashionBrow Pomade Crayon

and

Maybelline Brow Precise Fiber Volumizer Mascara

Here are the swatches and the shade names that I got to try and test.

 Maybelline Fashion Brow Precise Shaping Pencil 

In Natural Brown

This brow pencil is similar to that of the Make Up For Ever Pencil because of the way the pencil looks!  A thicker "brow pencil" side which is best to fill in sparse areas of your brows.

How To Use Make Up For Ever's Brow Liner, Brow Gel + Brow Pencil

To those who compliments my brows almost every time they see me, THANK YOU....but ya 'all should know by now how my real brows look without all the hoobaloo.

Now, isn't this a perfect "Yay" and "Nay" photo?  

Yes, thank you brow products...thank you!

One of the most trusted brand by makeup artists Make Up For Ever recently launched their full range of brow products and your resident AMW was there to cover for you (read article HERE)

And I was asked over email on how to use each product and if they should purchase ALL the products or can survive with just 1 or 2 out of the 3.  My answer?  IT DEPENDS on what you want to achieve and of course, your current brow situation.  I'll show you how using ONE or TWO of each against using ALL 3 would look with photos to prove of course!

AMW Brow Weapon of Choice (with shades)

Make Up For Ever Brow Pencil No. 30 (Php1,100.00)

Make Up For Ever Brow Gel No. 25 (Php1,200.00)

Make Up For Ever Brow Liner No. 20 (Php1,350.00)

Swatches

How to Use NYX Cream Highlight & Contour Palette Medium + Review

Note from your friendly AMW, cream contour and highlighting is definitely NOT for the first-timers!  Even for someone who studied makeup artistry, it is still a challenge to "perfect" cream contour and highlight application and it takes a whole lot of practice!  But once you get the hang of it, the effect is longer-lasting, more dramatic and photographs prettier the "powder counterparts".

I recently got my hands on NYX's newest product that arrived our shores --- the Cream Highlight and Contour Palettte in Medium.  What the hell am I doing with a medium shade when I'm this fair?  Well, trust me, I don't mind!  Though Light will be the more perfect shade for me, I seldom do cream contouring and highlighting on myself and most Filipinas (clients) fall under the Medium division!  

This, my friend is your AMW wearing NOTHING but NYX Cream Highlight and Contour Palette.  As much as I am tempted (very tempted) to fix my brows and wear lip color for this particular photo, I want to prove to you that a 3 dimensional face makes a huge difference on your overall look!  Well, well-drawn brows would look much better but you get the point!

Note: with barefaced photo like this, I usually look like a "bun-face", thankfully, with the right placement of contour and highlight products, I look a bit healthier and slimmer!

Side View on how my contour and highlighter looks.

And here's the nifty product I got to test for the past 2 weeks!

My Inglot Freedom System Palette Look

So finally, I've decided to create a simple makeup look using my newest Inglot Freedom System Palette with the eyeshadows, face powder, cheek powder and lipsticks that I own in this palette!  And don't judge me AMW friends, andun na ako eh, ubusan na to ng headshot poses!  Well, it just proves that the shades made me feel comfortable enough to pose in front of the camera, even in person, I can do all those in seconds :P  Just for you my friends (konting pilit lang hahahaha)

Nikki wears Air Optix contact lens in Green

I am aiming to put the rest of my Inglot products in this palette, this is what I LOVE about the Freedom System, I get to put whatever Inglot makeup I need especially when I'm out on staycation.  As a professional make up artist, this is the answer to my "lugging so much makeup during retouch" because I only need to carry ONE palette!  Trust me when I say, it is a total ease!

For this particular tutorial, I used ALL the products included in my Freedom System Palette.  The look can change depending on how you apply your shadows and what type of lipstick shade you would choose.  In my case, (malakas kayo sa akin), I wore all 5 lipstick shades for you to pick your favorite!  Because I'm the queen of changing lipstick between meetings, this is definitely my "trademark" for now!

My #MaryKayBeautyOnTheGo Looks

As a busy individual (Note: I'm not talking about just being a busy mom so this tutorial is for EVERYONE!)  I know on most days, I only have less than 5 minutes to do my makeup so if you can see my photo collage below, you can see the key products I use.. can you spot them?

Brows - check!

Eyeliner - check!

Mascara - check!

and various lipstick shades --- Check! Check! Check!

That's why when I was challenged by Mary Kay Philippines to create my own version of #MaryKayBeautyOnTheGo looks using these....

...it doesn't feel like a challenge at all, because this is how I usually wear my makeup!

To start with, I usually spot conceal areas around my face that needed coverage, that's the undereye area and red spots on the sides of my nose.

I like to use a lightweight press powder and for this tutorial, I used Mary Kay On-The-Go Mineral Pressed Powder in Ivory 2 (Php699.00).  There isn't much coverage on this but it sets my concealer pretty well and I like the fact that this is mineral-based so it's safe even around kids.

Quick and Easy Smokey Eye Makeup Using Max Factor

So I haven't done a photo-torial for quite some time!  I'm sorry guys!  So many things have been happening but hey, I'm back!  And today, I'm sharing a super nice eyeshadow palette I recently discovered and love using!  Why?  It makes smokey eye makeup application a breeze!  Here's my 5 minutes eye makeup look.

Products used on eyes:

Max Factor NEW Smokey Eye Drama Kit in Sumptuous Golds (on eyes and brows)

and Max Factor False Lash Effect Velvet Volume Mascara

Amp-Up Your Eye Make Up in 1 Easy Step!

I know this tip is so simple and easy you probably knew it by now!  But, just a few reminder to those who are make up newbies!  Those who are complaining to me every time I teach them eye make up!  The excuse will always be: "It's so difficult to blend, I don't know how to apply!" 

Well girls!  There is an easy solution to amp-up your eye make up without much effort!  With my newest discovery Inglot AMC Eye Pencil!

The shade I got is no. 85 which is close to an electric aqua blue shade.

It comes with a sharpened pencil for precise application as an eyeliner and you can use the sides of the pencil to apply all over the crease as an eyeshadow base!

As much as the pencil is retractable and you can get away without sharpening it!  The good side about this pencil is that it comes with a Sharpener at the bottom part.

Working Mom Tips

Whenever I meet friends, they would always tell me: "You are doing so much!  How do you find time?"

I usually give them this exasperated look and tell them: "I don't sleep!"   But now, as I'm sitting in front of the computer while my son is sleeping soundly with my favorite Leaders Insolution sheet mask plastered on my face, I'm doing quite good!  I'm actually enjoying this roller coaster ride called MOTHERHOOD!

Now, don't get me wrong!  Don't compare me to other moms who have more than 1 kid!  They are definitely my hero!  My idol!  So please look at this post as a Motherhood Guide 101 --- nothing fancy, complicated or scienfitic!  Just a newbie mom who learned something through 3.2 years of motherhood and I'm sharing what I learned through the years because I think I'm doing quite a good job!  *pats on my back*

A little background about me to newbie readers.  I'm a hands-on mom with a Day Job and multiple side jobs.  My freelance jobs include --- Make Up Artistry, Make Up Training to Various Brands and AMW Workshop Series, a Brand/PR Consultant.  Adding to that is my day job as a Consultant in an Executive Search firm.

Now how hands-on am I as a Hands-on Mom?  I spend more than 50% of my time with my son!  If I work from home, jump it up to 80-90% of my time!  I co-sleep with my son, bathe him everyday, cook for the family, play with him and teach him (if he's in the mood for learning) and I am also his favorite toy!  --- yes guys, I'm an ANIMATED mom and I'm proud of it!

And yes, I do all these in 24 hours, there are days I can't complete a task but most of the time, I sleep with a big, contented smile on my face.  So if I can do it, you can definitely do it too fellow mommies!

Today's post, I am sharing some of the Working Mom Tips I Live By.  PLEASE SHARE YOURS on comment box below because I'd love to learn from you too!  

How to Use Etude House Play 101 Stick (Contour Duo)

So you are holding an Etude House Play 101 Stick Contour Duo.  What to do with it? 

If you're clueless, this is a perfect blog post for you!  I have the Etude House Play 101 Stick for quite some time and it took me serveral tries to really appreciate this nifty product!  

Everyone knows I'm always a powder girl!  It is easier to apply and less effort to blend!  But why do I still keep the Play 101 Stick Contour Duo with me?  Well, would you believe this is a perfect contour duo "retouch" product?  It's so handy I can easy do a quick retouch inside the ladies' room!

The stick is thicker than regular play sticks!  Imagine "NYX JUMBO PENCILS" (a bit bigger!)  This Contour Duo comes with a Highlighting Tip and a Contour Tip.  Both are twist-able and no need to sharpen!