MAKEUP ARTISTRY

My excuse for running away to Berlin in 2016 for three months was to spend half that time learning how to do makeup on people other than myself at the Make Up Designory Studio in Germany.

Why Make Up Designory? Because it’s one of the best known makeup schools in the world. Why in Berlin instead of Manila, when there’s a branch here and tuition would have cost less, not to mention I my parents wouldn’t have had to pay for airfare, rent, and living expenses?

My serious answer is so that I would have the opportunity to practice on a wider range of skin tones, skin types, and facial features, and I got to do exactly that. I had classmates from all over the world (and all over the spectrum) to learn with, and opportunities were available to us that allowed us to work on more people than just each other, so it was a great learning experience.

My real answer is that I was looking for any marginally productive reason to be away from Manila for a significant amount of time, and Berlin was — and remains — my favorite city in the world.

Why learn how to do makeup at all? Because I spent over four years as a beauty editor and I wanted to know the technical skills involved instead of just writing about them.

So now that I have certification — because I’m the kind of formalist who is reluctant to claim a skill or a title she hasn’t worked for — I’m available for your makeup needs.

If you would like to work together, drop me a line.

Stranger Things
(Or, A Few Weird Looks I Did At Beauty School)

One of our teachers, the wonderful Laetitia Lemak, was also very, very handy with an SLR.

  1. Evelina. Done in about 30 minutes for our High Fashion final; essentially a free-for-all do-what-you-want exercise. I was feeling a little graphic and blue at the time.
  2. Andrea. From bring-a-peg-to-school day; I brought something from Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label runway.
  3. Evelina, before we convinced her to join the facial piercing club. The prompt Laetitia gave for this round was a soft but subtly out-of-the-box pastel look with natural brows and lashes.