Review: Mac Please Me

I've been searching for a nice muted pink lipstick for a long time! While I love coral, there are just days that I want to wear something natural-looking. I think it was around 2009 or 2010 when muted pink lipsticks became a huge trend because of the limited edition Mac Lady Gaga collection. I remember that I asked my wedding MUA to use a light pink tone for my lips.

Review: Mac Cosmo

Hello everyone!

I recently checked my post stats and was surprised to see that most of my blog traffic come from my product review entries. Thank you very much and I hope thay you find them informative.

So today I have decided to post a new product review about a mac lipstick that I have purchased few months ago. By the way, I used my smartphone in writing this blog so I apologize for any mispelled words.

Make up: The Vampire Diaries??

 

The Beautiful Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries. (taken from the web)

Hello everyone! It's a cold Friday morning and it kept me under the sheets for an extra hour. Anyway, few days ago, I was invited by a friend to do a photoshoot with a peg of 'The Vampire Diaries'. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of a 'vampire-romance' storyline. I've watched Twilight and tried to read the books (I managed to read only one, haha. sorry, Meyer's style isn't my taste.) but I just get bored or unimpressed every single time. 

Photoshoot with Vincent and Avi

Working with people you are comfortable with is not quite easy to come by, that's why when I work with people who I just met (especially with make-up gigs) I try my best to let them feel comfortable with me. With my last shoot, I think I got too comfortable that I worked in such a slow pace and to top it off I was also late :( I am terribly sorry Vincent and Avi!!!!!!!

Make up: Sneak Peek

So what have I been up to lately? here's a sneak peek!

LOTD: White liner, no eye shadow.

Pardon my eyes :(

What I used:

Etude house BB Cream

Etude house surprise me concealer stick

in2it eyebrow powder

elf white auto eyeliner

prestige blush

nyx lipstick in paparazzi

Review: NYX Pumpkin Pie & Paparazzi

NYX is probably one of the most popular cheap make-up brands today most especially their lipsticks. I have a confession to make, I bought a NYX lipstick out of curiosity many years back. I randomly chose an orange tone one and ended up buying "Femme". On my first try, I love how pigmented it was but I found the color too strong for me (or maybe I just did not appreciate it at that time) so I threw it away! little did I know that "Femme" was a popular one and was always out-of-stock! haha!

Nyx is available at purebeauty, serendra and thru online sellers. The usual price is 300 to 400 (around 7 to 9 dollars) each for the lipsticks but in the US it only costs around $2 each which reminds me, I should have my NYX haul on my next visit.

I recently bought 2 shades of lipsticks and I thought of sharing it here today. I was looking for a nice Pink and nude shade so I ended up buying Pumpkin Pie and Paparazzi.

Pumpkin Pie - Paparazzi

Falsies or no falsies

I'm not a huge fan of false eye lashes. Unlike others who wear them on a day-to-day basis to make their eyes look dolly, I find myself too lazy and thought that these were just for special occasions. Despite having very thin and short lashes I would settle with just curling my lashes (which ends up straight after sometime)-I'm more of an eyebrow-cheek-lip person. (how I wish I had my husband's lashes!)

Lately though I've been allotting time to put on some mascara, my eyes are naturally drooping at the outer end plus my eyes are quite on the hooded set.

Tutorial: my 10-minute make-up routine

I end up rushing most of the time and because of that I've mastered my own 10-minute make-up ritual right after I dry my hair. Sometimes, I can do this in 5 minutes (depending on how pressured I am). Nonetheless, I am able to moisturize, conceal, apply bb cream and put on make-up. Here's how I do it:

Tutorial: Daytime Smokey Eyes

First monday of the month! It's starting to get cold here, am already busy planning for our christmas party program (yes, I am that excited!) since our family is hosting the reunion this year. hmm... Anyway! I thought of doing a make-up tutorial today, I *might* be able to do another one later this evening since I'm going out but if I don't post it later, I'll definitely do it tomorrow.

I know you've heard of the "Smokey eyes", I translate it as "evening eyes" not until I joined classes, photoshoots and other make-up related activities. I eventually learned that there is a "Daytime smokey eyes" and I thought, hmmm... not exactly what I would wear on a day while walking around somewhere but something you can wear on special occasions, photo shoots and probably at work (depends on the nature of your work).

Tutorial: Everyday Make-up

Tutorial time! Before I show how to do smoky eyes, night make-up or even avant garde I thought of sharing how to do an everyday make-up first. here's a before and after shot:

Cleaning up! + review

Those who are into make-up probably owns a couple or more of brushes and for MUAs like me, we need to have a lot and not just ordinary brushes, we need good quality ones! 

Even on regular "make-up kits", you need to own good brushes to blend out your eyeshadow and fluffy brushes for your blush because those free foam-tip sticks that you get from make-up sets never really does the job! But we all know that good brushes (like the ones from mac) doesn't come cheap.

Lucky for me, I got introduced to Suesh make-up toolkit! Last year, I joined their comprehensive make up workshop and got the chance to try out their brushes. There are three important points for me when it comes to make up brushes: doesn't shed, soft and does the job especially in blending. 

Of course the price matters because we pinoys are price conscious! 

Suesh 12-piece make-up brush set for only 2,200! 

E/S Palette with Swatches

Disclaimer: This post is loaded with images so I chose to re-size the photos for loading purposes. Click on the images for a larger view (especially for the swatches)

Happy Thursday everyone and welcome to my new visitors! please subscribe or follow if you have a google+ account! should you have queries about make-up, feel free to e-mail me at karlacasabal@gmail.com and I'd be glad to help you. As promised, I'll talk about my favorite E/S palettes.

Stila dream in full color

This was a holiday palette which came with their cult favorite smudge stick waterproof eyeliner. There are 29 eye shadows and 7 cheek colors on this palette. one look at this and some of you may think that there are too many colors that you don't know which goes well together. Actually, that is not the case! The unique design of the palette contains curved shapes of coordinating eye shadows to use for your base, crease, lash line and lids. - that means you have to start at the middle of the palette (which is Kitten-one of their most popular eye shadow, if not most popular) choose a "petal" then follow the curve down. Honestly, I don't follow this (hehe) because I like to experiment and try different looks that I can come up with!

E/S Kitten. (your) Left - with primer. Right - w/o primer

To make sure that the color of your E/S shows AND lasts, use an eye primer, Etude house has a cheap one you can find about it HERE.

Swatches:
Based on the palette design, Stila created 7 different combinations

Stargaze:

Espresso:

Muse:

Oasis:

Mirage:

Rosie:

Dreamcatcher:

I'm sure you're quite confused right now as to which e/s color I'm talking about, here's a diagram: The pattern with the arrow is Stargaze, Just move to the next petal to see each combination.

Sleek - Divine

Next is my Sleek Divine palette. I bought this last December, you can purchase this through online sellers only-I think. I LOVE this palette, very pigmented and has a reasonable price, I got mine for only 650 pesos!

Top row

Bottom row- yes, this is what I reach for when I want something smoky!

This palette is worth every cent! the color payoff is really good and lasts for hours. I did not use any primer on these, so you can really see how good the pigmentation is.

My Estee Lauder palette- mostly neutrals. Perfect for weddings

Prestige eye shadows

I know my prestige ones are not palettes but i just had to include it on this post! Ironic as it may sound I don't often wear eye shadows when I go out despite the amount of make-up I have, but when I do this is what I often use.

That's about it! next time I'll post a tutorial on either one of these: 

comment/message or e-mail me which one you'd like to see first! :)

Mature Skin

backlog..backlog..backlog! Oh my, I don't even know what to post first! Okay enough of me, time for a new portfolio post!

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is, or should I say the most difficult skin type to work with is a mature one? As we grow older our skin gets dry (I guess mine has to wait as I still have LOTS of oil in my oil bank) which causes lines and roughness. The eyelids also begin to sag which makes eye make-up even more challenging! (hello, where's the eyeliner?) You can't just pin-point which foundation and make-up to use, you need to be careful as some products can enhance the visibility of fine lines which can make them look older.

This is my ninang, would you believe she's 63 years old? or was that 64? I don't even recall. All I know is that she looks young on this picture! and yes since it's a backlog this was taken probably around February or March, haha.

According to my teacher a gel liner is the best for mature skin types. We don't use that much primer on them too because their skin is already dry which may cause creasing and we wouldn't want that, wouldn't we?

Products used (since again this is a backlog, I tried my best to remember the products used)

- small amount of Smashbox Photo finish primer
- Revlon Photo ready foundation & lip color
- Stila E/S dream catcher palette (both for eyes and brows)
- Proof 10 eye primer
- Elf Gel liner & blush
- Prestige Blush

Let's talk about primers

Back in college I started building my make-up kit: powder, eyeshadow, blush, lipstick and an eyeliner and as I grew older more products came in: foundation, eyebrow powder, lip liner and gloss.

When I heard about primers, I did not give much attention to it. I figured my face is too oily and I dont want to add more stuff on my face. (plus I'm lazy)

This is my current "make-up bag" quite a lot for a make-up bag dont you think? :)

When I attended make-up school, I learned the basic rules and importance of each product. This is when I realized that I've been skipping the most important step for my skin type, yep, primers.

For "lucky" girls like me who has an endless supply of oil, primers are our best friend. I never considered buying one before because I never knew that it can help on controlling oil aside from keeping our foundation and eyeshadows last.

Benefit's porefessional - my husband got this for me in a different country because at that time Benefit was not locally available. lucky for us the brand decided to open a store at greenbelt! This product does NOT heal or minimize pores, it is a primer which covers visible pores to make our skin look even and better when foundation is applied. - a must for me!

Smashbox photo finish - a highly recommended primer by my teacher and other make up artists! If you are a new MUA and building up your traincase, invest on this, your clients will thank you!

and lastly, Proof 10 eye primer by etude house. Now I know it is not as good as Urban Decay's popular primer but since it's still not available locally (quite hard to get one as it is often sold out on trusted online stores) I substitute Proof 10 and it does work! :)




Benefit available at greenbelt and shangri-la counter. Price : I did not purchase mine here, but I heard it is around 1,900 to 2,100 please correct me if I'm wrong.
Smashbox available at beauty bar. Price: 850 for 15ml
Etude house proof 10 eye primer around 200.

next time I'll talk about my eye shadow palettes that I truly love! I have a LOT and currently adding more, heehee! :)

Update within the week: bridal looks

I was planning to upload wedding looks today, unfortunately my husband forgot our trusty dslr in the office! :(

I received this new e/s palette today (given to me by my ninang!) plus a really cute make up bag. I believe this was a blockbuster (not sure of the name though) make up set by estee lauder but again, I don't have a camera right now so I'll update/upload probably tomorrow using this palette. So for now enjoy the "eye" pictures taken from my laptop and iphone *sad*

Yes I'm covering my face because i only did eye make up and eyebrows! haha!

I'm getting more hits lately, some from even unknown websites OMG. But thank you to all the referrals and recommendations! I'm trying my best to respond to inquiries as fast as I can and I think I'm doing a pretty good job on it haha! To answer a common query: " Do you do make up trials?" yes, I can do it for free as long as it is done here in our home (message me) but for home service I do require a fee depending on your location. :)

For inquiries please do send me an e-mail at karlacasabal@gmail.com or send me an sms at 09228070716

all the products that I use are first tried and tested on my sensitive skin ( I can easily get breakouts, that I have to thank my father for! hehe)

On Trial : Leopard Eyes

 

I was quite curious when I saw this online so I decided to give it a try since I'm also doing an avant garde shoot on December! :)

truth be told, I really prefer to do avant garde because it brings out the "old me". back in elementary and high school, you'd see me scribbling and drawing various things - meaning using up gazillions of paper! haha! :) 

anyway, this is just my first try and I plan to use thick lashes for this look. :)

Makeover Session

Agnes

I'm not allowed to post a before shot because she'll kill me haha! :P

Sorry for the light, it was already dark when I took this photo, and I did not want to tweak anything (aside from merging and finally putting a watermark) through photoshop on this picture.

She's Agnes, my mother. She asked me to do her make-up for her birthday and even DARED me to use blue haha! she used to be a make up artist at rustan's when she was young and I was still a baby, she told me to veer very far away from neutrals since she's very used to it na daw. :) So in the end, I did use blue, gray and black. :))

Alex & Arnold's wedding 11-12-11

 

That's me with the mom of the bride :) 

Make up : Karla Casabal

Hair: Sophia of Cut Salon

I love that she was very particular with her make up especially when it comes to her eyebrows. At make up school, eyebrows is what I had my teacher teach me over and over again! I'm still on the hunt for the MUFE eyebrow corrector, it's just too bad that it's always out of stock :(

I did make up on 6 people that day: moms of the bride and groom, 1 ninang and 3 from the entourage. I particularly enjoyed doing make up on the moms (and ninang) because they were very *kikay* to begin with. haha! The only thing that I regret in this event is that I was too pre-occupied with making these people beautiful that I forgot to take before and after shots! *sad* most of the photos here were group shots :( oh well, I'll try to remind myself next time!

I did both of their make ups! as I said, I wasn't able to take before shots, hence no before picture for the ninang :( (before shot of the ento courtesy of Alex Guray Photography.)

Ninang (as what I called her during that day hehe) was a professional singer before, she told me that as a performer she was always made up that's why it was a breeeeeze putting an eyeliner on her! :) on the other hand, the girl on her side was very friendly! Her skin was almost perfect, I did not need to conceal that much. :)

 

Me with the mother of the groom.

she was very quiet and had the least *requests*, I think it was her daughter who asked me to give her eyebrows hehe :) since she had very thin eyebrows I drew a new one for her. I personally believe that making your eyebrows a bit thicker makes you look younger (well, not that thick of course hehe)

Lia (pretty girl beside the groom.) one of the secondary sponsors.

(Photo courtesy of Alex Guray Photography.) 

Lia told me that she was acidic, so I used a foundation 2 shades lighter than her skin tone as her skin will make it appear darker in the next few hours. She was very easy to handle too! :)

Thank you so much Ma'am Alex for the trust! I really enjoyed making your girls beautiful and I felt very well received by them. :) Congratulations to the both of you!! :)

~Karla

Products used: Smashbox photofinish primer, Revlon Foundation, various concealers, prestige and revlon eyeshadows, prestige/elf/revlon eyeliners, eyelid primer, elf/prestige blush and contour, maybelline/max factor lip colors. *I may have forgot some*

ps: I don't have a picture of the other girl :( *sad* I think she left earlier than the rest so I was not able to ask for a picture :(

Vintage Vibe

*Credits/The Team*

Photographer - Vincent Patrick Chang

Model - Anika Montemayor

Hair and Make up - Karla Casabal

it was not exactly our theme, but when I saw these photos (these two) it gave me the "vintage" drama. :)