Makeup Workshop Lessons: Highlighting and Contouring

As much as I dislike the Kardashians (because truth be told, I envy their success; but really though, they should maybe make an effort to contribute something noble and useful to society instead of just dumbing us down with empty entertainment), we gotta give them credit for legitimizing makeup artistry.

I mean, makeup artistry has always been there since time immemorial, but if not for Kim Kardashian making pageant-sagala-bridal makeup a part of her (and now our) daily routine, makeup artistry would not be this HUGE. Growing up in a province in a third world country, makeup over here used to be reserved for important, fancy occasions. Women from older generations only wore makeup 3 times in their entire lives: Graduation, Wedding, Death.

I know, because my mom and aunts and most older women I know never owned a single bottle of foundation, or even a tube of lipstick. Only pressure from over-enthusiastic Avon ladies can make them buy lipstick which they will never use until it expires. I remember being 6 and my mom only had a single tube of lipstick which she also used to color my cheeks for school activities that required makeup. Up until recently, even my non-makeup-wearing mother has familiarized herself with BB creams, concealer, and lip primer. Thanks, Kim K. Your influence has reached such a phenomenal success that it is now on our poverty-stricken shores! Our populace is generally starving but never in dull, pasty, makeup-free states. We starve but our eyebrows are never not on fleek.

The trouble with highlighting and contouring having such popularity is that people fail to realize they are not Kim K, they're not in Hollywood, and unlike Kim K and the rest of them in Hollywood, normal people are mostly under natural lighting. And highlighting and contouring looks RIDICULOUS under natural light. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

No.

Kim K and her contouring under the sun:

Of course, blending has to be perfect to avoid harsh lines. But even well-blended contour just looks... off under the sun.

I once met with a bridal client at a coffee shop under the 2 pm sun. She was with her sister. Her sister had a nose line on and some cheek contouring. It would have looked nice in pictures, or inside the coffee shop where the lighting was dim and yellow, or at a party 4 hours later that day. But under the 2 pm sun, on an ordinary day, it was... it was just too much. 5 seconds upon meeting her, I knew she hated her nose. That's not something you want casual acquaintances to know about you.

As Ms. Donna says, makeup is not there to bury flaws under make-believe contours and features. The goal of makeup application is in highlighting what's good so well that the flaws become so insignificant to the total look. 

Unlike in the States, or elsewhere where a ton of makeup is part of daily life, contouring and highlighting is best reserved for night events, stage performance, and photo shoots. Nose lines are not worn at the supermarket. Period.

Having said that, here's the general technique Ms. Donna uses on her clients:

Sorry, it's in French. Words are just prettier in French. 

As you can see, the goal is to trick the beholder into thinking there are lights and shadows where there is none. This can be really nice in photos, or on stage where lighting can be too harsh or too bright, and the natural contours of the face are washed out or flattened. For day wear, as in a garden wedding, this can be done in a very light handed manner. It takes real skill to perfect a natural-looking contour. Practice, practice, practice. 

And now, wait, is this Portuguese?

Blush has an often underestimated power to carry out the goals of contouring without looking like there's too much fakery going on. Blush, like contouring products, still look like makeup, but unlike contour that can easily look muddy and shadow-y (like, a gray cloud looming at the sides of the face!), blushers are pretty. The photo above shows the same shape and location for blush for all face shapes. What I personally do is use a darker shade of blush to "contour" the sides of the client's face. This I do for day events. 80s and 90s makeup use the same technique, instead of contouring powder in shades of brown, they use deeper, less bright shades of blushers where the cheekbones are/should be. Looks more natural and less Malificent-y. Again, it should be done with a light hand. Ms. Donna had specific blush rules for each face shape:

1. Round face/full cheeks - sides of the face
2. Long face - thick, horizontal
3. Oval/heart shaped face - apples of the cheek

Ms. Donna says blush should be gradient, not in full blocks of screaming color. She also says it should stop about an inch away from the Nasolabial folds (i.e., the lines around the mouth typically seen in older faces) to avoid emphasizing the lines and sagging. 

Yay. I can't believe I'm almost done with the Donna B Makeup Studio and Summer Madness Mouthful of Words Workshop Seminar series!!!

Makeup Workshop Lessons: Perfect Eyebrows

Waaay before the Kardashians taught us to obsess over eyebrows on fleek, I had obsessed on Heart Evangelista's perfectly-shaped, perfectly-shaded, perfectly-done brows. Back in the day, eyebrows had to be THIN, ARCHED and PLUCKED TO EXTINCTION as seen on the most beautiful woman in the world, Angelina Jolie: 

But Heart, the perfect creature that she is, dared to be different. I do not know if she's a makeup genius or her artists just thought her face and everything on it is perfect the way it is, it's probably a mix of both. I know she does her own makeup and I like that her artists respect her face and leave everything on it alone. Back then, I was in my teens and did not know much about eyebrows, and was left to thinking I will never have Heart Evangelista's perfect brows. Some people are just born with nice eyebrows, I thought. But because I knew that thin, arched, plucked-to-extinction brows will never suit my round, full, intimidating face, I never gave up on wishing on Eyebrow Fairies.

Now, thanks to Cara Delavingne and her "Power Brows" along with Hollywood beauties, Lily Collins and Camilla Belle, people now pay to have thick, dark even unruly brows:

K-pop invasion may also be blamed, as seen on beauty icons Song Hye Kyo and Han Ga In:

Let's pause for a moment of fan girl screaming. Isn't the world such a wonderful place? There's too much beauty I feel like crying. The Lord is indeed wonderful, isn't He?

Last na. Haha. The mother of all thick, gorgeous brows, Audrey Hepburn:

Heart is a fan of Audrey so, I'm guessing she got her cue from her. Oh lovely brows.

I know some men are appalled by thick brows as they CAN seem manly especially on the wrong face. Or when they're overdone, something that's VERY easy to do. Hah. I remember about 5 years ago when I used to bleach my brows and then draw a light gray-blonde shade and was too scared to overdo them because there's a woman in my church, she's in her mid-30s who does her brows too dark and it gave her such a stark, intense, heavy aura. I'm pretty sure I am now that woman that younger girls warn themselves not to be like. Eyebrows can be addictive. I need to go back to bleaching. (I was once mistaken to have Spanish blood because my eyebrows were blonde! That's probably why I stopped bleaching. Or I probably just got lazy.)

Anyway, since this is part 4 of the Donna B Makeup Workshop series, I'll stop fan girling and go back to reviewing the workshop. Sorry, I had too much fun looking at pictures of pretty women and their pretty eyebrows. (Girls are just too pretty!!!)

So yeah. Ms. Donna, she's from the traditional school of eyebrow artistry, which means she's still so much into shaving, plucking and arching brows even when thick, natural brows look better on the client's face. This, I totally dislike, but I totally understand because it's how things have always been taught. Since I disagree with her ideas, I shall not post them, as a way of rebelling against the norm of makeup artists. Clue: this is how it should ALWAYS be done, regardless of the client's face: 

Prom and pageant gays (no, they are not offended by this collective term) are so keen on overplucking, overcutting and overshaving client's brows, to the point of erasing them completely AND THEN painting this template on. It's an insult to the art of makeup. As Ms. Donna said, the purpose of makeup is to bring out the best in clients' faces, not to paint a better one on top of their the face they already have.

Ms. Donna also discussed the importance of NOT following the advice of YouTube gurus. Popular YouTube makeup artists tend to be from the West and therefore have Western faces. The problem lies here - these are the typical Filipina faces (albeit they're from the attractive range):

In Filipino standards, these girls are "pretty" with "matangos" or high-bridged noses. Filipinos tend to focus on just the presence of a bridge in judging the prettiness of the nose. They ignore the size, shape, proportionality of the nose, especially in relation to the brows, eyes and the rest of the face. Now, if we are to follow the advice of YouTube gurus, which is to begin the inner brows at the sides of the nose, as we can see here: 

This is what we get for Julie Anne San Jose, Maine Mendoza, and Nadine Lustre:

As you can see, if we are to follow Western standards in drawing in brows, the brows will begin half an inch away from where they should, making the brows too far apart, giving what Ms. Donna calls, "alien eyebrows".

No.

The girl in the photo looks Singaporean/Vietnamese but her nose is exactly the nose we Filipinos tend to have. If we are to follow Western advice, which says that eyebrows should begin at the side of the nostril (or eyebrows need to be as wide as the nose!), you get eyebrows that are too far apart. Instead, this is the eyebrow rule we need to follow: 

The difference?

Another eyebrow theory goes like this: 

The idea is to shape your brows to soften sharp facial outline angles or sharpen a round facial shape or lengthen a short face or shorten a long face. The trouble with this is that in hopes of distracting the viewer from facial shape "flaws", the eyebrows become the end-all be-all of makeup, completely ignoring other facial features, which to me are more important than the face shape. For example, in hopes of giving angles to a round face, an artist draws sharp, overly-arched brows, the brows look good, but then you look at the rest of the face and the the sharp, overly-arched brows emphasized the client's sharp, hooked nose, and tiny, squinty eyes. In makeup as in life, it is never a good thing to focus on the negative!

My favorite lesson from Ms. Donna is this: Our goal as makeup artists is not to hide flaws or draw nose bridges and cheekbones where there is none. The goal is to bring out the good parts so well that that the bad parts are still there but the looker could care less about them.

Lastly, eyebrows on fleek don't look good on everyone. Good eyebrows should never be the focus of makeup, they are groomed and shaded only to harmonize the entire face. Harmony is key. I'll leave you with these reminders that you should maybe print and post by your bathroom mirror or wherever it is you do your plucking and shading:

Makeup Workshop Lessons: Choosing the right makeup & tools

The most important investment a beauty enthusiast must make is in the proper tools. High quality brushes can be crazy expensive and can scare the shit out of newbies. MAC brushes can go for $50 or P2,200+ here in the Phils. You can't really blame newbies for settling for cheap knockoffs.

Ms. Donna said it's fine to use cheaper brushes, but there IS a huge difference in output. She made us pass around a pair of powder brushes - 1 MAC, and the other a cheap unbranded one, and made us feel the difference ourselves. Cheap brushes, while they can do their basic job of transferring makeup onto skin, are scratchy, making putting on makeup a not so enjoyable task. And if you're a makeup artist, scratching your client's faces with low-quality brushes are a total turn-off. Also, there are brushes that are so bad they do not have evenly distributed hairs and fibers that they deposit makeup unevenly on skin. Worse, some can have bits of hair falling on the face as you brush.

I currently use a set from Sephora, Liz Claiborne and a big, dense brush from Essence of Beauty. Price ranges from mid to high-end.

I've tried brushes from Etude House (Foundation and Stippling), Avon (Complete Set), and the free ones you get inside compacts and palettes from drugstore brands like L'oreal and Revlon, to Victoria's Secret. MAC brushes and Sephora brushes are similar in output, softness and longevity. Mid-priced brushes can sometimes deliver well in terms of output and softness, but not in longevity, OR deliver well in longevity and softness, but not in output. The Trifecta of Brush Greatness:

Crazy expensive brushes promise to deliver all three.

Cheaper brushes can only promise two and suck majorly in that one unshaded area.

Dirt cheap brushes can only promise to at least LOOK like brushes, you'll be lucky if they deliver at all.

Ms. Donna skipped a thorough discussion on each brush, so I shall discuss them one brush a post, some other time. She only emphasized the importance of investing in good ones. Other tools such as sponges, puffs, velcros, buds, cleaners and spatulas were mentioned in passing. I think they're just as important as brushes, especially the sponges. I am yet to try the Beauty Blender, as I am quite content with my Daiso disposable sponges - a dozen for P88. In terms of prices though, unlike brushes which are more complicated in form, these other tools can be purchased for cheap and still deliver.

Ms. Donna's product recommendations:

PRIMER. Quick Fix No Shine Mattifier. A makeup artist/participant in our table also had good things to say about this product. It's cheap, costs around P85 and can be bought in watsons and sm beauty stores. 

FOUNDATION. MAC Studio Fix or Makeup Forever HD Foundation. Ms. Donna recommends high-quality a.k.a. expensive foundation because they are more pigmented. HD products are best as they look perfect in photos and in real life. For starters though, she says San San HD Foundation isn't bad. Tried it on myself during the workshop, half expecting it to not deliver because it's cheap (really, it is! Around P200 for a full-sized bottle!) but I was pleasantly surprised because it did well in covering my spots and it was intact for 6 hours, 2 hours of which I was sweating and exposed to the sun and dust. I noticed 3 red spots after putting this on, but it could be the Quick Fix No Shine Mattifier - it has salicylic acid. Fortunately though, I didn't break out so both should be good for combination, sensitive skin.

CONCEALER. I don't remember any specific brand she recommended for concealing spots and bags. She was using a concealer palette, not concealers in sticks and tubes so I'm not really sure what stuff she considers to be good.

POWDERS. I was waiting for her to mention Ben Nye Banana Powder because my makeup artist friends are so into it, but she didn't have that. I think it was from Mary Kay or Maybelline that she was using. She said if heavier coverage is needed, MAC Studio Fix is best. She's a big fan of MAC.

BROWS. NICHIDO BROW LINER PENCIL in CHESTNUT according to her is best and looks great on most faces. She also uses FACE SHOP STYLE MY EYEBROW, which I also personally use. I'll discuss the perfect brow in the next post. She insists it's ~*THE*~ most important part of the face so she gave it an entire block of discussion. 

EYELINER. Again with the NICHIDO. I've not, to be honest, in my 10 years of makeup curiosity and practice, been a fan of this brand. Swear. Even when I was working on a student budget and could only afford Pond's, Maybelline, and at one point, Ever Bilena, I have never given Nichido some thought. I have no idea why this brand never appealed to me. (You gotta market, people!) Because I'm not really a fan of eyeliner (I'm chinita, monolid/korean/kontrabida-looking) I was not able to justify her excitement/loyalty to this line of pencils. Judging solely from her recommendation, I guess it's a good brand. She also recommends BYS. It's another brand I have seemingly for no reason ignored, but another makeup artist friend is crazy about this brand so I guess it's also good. I'm not really into pencils and liners.

EYESHADOW. LIPSTICK. BLUSHERS. SETTERS. ETC. I do not recall her recommending anything or discussing these products at length, probably because I've been delaying writing about it for over two weeks now (!) or I think it's because she skipped these products altogether and went on the next part which was about the Perfect Eyebrow.

Stuff I learned from the Makeup Workshop - Skin Type and Skin Care

Stuff I learned:

1. You'll get alien eyebrows if you're Filipino and you follow the advice of Youtube Gurus.
2. Fanny Serrano vs. MAC = MAC wins obviously. But FS puts up a good fight.
3. Mascara on lower lashes emphasizes eye bags.
4. A ton of other things I already know but take for granted.
5. Beauty is HIGHLY subjective, what's beautiful to a makeup artist may be ugly to a regular person. So, beware when hiring makeup artists.

OUTLINE OF THE COURSE:

1. Skin type and skin care
2. Choosing the right makeup and tools
3. Perfect Brow
4. Highlighting and Contouring
5. Eyeshadow design and application
6. Daytime corporate makeup
7. Evening makeup
8. Smokey eye

The workshop was hosted by Ms. Donnabelle Bata Aquino herself with the aid of a powerpoint presentation, 2 assistants, and a young chinita model. Participants started registering at 11 am. Freebies, which I discussed rather disappointedly at length here, were given after registration. Ended with the awarding of certificates by 6 pm. All in all, it was worth the P2,000 registration fee.

I. Skin Type and Skin Care

There were 21 or 23 participants, and 2 makeup artist assistants, and I really wished they spent time analyzing each of our skin types. That would not have taken more than 10 minutes. Instead, Ms. Donna just read through her powerpoint and discussed them and asked us to raise our hands to see if we understood what our skin types were. I mean, if I were a beauty amateur, I would not have known my skin type was sensitive+combination and would have gotten lost in a sea of products meant for oily skin.

My sister, for example, has normal skin but uses products for oily skin because for years, she was convinced she's oily. She says her skin gets sticky by the end of the day, yeahno, it's the humidity not your skin that's causing that, silly. See now, without proper information, we can do substantial damage on our skin just by using the wrong products for our skin types! Products for oily skin used on dry skin can cause excessive dryness and wrinkles. Products for sensitive skin used on oily skin can "underclean" the skin and allow the proliferation of bacteria on sebum and oil not washed away by cleansers that are too gentle.

Anyhow, there were things I truly liked about this part of the session. Like how Ms. Donna was so game at poking fun at herself and her skin. I truly appreciate it when women are comfortable in their own (flawed) skin. Years back when I was losing my soft, clear skin to acne, I'd cry at the slightest hint of a joke that made fun of my pimples. These days, I could not care less, I would joke about my acne scars myself. I love it when women make an effort to normalize flaws.

Oily Skin
Use alcohol-free products. Neutrogena was recommended.
Use oil-free moisturizers and cleansing gels. Celeteque was recommended.
Avoid glossy/satin/luminous products. So much for the Korean Dewy trend.
Avoid touching the face. Makeup easily transfers when skin is oily, plus bacteria from your hands can cause pimples.

Dry Skin
Prone to hyperpigmentation, so avoid sun exposure.
Avoid long showers.
Use body wash and cleansing gels instead of soap.
Use moisturizers and night creams.

Sensitive Skin
Use hypoallergenic products. Obviously.
Avoid scrubs.
Avoid icing. Ha! I have friends with poreless skin and they swear by icing. I keep trying to ice my face every few years just to see if my skin has changed and adapted somehow, but no, every time I ice my face, my skin just turns red, but not in a mestiza kind of red, but patchy, rough, and angry-looking red and it would stay that way for DAYS.

Care for all types
Sleep. Important if you want to avoid lines, bags, and wrinkles.
Water. Dehydration causes wrinkles.
Sunscreen. The sun is the ultimate enemy of good skin.
NEVER. EVER. SMOKE. EVER. I have met models who would otherwise have perfect skin but smoking ravaged their skin causing lines and spots around the mouth and large pores in the cheeks and nose. The damage doesn't show until a few years later.

Basic Skin Care Steps

1. Cleanse. Wash face twice a day. Ms. Donna mentioned that if you have oily skin, it's very tempting to wash your face every time it oils up, especially in the summer. This is dangerous, however, as it dries the skin too much, triggering it to produce more oil and drying up the areas that don't oil up, like the eye area and the sides of the face. Also, use cleansing oils or cold cream instead of soap.
2. Exfoliate. Limit to once a week to avoid overprocessing the skin.
3. Tone. There's mix literature about the need for toning. I have long been convinced it's a waste of money, time, and there's risk of damaging the skin in the long run. This is a step I personally skip, no matter how tempting it can be to douse my oily skin with alcohol-based toners. Ms. Donna recommends Evian and Human Nature Rosedew Mist. I am yet to like HN Rosedew Mist, I broke out after using it as a setting spray, but then again, it was the week before my period so it could be hormones. I'm gonna give this product a try when I've no event coming up. I like Human Nature products.
4. Moisturize.  Ms. Donna emphasized the need for moisturizing. We, Filipinos, tend to skip this bit because our skin can get sticky with the humidity. She suggests using night creams especially those nearing their 30s. Eye creams, serums, moisturizers and sunblock are a must even, and maybe especially, for oily skin.

Next up will be "Choosing the Right Makeup and Tools". I learned so much from the workshop that every item on the course outline deserves a stand alone post to discuss everything in detail. I am now in search of more workshops (if you know of any that's free, please let me know!!!) and seminars and any makeup/beauty-related activity. I signed up for product freebies and am currently waiting for the deliveries. I'm actually excited for what this makeup workshop has started, like I am now always on my toes whenever somebody mentions makeup and beauty products. This beauty blog is beginning to take over my life.

Donna B Makeup School Summer Workshop Review

I still haven't decided if I want internet infamy so I'm keeping my name a secret for the meantime. Heh.

Photo from Donna's Facebook page.

One of those batoks is mine. Guess which one.

Hooray! So I've finally pulled enough motivation to write today, 3 days after the actual workshop. Here's to hoping I've retained all the information I refused to write on paper. 

Last time, we played a game of expectations vs. reality. Here's a roundup of what truly transpired in reality: 

1. The turnout. There were 23 of us. 21 or 23. (They earned at least P42,000 that day! If I do decide to pursue this career seriously, I'm thinking of putting up a studio and conducting seminars like this. I realized this could be my life path, I love learning and teaching anyway. Hmmm I should write about this.)

2. The swimming passes. They were raffled off. 2 pairs. One was won by a participant. One by a member of the organizing team. How unfair is that? We paid for that chance to win, you didn't!

3. The food. My fearless forecast: Rice, fried chicken, vegetables, iced tea. What they served: Rice, barbecue, and a chicken dish with potato and hotdog. Lemonade. The barbecue was good, albeit tiny. But hey, it's free what do I expect? The merienda was a disappointment. I was expecting pasta. They served a rather dry, sad plate of pancit. Ada's Catering probably didn't realize the importance of impressing potential clients. 

I apologize for the poor image quality, I was hungry when I took the photos.

4. The freebies. So. How do I express my disappointment without offending Ms. Donna in case she reads this? First of all, I came to be trained and certified, not to get the freebies, BUT I was convinced to go all the way to San Rafael, Bulacan and paid P2,000 expecting I'd get decent items. One can't help but feel duped. 

What was promised:

Promises as posted on her IG.

What we actually received: 

"Make up pouch" 

"Set of make up brushes" 

Of course these ain't real Lacoste nor MAC. I wasn't expecting that at all. The brushes, surprisingly, are soft and usable. 

"Personal vanity mirror w/ bag"

Yep. These even look better in this photo. It's about the size of a notebook. Not complaining as it is FREE, but I wish they chose to describe it less vaguely. "MIRROR WITH POUCH" would have set expectations right, "PERSONAL VANITY MIRROR" denotes an air of class. I mean, they could have chosen something black at least. Or this, specifically:

Photo from here. 

In fact, they could really just have chosen to get mirrors from Mary Kay. From the same link - it's a blog post about free stuff you get when you sign up for Mary Kay (awesome deal, if you ask me) - this mirror is described to be worth P180 for three pieces. That's P60 for something I won't be embarrassed to lug around and pull out from my bag! 

"Mary Kay makeup product(s)"

Unfortunately for us, attendees, this is all the Mary Kay Makeup Product(s) we received. 2 pcs of liquid foundation samplers. I haven't opened them yet, they're not my shade, but by the looks of it, a sachet is good for only 1-2 uses. I was hoping we'd get samples in small tubs or tubes but alas, sachets are all we deserved apparently.

My cousin went home sad and worried. She didn't want to disappoint her husband who spent the day taking care of their kids because she said she'll go to this awesome workshop with amazing freebies. She came home empty-handed. Another attendee from my group was asked by her mom if she wanted a Mary Kay Starter Kit the day before the workshop. She declined her mom's offer because she thought she'll be getting the same stuff from the workshop anyway. Imagine for P1,500 we get P5,700+ worth of full-sized Mary Kay cleansers, moisturizers, foundation and lipstick samplers. We could have just used the money we paid for the workshop to join Mary Kay, had we known! I'm kidding of course, We learned good stuff and we are now certified, so I guess we didn't lose in the end. It's just I don't know, we can't help but feel we were promised too much and they didn't deliver.

5. The organic stuff.  Here's a good bit. We received as we reasonably expected.

"Human Nature product(s)"

"Good Vibes product(s) cheek and lip balm"

It's probably an honest case of vague wording, we were hoping we'd get more products, as the words used were in plural form, but we're happy with what we received. Human Nature products are stuff I truly love and recommend to friends. The lip and cheek tint from Good Vibes is awesome on my lips, I am yet to try it on my cheek. It's organic and I'm always biased to like organic stuff heh.

6. Herbal Life products. They smell like MLM and I'm never comfortable around anything MLM-related. BUT to be fair, this time I did not feel cheated or that my time was wasted listening to recruiters and manipulative sales-talkers. 

"Free Herbal Life product(s) and wellness consultation."

Here they go again with their pluralized freebies. We received just one sachet of the nutritional shake mix. That bit aside, this freebie was truly useful to us attendees. We were asked to stand on a scale which I assumed only took our weight but it showed numbers that measured other stuff like Body Fat, Muscle Mass, Hydration, Metabolism, and Visceral Fat. I'm not quite sure how that happened, the contraption probably took pulse rates, temperature, and blood pressure, too. I've been recently preoccupied with my body issues, I thought I was getting too thin and my belly getting too fat, but because of this freebie I was informed properly about my body and was told I'm perfectly fine, imaginary belly fat and all.

7, 8, 9. Are not worth discussing as this is getting too long already. They raffled off two prizes, which none of my groupmates won so I can only guess what they were. Ms. Donna has a beauty product shop so the prizes were probably from there. I was able to buy stuff from them: 

BOTTOM LINE

It was a fun experience. I will write about the stuff I learned next, as there were plenty of em. Ms. Donna's an entertaining and engaging speaker. She's not boring. She's also pretty and she knows her stuff. She's good. 

All in all I would rate the experience a 4 out of 5. It would have been a 5 if not for the unmet freebie expectations and if they were able to spend more time observing and giving tips to the attendees during DIY sessions - she discusses the look first and then lets the attendees try them on their own faces. Ms. Donna and her assistants could have visited each table and taught us, say, that our face shapes are such and such and that this type of eyebrow fits our specific face better, or that this or that lipstick shade does not suit us, etc. They had time to do that as they gave attendees an hour per look to do their faces, but instead they just went around observing and waiting to be asked. I guess I just wish they were more proactive in providing answers to questions that we, as beginners, do not know we were supposed to be asking. But all in all, it was fun, enlightening, and challenging. We may have gone home with just sachets and flyers from sponsors, but Ms. Donna imparted tips and techniques that provided us with a solid understanding of basic makeup artistry. 

Donna B Makeup School and Beauty Studio Summer Workshop

I have been procrastinating. As you can see, the lone posts in this blog are not months but an entire year apart, with a succession of two poor excuses for a post. It isn't that I have nothing to write about. I have a lot. I have an entire lifetime of dabbling with makeup, pageantry, modelling, crushing on pretty girls, and all things beauty-related but. i . just. never. find. the time nor inspiration. I have too many things going on. And as much as I want to focus on this so I can finally tick this off my bucketlist (author a successful beauty blog), I keep finding and making excuses. Like I am now seriously considering writing a blog about personality disorders instead! I'm apparently also an expert on that.

It's my university's term break so aside from mothering and wife-ing, I have time off from bigger responsibilities to do this. I had a little money saved for another project (see, told ya I've too many things going on) - I'm putting up an online store - and so when my cousin called me to ask if I'm interested in enrolling in makeup school, I said YeahhhhNo. YES to wanting to finally get a certificate in makeup for the heck of getting certified and not having to white lie to people who cast doubts on my abilities on the basis of my lack of formal training. And NO to not spending my business money on another project. But because the offer seemed nice, I figured I'd just spend my social life money on this instead. My social life is always the first to suffer. Story of my life.

The flyer up there isn't very inviting. What got me to sign up was my cousin's husband who told me how badly she wanted this. He said she cried. Because