bousa concepts

right after our shoot and before the glitter...

tah-dah!!!

the model is my photographer: Bousa!

photographer: Bobbie Yanoupeth

I totally forgot that while I was in California last time, not only did I collaborate on photo shoot with Bousa, I also cut her hair and gave her a little face time!!!!

Bousa and I worked together back in February on "The Little Black Sheep" and "Super Kawaii" shoot. From the moment the cameras started snapping, I knew that she totally understood me. She is such a hard worker and so detail oriented. Her personal aesthetic is anything but ordinary. She worked it out for me. The final product was amazing. And fortunately, I am gonna be back in the bay at the end of this month and we will be working with her again!!!! So please stay tuned!

Hairstyle:
I hacked off like 5inches of her hair. I made sure to slightly angle the hair forward as I was cutting the front pieces. The trick to the look and to give her more of an edge, I got crazy with the layers!!! I did a slide cutting technique, which is similar to using a razor. I pulled hair from the back of her crown forward and layered them into her bangs as well. I swept the hair in both directions as I was making her side swoop because I wanted to make sure that she was able to change the look and not give her a definite part.
I applied some Artec Texture Line BeachCream and blew the hair dry. I then took some pomade as well and scrunched the hair.

i remember being a little girl once

rockstar before!

queen of the candyland kingdom after!

I have been meaning to do a kids edition forever. Originally I wanted to do a group of girls, but I never got around to it. But it just so happen that I needed to babysit Hennessey last minute and she asked for a photo session. She said that she wanted to be featured on here. LOL. So we played dress up and dipped into grown women stuff. She is really cute! and Sassy!

It's funny how we were so desperate to grow up when we were kids. Playing "grown-up" and wearing our parents clothing. I remember wearing my momma's dress, heels, blush and lipstick to walk around the block as a youngster. Hoping that I looked older and more mature.

But now as we are older, we are desperately trying to reverse time and regain our youth. The beauty industry has monopolized on our insecurities and even help create new ones. With photoshopped photos of flawless women and men being fed to us daily, we are led to believe that this is how we should look, and for a small price, we too can look as beautiful.

According to a report released by the YWCA called "Beauty at Any Cost," American women spend about $7billion dollars annually on beauty products. Which equates to $100 monthly for each women in the states! This total doesn't even include how much is spent on cosmetic surgery. Isn't is crazy? I rarely have that much to save a month.

Sad..

Photoshoot:
Pink is her color, thank GOD, cause I just happened to have hella pink stuff lying around my apartment. I decided that we were gonna give her a Candyland theme and that she ruled this candy kingdom. LOL! I also decided that her look would be a play on little girls being cute and dabbling in their momma's thangs! Basically, she was me at 6!

Hairstyle:
I slicked it into a tight ponytail with some gel. I then applied mouse through out her ponytail and curled strands with a 1/2 inch curling iron. You should form some sort of strong foundation so you can stack the curls on top of so it securely. I make almost a bunk-like thing of pin-curls, then I roll and tuck curls randomly through out over that. Letting some hang and so forth, you are the creator and do it based off of your personal aesthetic. And of course, make sure to spray that bad boy down, especially with the children, they like to fuss and do all kinds of madness.

SHE IS TOO FIERCE!

I blogged about her below, but didn't post a pic of her. Here she is with me from this past Friday night at Machine. She was everything!!!!!!

Don't act like you don't know who Miss JujuBee is. Please vote for her! #realityJUJUBEE

love is blooming all over!

Photographer: Jeffrey Zhang
Stylists: Stephanie Wu and Alexander Liang
Hair: Bobbie Yanoupeth
Makeup: Giro Iriarte
Models: Kevin Paik, Graziella Barrette, Mwaji the dog

I was out last night in Boston celebrating Laos New Years with my sistas and was sooooo happy to see Miss JujuBee as well!!!!!!! She was so amazing. I now understand what Rupaul was referring to when she told Miss JujuBee that she was a special queen... You can just feel it in her presence. I am not gassing her up because she is Laotian (but that is a plus cause she is representing our folks real well and btw we normally say that we are Laos and the "S" is silent), but she is honestly the most humble, sweet, and gorgeous person I have ever met.

In the chaos of the club and use taking pics with her, she didn't forget her boyfriend. She even made sure to introduce him to us as well. And what inspired this posting, other than her, is the love that the two have. She loves her man, and he definitely adores her. Their body language, their stares, the way he smiled as he watched her be greeted by her fans, it was sooo cute and contagious even! We were left wanting that same love. LOL!

It is spring girls, and we are all clutching our pearls, hoping that Mr. Right is gonna be coming along...

Which brings me to Mochi Magazine. I had the honor to collaborate with this online based magazine for their spring issue. The story was about spring, romance and love, in life and in your wardrobe. If you are not up on it, you gottta be. This magazine was created to give Asian American teenage girls a positive resource for beauty and fashion. There is a lack of representation of Asians on the silver screen and in the glossy pages of major publications, so Mochi Magazine is trying to shed some light on our community by addressing beauty and cultural identity issue that affects us. Please click here for more MOCHI!!!

Hairstyle:

I pin curled her hair. That's it really. Just make sure to use a 1 1/2 in barrel and curl the hair away from her face. I sprayed her down and teased a bit. But to give it different looks throughout the day, I threw in a quick braid across, I clipped it with some pins in the center, and I even pulled it back into a messy bun, pinning it variously and leaving some pieces straggly.

what an eventful and glamorous weekend!

Besides honoring the man that changed all of our lives, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, I partied my tail feather off this past weekend. It was my good friend/model, Shana Barnes's and also my other good friend/extraordinary artist, Jane Trieu's (check out trieubeauty.com) birthday weekend!!!! And on top of all of this, my bestfriend, Lorena Abenojar flew into town to get away from the sad mood of Seattle, WA

I started the weekend by finishing up Shana's dress for her party. Which she killed!!!!!! I sewed a new weave in for her as well. I redid some cheap shoes for my cousin Daeng Boonmanee because it needed that BAHTOH touch. And Then I cut and dyed Lorena's hair and then found a few items in my closet to style her with for the night.

We went to 3 different parties and chased cabs throughout the whole city, but I made sure that they all looked fierce while doing it.

Make sure to look out for Lorena's modeling debut in a few days...

Hairstyle:

Shana is an addict now and can not be with out her weaves!!!! LOL!!! So the challenge was to figure out how to convert her everyday weave into something that would compliment her bday look. I decided that the dress being a bit extreme with the print and the flower on her should, I should leave her hair sleek. I sewed in her usual weave, leaving the top and edges out. I glued in a bang so that she can remove it later because she normally wears her hair parted in the center. I then pulled everything to the opposite side of her flower and created large bun by teasing and doing pin curls. I finished it off by spraying the bad-boy down with Regis Extreme Hold Hairspray.

thinking back

After a weekend of partying with my bestfriend, Lorena Abenojar, I am just getting over a hangover (jk!!!! or maybe just a tinnnyyy little one). We did a lot of walking down memory lane and ran into many old friends from our childhood while she was here in New York.

It made me think back about the journey that led me to New York, to become who I am today, and also this blog. It has been an amazing adventure and I would say that I have had so much fun, and in some eyes, success. Which was a funny concept to me, because alot of the time we measure success by money and fame, but with time, I have learned that success is finding happy moments in your life.

It has a been a ridiculously amazing life so far... and I see that there is more to come. Thank you to everyone for the support and love.

the faces we wear

Photos By: Tony Lapid
Make-up: Jeralen Mascarinas and Bobbie Yanoupeth

I spent New Year's Eve with my girl Josie Mascarinas. Just us two girls stuffing our faces with finger foods and sipping on Lychee Mojitos and red wine, which led us to the topic of relationships...

It is incredible how much pressure we put on ourselves to wear these different masks to make a relationship work. No matter how wrong someone can be for us, sometimes we want it so bad that we comprise ourselves... to the point that we loose our own identity and our needs.

Sometimes the changes are just little physical things. Maybe make-up, a style of clothing, hair length, weight... and then there are times when the changes are mental things. Regardless of how big or small these changes are, you shouldn't have to do it to please anybody. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your own sense of self, to create this facade that they want you to be, because at the end of the day, they aren't really seeing you for who you are and they aren't loving you for you!

So after a few drinks too many, we decided once that we woke up(and after our hangover wore off), we would do a shoot based on this!

Hairstyle:
I just went crazy on her. Lol! I tied 2 pony tails toward the front of her face. Anchoring them on opposite corners of her crown with elastic hair-ties. I literally wrapped a pack of tracks around each ponytail and secured them with Large Bobby pins. I sprayed everything with Regis Extreme Hold Hairspray and started teasing everything like a maniac! I then brushed the hair into chaotic buns and smoothed it out in certain parts and secured the whole thing with bobby pins. I clipped on ornamental butterflies onto the bun as well.

tough as nails

Photos By: Alfred Espin

Why can't a girl be tough? I think has to do in part that social norms doesn't allow us to step outside of these "gender-roles." Girls are suppose to be vulnerable, love pink, and delicate... and the list goes on and on.

I have someone dear to me, who unfortunately is always questioned to be a tranny. Nothing wrong with being a tranny, but she isn't one... and there isn't anything in her appearance to indicate that she could possibly be a male, except for the fact that she is taller than 6' with heels. I always think of her as a glamazon. Always intact, clothing fierce, face is always painted for the GODS (an expression: meaning her make-up and face is gorgeous!!!), the sweetest person when you get to know her, but it is the tough exterior that I guess makes people question her gender?

I mean, she is super independent, doesn't allow anyone to push her around, can do whatever she wants and do it on her own, She can carry ME home when I am drunk! She is always refusing drinks from guys at the bar and in turn, she buys them drinks instead... She is a no nonsense kind of girl and doesn't need a man to make her feel validated. I think people can't grasp that it is possible because we've been spoon fed these ideas of how girls are suppose to be. So when someone goes against the grain, we question why that is. And normally people conclude that she has either had a traumatic childhood experience with a man, bitter because of failed relationships, a lesbian, or a tranny!

Why can't girls just be tough? ROCK ON TOUGH GIRLS!

Hairstyle:

Krystal's hair is already cut into a mohawk. I applied a little bit of Regis Pomade to slick her sides down. I gave the top portion a light mist of Volumizing Hair Spray from the same manufacturer all over before I used a 1 1/2 inch curling iron to curl the hair back. I rolled some of the hair back and pinned them to give a little tousled romance and some pieces cascade along her face. I finished with another spray of Regis Extreme Holding Spray.

room service?

Photo By: Aflred Espin

I think the idea of bell-boys are soooo cute. And I saw this similar look on a model. I thought that maybe I would give it a mod touch, just to jazz it up a little. So it was all about color!!! So if I were to run a mod/chic hotel, this is how my bell-girls would look like.

Shana is a trooper through all of this. She is the only person who is willing to put up with my craziness and then give it just as much excitement as I have.

Hairstyle:

I slicked the hair down with Got2Be gel and tied here hair into 2 pony tails. One at the temple and the one in the back on the opposite side. I wrapped some tracks of hair around the pony tails and created these loop type buns. I tucked the hair in itself and secured them with bobby pins in X formation so that they were secure. I sprayed to whole thing down with Regis Extreme hold hairspray to finish it.

my computer is down...

I have not been able to update because my laptop broke! I will be uupdating everything this weekend. Thanks for following and being so patient!