A month or so ago Sol of Digital Traincase invited me to her first-ever event: a personal makeup workshop with THE Jigs Mayuga! As you know Jigs is one of the country's premier makeup artists, working with no less than the most sought-after celebrities, brands, and magazines. To be part of his personal makeup class is a great opportunity to learn from the master!

Did you know that Jigs used to work as an airline attendant? Unfortunately, he was laid off when the airline experienced difficulties at that time. Instead of feeling sorry for himself though, Jigs took it as a sign to finally pursue the thing he loved the most: makeup artistry.

So, he took his savings and invested the money on a cosmetology course at the Center for Aesthetic Studies in Makati. He eventually got hired by L'Oreal to manage a Shu Uemura counter in 2005, and then a year or so later got promoted as Chief Makeup Artist for L'Oreal Paris. How's that for turning your lemons into lemonade?

Last September 26, I had the privilege of holding my first formal beauty workshop at Solaire Resort & Casino. I've held workshops before but I always considered them to be casual (well, as casual as these things could go!). This particular occasion was extremely nerve-wracking because I was so afraid of making a mistake!

I represented Beauty Box Corp, the company of my good friend Cheryl. Beauty Box is the official distributor of K-Palette, Fairydrops, Cure, and Fuwarie - all awesome Japanese brands that I've raved about in the past. I truly, truly believe in these products. I use them all the time! Maybe that's why Cheryl hired me for the job, haha.

I've already worked with Cheryl sometime last July, when we shot marketing collaterals for her brands. I produced and directed the shoot that time. I had so much fun working on that one mainly because Cheryl and I understand each other well, and my creative team are people I've worked with several times in the past. Well, I guess that's a story for another day.

Anyway! The workshop was part of the Solaire Image Week, which aimed to enrich the beauty knowledge of Solaire's employees. It was an initiative by Charmagne Garcia-Laconico, Solaire's Image Consultant and also Metro Magazine's Beauty Editor. I think it's a great idea for companies who need their employees to look as beautiful, confident, and competent as possible. Those in the hospitality, beauty, and any sales-oriented business would especially benefit from beauty workshops like this!

I think my workshop went well, although I didn't expect it to drag on for two hours per session.

Hi girls! It's a glorious Friday morning and I'm excited! I've been several shades of lazy and busy to go out lately so I've stored up all my appointments for this day. Call it streamlining operations - if there's anything I dislike, it's wasting time when there's a smoother way to accomplish things.

Anyway, I just want to tell you about an upcoming workshop by Estee Lauder. They are bringing in their Director of Global Makeup Artistry, Blair Patterson, to conduct the class! It will be held on October 13, 4:30pm at the Lubang function room of EDSA Shangri-La. Sounds fab right?

All you need to do is reserve and pay the P3,000 workshop fee, which is in reality consummable GCs at Estee Lauder.