Photography DIX PEREZ
Videography ANDREW APUYA
Make Up XENG ZULUETA
Hair JET BABAS
Fashion Styling BEA CONSTANTINO
By: Joanna Francisco
On her face, Shaira keeps it minimal. “As long as I’m scrubbed clean. No foundation, no mascara. I used to hate my mom’s makeup. I don’t put a lot of makeup. I use Revlon Bitten, a tinted lip balm, then I really rub it so it looks like a stain. I really like stains. And I bite my lips a lot. I look kinda scary without it.”
She also dyes her own hair. “I enjoy dying my hair because it gives it body. I try to get my hair a bit dry so it has that body. But that’s not advisable; it’s just that my hair is slippery.” I don’t brush my hair. But I have a comb for my bangs!” The bangs are actually a trademark from her childhood years that she has now learned to embrace again.
“I like shooting people without makeup, especially models, if we can get away with it. The images I shoot look like memories, and memories don’t have heavily made up people, or strong characters on them. I tell the girls, especially the models, ‘you’re beautiful with makeup, or without makeup’. They are surprised. But it’s really about how we do the images – the magic,” she says.
“I get asked a lot, how did you think of that, and I think it’s just from my imagination. It’s all from my books. These make me so happy. It’s nothing serious. The world is complicated if you want to make it that. But you can always go back to being eight, and you can be happy if you choose to.”
