Melting Point

CEBU, Philippines - “Melting, my dear,” Jessie Glova points out for the second time – sounding more audible now – about the latest technique in color combination for the lips and eyes. It’s either I did not expect the word in our conversation or he is the type of speaker who usually belts out his favorite songs to prove his point. On this particular afternoon—as if we’re on the set of Glee—he’s in the mood for Eva Cassidy’s Time After Time.

He cannot work without music. He was a stage performer and an impersonator before becoming a full-fledged make-up artist. On his Facebook account, he has non-surgically transformed his face—perhaps, more than comedy queen Joan Rivers did via Botox—into Madonna (quite often), Adele (for the first time), Whitney Houston (a personal favorite), and Jennifer Lopez. By taking out key beauty elements from the Hollywood icons, he has made a summer look and ultimately, a haute couture technique of giving birth to it: color melting.

Introduced first as a hairstyling secret, it is a technique that blends or “melts” different colors together to create a smooth transition of hues in cosmetics. Adept with all things new in beauty, Glova uses palettes like blue, magenta, gold, and green. He has also instituted an illusion of feathers (instead of attaching more faux lashes) by keenly drawing a pattern on the eyes in white.

“Haute couture is exaggerated. How you interpret the style makes it your own. I may have overly lined the eyes with white eyeliner, but come to think of it: if you lined your eyes this way, it could create a natural emphasis,” he says. “It adds volume.”

 Whatever word you hear—mix, combine, melt—the perpetual challenge is in maintaining smooth transitions of colors and seasons and well, age.

As Glova celebrated his birthday last February 16, sans the daily Hollywood makeover postings, his Facebook profile picture currently reads: “Live your life like a painting canvas. Color it brilliant with your talent and creativity.” (FREEMAN)