At Randolf’s MNL Fashion Week Show, Beauty Lived Between the Real and Unreal
For Randolf’s sophomore MNL Fashion Week collection entitled The Waiting Room, butterfly-shaped eye makeup, pastel contour, painted florals, and sculpted ’90s hair turned familiar beauty codes surreal.
For Randolf’s sophomore outing for MNL Fashion Week, designer RJ Santos’ collection, entitled The Waiting Room, was deeply introspective.
“My grandfather passed away just four days before my niece was born, and it made me think about that space between an ending and a beginning. I imagined a waiting room that exists somewhere between the real and the unreal, where memories, hope, and uncertainty all coexist,” says Santos of his collection.
Rather than depicting an afterlife, the collection explored an undefined space where memories, uncertainty, and new beginnings could exist together.
That sense of the in-between carried into the beauty looks, which took familiar, vintage-like makeup and hair techniques into more unexpected territory. Pastel shades extended beyond the eyelids and across the nose bridge, creating surreal butterfly bridges around the face. Contour moved beyond traditional light mocha and rich browns, with peach-scarlet and pastel blue shades sculpting the cheeks, temples, nose, and jawline.
The face became a space for graphic details, too. Geometric lines replaced conventional eyeshadow, words appeared tattooed across the skin, and brows were brushed upward into grass-like strokes. Painted floral motifs across the temples and forehead added another layer of dimension, making the face appear ready to bloom.
Hair continued the contrast between the familiar and the unexpected. Women’s looks featured severely side-parted, loosely curled hair with a subtle pouf, while the men wore precise middle parts styled sleek with gel or pomade.
As a whole, the beauty looks brought Randolf’s imagined waiting room to life, balancing familiar beauty techniques with surreal details. What emerged was a runway where color, texture, and makeup placement blurred the line between what we have come to embrace and what is still waiting to be discovered.
Butterfly bridges
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
An ethereal makeup style is making waves on the runway: butterfly bridges, as seen at Randolf’s show. The technique uses color and shimmer not just across the lids, but also over the nose bridge to create an instant focal point around the eyes, almost like a mask. Play with pastel shades by sweeping color across the crescent of the eyes, over the nose bridge, and onto the brow bone, or start by emphasizing the color at the center of the nose bridge.
Colored contour
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Contour usually comes in shades of brown to mimic the shadows of the face, but you can be more adventurous by switching up the color. You can choose a peach scarlet shade you would otherwise pick as your blush to define the cheeks, or even play around with unconventional hues like sky blue to define the nose and the jaw. You can even sculpt your face across the temple in pastel blue. Just make sure to blend the colors for a more diffused finish that still emphasizes your best features.
Graphic statements
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Alvin Chua
The face is a canvas for self-expression. As seen on the runway, color isn’t the only way to show your personality: swipe a clean, geometric line across the eyelids instead of a single wash of color, make a statement with words tattooed onto the face, or brush the brows upward into grass-like strokes to create a garden in bloom. Here, there’s no limit to how you can make your look your own.
Side-swept hair with pouf
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
If you’re looking for a hairstyle that carries a hint of old-world glamor with a modern twist, take notes from Randolf’s show, which featured loosely curled side-swept hair. The key to this hair look is to gather your hair to your preferred parting, secure the sides for a cleaner look, and curl the rest of the hair into cascading waves. Don’t forget the top by sectioning your front hair, twisting it, and pushing it forward to create a pouf before pinning it.
Middle-parted hair
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
A middle-parted hairstyle is a classic hairstyle that many men still ask for at the barbershop. You can style your hair by parting it in the middle, combing it cleanly, and lathering on gel or pomade generously to secure the look. It looks presentable and polished, appropriate for any occasion.
Painted flower makeup
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Gabriel Villareal
Randolf’s show made a case for florals—not just through his clothes, but through the beauty looks too. Painted floral motifs across the temples and forehead give the makeup look a more three-dimensional quality, as if it is ready to bloom at any moment. This is a makeup look you would have to zoom in on and can’t help but admire.
Art direction by Mikiyo Ricamora. Photography by Gabriel Villareal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butterfly bridge makeup extends pastel eyeshadow past the lids and across the nose bridge to the brow bone. Recreate it by sweeping pastel color from the eye’s crescent over the nose bridge, emphasizing the center.
Colored contour swaps brown for shades like peach scarlet or pastel blue to sculpt the cheeks, temples, nose, and jawline. Apply a blush-toned shade for cheeks or pastel blue along the temples, blending for a diffused finish.
Designer RJ Santos created The Waiting Room after his grandfather passed away four days before his niece was born, imagining a space between an ending and a beginning where memories, hope, and uncertainty coexist.
Gather hair to your preferred side part, secure it for a clean line, and curl the rest into cascading waves. Section the front hair, twist it, push it forward, and pin to create the signature pouf.
Part hair cleanly down the middle, comb both sides smooth, and apply gel or pomade generously to hold the style. The look stays polished and low-maintenance, a classic choice many barbershops still offer.
