Siobhan Moylan Is in Bloom

Siobhan Moylan’s star is on the rise. In just a few short years, she’s gone from editorial darling in local fashion magazines to signing with international modeling agencies, to showing up on the cover of Vogue Philippines with fellow young movers and shakers. Recently, Vogue Australia featured her wedding to Rustan’s business scion Christian Tantoco. 

Life, frankly, is coming up roses for the model. 

Josh Tolentino

We sat down with the New York-based Moylan to talk about how she deals with rejections at work, how she’s taking better care of her health as she gets older, and what she thinks of the F-Beauty movement as someone with a front row view and backstage access via luxury fashion and beauty retailer Rustan’s.

Sight unseen 

Starting a modeling career, especially if you don’t have a famous last name, can be quite challenging. Moylan wasn’t always as in-demand as she is right now and she struggled to find her footing at the start, often feeling she was unseen. In fact, she still finds herself dealing with rejection and being passed over for jobs.  

“I think in modeling it’s really easy to feel unseen and you feel unseen in different stages of your career. I think every model has felt unseen at one point,” she shares. 

“Especially when you’re first starting out, it can take a while to build momentum. Every model is different. Some people build momentum straight away, sometimes it takes a while.”

Being looked over or being rejected for a part that you really want can sting, especially since the focus is one one’s looks. Moylan has since learned not to take it personally and still show up to castings. 

“Everybody’s journey is different, but you can definitely feel unseen in the beginning or even later in your career. When you go to a casting and there are hundreds of other models there, or if there’s a magazine that you really want to work for and they’re not booking you, you feel like, ‘Oh, why aren’t they seeing me? Why aren’t they booking me?’ Or even for a brand, I really want to do that campaign, [I think], ‘Why aren’t they noticing me? Or why aren’t they booking me every time I go to the casting?’ It’s pretty normal and it happens all the time.”

Hearing that kind of candidness from someone like Moylan is refreshing, and possibly encouraging for young models struggling with being seen.

“I think the easiest way to navigate that is to just let go, honestly. It seems like that’s really difficult, but it’s important to just let go and let things happen,” she says. 

“Even if one person doesn’t see you, there will always be someone who does.”

From “flawless” to real confidence

Along with maturity and experience, Moylan also notes that evolving beauty standards have made her more at ease with her looks and the nature of her work, sharing that even as someone already fair-skinned, her freckles were often covered up so her skin could look “white and flawless.” 

Moylan adds that when she started wearing makeup, she too would make it a point to wear high-coverage foundation in an effort to cover up what she deemed then as imperfections. 

“But now I think the standards have changed so much,” she shares. “I think [we] really embrace natural beauty and different skin types now, which is really amazing to see. I feel more confident in embracing that and not wearing foundation.”

Her admission is an insight as to how extreme and narrow the beauty standards were before, and how the changes happening now are absolutely necessary  From spending two hours in a makeup artist’s chair to cover up every last spot to getting more beauty jobs because of her freckles, Moylan is only too happy to see the tide turning in the industry. 

A life in bloom 

A casual check of Moylan’s Instagram will reveal that she’s definitely enjoying where she is right now, with her career in bloom and a new chapter in her life as a married woman.

“I [do] take care of myself more now, because I’m married. Like, I have someone else to live for [now],” she says with a laugh. “I put more effort into my health and what I eat, drinking less alcohol, [and] working out more. I think when you get older, you just want to take care of your health more. It becomes more of a priority.”

Other things on her wellness routine? Working out three to four times a week, taking supplements, a red-light therapy mask, eating better (“[Christian and I], we’ve both been trying to eat a lot healthier, things that are high in good fats, like avocado and fish.”), walking more, and getting more—better—sleep. The last one, along with cutting down on alcohol—a challenge in the modeling industry according to Moylan—has made the biggest impact on her health. 

“Sleep has become really important to me recently. I’ve been really trying to get deeper sleep, so I have a sound machine, an eye mask. It’s a whole thing, but I’m starting to realize as I get older that sleep is so important,” she shares. 

“It makes me feel so different the next day when I get at least eight hours of sleep.”

The wellness challenge

Moylan admits that maintaining her newfound good habits can be challenging. Thankfully, she’s now got a partner that helps keep her in check. 

“I think living with Christian has made it a lot easier for me to balance that. He holds me really accountable, whether that be how much I sleep or what I eat,” she shares. 

“He’s really healthy, so in turn it made me quite healthy. We’ve just made it more of a priority to just live healthier and have a balance, no matter where we are. If we’re in Paris, I’ll find a Pilates studio near where I’m staying or a hotel.”

Because they’re traveling so much, Moylan and Christian make an extra effort to keep their health in check. 

“It’s definitely something you need to actively think about. It’s hard when you live in all these different places and you’re not grounded for long periods of time,” she says. 

“This year we were traveling a lot, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it. I think the biggest motivator for me is that I just feel better when I’m more disciplined and it allows me to be more focused and work harder and be more present and be kinder to the people around me. I think that’s my motivator.”

A future for F-beauty 

As a self-confessed beauty girl who scours Paris’ famous pharmacies for skin-care goodies, she’s admiring the growth of F-beauty. “I think Filipinos are just really creative. I think that’s really what we have to offer. We have, like, amazing creatives in the Philippines,” she shares. “We might not have the technology in beauty yet, as like in Korea or Taiwan, but I think it’s definitely a possibility. Also, the price point from Filipino brands is always good!” 

“I think also what makes Filipino beauty different compared to other Asian beauty brands is that Filipino beauty embraces other skin tones and skin colors more,” she says, noting the proliferation of many local beauty brands. 

“When I first started, there were only a handful of brands and now there’s so many and they’re doing so well,” she says. “Not just in the Philippines but globally. It’s really amazing to see and I think the Philippines is a huge contender in the global beauty space. There’s so much potential.”

Family business 

She would know this, of course—not only as a model in the country, but as someone who is now part of the clan that has brought many of the top international beauty brands to the Philippines. When asked if she too will be taking on a role in the family business, Moylan is positive about the idea—but not right now. 

“I think for right now, I’m focused on modeling. But I definitely won’t be modeling forever, and yes, I would maybe take on a role with them, but as to what capacity. I’m not sure yet,” she says thoughtfully. 

“We’ll see, but I mean, I would like to do something within the beauty field, which Christian’s family’s also involved in in the Philippines, with Rustan’s. So, yeah, I wouldn’t say no. I think I would be interested in taking a role in the future.”

In the meantime, she’s enjoying learning more about her industry from a different point of view. 

Josh Tolentino

“I’ve been working as a model for a while within fashion and beauty and it’s interesting to learn more about the retail side of that while I’m on the more creative side,” she says, adding that she’s been joining the Tantocos in some conferences with some of the biggest luxury retailers in the world. 

“I’ve learned quite a few things about the industry and what works, what doesn’t, who’s making money and who’s not.

“It’s also interesting because I’ve modeled for some of the brands that they carry, which is cool because I’ll be out there shooting and be like, oh, my husband’s family, they sell this brand in the Philippines. That’s always kind of cool.”

From beauty to business? It might be too early to tell. For now, Moylan is content to simply enjoy the moment.

Photography by Josh Tolentino. Beauty direction by Trina Epilepsia Boutain. Makeup and hair by Aileen Reins. Printed green jumpsuit by Charina Sarte.