Voices · 7 of 7
New Voices in Beauty
Every editorial look starts in a chair, with someone mixing a lip color, setting a curl, painting a nail, or tapping ink into skin. Meet the Philippines-based and Filipino American artists doing that work now, from the Met Gala carpet to a salon chair in Makati. Each profile points you to the look, set, or tattoo to see first.
Editorial faces, red-carpet looks, and makeup made for morena skin.
Featured in Makeup · Metro Manila
Booya Mocorro
Booya Mocorro learned to look for beauty in every complexion from her mother, Joan, an artist in Bacolod. At MEGA BeautyCon 2025 she taught a workshop on makeup for morena Filipinas, women with brown skin, and this spring Allure Philippines profiled her for its Morena Spotlight series.
In February she did the makeup for Vogue Philippines’ feature on Jorrybell Agoto, the star of Filipiñana, the film DIWA screened in Portland this October. Allure Philippines later asked her for three looks built on ube, and MEGA named her a guest judge for the 2026 MEGA Beauty Awards.
Start with her Jorrybell Agoto feature for Vogue Philippines.
Also in makeup
- Ashley YsabelleLos AngelesShe drew Audrey Nuna’s 2026 Met Gala liner and silver-flecked black lips from Jackson Pollock’s Number 26A, Black and White. @ashleyysabelle
- Jelly EugenioPhilippinesHis peeled, glass-skin finish defined Nadine Lustre’s three Truth Issue covers for Allure Philippines, and he called it the hardest look he has pulled off. @jellyeugenio
- Slo LopezPhilippinesA self-taught artist who printed her motto, “Art is everyone. Everyone is art,” on the packaging of her second collection with the beauty brand Issy. @slomakeup
- Allan AvendañoLos Angeles, born in Quezon CityA celebrity and TV makeup artist who co-presented the makeup award at the 11th Hollywood Beauty Awards in April. @allanface
Cuts, color, and grooming for red carpets, world tours, and Philippine humidity.
Featured in Hair · Los Angeles
Aika Flores
Aika Flores was born in Tarlac City, and her family moved to Las Vegas in 1999. Her grandmother was a hairdresser for most of her life, and in 2013 Flores moved to Los Angeles to train at the Vidal Sassoon Academy.
Today she is a men’s groomer with The Wall Group, with clients including Josh Hutcherson, Harry Melling, and the Jonas Brothers. This year she groomed Hudson Williams through his Heated Rivalry press tour and did his hair for the Met Gala, and in September Allure Philippines named her one of 21 Filipino hair and makeup artists shaping beauty around the world.
Start with Hudson Williams at the Met Gala.
Also in hair
- Paul NebresMetro ManilaHe co-founded Betterhair, a styling line made for Philippine heat and humidity, with BJ Pascual and Vania Romoff. @paulnebres
- Frederic AspirasLos AngelesLady Gaga’s hairstylist since 2009, he opened up to Vogue Philippines in January about his Filipino father and Vietnamese mother. @fredericaspiras
- Lourd RamosMakatiHe marked 25 years at Creations Salon with Imprint 2, a photo exhibit whose calendar sales benefit Golden Gays and Bahay Kahirup. @lourdramos
Hand-painted sets, sculpted tips, and press-ons worth framing.
Featured in Nails · Los Angeles
Marielle Co
Marielle Co grew up in California, the daughter of parents who came from the Philippines in the 1980s, and she rarely saw Filipino or Asian faces in beauty. “Seeing Asian and Filipino creatives confidently taking up space in beauty, fashion, and music was incredibly healing,” she told Allure Philippines in September.
She runs Girlfriend Bar, her Los Angeles studio for detailed, sculptural nails, and her clients include Britney Spears, Audrey Nuna, and Lisa of Blackpink. Her campaign work spans Nike, DoorDash, Microsoft, and Bratz x Kylie Jenner, along with the nails for Zoë Kravitz’s film Blink Twice.
Start with her Allure Philippines profile.
Also in nails
- Stephanie StoneLos AngelesBustle named her “The Subtle Statement-Maker” in its 2026 Nail Architects Beauty Icon Awards. @stephstonenails
- Gaby AuroPhilippinesFor Allure Philippines she painted a Greek-mythology set, complete with Grecian urns and a tiny Poseidon. @gaby.nailx
- Coleen San PedroMetro ManilaShe started Nailee by selling press-ons in 2021, and this Halloween she hand-painted a Coraline set for Allure Philippines. @nailee.ph
- Nica ValdezcoManilaAllure Philippines counted Nails by Nica, the studio she started in 2019, among Manila’s most eye-catching sets this May. @nailsby.nica
Contemporary studios, plus the artists practicing hand-tapped traditions in their own communities.
The Philippines has many tattoo traditions, and each belongs to a people. Batok is the hand-tapped tattooing of the Kalinga, and batek is practiced in Benguet. Pintados, “the painted ones,” is what the Spanish called the tattooed people of the Visayas. We name every tradition by the community it comes from.
Featured in Tattoo · Baguio and Benguet Traditional
Ate Wamz
Ate Wamz mixes her tattoo ink with spring water from Mount Pulag, the mountain her signature design comes from. In September she brought that ink to the Big London Tattoo Show at ExCeL London, where the Philippine ambassador to the UK offered his forearm for a traditional spider design.
Wilma Gaspili is Kankana-ey and Kalanguya, from Benguet in the Cordillera, and she practices batek, the hand-tapped tattooing of her own communities. In October 2025 she led demonstrations at the Burke Museum in Seattle, stenciling visitors with pine-soot ink instead of tattooing them, and in 2024 she exhibited at the Kapatik World Tattoo Expo in Cebu.
Whose tradition: batek, from her own Kankana-ey and Kalanguya communities in Benguet.
Start with the London spider.
Also in tattoo
- John Eric Basilio ContemporaryKnoxville, TennesseeBorn in Quezon City, he took third Best of Show at the Richmond Tattoo Convention in October for a Hades sleeve. @basilioxtattoo
- Grace Palicas TraditionalBuscalan, KalingaA Butbut mambabatok, or traditional Kalinga tattooist, she tattooed Miss Universe Philippines Bea Millan-Windorski in Buscalan this July.Whose tradition: batok of the Butbut people of Kalinga, learned from her grand-aunt, Apo Whang-Od. @palicasgrace
- Edhenuel Pedrosa ContemporaryCalamba, LagunaLess than six years into tattooing, the realist won Best of Show at the Ligligan International Tattoo Convention. @edhenuel.tattoo
- Jerome Noveras ContemporarySan FranciscoRaised in Daly City, he co-opened Bituin Studio in SoMa in 2024, a Filipinx-owned tattoo shop that doubles as a gallery and community space. Bituin Studio
Keep exploring New Voices
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