Making up her mind
Denise Bassler makes Cebu home for good
By Deneb Batucan
FROM a small village in Struttgart, Germany, Denise Bassler is charting her own path in the tropical city paradise that she considers her second home. And as the half-Filipino, half-German stunner makes her way through the makeup scene in the Philippines, she comes up with her own brand of hair and makeup styling, making women even more beautiful one stroke at a time.
Denise caught the makeup bug when she worked as a content manager at a PR agency for cosmetics back in Germany. It was there that she realized that she’s not just a girl who loves doing her own makeup — she’s an artist.
At that time, Denise did freelance makeup services, but in 2012, she decided to quit her job and get a diploma as a makeup artist and have her own string of clients. She enrolled at Pro Academy in Stuttgart. The rest was history.
Transformations
Denise decided to come home to Cebu and set up her own makeup services here because she was fascinated with the many destination weddings. For her, it’s a chance to travel and meet new people through her various clients. But one particular event really pushed her to become a makeup artist in Cebu.
“It was the wedding of my cousin here in Cebu. We all got our makeup done and it looked stunning. I was so amazed about the transformation that I really wanted to learn how to do it because even though I was already doing makeup, I never achieved that kind of result,” she said.
Denise especially loves doing makeup for brides. Wedding clients are her absolute favorite because she gets to be part of something so pure and beautiful. “The feeling you get when you do a bride’s makeup on her special day and she looks in the mirror and is happy — that’s priceless,” she shared.
For Denise, she loves to transform people into their best look for their special day. “Some people say they like it more natural and there is nothing wrong about that. But giving people the chance to look their best, making them more confident with a b
it of makeup, is a wonderful result of what we makeup artists do. The goal here is not to cover the natural beauty of the client but to bring out the best of every client,” Denise said.
More confidence
Fresh from finishing a hair styling course at the Fashion Institute of Design and Arts, Denise is now even more confident when clients ask her to fix their hair. As a makeup artist, Denise believes that one should be knowledgeable on hair styling as well.
Though she is thankful to have added a new skill to her craft, she doesn’t want to stop there. In the future, she would be attending more makeup and hair styling courses to keep on improving her craft. “You should never think that you are good enough to stop learning,” she said.
For her makeup career, Denise aims to grow even more in her chosen craft. She dreams of being able to do makeup for a big beauty pageant and have a chance to have beauty queens the likes of Jamie Herrell and Pia Wurtzbach wear her makeup. For Denise, that would be her ultimate goal as a makeup artist.
As of now, Denise is being reacquainted to her second home, Cebu. When she was younger, she used to spend her holidays here, and now she is actually living here away from her family in Germany. But three months in, and she says she hasn’t been too homesick.
“Sometimes I am still overwhelmed that I really live here. I love the weather, the city, the friendly people and the landscape. There is so much to discover,” she said. “I’m just so grateful that I somehow got the chance in my life to do what I love every day and make people happy with my passion.”
Photos: Alfred Gregory E. Bartolome
Hair and Makeup by Denise Bassler
