My Kind of Magic =)

  Archie Tolentino started doing makeup and hairstyling in 2001 as one of the pioneers of Bench Fix Salon under the tutelage of Juan Sarte III and Alex Carbonell. Aside from doing salon "dirty work" ( technical services as hair coloring and texture re-conditioning ) he headed makeup and hairstyling team sent for salon-sponsorships and Bench events. Among his firsts are runway shows such as Fashion Choices featuring Bench Overhauled Jeans, beauty and fashion editorials for Meg, Chalk and Candy Magazines, billboards and print ads such as Luis Manzano for Human and Richard Gutierrez for Bench Overhauled Jeans. After being salon-based for two years, he decided to do freelance work in 2003.

As he wanted to explore the avant-garde couture aspect of hairstyling that time, he began collaborating with then Shu Uemura Makeup Artist Xeng Zulueta for numerous magazine editorials while still doing personal and client-based makeup assignments. Realizing that he wanted to focus more on makeup artistry, he began doing editorials for Summit Media titles such as FHM, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping in 2004. Eventually that led into acquiring jobs for more magazine titles and for TV shows such as Lifestyle Networks' Living Space, Good Finds and The Scene and other TV networks to name a few. He did salon consultancy jobs for middle-class salons in the outskirts of the Metro as well.

Now he is one of Maybelline New York's Color Artists and continues to do print and TV work. He also does personal makeup services for celebrities such as Angel Jacob and Iza Calzado. Along with fellow makeup maven Ronnie Rae who is now New York-based, he founded The Makeup Forum, a discussion/support group for all makeup artists in mid-2007. In early 2008, The Makeup Forum has been formally registered as an organization for professional makeup artists which aims to gain recognition to be an established environment of continuous and progressive learning in the field of makeup artistry.