Actress, singer, film producer and businesswoman Lovi Poe shares her thoughts on growth, the tough environment of showbiz, and blooming like a flower.
“Red lipstick is always a statement. It’s kind of a warning that I am not to be kissed when I wear it, unless you want me to kiss you, unless you want red lipstick all over you!” Lovi Poe shared in jest during STYLISH interviews in between layouts of our cover photo shoot with her.
“My favorite lip shades right now are called Moreyna, (nude brown), and In The Flesh (nude pink),” she added. Both lip colors are from the ‘Love, You’ by Lovi makeup collection, her first beauty business venture ever, and one she created with Filipino-founded cosmetics company Ready Set Glow.
Fresh from her success as a film producer slash lead actress in her recent movie Guilty Pleasure, Lovi was certainly on a roll. The legal drama was her first local film venture ever too under her very own company C’est Lovi Productions, and her first collaboration with Filipino production giant, Regal Entertainment.
And at the STYLISH cover shoot, she’s wearing a lot of hats again. During the photo shoot, she was a cover girl, a beauty entrepreneur, and of course, a makeup-lover herself.
“Not that I am biased, but for my cheeks, Blossom (pink shade) really looks so good. It’s my favorite blush-on these days,” she said.
The Heart-in-Bloom Cream and Powder Blush Duo is one of the personally conceptualized product by Lovi for the makeup line. She shared that the idea came to her while still filming her hit action television series ‘Batang Quiapo’ where she played Monica ‘Mokang’ Dimaculangan.
“I remember we were still taping ‘Batang Quiapo’ that time. And in my scenes, I was doing a lot of running and fight scenes. I remember my makeup artist would do a lot of retouch, retouch and retouch. So I thought, we needed a good solution for that. So that’s how we came up with the blush-on product.”
‘Love, You’ by Lovi with Ready Set Glow is a makeup collection centered on advocating self-love. The line is composed of Skin Poetry Scented Body Shimmer Spray, Multi-Use Lippie, Cream and Powder Blush Duo, Contour and Highlighter Stick, and Brow Setter Trio. The collection with Ready Set Glow truly exudes Lovi’s taste when it comes to makeup products.
“I chose to advocate self-love through this makeup collection because, I really went through all these phases before I finally learned to have that genuine self-love. And this desire to help women to feel good about themselves has always been the mission of Ready Set Glow. Our values in terms of women empowerment really do align.”
“I think right from the very beginning, when I started in the showbiz industry, it was difficult for me to fully embrace and love myself for who I truly am. I think because there had been different voices in the industry, that sometimes can be cruel in such a way that there’s a certain standard of beauty, that during that time apparently I couldn’t keep up with. People were telling me, like, ‘to get a boob job, or have your skin lightened, or you’re never going to make it.’ Because, I was not the standard of beauty then, especially here in the Philippines. Today, morena is not a negative thing anymore. That word, morena, is every empowering word to me.”
“That’s why, it really is a dream come true for me and a full circle moment to have a makeup line of my own, thanks to Ready Set Glow. Because now, I can help little girls and women to feel great about themselves, with the use of our topnotch quality products. We inspire them to embrace their own beauty, and that they can have their own standards of beauty, and actually be happy about their own beauty for what it is.”
“I’m very happy where I am now. And now, I just want other people to have that feeling that you’re not alone. When you feel all these negative things, just know that other people went through it too, and you are not alone.”
Lovi also shared that just like a flower, one can grow lovelier when surrounded with good energy and great company.
“Some people feel like sunshine, you know? Surround yourself with people like that, people who are sunshine and make you feel like a flower that actually grows and blossoms,” she added.
The actress indeed has her own sunshine in the form of her husband, US-based film producer Monty Blencowe. As she shared in her interview with us, she believes that her husband encourages her to grow, not just as an actress slash film producer or as a singer or entrepreneur, but also as a human being and a woman.
“If there’s one thing about myself that I am most proud of, it is my discipline to follow my routine that makes me better as a person. That’s just who I am as a person, that’s my lifestyle. I’ve been practicing my routine for many years and it really helped me a lot,” she said.
“So I think my new goal now is to actually be more kind to myself. I have a very strict routine that I try my best to really follow on the dot. I need to practice to be more flexible, and be kinder to myself. That if I fail a little to follow that routine, (then I can tell to myself), that ‘Hey it’s okay, kalma ka lang, girl.’ I do have that problem that I take care of myself at a certain level that I forget to enjoy the little things along the way. I want to give myself some grace.”
Growing myself some flowers
“Sometimes, we expect other people to give us some flowers. But I think, the best thing that you can do is to give yourself some flowers, even if other people won’t, because they do not appreciate you yet,” Lovi said.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean in a very literal way. Giving yourself some flowers can be as simple as tapping and congratulating yourself for a job well-done.”
“Taking care of yourself is another form of giving yourself some flowers. I think one way of doing that is probably on a day to day basis– like minding the food that you eat. Being mindful of how you nurture yourself from within, from caring what you put inside your body, the thoughts that you allow yourself to think, even the people that you surround yourself with. Being mindful of those things is also loving yourself, giving yourself what you deserve and need.”
“When I was younger, and I was not being appreciated yet by the local entertainment industry because of my dark skin, or me being morena, I took it upon myself that if I was not gonna be appreciated yet, then I would still just work hard, and have fun along the way. So that’s what I did.”
“Allow yourself to grow, to thrive, to bloom and to blossom. Give yourself some flowers for even just showing up even if it’s hard, or even if it seems like all the odds are against you. Nurture yourself enough with good food, lovely words, great thoughts in your head, and make sure you’re in the environment where people uplift each other. Simply showing up each day is already so brave, strong and amazing of you, so give yourself also some understanding, kindness and grace that you would also give your loved ones. “
Lovi reflected on her journey.
“Just because I was hearing a lot of criticisms and negative voices in showbiz when I was starting out about the way I looked, does not mean I would allow myself to dwell on those things all the time. There were and still are a lot of beautiful things about showbiz and with the purposeful work that I do. It is how you turn off the noise in your head, and focusing on your amazing journey. Sometimes, you just really need to be in the present, you know? Be in the present and smell the flowers.”
Today, Lovi Poe is well on her way to Hollywood, with upcoming movies to be released soon wherein her natural Filipina beauty is going to be in full display for the world to see.
She just finished filming The Chelsea Cowboy, an upcoming British gangster biopic about John Bindon directed by Ben Cookson and starring Alex Pettyfer and Poppy Delevingne. She plays the role of legendary blues singer Dana Gillespie.
She also wrapped up filming Bad Man, an action-comedy indie feature starring William Scott (American Pie), Johnny Simmons (The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Jennifer’s Body, The To-Do List), Rob Riggle, Chance Perdomo, and Andre Hyland.
Indeed, sometimes it is about planting your own garden of beauty, being present in the now and being in the moment enough to smell the flowers. Then you’ll just wake up one day and you’ll see for yourself that you were always meant to bloom so beautifully anyway, no matter what.
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Shoot Producers: Marane Plaza & Aiza Gaufo
Photography: Advan Ramirez
Words & Shoot Concept: Marane Plaza
Art Direction: Kathrina Vapor
Styling & Creative Direction: Ken Batino and Jevin Salaysay
Makeup: Gery Penaso
Hair: Mark Anthony Rosales
All fashion by Ken Batino and Jevin Salaysay
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Filipina actress and singer Lovi Poe stars in our January-February cover story here, as she talks about her upcoming Hollywood movies alongside William Scott, Johnny Simmons and more, and her new beauty business with makeup brand Ready Set Glow.
Watch our sit-down interview with Lovi in the debut episode of #STYLISHPodcast on Facebook right here, and on YouTube here.
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