The visual artist lets us in on her process, her dream beauty collabs, and how she created 21 pieces of artwork &mdash; one for every lipstick for every East Asian City featured in the MAC Cosmetics Wander.Lust Collection.&nbsp;

Wanderlust is something a lot of us haven't felt in a while, but Filipina artist Raxenne Maniquiz's new exciting work for MAC Cosmetics lets us feel the vibe of East Asian cities just with a swipe of a lipstick. We chat with Raxenne, who is a true beauty lover herself &mdash; Ruby Woo in the early 2000s was her first lipstick! &mdash; about dream makeup projects, how she created the whopping 21 artworks, and how she takes care keeping her creative fuel going.&nbsp;

How did MAC approach you for the Wanderlust collection?&nbsp;
I think it was really a stroke of luck. Yuri Ezhkov, MAC APAC&rsquo;s creative director, saw my work for Tatler Hong Kong. He messaged me on Instagram asking if I&rsquo;m open to working on something for the brand. I replied yes and we set a meeting after that.
I know you're a beauty lover too so that must've excited you a lot! How did you start conceptualizing designs for every city?
Yes! I remember in college me and my friends would go to the MAC kiosk in the mall and try out shades. 'Yun 'yung time na uso talaga Ruby Woo, Lady Danger, Pink Nouveau. Ruby Woo was my first lipstick! So it was really exciting just to get that message.
We worked with 10 countries for the collection. What happened was the countries sent all of their mood boards to APAC and then they sent those to me. It was really overwhelming kasi super dami! The mood boards have all of these icons and elements per city. I can choose from those which to include in the artworks. And then it was up to me to interpret those using my illustration style.

How many cities did you make designs for? Is there a significance to the cities for you or for MAC?&nbsp;
I made 21 all in all. But there are two that aren&rsquo;t yet released. So for now there are 19 cities launched. I think the cities were major tourist destinations for the countries. It was significant in a way that I&rsquo;m also drawing Philippine cities. So I was really excited about that.
How long did it take you to do everything? What was your process like? Did the actual lip shades factor in for the design per city too?&nbsp;
It took around two months from the time we had our meeting. For my process, I usually sketch on paper. After getting the idea of what I want them to look like, I proceed with doing sketches digitally and coloring them. I sent the colored sketches to the brand for the first presentation. Those were mocked up on the box and the lipstick so they can already imagine what it will look like. After that, it was maybe two to three rounds of revisions for some of the designs. They&rsquo;re very minor naman pero since madami it took a while. When I started conceptualizing, my focus was on how to represent each city correctly. Hindi ko muna masyado inisip 'yung lip shades kasi it could be limiting sa design. And may mga parehong shades sa magkaiba na mga cities. Pero after sending the first presentation, some cities wanted to match some of the colors in the artworks to reflect the shade. It was easy to adjust those. But most artworks are really about the vibe of the city and it&rsquo;s cool how they all matched in the end.

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Do you have favorites in the designs and shades?&nbsp;
Yes! My favorites are Bangkok, Hong Kong, Harajuku, Hongdae. I don&rsquo;t usually work like that when I do my patterns. It wasn&rsquo;t in my comfort zone so I was surprised with the outcome that it came out really nice. Of course I love Davao because I get to draw flowers which I love. And it&rsquo;s waling-waling&nbsp;which is one of my favorite flowers. I love Mull It Over which is Cebu&rsquo;s shade. It&rsquo;s powder kiss so it&rsquo;s a different formula. I love the feel on my lips! I also love Taupe which is Davao&rsquo;s. I like it a bit darker when I use nude shades.
Your illustrations are incredibly detailed. What's your favorite tiny detail in the designs you've made for MAC Wanderlust?
I really like the super tiny flower I added on the tuktuk&rsquo;s wheels for Bangkok&rsquo;s pattern.

The Wander.Lust box designs.

Raxenne wears Taupe/Davao from the Wander.Lust Collection.

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What are your dream beauty projects like?&nbsp;
Ooh. I think it would be nice to go beyond packaging and have products based on the artworks I draw? It could be a lip color, an eyeshadow palette, or maybe a blush. A waling-waling shaped eye shadow palette would look cool.&nbsp;
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 <div>How do you approach something that takes a lot of work and time such as big projects like this so that you still leave creative energy for your personal pursuits?</div>
 <div>
 This kind of project was a first for me. I've worked with big brands before but the scale of this project and the amount of people involved was new to me. I had to review comments from ten countries and that actually brought a bit of anxiety, haha! I think I was just really overwhelmed. This project required my full attention that I didn't really have enough energy left for personal pursuits. At the time, I just tried to relax by watching series or reading manga.&nbsp;
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Raxenne Maniquiz is a graphic designer and illustrator from the Philippines with work depicting flora and fauna in great detail. She was commissioned to create art for MAC Cosmetics' Wander.Lust Collection representing 21 East Asian cities. 

Filipina Artist Raxenne Maniquiz Shares the Makings of MAC Wanderlust

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