Kenn Dayandayan shares how makeup became a tool to shut out judgment and build confidence on his own terms.

PHOTOGRAPHY Kevin Gonzales
CREATIVE DIRECTION Paolo Chua
STYLING Markarvin

What was your first memory of makeup or beauty?
[My first memory] is from my grandma. She never forgets to wear lipstick when going out. I always heard her say that she can never leave the house without lipstick. Then, when I was in high school, I was performing in theater and a lot of inter-school competitions, so I was exposed to makeup a lot. That&rsquo;s what really led me into discovering makeup and just using it right now on a day-to-day basis.
Was there a moment when you realized makeup could be yours, not just something for others?
Yes, my view of makeup has always been for everybody. It doesn&rsquo;t stay in one bubble or one gender, and I&rsquo;ve always believed that it should be used by everybody. I think that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve been putting out on my social media platforms. A lot of people are a bit sensitive about it, or maybe it&rsquo;s just not their thing, but what I&rsquo;ve been doing with my platform is really owning it. It&rsquo;s just the same as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. So, I just really want people to transcend that border with makeup. It&rsquo;s just makeup.

Did anyone ever tell you that makeup wasn&rsquo;t &ldquo;for you&rdquo;? How did you respond?
When I started my TikTok account and uploading my videos, I always feared how people were going to perceive me through what I was doing, because I&rsquo;ve always known that I&rsquo;m more than that. I&rsquo;m more than what I put out, but it&rsquo;s just something that I really do out of interest. A lot of people would tell me or ask me about my gender identity or how I identify myself in society because of what I&rsquo;m doing. But regardless of what I answer or how I answer it, what I do should not matter and should not reflect who I am as a person, and so, I just don&rsquo;t really engage that much. I have support from my family and my friends, and I&rsquo;ve always viewed makeup as a commodity more than something that defines gender.
What did you have to unlearn about beauty?
That it really isn&rsquo;t about gender. It&rsquo;s just a form of expression. If that makes you confident, boosts your ego and your self-esteem, then what&rsquo;s stopping you? I just learned that makeup was originally invented for men. So, we just really have to get over that stigma and open it for everybody, because it&rsquo;s just creativity.
How does makeup change the way you move and the way you carry yourself?
We all have bad days, right? Sometimes, I wake up and I&rsquo;m not in the mood, but when I just sit down in my chair and start filming &mdash; I don&rsquo;t even have to go out &mdash; it just makes me feel good and confident. And when you feel good during the day, it just gets you to finish all your tasks, be sharp and everything. I&rsquo;ve always viewed makeup as that &mdash; as a power and tool &mdash; that guys can use too.

Is there a color, texture or style that feels tied to your personal story?
I used blue on my eyes to represent my journey &mdash; not just as a creator, but as a person. Who I am now is so different from who I was three or four years ago. I&rsquo;m from Leyte, in the Visayas region, and back then, everything I have now felt impossible. It was too far to even imagine when I was still in the province. The color blue means a lot to me. People usually associate it with sadness, but I see it as hope. When I look at the sea, I think about crossing from one place to another. When I look at the sky, I think about flying. From Leyte to Manila, blue has always represented that journey for me and the idea that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. It gives me hope that nothing is impossible.
When it comes to beauty, what does &ldquo;maximalism&rdquo; mean to you?
I&rsquo;ve always been a minimal person, so it&rsquo;s kind of hard for me. Yesterday I was asking my friends, &ldquo;How do I express myself?&rdquo; because I&rsquo;ve always been minimal. I just put on a little concealer, a few dots of foundation and that&rsquo;s it for the day. So, I asked them, &ldquo;How do I express myself in a maximal way with minimal effort?&rdquo; I also asked, &ldquo;How can I use this color? How can I incorporate it?&rdquo; With makeup, I think the maximum effect should come from how you feel. No matter how many colors you use, how heavy your contour is, if it doesn&rsquo;t make you feel empowered, then it doesn&rsquo;t have a maximum effect on you. Even if you just use a little concealer, as long as it makes you feel empowered. That, to me, is already maximalism.

If you could show your younger self this version of you, what would you want him to see?
If I could see my younger self, I&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be scared.&rdquo; A lot of who I am right now has been shaped by fear. I&rsquo;m grateful that I&rsquo;m here, but I know there were many things in the past that derailed my progress &mdash; how I saw myself and even my confidence. I used to be so self-conscious about how people saw me &mdash; the way I looked, the way I moved, the fact that I wasn&rsquo;t into sports. I was more into writing, playing chess, things that weren&rsquo;t considered very masculine before. That used to make me insecure. My cousins would ask me to play basketball, but that just wasn&rsquo;t my thing. And I&rsquo;d question myself, &ldquo;Am I not masculine enough? Am I not capable of having authority over myself because I don&rsquo;t fit that mold?&rdquo; So, if I could talk to my younger self, I&rsquo;d tell him: enjoy yourself. It sounds clich&eacute;, but love what you do and love who you are, because that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s going to bring you to where you&rsquo;re meant to be. I&rsquo;ve spent so much time fearing what people would say, being shy and worrying about their opinions of who I am. But now, with the platform I&rsquo;ve built, the relationships I&rsquo;ve formed and the community that supports me, I think that&rsquo;s given me enough courage to keep pushing forward and breaking boundaries.
What do you hope people feel when they see your work, beyond whether they like it or not?
It&rsquo;s always been my goal to make makeup wearable for everyone. When people watch my videos, I want them to feel like they can do it too and that it&rsquo;s not that hard. All you really need is confidence, just a little push. I&rsquo;m not saying everyone has to wear makeup, but when you feel like you need it, you should know you can do it yourself &mdash; and do it flawlessly. Of course, it&rsquo;s great to have a professional by your side, but not everyone can afford that. So, I&rsquo;ve been trying to show through my videos that when you need it, you can do it. I want people to feel that ease, that comfort, in doing what they want to do to make themselves feel confident.

MAKEUP Kenn Dayandayan
HAIR Dencio Aguilar
PHOTOGRAPHER&rsquo;S ASSISTANT Giancarlo Dimalanta

Face Value: Kenn Dayandayan

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