Why is Heart Evangelista so happy?

MANILA, Philippines – If there’s one word to describe Heart Evangelista these days, it would be happy with a capital H. She’s literally Happy in the popular comic teleserye Juan Happy Love Story where she plays not-so-happy wife to estranged philandering husband Juan, played by Dennis Trillo. She has happily reconciled with her parents. Of course, she’s happily married to Senator Chiz Escudero and is second mom to Chiz’s seven-year-old twins who call her “Tita Heart.”

To add to Heart’s “happy” list, she recently launched her own line with Happy Skin, today’s go-to skin-caring makeup brand of fashion-forward millennials.

“I just love Happy Skin so much,” Heart gushes in a heart-to-heart interview with Philippine STAR at the launch of her first-ever makeup collaboration, Happy Skin X Love Marie. “I featured Happy Skin in my makeup book, which came out last year, and I wanted to actually come up with my own makeup line. But I said maybe I could do a collaboration with Happy Skin.”

In a heartbeat, she declares, “I super love makeup, but I’m not the type who would wear a lot of it. Long before my collaboration with Happy Skin, I have been using Happy Skin lippies and my fans would ask me what lipstick I was using.”

Heart has 1.1 million followers on Instagram (@iamhearte) and whatever she posts — be it her fashion, her makeup, her new look, her new hair, her new bag or whatever is new with her, or even her cheesy photos with Chiz — would get scores of instant likes.

She goes on with her happy story, “Rissa (Trillo, co-founder of Happy Skin with Jacqe Gutierrez) and I do a lot of stuff for Pond’s as image models and Pond’s would send over Happy Skin products and I really liked them.  I also follow Rissa on Instagram. I couldn’t believe Happy Skin was a local brand! I’m all for supporting local brands and Happy Skin is the leading local brand that’s super good for sensitive skin!”

Heart just had to approach the innovative, dynamic duo behind Happy Skin, Rissa and Jacqe, who are themselves walking advertisements of their beauty products. “Yes, I approached them, not the other way around,” Heart confesses. “It’s my first time to endorse a makeup brand.”

Of course, Heart wouldn’t put her name — and her own drawings, too — on a product she didn’t believe in, heart and soul. “Happy Skin is all about natural beauty,” she stresses. “They don’t want you to wear something that’s harsh on your skin and I want that as well.”

Carrying her own name with her own cute drawings on the boxes, Happy Skin X Love Marie is a limited-edition lip collection that features mini matte lippies and matte lip liners — yes, for the first time in Happy Skin history.

Happy Skin X  Love Marie Shut Up & Kiss Me Mini Matte Lippies are handier versions of Happy Skin’s best-selling moisturizing lippies which you can easily slip into the smallest of purses. And they come in the coolest, wearable shades of timeless sepia (Nostalgia), flattering nude caramel (New Love), and beautiful brick nude (All Heart). The beautiful thing is you can buy all three shades as a set in a heart-shaped box for a pocket-friendly P1,299.

“Even if Happy Skin’s lippies are matte, they’re still very moisturizing,” Heart can’t stop raving. “That’s because these lippies are packed with Cupuaçu Butter, a superbly moisturizing ingredient that can attract 240% more water, allowing it to hydrate effectively.”

The Heart of the matte-r is, she’s always been a happy lippie girl. “From art (she paints on canvas, too, not just on her face) to makeup, Heart really loves all things beauty,” says Rissa Trillo. “As the ultimate beauty girl, she understands the power of a good lippie. The right lip color is akin to what paintbrushes are to an artist — both as vital tools for self-expression.”

An avid fan of lip liners (they make your lips look fuller and your lipstick stay longer, she says), Heart started using these priceless beauty tools when she was only 13 years old. “I think it’s important to accentuate your features, and a lip liner does that. There’s an instant change that makes you feel beautiful right away.”

“Since this is Heart’s first makeup line, we thought it would be a great tribute to release Happy Skin’s first lip liner with her,” says Jacqe Gutierrez.

“Our new lip liners will especially be love at first swipe, because they come in colors that go with everything in your lippie arsenal,” Rissa is quick to add.

Read our lips: Happy Skin X Love Marie Shut Up & Kiss Me Moisturizing Matte Lip Liners come in three eye-candy shades: nude Skinny Dipping, red Heartthrob, and pink First Date. Like the matte lippies, the lip liners are loaded with a powerful blend of Cupuaçu Butter, shea butter, and collagen. “They’re so moisturizing you can wear them all over your lips,” Jacqe discloses.

Another beautiful thing about this happy partnership between Heart and Happy Skin is that part of the proceeds will go to Heart’s chosen charity, Corridors for Hope, to benefit cancer patients. “I think women should be there for each other and to support each other,” says Heart.

Born Love Marie Ongpauco on Valentine’s Day in 1985, Heart’s love affair with makeup actually started when she was just a little girl. She would sneak into her mom’s bedroom and walk out with her face all painted up with whatever makeup she’d find on Mama’s dresser.

Heart’s mom Cecilia Ongpauco relates that once, when Heart was three, she got on top of a glass table, pretending she was a ramp model, and hit her head smack on the corner of the table. The keloid on the side of her right eye is a reminder of Heart’s frustrated childhood modeling career.

Heart admits she’s always had insecurities. Believe it or not, when she was starting in showbiz, she felt she wasn’t pretty enough, she wasn’t mestiza enough, she wasn’t tall enough. But came her big break in the movie G-Mik, where she channeled Cher in Clueless.

She writes in her makeup book This is me, Love Marie: “True beauty comes from knowing your worth and fully embracing who you are. Always be true to yourself and never wear a mask. Be happy and confident with what you see in the mirror and the rest will follow.”

For Heart, what makes a woman beautiful is her disposition in life, her personality. Her beauty icons are Gretchen Cojuangco (“she’s still so beautiful”), Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Natalie Portman (“I like classic beauties.”).

If Heart is beautiful, it’s no thanks to surgery. She’s never had anything done on her face — neither her eyes nor her nose. The scar on her upper lip (which hardly shows) is from the chicken pox she had and not from plastic surgery.

Heart’s beauty must-haves, aside from lippies, include: antiaging night moisturizer (because you have to take care of your skin even before the wrinkles appear, she cautions), baby cream, nude lipstick, a nice eyebrow pencil, mascara, and sunblock.

Heart’s best beauty secret? “Just keep it light, keep it fresh, you’re only young once. Don’t put a mask on. Be proud to look like yourself. Live a good life, live a happy life.”

Away from the limelight and the showbiz buzz, Heart is happy just being the domesticated Mrs. Chiz Escudero. At home, she loves spending time with Chiz, sipping wine, listening to music, and catching up on each other’s busy lives. Or maybe even trying out Chiz’s latest recipe. “He’s a good cook, he can do a mean paella and salpicao, and I’m learning from him,” says Heart.

Yes, his Chiz sandwich can make Heart smile, and he sure can whip up a Heart-warming spicy gourmet vienna sausage.

Coming from the Ongpauco cooking clan of Barrio Fiesta fame, Heart is coming up with a cookbook with her mom (maybe next year).  “I have certain recipes my mom taught me before — pastas, dips, bread spreads.”

Yes, being in love makes a woman beautiful. Heart loves that Chiz makes time for her despite his frenetic schedule, teaches and guides her, and supports her in all her undertakings.  “He once told me, ‘You know, we won’t be together all the time, so you have to learn how to stand on your own two feet,’” she relates.

The best lesson Chiz has taught Heart is how to maximize her time, how to be more productive. And the best lesson Heart has taught Chiz is “to live life, take a break, relax, see the world. Because he lives for everybody, he forgets to live for himself.”

And the best gift Chiz has given Heart? “He married me,” Heart replies with a girlish chuckle. “He’s my dream guy.”

What else makes Heart so happy?

“Painting!” she exclaims. “No matter how tired I am from taping, I pick up my brushes and paint until 4 a.m.”

She writes in her makeup book, “Painting has done so much for me. I like to paint a lot these days because I feel it’ll sort of immortalize my feelings during a certain time, or who I am at that time.”

She’ll be showing over 40 (approaching 50, she says) of her painted Hermes Birkins, Kellys, etc. in an exhibit on Sept. 3. Hermes Birkin is so highly valued that it’s said to be a smarter investment than gold.

She tells us, “When I reach 50 bags, I will stop because I want to keep my bags’ exclusivity. Then I will get some 20 names and pick 10 that I will do for next year.”

It all started when Heart was eating french fries which accidentally stained her Hermes bag. She recounts, “The oil just stuck to the bag, it wouldn’t come off, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I paint on it?’ Soon after, a lot of clients were asking if I paint bags for other people.”

Heart was also inspired by baby North West who painted on her mom Kim Kardashian’s Hermes satchel.

Heart’s clients include Grace Ang, Maggie Wilson, some art collectors, and recently, Jinky Pacquiao for whom she painted three birds and some plants on her dark brown Hermes. Of course, Heart has five of her own painted Hermes and her favorite is her first painted, french fry-stained bag.

Heart has done some sketches of Chiz. And Chiz has imbibed Heart’s passion for painting, having done four to six of his own paintings.

Some 20 years from now, Heart has set her heart on becoming an entrepreneur, developing her own line — home, perfume, plates, etc.

For now, Heart is simply happy to build a home for Chiz and their twins, as well as her five dogs and three cats (no more than that, “pag dumami pa dyan, baka iwanan na ako ni Chiz”). And work on a major project with Chiz — a baby next year. “We can only afford one more baby in our new home,” says the beaming future mom.

Surely, Heart will never run out of reasons to be happy.