Before shooting striking visuals for major beauty brands like Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty, Urban Decay, NARS, and Milk Makeup, LoWA Studio‘s Cine Escalona—pronounced as “seen,” short for Francine—had already spent years immersed in the beauty industry.
A decade ago, social media’s romance with beauty was just blossoming—from OG YouTubers like Michelle Phan to the rise of the “influencer.” Around that time, beauty lovers were also waking up to the thrill and power of online shopping. That’s where Escalona found her footing: as an intern at the then-upstart e-commerce platform, BeautyMNL.
She fondly recalls her time there—”when they were still putting on their bootstraps to be the ‘Filipino Sephora,’” she says—as her first brush with the industry. It was a springboard to her first “real” job: as a content creator for an agency’s publishing arm. Her days were a whirlwind of Manila’s chicest beauty events, including the time she met Patrick Starrr when he flew in for M.A.C.
“I think I stayed in that agency job for maybe like four or five years… That’s ancient for, like, people who stay in jobs, right?” Escalona tells The Beauty Edit, adding that she stayed primarily because her bosses gave her so much creative freedom and even let her practice in the studio with her equipment. “I used to get freelance opportunities even while I was in a job, and I would use the studio during office hours. And [my bosses] were like, it’s okay because at least I’m learning all of those things, and equipment is expensive,” she shares.
She later ventured into the other side of beauty: marketing. But the real turning point came when she received an offer from a leading regional beauty brand to join their marketing division full-time as a “brand girl,” as she puts it. “I remember having an existential crisis at that time, because being there meant it was more about making your Gantt charts and [coordinating with] a bunch of other people rather than just doing the nitty-gritty content yourself,” she shares.
“I was 23, 24. All I knew was that I wanted to be part of the beauty industry, whatever that may have meant at the time. But being young, you don’t really know [all the sides of it yet].”
Ultimately, she chose her love of creation over the “spreadsheet side of beauty.” She went on to carve her own niche, developing a signature style of lush, evocative photography—work that only someone deeply rooted in beauty could produce.
Today, at 31, Escalona—also known as @cinesupreme on Instagram—is one of the most sought-after photographers and content creators in beauty, with a client list that spans homegrown brands and international icons alike. She runs LoWA Studio in Antipolo, Rizal, a creative space where much of the magic happens, turning out work that graces magazines, campaigns, and social feeds around the world. We caught up with the creative force to discuss her global journey, her thoughts on AI in beauty, and why relationships matter in the creative scene.
(Answers have been condensed for clarity.)
The Beauty Edit: You’ve worked with major brands such as Fenty Beauty, Saie, and Rare Beauty, just to name a few. How did you get to this point?
Cine Escalona: Being Filipino has its perks, surprisingly. A lot of the people working in those brands are Filipino. So I think they like the vibe. It’s actually really surprising, because most of these brands [operate] from L.A. or New York.
For Rare Beauty, I was on a call with their creative director for two hours, and he was telling me about how he had to meet me and everything because three different people had come up to him, talking to me about my work. And then I was like, “What’s happening? Who talked to you about me?”
Apparently, it was a cosmetic stylist in L.A., and they were working on set, and they didn’t know anyone who could do the video format of the same styling they did. So she recommended that I work with them on it. So, I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know that even these international creatives I’m mutuals with on the internet talk about me with such niceties to their clients.” It was a very heartening moment to know that the work we do here is very respected, even in the rooms that we’re not part of.
Who was your first major client?
I have a shrine in the studio of all of my projects for all of our major moments. I think the first major one was Summer Fridays, my first retainer client for international work. Now they’ve taken a completely different direction in terms of their content, so we no longer work together, but they’re the biggest. After that was Saie Beauty.
I think the first major campaign was for REM Beauty. They had a collection for the 10th anniversary of Ariana Grande’s Yours Truly album, so we shot it here in Manila with local models and everything. It was a whole thing. I think that was the biggest moment that I was like, “Wow, from video to photo and product video to product to model images, everything was produced by us.” So I think that was the biggest project that we had that was like, wow. It’s kind of insane.
When would you say was the breakthrough gig of your career?
When I think of breakthroughs, it’s “When did my brain decide that I can do this full-time?” It was when Joel Martin Andrade from Issy Cosmetics gave me a shot for the original Hydrogloss campaign. At that time, when he talked to me, I wasn’t doing full-time freelance work yet, and I maybe had two to three thousand followers on Instagram. This was also Issy in its infancy when he found me, and I think he was the first person who paid me a good wage. I was earning P14,000 for my day job, so I was like, “Wow, that’s actual money I can live off.”
I think that’s what made me believe that, “Oh, yeah, there is a market for the stuff that I do,” instead of making it a hobby.
Before that, I had a brand come up to me with a project. They wanted me to swatch 60, 70 lip products from them. And at this time, I think my rate for one video was like P1,500 or something… It’s a lot of work. They were like, “Can we give you like P20,000 and like P250,000 worth of products?” I was like, “Are you kidding me?” So when Joel approached me and offered me that project, it was the first time anyone respected my art.
You’ve seen beauty from many angles—e-commerce, publishing, agency life. How have these multifaceted experiences shaped your identity and creative voice?
I think it’s definitely helped me, especially with negotiations. Like, I know how it is to talk to clients the most. Especially since I’m talking directly to brands now, most of the time, it’s easier to talk to brand managers and owners about the nuances of timelines and deadlines. I know that research and development take this long. I know that shipping is something that we’ll encounter problems with. A lot of micro-things that I think other creators who just go into content creation don’t understand are that on the brand side, there are a lot of considerations that they’re taking before they even speak to the execution and marketing.
So when I’m talking to these higher-ups from either local or international brands, I think they do appreciate that I’m able to level with them. Like I’m there with them in the office, understanding what goes into their job, instead of me feeling like a separate entity that’s not part of their team. So yeah, it’s easier [especially] with relationship-building and negotiating.
But you’re a creative through and through.
More like, I can definitely do the marketing manager side, and it comes out a lot. I love marketing, and I understand it so well. But I think if we’re talking about, “Oh, do I want to wake up for it every day?” Not really.
I don’t really have a dream job. I just want to have money. But, realistically, you can’t just magically have money. So, the next best thing is to actually enjoy the job you’re doing. So, I think this has allowed me and my team [to relax a bit] because everything’s really chill. The way we set it up here, we give ourselves leeway to enjoy what we’re doing. When you enjoy it, that’s when you’re the most creative, I feel.
Having my own studio is always a double-edged sword because if I don’t work, of course, I won’t have money. But I think, for our purpose, I really need myself to be the best that I can be, at least in terms of creativity and drive. And I need my team to be on top of it also. We’re very centered on what makes us happy. Because when we’re happy, that’s when we want to do things. And it’s such a small studio and such a handful of people.
Was owning a studio always a dream of yours?
I wouldn’t say it’s always been a dream, but I think it’s something I’ve always flip-flopped on. Is it really about creating the content, or is it about being part of the brand and seeing the rest of it come to life?
At first, I had a home studio, with little bits of equipment here and there. It was when I was able to get two long-term retainer clients that I was like, “Okay, this is enough money, I think, to be able to sustain me for the next six months. I think I want to take the leap to do this full-time. I’ll do it, finally.”
I think that it’s been seven years now [that I’ve been] creating beauty content. I took the leap and now we’re here. I always knew I wanted to create content and do the production work and do all that. But again, it’s expensive to do it yourself. So it took a long time to have enough capital to put up my own studio.
How would you describe your team’s work process?
So right now, when I say my team, it’s actually just me and my studio assistant, Kirsten. We worked together before, so we already had that rapport [when we started at] the studio. We met as colleagues, and after we left that job, we ended up as friends and then found our way back together again.
One of the things that we had to learn was that we are different people at work and we are different people with our friends. So, because we hang out outside of work, we found a way to figure out how to work around boundaries. So we have very strong boundaries in terms of our relationship, and also in terms of the time that we spend in the studio.
One of these is that we couldn’t keep working on weekends. Like, we have to have our personal time. So, we don’t work on weekends anymore unless there’s a super-duper special request. There are special times that this project necessitates that we work a bit longer hours. So in terms of work, it’s not a one-size-fits-all for every project. I think she and I have been in the industry long enough to understand that that’s just how it is.
Any differences between working with Filipino and international beauty brands?
The international brands, especially the bigger ones, have specific marketing goals that they need to hit and check off. So, in terms of getting them on board and the idea, the idea doesn’t normally come from me. The marketing USP comes from them. And they have ideas already that have been pre-selected on how to execute it. And once that’s been executed and we still feel like, ‘Oh, but I think we can do this a bit better,’ that’s when we do it on the spot and show it to them that, ‘Hey, this is how we interpreted it, but we have what you asked for here anyway.’
I think the main difference between international and Filipino brands is scale. Even with international brands, it wasn’t just the Fenty Beauties or the Laura Merciers I’ve been able to work with. I also worked with some indie brands at the start of my career. So I think I would liken the structure of how Filipino beauty brands do their thing as very similar to how the indie brands do their thing in terms of how the company moves or how approvals work, and all of that. I think it’s more or less the same.
Because I think in terms of how fast the Filipino beauty market has grown, maybe it’s only boomed in the last five years that we’ve seen more brands come up. Before, when I was working in Beauty MNL, Maybelline was all we pushed because it was the biggest brand that was putting money into things. Colourette was already there, but they were again very small at that time, so I would say that the Filipino beauty scene is still very young in terms of getting their bearings.
Does client chemistry matter to you?
A lot. Because we’re just two girls in the studio doing things with two cats, I think the vibes matter so much because right now, we’re in the part where we’re building long-term relationships with clients because it’s so much easier to work with someone when you know their taste, you understand what they’re looking for, and you understand how the company that they’re working for will react to your work.
Before, we didn’t have that ability to pick and choose. Before, as long as it pays, it pays. But now, we can decide, “Oh, this brand is worth it?” “This project is worth it.” “Oh, this will be good for the portfolio.” Now we really value retainer clients. It’s rare that we take on new brands. Or if we do, we’ll do like a test project first, if the vibes are right. If it’s not, we move on. Relationships are the biggest thing for client work.
How would you describe your creative method? Madness or method?
I think I’m all madness. I hate method. I don’t like structured thinking when it comes to creativity. I think the thing with my projects now and the projects I used to do is that my clients now reference a lot of my work, versus before, when they would reference other people’s work or have their pegs from things that they’ve done before.
Now they reference more of my work, and I appreciate the fact that everything has been madness because I think that the things that were born out of madness are what brands look for from me. Say we’re feeling experimental and we’re like, “Why don’t we try this? They didn’t ask for this, but let’s try this.” And then magic happens.
That only happens when lightning strikes—if it’s the right product, the right client, and the right energy. That’s not something you can get from structure. That’s why you need everyone to be happy, or you need everyone to be on board, or in the same line of thinking. Because that doesn’t usually happen with just one person.
A lot of things have to come into a moment of magic, so there’s mostly madness that turns into structure because of the amount of madness [that’s there already].
When it comes to F-beauty, what excites you the most?
I think it’s fascinating that with the Western brands that I handle, there’s always an effort to cover all their bases. Because they’re so big, they need to cast a wide net. Compared locally, because it’s a much smaller population with smaller markets and very specific needs, [local brands] are more able to hyper-target that.
It’s really for the Filipino. We’re not trying to create products that will be enjoyed at a mass scale by everyone in the world. We’re really about doing this for us. And I think that’s the part that’s fascinating, how are they catering now to a new thing? What’s the new problem? What’s the new use we’re trying to target? That’s what excites me—it really scratches that part of my brain that loves marketing.
What are your thoughts on the rise of AI and its use in creative productions such as beauty campaigns?
I think there’s a time and place for AI. When it’s used for products—like you’re just showing off components or you want a visual idea of what this product will look like— I’m not happy about it, but I think that’s okay.
But in the beauty space specifically, authenticity has always been a big conversation—even before AI. People are asking for [realness] from creators. They want real swatches. “Show us what one swatch looks like. How about doubled up? How about with a brush?”
People are asking for so much from the beauty content that they’re seeing, because at the end of the day, it’s their money they’re spending. They want to make sure that what they’re seeing on camera is what they will receive in the mail. And as much as AI can become [more advanced] and realistic, there’s no real space for it when it comes to showing beauty products to people. If it’s not real people matching colors to themselves, I don’t think it will be useful to put foundation on an AI model.
Maybe in other fields and other industries, it could make sense. But I doubt [it’ll be something that really takes off] in beauty. So I’m not threatened by it—and I think models and makeup artists are marked safe, too.
“I think this applies not just in the beauty industry, but in all types of work, and all types of creative fields: If you don’t love it, don’t do it.”—Cine Escalona
As someone who’s deeply immersed in beauty, what does your beauty routine look like?
This year, I’m 31. I used to be the type to wear a lot of makeup, but I’ve seen my beauty routine grow from “I have to use every new product. I have to use every new skincare routine trend” to now, where I’m barely moisturized.
Just kidding. I moisturize and I wear sunscreen. And I have a face mask. We prioritize internal health, internal beauty, wellness on a day-to-day basis, more than what’s on our faces. I have a very minimal beauty routine. I do more laser-tent stuff now than I do makeup, I think.
What brands speak to you currently?
I love CeraVe because I have really sensitive skin. So for skincare, my moisturizers and cleansers—they’re all CeraVe because it’s just clean. The brands I work with are very big with trends or what’s new, but my skin doesn’t like what’s new. My skin likes scentless, ceramides, and I’ve accepted that it doesn’t like trendy products at all. I have to add things very slowly and incrementally because my skin is so hyper-sensitive.
Do you have any tips for fellow beauty content creators or creatives who want to make it global?
I’m highly critical of my work. So, of course, I’m highly critical of other people’s work as well. And I think my thing—not with local creators, but with some of the international creators who work with these brands—is that I can easily tell when a piece of work lacks heart. Like, I know when an agency made this, or when a non-beauty girl made this. And I’m really annoyed by it.
I think this applies not just in the beauty industry, but in all types of work, and all types of creative fields: If you don’t love it, don’t do it. If they want to do global brands in beauty, they have to love it. It’s very easy for beauty girls to be able to tell when someone’s a non-beauty girl cosplaying.
Love the work. Love the product you’re holding. You have to understand and appreciate how different packaging works, how different formulations work. The product has something to be appreciated—that’s what I had to learn when I was starting out. Like, “How can I make this really s— looking product look like you should buy it?”
Beauty with a Point of View
Clearly, it’s this kind of creative instinct—to elevate even the most uninspired or unremarkable product into something covetable—is exactly what has set Escalona apart. For her, beauty storytelling begins with love: for the product, the process, and, of course, the story being told.
IMAGES: INSTAGRAM/CINESUPREME
