If you are one to keep up with us on what went down in the drama-filled series of Asia’s Next Top Model every Thursday, welcome back. We’re proud to announce that our weekly report of the battle between the up-and-coming models for the throne still remains… well, dramatic, to say the least. The previous episode saw our local homegirl Layla leaving the show, for good, after a failed fight at nailing the various challenges thrown her way. But it is what is is — life goes on, and so do the weekly challenges and photoshoots with resulting snot-filled sagas and b*tch fests… y’know what, sit back, relax and leave this whole tea-spilling thing to us.
The episode starts off on an emotional note as the girls make their way back to the house, as Tu holds back tears talking about losing her only true friend among the contestants, Layla. She says Layla is the only one who can understand her, because of her poor English – as her eyes brim with tears, we can’t help but get emotional too – a week on, and we haven’t really gotten over the disappointment of losing our promising Singapore delegate so early in the game.
To Tu, it’s a cruel irony that the week she wins best picture is the week Layla goes home; like “God is playing a trick”, she says. In the other room, Nametha jokingly scolds Dorothy for almost getting herself eliminated, and the “bad girls” agree that maybe since Veronika joined their quarters, their luck has turned. By the way, how come no one is suspicious of Veronika just abruptly deciding to switch roommates? That just looks like a super random change of allegiance, and that needs to be questioned. We’re certain this is a situation that will implode in an upcoming episode.
No time to dwell on suspicion now, because Cindy Mail is here! It hints at something about the girls having to tell a story, and Clara is immediately worried, because her English isn’t great; if they have to write a script or something, she’s done for. Reality’s a lot more fun, though, because it’s about telling a story with makeup!
Yup, welcome to the beauty episode, where the girls are going to be playing with a lot of Maybelline makeup. Indonesian beauty influencer Cindercella is the special guest for the next challenge, to guide the girls as they’re put into teams (again!) for the “Louder Than Words” challenge. Armed only with their smartphones and their knowledge of their most flattering angles, this is evidently another challenge geared towards social media – makes sense, as that (fortunately or unfortunately) makes up a significant part of a model’s worth in this day and age.
Each team receives a set of cards with makeup-related phrases they have to interpret with photos, a whole treasure chest of Maybelline makeup, and are left to doll themselves up, and shoot each other’s pictures. Most of the teams don’t have a problem working together… except for the group of 4 made up of Dorothy, Maureen, Clara and Cindy. Most of the conflict within this team stems from Maureen taking 10 years to get her makeup done.
We get how that’s annoying, but Clara (why is it always her?) could be a bit less vindictive: she calls Maureen stupid not once but twice, just over how she works the phone camera, which is really, really uncalled for – girl truly needs to keep herself in check. “I just want Clara to shut up and do my makeup,” Maureen declares. A lot of the times, we just want Clara to shut up too, tbh.
In a somewhat unfair twist, their team ends up winning the challenge. Guess all that pain was worth it for them, then. Back at the model house, the individual scores are revealed: Shikin, with her rather genius idea of using shimmery eyeshadow to make her cheekbones pop, comes up tops. At the bottom is Nametha, a whopping 0.4 points behind the second last girl. Okay, can the Singaporeans stop disappointing already?
For this week’s photoshoot challenge, the girls are brought to the grand steps outside the National Gallery, and it’s revealed this week they’ll be working with Nigel Stanislaus, Creative Director of Maybelline New York, and Madi Ross, model and social influencer, and shot by local photographer Shavonne Wong from two episodes ago. The theme is a paparazzi-inspired shoot, and they’re supposed to channel the different kinds of Maybelline It Girls: Uptown Princess, Midtown Girl, and Downtown Edge. At stake: the chance to appear in a Maybelline campaign.
Without Yu Tsai around this week, there’s a lot less snarkiness this time round. Model mentor Cara G McIlroy is the one giving the girls feedback this time, and she’s a lot kinder with her words, for sure. Most dramatic moment: when Clara arrives for her turn and the first thing she says is, she feels her jacket is too big for her. She’s immediately chided by Cara for doing so, but surprise, surprise – instead of rebutting as we’d expect this drama queen to, she meekly says that she’s not complaining, merely stating what she feels.
Tu’s feeling unwell again, but while the judges can see her energy’s dipping low, she doesn’t express her discomfort and soldiers on with the shoot. This girl really has our respect, but she really should get herself checked out. Nametha’s worry about her low scores shows through in her shoot, where the pressure is on, but to the judges it just manifests as not enough energy, which is really the last thing she needs right now. Eventually, she gets the shot in the last burst, so she just might be safe this week (can’t afford to lose two Singaporeans in a row).
And… here we are at elimination! On this week’s panel are Cindy Bishop, Cara G, Yu Tsai, and guest judge Nigel Stanislaus. There’s no animal-themed insult from Yu Tsai this week, after the previous episodes of comparing the models to dogs and chickens, so we guess things are pretty tame.
There were a few choice comments from the other judges, however. On Clara, Nigel Stanislaus exclaimed: “I want to eat you up like a pau!” He means that he thinks she’s really cute, and yes, it’s an odd way of putting it. He’s the only one who likes her “Uptown Princess” picture, however. “You were so disappointing to work with,” says Cara G, referring to Clara’s supposed complaining about her clothes, and going on to say that it carries negative energy to the shoot. And surprise, surprise, Yu Tsai comes to Clara’s defense: “You can’t fault her for being honest,” he says. “I don’t fault her for being honest, but I fault her for carrying that negative energy onto the shoot,” Cara G replies.
Being as cute as a pau aside, Clara’s shot is considered one of the weakest of the week. The next notable comment was for Dorothy – when her shot was brought up, Cindy Bishop suddenly asks, “Do you smell smoke?” Cue quizzical looks from everyone else, and a tense moment of silence as we all wonder if a fire emergency is about to break out in the AsNTM studio to make for the most dramatic episode, ever, before Cindy continues to Dorothy: “Last week you were almost crashing and burning, but this week you’re like a phoenix rising from the ashes.” O…kay….
Tu’s picture is another one that divides the judges. Yu Tsai is all for it, commenting that it’s “the only picture that tells a story.” Cara G and Cindy Bishop point out the lack of energy, and that’s when Tu reveals how she wasn’t feeling well during the shoot. If you ask us, it’s a great show, and she does look like she owns the bar, just like Nigel says. No mean feat, if she was feeling like she was about to black out. We’ve said this before, but Vietnam’s representative is really one to watch.
As Cindy Bishop calls out the girls one by one, it’s Maureen who comes up tops for the week, followed by Shikin in second place. More girls make it to the safe zone, until it’s just Veronika, Clara and Alicia left in danger. Then, Veronika is called, and Clara’s jaw drops. Girl obviously did not expect to be in the bottom two, but reality hurts – and maybe this will be a good wake up call for her to tone down that attitude a little.
The judges’ issue with Clara is her lack of focus, while for Alicia, it’s a lack of versatility. In the end, it’s Alicia’s face that gets greyed out, and Clara immediately starts bawling.
In her exit interview, Alicia takes it pretty well, and says modelling is like “making art and meeting people”, something that she will never give up. As much as we obviously don’t really like Clara, it’s true she’s the stronger model, so this elimination result really comes as no surprise.
It was a fun episode watching the girls take on beauty modelling, but if the teaser for next week is anything to go by, Episode 6 is when the backstabbing that we’ve been awaiting really begins. And as usual, we’ll be by the TV, eagerly lapping it all up.
Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 airs every Wednesday at 9pm, only on Star World (Starhub TV Ch 501/Singtel TV Ch 301). asntm.com
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