When you’re choosing wedding makeup for yourself, there are some key factors to think about.
Cost is one of the main things, but more importantly, you want to make sure that your wedding makeup will be flattering to you and feel natural, and not look forced.
This can be very tricky, because you will be spending a small fortune on the best wedding makeup! I am certainly guilty of shelling out big bucks on things I’d never in a million years use. You will be doing your makeup at home, so you want it to be comfortable to do. However, if your budget is limited, it may be hard to balance all of the things you want to do, with what you can really afford.
As a professional makeup artist, I’ve seen the best and worst wedding makeup in my career. I’ve seen brides come in for their pre-wedding makeup, not quite sure what they’re doing. They’re either so young they feel self conscious, or they have so much money they’re spoilt brats. On the flip side, I’ve seen brides come in for their makeup needing it to look perfect. They’ve tried so many different things before the day, they don’t want to risk anything getting wrong.
Here’s the reality – choosing wedding makeup can be expensive. If you want to go all out on a fun, themed wedding, you’re likely to get away with more! If you have the budget to do something more dramatic, you can go all out too!
So what’s the best wedding makeup?
To be fair, I’m not an expert, and so these are just some of my thoughts!
So, to be natural, you want to start out with a foundation. I normally use a foundation that is for the face, as it covers the widest area. For skin like mine, a foundation for the face is a no brainer! On my special days, I’ll actually use moisturiser on my face and my hands for a natural glow, but this is optional. If you want to keep your make up as natural as possible, this is not essential.
Next, I’ll add concealer, in different colours and shades to cover any undereye circles and to blend out any dark spots and discolourations. After this, you want to add some powder to the face. To be natural and blend in well, you need to use a powder that will cover all your skin’s imperfections. Many use tinted powders for this, to add colour to their face, and keep it natural looking. This is a very personal choice, as I’m personally not a fan of makeup with colours that match my skin. Instead, I prefer to use darker colours that really hide flaws and colour my whole face, to make my skin look natural. It will still be a bit colour on my skin, but the lighter colours tend to wash me out. I prefer to keep my colours as natural as possible, as it suits me better!
After this, I’ll add some layers of blush. I personally don’t use powder for blusher, I find it too unnatural looking. So my blusher comes as a mousse in a round container, with a sponge you would use to apply your foundation. It’s quite a luxury to look through your drawers and see all of these lovely bottles! As a general rule, I will put some on the apples of my cheeks, then lay some of the darker blush onto the nose and the sides on the forehead. For the rest, I will use lighter colours, on my outer corners of my eyes, blended inwards and upwards. I use a round compact to press the blush onto my face, for easy blending and staying power. You can use a powder, but I find that the compact easily sets the blush, keeping it in place, for a much longer time.
Next I’ll add a lip balm for a quick fix if your lipstick wears off too quickly. After this, I like to apply a pair of concealer pencils on my eyes, in black and brown. I prefer a concealer pencil to powder, because it goes on really smoothly, and it’s easy to blend into skin with a pencil.
Next is the eyebrow pencil, which I will apply thickly to really make them stand out. After this, you will apply a brow pencil, drawing thin hairs towards the outer corner of the eye. As a last step, I’ll apply an eye shadow. Using a brush, I apply a simple brown to the middle of my lid, using your eyelid as a natural guideline, so that it is just in line with your eye. For colours, I’ll use some black to the outside of the eye, just making it seem more full. You can also wear very shiny eyeshadow, and it will give a more defined look, but it’s not for me!
The rest of your wedding makeup is your choice! I will style my hair so it makes a statement, then I’ll add some false eyelashes to finish my look. I’ll usually finish with a very small amount of light blusher to my cheekbones, just to make sure everything looks nice and even. This will take me only minutes to do, and the rest of my makeup can be done really quickly, too!
