2010-05-06 07:00:00 by SMARTBRIDE
Pro Makeup Artist Tips: D.I.Y. Wedding Makeup
Doing your wedding day makeup is a great option if you're confident in your application skills and are willing to invest the time and money to achieve a beautiful look.
How to Achieve Flawless Wedding Makeup:
- Be Inspired! Look to bridal and fashion magazine for your image file. Find looks that will accentuate your beauty and pay attention to specific details you admire (i.e. blush shape or color). It’s fine to integrate elements from different looks for your big day, but be sure that they work together rather than fight against each other.
- Invest! Unless you want to look like your everyday self, your everyday makeup is not a great choice for your wedding day. Be aware of how certain products and finishes appear on camera because you’ll be photographed more than a supermodel on a cover shoot!
- Skin is Important! Don't gravitate towards the "fun stuff" by choosing eye shadow and lipstick colours while ignoring skincare and foundation. If your complexion glows, your other features can't look bad. Conversely, remember that even the most beautifully applied smokey eye will look messy and unfinished against an uneven complexion.
- Flawless Foundation! Stay away from foundations that reflect light back at the camera like formulas with 'light reflection particles', shimmer, and high SPF protection. Get your SPF from your moisturizer instead as sun-blocking chemicals can show up white on camera.
Be sure to visit a couple of makeup counters for advice and get samples! To get the right finish, let the pros help you choose the perfect formula for your face and don’t rely on samples for your final application because you may run out or the colour could turn before your big day. - Apply foundation in the centre of your face using a sponge or brush (NOT your fingers)
- Follow with concealer in the areas where you need some extra coverage. A little foundation and concealer goes a long way.
- Having a good translucent or semi-translucent powder is essential for setting your foundation and to keep shine away. Get a pressed powder in a compact because you won’t want to carry around that messy loose powder.
- Beautiful Blush! I prefer to work with a bronzer or contouring powder to sculpt the face slightly and accentuate the angles of the face on camera. Concentrate on the area directly under your cheekbones, around your jaw and at your temples. Blend that contouring so your face doesn't look too harsh, or worse, dirty.
After contouring, add a soft blush on the apples of the cheeks. Fair skin tones look great with a bright peach or pink blush, medium skin tones should use a slightly deeper, more golden apricot hue, and darker skin will look great with a rosy or berry tone. Again, avoid anything with too much shimmer. - Sparkling Eyes & Kissable Lips! This is about your personal taste and what makes you look and feel the prettiest. Use shimmer only where you really want it ( i.e. under the brow bone bone or the inner corner of your eye).
I prefer to give my brides a lip color that is a little glossy, but not a full lip gloss. This way, you get staying power and won't mess up the groom for his photos! - Plan Ahead! Plan as though you're having a professional consultation with a makeup artist and do a trial. After applying your makeup, take a couple of photos on a digital camera to find out if you need to tweak anything and to serve as a memory aid for your wedding day.
Do your trial on a day when you'll be going for dinner or dancing, so you can see how your application holds up. Lastly, pay attention to the time it takes to apply your makeup from start to finish and allow for a little extra time on your wedding day for that glass of champagne with your bridesmaids!
Foundation Application Tips:
Hope you found this useful! In my next post I'll be helping you to get glowing skin with an at-home DIY facial.
Julia
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Julia Church is a professional makeup artist with over six years of industry experience. She has worked in television and video in the UK and Canada and has represented both Bobbi Brown and MAC. Julia prides herself on developing a strong rapport with each of the brides she works with, as she believes that knowing a woman is the best way to bring out her true beauty. To contact Julia send her an email: juliaflow@yahoo.ca.
