Wedding Day Makeup Tips and Advice

Your wedding day is going to be one of the most memorable days of your life. You want to look and feel the beautiful, radiant bride with your makeup enhancing your natural beauty. Your every blush, smile and kiss will be recorded on film so your bridal makeup needs to be picture perfect and look flawless all through your big day. This guide to wedding makeup will take the stress out planning your wedding makeup.  

Wedding makeup advice: Prepare your skin for your wedding day

Unfortunately many women wait until they are only a few months away from their wedding day before they even begin to give any thought to skin care. Start early and take care of your skin now. You will need to work out your skin type to help you establish a proper skin care regime. This, combined with good eating habits, drinking plenty of water, getting enough sleep and regular exercise will ensure that your skin will be radiant on your big day.
For help understanding your skin type and how to develop a quick and easy skin care routine please read Donna's article; Great looking skin - A simple 4 step skin care guide.

Wedding makeup tip: Beware facials !

Unless you have facials on a regular basis DO NOT get one the week before your wedding day. Facials can pull impurities to the surface, and you do not want to break out the week of your wedding. To also help avoid blotches and blemishes do not make any major changes in your skin care routine during the few weeks before your wedding. The weeks before your wedding is not the time to experiment with your skin care. If you regularly get facials have your last regular facial a good week before the wedding.

Wedding makeup tip: Pimples and acne.

If you do have a breakout, do not pick. Do not do anything that can irritate or redden or enlarge the problem. Use pure Aloe Vera to treat any bumps or breakouts. It is a wonderful healer.

Wedding makeup tip: Keep away from too much sun.

Don't get too much sun before your wedding. Sunburns, peeling skin and tan lines can sabotage your special day.

Wedding makeup advice: Use a professional makeup artist or do it yourself ?

If you are confident in applying your own makeup there is no reason you can't do your own wedding makeup. If you are not so confident with your makeup abilities your wedding makeup is not the time to experiment - you want to look your absolute best on the day and your wedding photos will be your lifetime mementos of your special day. If you are unsure of your makeup abilities, or just want the peace of mind of not having to worry about your makeup, use a professional.
Either way read on - I'm sure you will find the following tips and advice useful.

Wedding makeup advice: Things to consider when planning your wedding makeup.

You will want your makeup to be appropriate for the time of day, the venue (indoors or outdoors) and complement the style of your wedding dress so once you have confirmed the arrangements for your wedding day, and you have decided the style of your wedding dress, you can start to think about the style of makeup you prefer. Things to consider include;

Night time or day time wedding ?

Night time weddings are typically more formal than day time weddings. For a night time wedding consider a more sophisticated makeup look. For a day time wedding makeup tends to be more natural.

Indoors or outdoors wedding ?

Outside lighting is stronger so your makeup should to be softer and more natural than makeup for an indoor wedding.

The lighting.

Different lighting requires different makeup styles. Night time lighting tends to dull makeup so a stronger makeup look is preferable. Natural and day time lighting is more generous to makeup so, again, consider a more natural makeup look.

The colour of your dress.

Ivory and off white tend to make the skin look softer and can therefore support a more glamorous makeup style. White tends to look strong and washes out most faces so consider using softer colours to enhance the face.

The style of your dress.

The stronger the neckline of your dress the more sophisticated the hair and makeup style will need to be match the dress's style. A neckline that cuts deep and is off the shoulders will look great with a hair up hair style so that the line of the neck and shoulders is shown off. Consider also the length of the dress, the shorter the dress the more simple the hair and makeup should be. Remember you are creating an entire picture, do not wear a beautiful dress and stylish heels and then wear your hair and makeup like you do when you wear your jeans. Don't sell yourself short on such a memorable day.

Wedding makeup tip: Give yourself plenty of time to organise your makeup.

Before you meet with a makeup artist, or purchase any makeup, take some time to go through bridal magazines and pull out makeup styles that you really like and some you don't like. Armed with your bridal magazine cut outs and a picture of your wedding dress book an appointment with your makeup artist for a trial run or a consultation at your cosmetics counter. Don't do this at the last minute. Make sure you have a good couple of weeks up your sleeve so you have time for a couple of sessions if you don't settle on a preferred style and colours first time up. Once you have your makeup look sorted make sure the makeup artist or beauty consultant writes everything out, and notes any makeup items you may not have that you need to purchase. If you are doing your own makeup have a couple of dry runs well before your big day so you have the makeup style and look perfected well ahead of time.

Wedding makeup tip: Be yourself

You want to look sensational but remember you want to look like yourself and feel comfortable with your appearance. You can look great and stay within your comfort zone. You want your husband to be to recognise you when you walk down the aisle.
Plan ahead and give yourself time to find the makeup look that you love and feels comfortable.

Wedding makeup advice: Purchasing or selecting your makeup.

Now you have settled on your makeup style here are some tips and advice on your specific makeup requirements:

Foundation: Sort out your foundation well ahead of time.
The key to successful wedding makeup is perfect looking skin. Make sure that your foundation matches your skin tone exactly and doesn't look mask like. Give yourself plenty of time to experiment and find the perfect foundation for you.
For help selecting your foundation please Donna's article; Choosing and applying foundation - A simple step by step guide.

Wedding makeup tip: Highlight one facial feature

You know your best facial feature; your plump rosy lips, your beautiful eyes or your lovely check bones. Your makeup should highlight your chosen feature. Don't try and highlight more than one feature, it will look "too much". If you use a bold red lipstick to highlight your beautiful lips go low key with your eye makeup. Conversely if you choose a stunning smoky eye look choose a more subtle lipstick or lip gloss.

Wedding makeup tip: Watch out for "seemed a good idea at the time".

Watch out for fads; in 20 years time hot pink lipstick will date your wedding photos. You want to look as classic as possible so that your photo memories are timeless.

Blush: Become a truly blushing bride by choosing a warm flattering cheek colour in a pinky peach or rose or, if you tend to get flushed, a brownish tone. Experiment and find the blush colour that suits your skin tone. Use a powder based blush, they will usually last longer than cream blushers. To apply blush, start at the hairline by the middle of your ear, blend forward to the front of the cheek, and then back to the hairline and upwards. For a perfect application find a blush brush that is the size of the apple of your cheek. After the initial application dust the blush with some loose powder and then apply a touch more blush to the front of the cheek.

Lipstick or Lip Gloss: You will be doing a lot of kissing on your wedding day so you will need a lip colour that will last. Use a matte or longwearing lipstick or lip gloss because you don't want to be constantly touching up your makeup during the day.
Be sure to use a colour that complements your hair and eye colour and use a lip liner in the same colour family as your lipstick or lip gloss. Don't use a lip liner much darker than your lipstick or lip gloss. This technique looks harsh and very unnatural in pictures.
Purchase the lipstick or lip gloss and lip liner to keep in your purse for the whole day.

Wedding makeup tip: Smallish lips

If your lips are naturally small the lighter the lip colour the fuller the lips will seem.

Wedding makeup tip: Makeup remover.

Be sure to have makeup remover ready for any accidents. As you know makeup doesn't just wipe off, especially not off a beautiful white wedding gown. Makeup wipes are a convenient way to keep makeup remover handy.

Eye shadow: For help selecting and applying your eye shadow please read Donna's article; Beautiful eyes made easy.
If you are considering smokey eyes please Donna's article; A step by step guide to sexy smokey eye makeup.

Wedding makeup tip: Eyebrows.

Properly groomed and shaped eyebrows help enhance and add expression to the face. Have your eyebrows groomed but do this a week before the wedding in case you get a few red bumps after plucking or waxing. Fill in your eyebrows, if needed, with an eyebrow pencil shade that's slightly lighter than your eyebrows. Brush through with an eyebrow brush or a clean toothbrush for a more natural look.

Mascara: For extra lush looking eyelashes use an eyelash curler before applying your mascara. Prepare for those tears of happiness by using a good waterproof mascara. Apply two coats, let the first coat dry before applying the second coat.

When you purchase your waterproof mascara make sure that you have an eye makeup remover that also takes off waterproof mascara.

Finishing Touches: When you have finished applying your makeup you may want to apply a little more blush, and then finish with a final brush of loose powder.

Have a beautiful day !!

Donna is a trained makeup artist with her own beauty business. As both a business woman and a mom with 2 children Donna understands the time pressures on women today and through this, and other articles, has endeavoured to take the complexity out of looking great with some "busy women friendly" beauty tips and advice. If you would like to read more of Donna's articles check out her website: [http://www.coloursandscents.co.nz] 

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