Wedding Day Makeup

 

I thought that since preparing for my wedding day was the impetus to my makeup obsession, I should give you all some ideas and tips for wedding day/special occasion makeup.

Product ideas and tips:

• Face primers:  Face primer is essential to a great wedding day makeup look.  Primer will help make your makeup last all day, and allow for better blending when applying your foundation.  Some great primers are Avon Magix Face Perfector, Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer, Palladio Herbal Foundation Primer, and Too Faced Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Face Primer.
• Foundation:  Make Up Forever HD Invisible Coverage Foundation (HD foundations are great because you will be having a lot of pictures taken of you), Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation (this is a great long-lasting foundation that will stay put, though the shade selection is limited).  If you have trouble finding the right foundation shade to match your complexion, go someplace like Sephora or a beauty counter to have a professional choose the right shade for you.
• Bronzer:  It's nice to have a healthy glow on your wedding day without tanning, so a good bronzer can do wonders.  I would recommend NYC Sunny bronzer because it is a matte bronzer rather than a shimmery bronzer.  Just a light dusting across the forehead, along the contours of the cheeks and down the nose is all you need.
• Blush: Choose a classic rosy color and apply it just a bit heavier than normal so it shows up well in those wedding pics.  For some good blush choices check out my Favorite Blushes blog entry.
• Highlighter:  Highlighter will reflect light from darker areas of the face and draw attention to areas you wish to "highlight".  I recommend Benefit Cosmetics' Highbeam luminizer or Physicians Formula Happy Booster Face Powder in Translucent.  Sweep a little highlighter across the tops of your cheek bones for a radiant look.  You can also dab a little at the inner corner of your eyes to add a little shimmer and make your eyes pop!
• Eye primer:  Using an eye primer underneath your eye shadow will help keep it in place all day long, as well as improve the depth of the color of your eyeshadow.  I use Too Faced Shadow Insurance as my go-to eye primer.  However, you could grab a drugstore primer or try Palladio's Herbal Eyeshadow Primer which is available at Sally Beauty Supply stores or from the Palladio website.
• Eyeshadow:  Use neutral colors that are timeless...you don't want to look back at your wedding pics one day and think "Oh my God, what was I thinking wearing blue eyeshadow!".  Find colors that compliment your eye color and are good for everyday looks.  I used an eyeshadow trio that I had been using everyday for years on my wedding day, the Physicians Formula eyeshadow trio in Baked Oatmeal.  I really love this trio because is it neutral but has a lot of shimmer to make your eyes really standout.  Another shade I would particularly recommend is Stila's Kitten; this is the perfect shimmery, nude-pink shade for anyone.  Just put that all over your lid, add a mid-tone brown shade to your crease and you have a simple, beautiful eye look.
• Eyeliner:  Eyeliners are so subjective; everyone has their favorite type.  So, I would say use what you are most comfortable with in terms of staying power and the type of look you are trying to achieve.  Personally, I like the look of liquid eyeliner for an occasion like this.  I used the Revlon Colorstay Liquid Eye Pen in blackened brown for my wedding day look.
• Mascara:  Waterproof mascara is a must for this day; even if you aren't a crier, you just never know.  I wore false lashes to give eyes a little extra wow; so, it didn't matter too much what mascara I used other than that it was waterproof.  I would really recommend false lashes for a special occasion like this.  Once they are on, you get used to them pretty quickly.  If you are totally opposed to false lashes, I would highly recommend using L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara because gives great volume and length to lashes. 
• Setting powder:  As a final step, lightly dust your face with setting powder using a big, fluffy brush.  Cover FX Translucent Setting Powder is great; and e.l.f.'s Translucent Matifying Powder is essential to keep on hand to blot out any shine on your face.
• Lips:  Again, this is something you want to look timeless.  I chose to keep it simple and wore a long-wearing lip gloss for a natural look.  Also, I didn't want to be constantly reapplying lipstick all night.  Bare Escentuals makes a great long-wearing lip gloss.  You may even want to try a lip stain for lasting lip color, and top it with some gloss.  I strongly recommend experimenting with a few different lip products before the big day.
• Extras:  Be sure to keep some blotting papers, tissue, Q-tips, and your lip products on hand through out the day for little touch-ups.

If you have decided to do your own wedding day makeup, experiment, experiment, experiment...I can't stress that enough.  Find out what works best for you and practice applying your makeup.  I found online makeup tutorials to be extremely helpful in honing my makeup application skills.  For really great makeup tutorials check out the Beauty Broadcast.  Emily does a fantastic job illustrating how to apply makeup.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.