Makeup School: Day 16 - Bridal

Classic wedding makeup on the smexy, blushing 'bride', Kate (retouch free!)

While not all girls want to be a blushing bride, most will agree that their face must be utterly flawless. Remember that as the foundation of bridal makeup. It's likely a disproportionate amount of time will be spent on making sure the base is absolutely perfect. Bridal makeup is usually kept fairly natural with soft colours in pink, peach and taupe. Well-placed shimmers will also add to a refreshed, glowing look. All this does depend on a bride's personal preference and wedding theme. We makeup artists do have a responsibility to make strong recommendations against a particular request if we believe it to be unsuitable (lime green eye shadow?! ...You sure?), but ultimately it's up to our client.

You can pretty much bet that the bride will shed tears sometime throughout the day so waterproof mascara are an absolute MUST. It doesn't matter if it's not from an expensive, branded range. Remember the mascara wand from the bottle will not be used (unless you intend to gift the whole bottle to the bride), and usually that's the product's selling point. Our trainer, Jackie, swears by Maybelline's Blackest Lash mascara (both normal & waterproof formulas).

Airbrushing is gaining popularity in bridal makeup, although knowing the basics of traditional application is important. I'll review bridal makeup using airbrush down the track in a later session. For traditional bridal makeup:

1. Cleanse and moisturise the full face. Prime eyes while letting the moisturiser absorb into the skin
2. Colour wash a light, natural colour all over eye area up to brows. This can contain some shimmer. and can be a highlight colour. For Kate's makeup, I used an off-white creamy tone
3. Brush on another layer in a soft pink over mobile lids
4. Using a darker pink in the same colour family, blend as an arch shape into hollows of the eyes, just under browbone. Don't drag the arch all the way to inner corners
5. Use a darker shade (I used dark purple and mauves) to curve from middle of top lashline to bottom of the arch on outer corners. Essentially, you're drawing a 'C' shape on outer corners with top half of the 'C' in dark pink, and bottom half in the mauve
6. I like to brush shimmer on centre of eyelids at the bulge of the eyes. Eyeliner should be kept thin and close to lash line
7. Brides who don't usually wear makeup are sometimes quite intimidated with eyeshadows. If that's the case, tone shadows down and apply lashings of mascara. Remember to curl first!
8. Bar lashes can be too dramatic for wedding makeup, so it's probably best to use individual lashes. Space them about 3-5mm from each other, overlapping the ends
9. Eyebrows should be well groomed and filled in
10. Conceal, conceal, conceal! I've been converted to conceal on top of foundation, but I make an exception with bridal makeup as the skin is to look perfect so concealing first will give better coverage
11. I prefer foundation to be sponged on. Brushes may leave streaks and it's too easy to apply too thick. Gradually build up layers using the sponge and flip to a clean side to soak up the excess
12. Contour and blush all-in-one using blush shades: A darker tone on hollows and a lighter pink on apples of cheeks. Blend the colour out towards temples. Add a swipe of shimmer along highest point of the cheekbones
13. Lips are to be lined and coloured in with liner pencil before applying lipstick. Blot and reapply at least 2 times. Put on a glossy top coat, but remember it won't last so best to ask the bride to reapply periodically

Ok, that was a very quick overview, but you probably get the gist of it. I think it's also my first time listing the steps to a complete face. Looks long, doesn't it? Any questions, please post below.

xxEva