The Beauty Counter: Tips for your best wedding day look

While there are many reasons I would encourage any future bride to consider hiring a makeup artist for her wedding day, there are still many brides out there who prefer doing their makeup themselves. Whether you choose to hire someone or DIY it, I want to provide you with some tips and information about how to ensure you look your best on your wedding day.

Leave the stress to the makeup artist

Let's be honest. A wedding can be painfully expensive. Even the DIY-ers out there still have to spend a pretty penny here and there to make those gorgeous centerpieces they see on Pinterest. And if you're going to spend that much money on your dress, location, catering and photography, why would you want to skimp out on the most important part of that wedding? The most important part, of course, is you!

Hiring a makeup artist can eliminate a lot of stress on you the day of the wedding. You have so many things going on right up to the moment you walk down the aisle. Give yourself a moment to destress from the chaos and allow someone who is trained at making you look flawless do the work for you. Hiring a makeup artist rather than doing it yourself can ensure you not only look exactly how you envision, but it also will ensure your makeup lasts the whole day. In most situations, the makeup artist will meet with you before the big day and have a consultation, including a trial run, to make sure both of you are on the same page when it comes to how you see yourself on your wedding day.

Lights, camera, flashback!

For the untrained eye, it would be easy to think all foundations look and perform the same. In reality, this could not be further from the truth. You want to make sure that on your wedding day, you have a foundation that works not only for your skin, but in multiple weather and lighting conditions.

The first thing to consider is whether there will be a lot of flash photography (this is something you can discuss with your photographer). I'm sure by now you've been told using foundation with SPF is a big no-no if you're going to be in pictures. While that is true, it's also important to protect your skin.

You may want to limit how much SPF (whether in the primers or the foundation itself) you use. SPF in foundation is what causes the "flashback" you see in photos that can make your face look starkly white in comparison to the rest of your body. It is literally your face reflecting the light from flash photography going off toward your face. If your wedding and reception are outside during the day, chances are there may not be much direct flash photography, if any at all, so using foundation with a higher SPF would not be so bad. If your wedding and reception are inside, avoiding an SPF-based foundation would be fine.

However, it seems more common that most weddings, especially now that we are entering the spring and summer, take place inside and out, and much of the photography will occur outdoors. This is when you may want to consider something with a minimal SPF (most brands will contain at least 15 SPF). This will help avoid that flashback, but also give your face some protection from direct sunlight.

Last kiss goodnight

One of the biggest concerns I get from brides is ensuring that their lipstick doesn't come off before the ceremony has ended. Brides want their lipstick to last through every kiss and every bite they take that evening. The last thing a bride needs is to worry about having that dreaded lipliner ring around her mouth because all her lipstick has worn off. Also, as a bride, there will be tons of impromptu pictures being taken of you throughout the day, and carrying a tube of lipstick to apply every time someone says, "Let's take a picture," can be inconvenient.

One trick makeup artists do to ensure longevity is to apply a lip stain in a similar color all over the lips, then a liner, then the lipstick. The stain will help prevent the stark contrast between your lip color and your natural lip color being exposed. Next, blot a couple of times and repeat the liner and lipstick process. Finally, set the lips with a powder by separating a piece of tissue and placing it over the lips, then lightly dusting a translucent powder over the lips. This will prevent the lip product from transferring onto clothes or other people.

Don't look too matchy-matchy

When thinking about how you want to look for your wedding day, a lot of brides consider the bridesmaid dresses and the colors for their wedding. Although I agree that you want everyone in your party to look polished from head to toe, it's important to keep in mind what works best for your complexion and that of your bridesmaids. If your bridesmaid dresses are turquoise, you may want to seriously reconsider matching their eyeshadow to their dresses. Likewise, if the colors of your wedding are black and white, you may want to ease up on how smoky you do your eyeshadow that day. If you hire a makeup artist, he or she will be able to come up with a look that is tailored to you and will make you look your best. If you'll be doing your own makeup, you want to search for products that will help accentuate and highlight your facial features while receding any imperfections.

Timeless vs. trendy

When I meet with a bride at her consultation, I ask what she envisions of herself on her wedding day. In most cases, I get the standard, "I want to look like me, but a lot better." This is when brides will pull up their phones and show me pictures they have saved of people whose makeup they would like for me to emulate. However, it isn't uncommon to get someone who asks to look completely different, something different from what she would normally do. While I appreciate their willingness to try something out of the box, this is where I try to have a serious and honest conversation about how they want to look on their wedding day.

A bride should not only look beautiful, but more importantly, timeless. When she gets the photos from her photographer, she's going to have them forever. So it's important that when she looks back at her wedding photos not only a month after her wedding, but months (plural), even years later, that she still looks in the moment. And although wedding trends are always changing, a bride herself should not look dated. A wedding is one of those events, in my opinion, where playing it safe with your makeup might pay off better than testing out that new neon green eyeshadow that's been shared more than a million times on Pinterest or Instagram.

--------

About Anne

Anne Hudson, a self-taught makeup artist, has had a passion for makeup since she was old enough to know what makeup was. She could write a book about red lipstick, but for now, she's offering her best tips in Flourish magazine. Have a question for Anne? Send it to rgautschy@semissourian.com, and you might find the answer in a future issue of Flourish.