Organizing your own bridal make-up rather than hiring a make-up artist is a viable alternative if looking to trim a wedding budget. It is also a good option for those unused to wearing make-up or for someone who is getting married in a remote location. Professional freelance make-up artists charge a premium for their time and should work with you to create a fabulous look for the photos.
For a very formal or public wedding, many people find this service essential. Having make-up done professionally can also be an important part of the wedding ritual. If wishing to do your own make-up, there are still ways to create a polished look and to incorporate an element of this luxury.
Choosing a Bridal Make-up Look
Professional make-up artistry for weddings is about clean application, longevity and fabulous polish. Skills improve with practice, so choosing the look and products as early as possible before the day guarantees success. Without confident application skills, a simple look is best but this does not have to mean boring. Inspiration can be found everywhere from magazines to films, old family photographs and friends' make-up bags.
Learning Professional Make-up Techniques
Having application confidence is important to achieving a good make-up.
- Put together a basic bridal make-up kit with some of the products professionals use as these make the job easier.
- Online resources offer many tips and tricks as do magazines. Try them all and see which are good ones.
- Bridal make-up lessons in stores are good for learning how to apply a tailored look. These are usually given by trained make-up artists so are useful in learning techniques. They will also recommend a kit of products but if saving money, it is perfectly acceptable to buy just a couple of the essentials, or to use the list to purchase products one by one.
Make-up for Blushing Brides
If anticipation is building up before the wedding day, it is important to choose skin products and make-up that will not aggravate this. Even people who rarely suffer allergies could find that they react badly to a particularly aggressive or unfamiliar product. There are many things that a professional make-up artist would advise in order to keep skin looking and feeling fabulous, even for the most sensitive.
- Do a make-up trial as early as possible but at least a month before the wedding.
- Having decided on products, do not introduce anything new without having trialed it first.
- Only use tried and tested skin care products close to the wedding and do not have a facial or any treatment close to the day.
- Look for brands with less artificial fragrance or strong pigments.
- Invest in a skin barrier from a professional make-up shop.
Affordable Wedding Make-up
If hiring a freelance make-up artist the most you would have to buy is lipstick and blotting papers to retouch with during the day. The price of hiring the freelancer gets offset against buying a whole make-up kit. However, there are ways to reduce the expense of products.
- Primer, foundation and bronzing gel often comes in travel or trial sizes.
- If having a wedding trial with a brand, keep a list of the relevant items and buy one by one, looking out for special offers or promotions.
- Look online for discounted products.
- It is nice to have some new things but some old make-up bag favorites may not need to be replaced as long as they look good when on. These could include mascara, foundation, powder, bronzer and eye liner. Experimenting by learning new, professional application techniques will cut down the list of products to buy.
- Try professional make-up shops such as Screenface, Mac or Charles Fox. These are cheaper than designer ranges but perform well.
- A new lipstick usually gives a fresh new make-up look so this is a good product to buy if using other older ones.
Shortcuts and Make-up Tricks
Keep things simple and clean on the day with outside help.
- A lash tint and optional perm is a good way to avoid mascara. It frames the eyes and is clean, maybe even cutting down the need for heavy eyeliner. Team with clear or very lightweight mascara or leave natural. Due to the chemicals involved, it is important to trial this a couple of months before the wedding.
- A clean brow shape and maybe a tint will give a groomed and defined look to eyes and face. Threading is generally much cheaper than buying brow pencils, gels and brushes and it always looks super polished. Find a reputable threader and trial this a few months before the wedding.
Doing your own make-up takes a little organization and practice to get right. However it can be a fun part of the wedding and is an especially good idea if looking to save money or have a very natural look.
Shefali Choudhury - Writer and visual artist, Suite Beauty topic editor, Shefali spent 10 years in professional makeup artistry from beauty to blood ...
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