You may have read a wide range of advice for the perfect makeup on your wedding day, but have you paused to consider what kind of makeup really makes for the most flattering photographs? As wedding photographers, having covered so many bridal transformations – we want to share with you these practical bridal makeup tips to help you look stunning while being picture perfect.
Understanding Bridal Makeup
Before you hire a professional makeup artist for the most responsible job of the day – to make you shine – take the time to research about makeup yourself. It’s essential for you to know what kind of products work for your skin, what kind of colors compliment you and most importantly – what is your personal style.
Some artists may offer bridal makeup services, but are not well versed with how makeup looks on the camera. Since your wedding photographs are the most important memories you will keep with you, ensure you know what you want and can communicate it to an artist you’re comfortable with.
Mirror v/s Camera
Have you ever noticed how makeup looks different when you look into the mirror, but translates differently when you’re taking a selfie? There is a difference between how our eyes perceive highlights and shadows and how the camera sees it. Try different colors and shades that you intend to use for your wedding functions – and double check them into a camera to ensure they flatter you no matter what!
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #1: Prefer using a camera over the mirror to try out possible makeup ideas before your big day.
Find your own Bridal Makeup Style
Pinterest is your best friend – and you must call upon it for this essential task. Just as you’ve been saving all the other details for your big day, keep your favorite looks handy. Once you’ve gathered enough inspiration, you’d start to notice a trend in your preferences. Perhaps your bridal makeup style is more elegant, maybe it’s subtle or maybe you really love to experiment with your look. Whatever may be your pick for your bridal makeup, it will help you not only to figure what look you’d eventually want but also what kind of outfits would match your style.
Embrace your Face
With the current trend of contouring, it’s easy to have a truly transformative makeover. You must’ve seen innumerable examples of how contouring and highlighting can really change features and make you a new you! We firmly believe in embracing your uniqueness and not trying to alter your natural self with heavy contouring. With the right base and makeup, you can look your stunning best without needing to alter the perception of your natural features.
Essential Foundation Tips
It also stands true for the color and hue of the foundation that your artist uses. Too much lightening of skin can look unnatural and makes for a cakey look in photographs. Ask him/her to match your natural skin tone and unify it across exposed areas. Our face and body are usually different hues and shades – so one color cannot suit all. They have to take the time to build up on a base color that is neutral for both tones and compliments you uniformly for that truly flawless look!
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #2: Ensure the color and intensity of your foundation for the face and the exposed neck area are aligned
One highlight for your Bridal Makeup
One of the most important bridal makeup tips to remember is to pick one feature that you want to highlight in your look. Instead of letting your various features – eyes, lips, cheeks – compete with each other, it usually is more attention grabbing to let one take the lead. Have the look be built around what’s most important to you for the event. For example – you can flaunt bold eyes for a cocktail/reception but keep the lips to the minimal.
For the wedding, if you want to go deep with the lips, try and make the eyes more flirtatious and subtle. If you have these nuances down pat for yourself, your makeup artist would have better direction to work with and you’d love yourself so much more in your wedding photographs.
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #3: Pick one element of your bridal makeup that shines above the rest to make your features stand out.
The You in your Wedding Photos
Don’t forget that your wedding photographs are about you – and whatever makeup style you choose should reflect your personality and your own personal style. It’s easy to get lost in endless possibilities when considering how other brides have chosen their bridal makeup.
Since you are the best judge of what suits you, it really helps to invest in a detailed consultation with your makeup artist on what she’s planning and how it blends with the way you best like to see yourself. Your makeup is only one part of the larger puzzle – and has to seamlessly complement your outfit, the vibe of the party and of course – your own features to bring out the very best.
Steer away from HD Highlighters
We know how bridal makeup looks beautiful with the glow of HD highlighters. That’s why it’s so popular with makeup artists to use it – especially during evening events. However, in photographs, the excess glow of these highlighters look patchy as white spots on your face and take away from the look instead of adding to it. Opt instead for a base that has glow in it without overdoing it with the highlighter. An overall dewy look is always more pleasing than patchy highlights.
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #4: Choose an overall glow over patches of highlights
Less is better than more
Ask your makeup artist to build your bridal makeup gradually and feel free to give your feedback as she does so. Building up to the final look is a process that’s fun and also flexible. It gives you the room to assess your look during the process and make changes while you still can. It’s a common practice for your artist to leave the lipstick for the end – and it gives you an incomplete assessment of your look until it’s done.
For this, we recommend you add a hint of lip balm to start with so you can imagine the finished look better. It also ensures that your getting ready photographs look more flattering since you don’t have just foundation on your lips.
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #5: Add a hint of color to your lips with lip balm before starting your makeup for beautiful getting ready shots.
Waterproof is Fool-proof
Regardless of the season of your wedding, one of the most essential bridal makeup tips is to remember to insist on waterproof makeup. You don’t want sweat or those emotional moments of tears to ruin the look. Even if it means having to compromise on the number of layers you can build, it pays to keep it waterproof to ensure a consistent look across the hours of your wedding events.
Build your personal touch-up kit
Consult with your makeup professional beforehand on what he/she recommends for your touch-up kit so you can have essentials handy through the day. Be extra mindful of the shade of lipstick they have picked for you and invest in getting the same one for yourself beforehand – so you can use it whenever needed for a freshening up. It also helps to have these products handy so you don’t have to use some of the products from their kit which may not be sanitary.
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #6: Don’t forget to add a small mirror to your touch-up kit for those quick checks
Consult with your Photographer
Your wedding photographer is the perfect resource for you to get feedback on what would look best in photos. If you’re getting getting ready shots clicked, it helps to ask your photographer to show you a few – so you can also judge how the makeup renders on the camera. It’s best to fix anything while your artist is still there.
Pro Bridal Makeup Tips #7: Check the makeup without the beauty dish to see it in diffused light -similar to the light at the venue.
These bridal makeup tips are especially helpful if you want to look your natural best for your wedding photographs which will be your treasured memories for a lifetime. With these simple practical tips, you should be able to have a better vision for how you want to look on your special day and be able to communicate it effectively to your chosen bridal makeup artist.
