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| Photo Courtesy of Stacey Lalande |
Hello ladies and congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I have wanted to do a post on this subject for a very long time and decided that today is that day. I hope it helps some of you grasp a better understanding about bridal makeup and what to look for in an artist.
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| http://bernieaho.com/ |
RESEARCH: You’ll need to do your research. You may already have an idea of an artist you’d like to use, perhaps a recommendation or someone you have heard of. A recommendation is the best kind of information to have when it comes to selecting your artist. It gives you a real account of somebody else’s experience and the more you can read, the better. That being said, makeup represents your personal style and what may be one persons cup of tea, may not be anothers. Never ONLY take someones word for it. Seeing is believing. Many professional make up artists have websites that will give you an idea of their work through portfolios and testimonials. Use this to see the styles that the artist can create, the range of their ability and their level of professionalism. Some people recommend someone not having actually had their services used personally, but rather a friend of a friend of a friend used this person once and they heard they were good. That also brings up the question.....is this person actually knowledgable? Or did they buy some make up and figure, "Hey, this can't be difficult!" "I'm going to be a make up artist!" A trained professional, knows about contouring, highlighting, face shapes, skin types etc. Just because you may personally be terrible at applying make up on yourself, it should not give you the mindset to just settle for an "artist" because "It is better than I could do on myself."
If you are going to ask anyone, ask your photographer. They are usually the ones stuck trying to fix bad makeup later when editing photos and this creates an enormous amount of extra work for them. They will know which artists work they barely need to touch or edit. Make up to go out is NOT the same as make up for photography. Looking decent in person and looking flawless in photos are two entirely different things. Your artist needs to know about finishes of products, how will they work with flash photography, hot days, cold days etc. Oily skin, large pores, etc.
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| TLC Photography |
FIND YOUR STYLE: Choosing a date well ahead of your wedding day will mean one less thing to think about as your day draws nearer as your trial should leave you feeling confident and relaxed about how you will look in front of all of your guests when the time comes. Having an idea of the sort of style you’d like is always an advantage. It is useful to take with you a few pictures of styles you like to give your artist an idea of the look you’re hoping to achieve. A fun and creative way to do this is to make a collage of images from your hair and make up ideas, to the colour scheme and theme of your wedding. This will help your artist subtly coordinate your look with the rest of your day. It will also help you to get to know one another, which will become very important in the crucial few hours leading up to your big moment.
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| Click photo to visit Jonathan's website. |
LASTING ALL DAY: Airbrush make up is NOT magic. It was confused with the photoshop term years ago and has confused brides since. Airbrush foundation is liquid foundation with added water to thin it and some silicone additives. It is very time consuming, a thin application which needs to be layered to achieve a flawless look. Airbrushing for body painting yes, bridal no, if an artist uses the proper face primers and setting sprays, the same look is acheived with any foundation medium. I have never had a brides face come off before or during the wedding ceremony. In fact, brides will tell me they partied well into the night and they still looked flawless at 4 a.m. I have literally had brides go to sleep exhausted after the festivities, go to sleep and wake up looking great and go to the gift opening. True story.
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| Click Photo to visit Jonathan's Website |
NAME BRAND MAKEUP: Expensive makeup, name brands etc....Society, ads etc. have brainwashed us in MAC MAC MAC, Clinique, Stila etc.... Don't get me wrong some are great, and I own plenty...but some are bad and a HUGE waste of money. A good artist can use anything and turn you into a supermodel.
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| TLC Photography Sudbury |
LISTENING: If an artist doesn't listen, do not be afraid to speak up. If you ask for something in particular and they are doing whatever they want, or using colours you really don't like, let them know. If they do not respect your wishes or work with you to compromise, using their expertise, coupled with what you want, run the other way. I have heard stories of glitter on brides, brides being shushed by the artist, brides washing their faces or literally crying when they looked in the mirror. I have actually been called in emergency basis by brides to fix someone elses mess, because they didn't want to hurt the artists feelings. Hence, the importance of a trial run.
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| TLC Photography Sudbury |
DO A TRIAL RUN: Some women may choose to go to a makeup counter for their bridal makeup because its cheaper, or may choose to have a friend do their makeup for their wedding day because its free. While in theory these options may sound great, the reality of it is, if you end up hating the way it turns out, you’re stuck with it. The bad thing with getting your makeup done at places like department stores or drug stores, is the majority of the personal working there aren’t real makeup artists, and are not trained in how to properly analyze and work on different face shapes and colors. A few are, many aren't so be sure to ask questions about their credentials. They may only be knowledgeable about store products and be there to SELL store products. Being able to do a good makeup job on yourself is one thing, but being able to do it on someone else’s face shape or skin color is a totally different ball game. Having a trial run of your makeup for your wedding day is essential. A trial run is basically a preview of what you will look like on your wedding day. Most professionals will charge for a trial, being that they are spending their time, money, and supplies doing this makeup application. In my opinion, this is money well spent. A professional will assess and analyze your face and personality to help determine how soft or bold you’d like your bridal makeup to be. Additionally, if the makeup is not done to your liking for the trial, you have the time to communicate with your makeup artist, in order to make the necessary changes right then and there. If your artist DOES NOT have a website or online portfoilio, which lets face it, these days in kind of ridiculous. Anyone can create a facebook page or website free of charge. Do the trial.
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| Photo by Fuel Multimedia |
LASHES: Quality, human hair strips or individual lashes are really essential to your overall look. It finishes the look and adds so much beauty and femininity to the make up application. It does not matter how long, full, dark your lashes are. You want the eyelashes, trust me. That being said you don't want dollarama eyelashes or thick band lashes that scream fake. If an artist is coming at you with Wal-Marts halloween end of season clearance lashes, run the other way.
I hope this gives you a little insight into what to look for when choosing your artist. Yes, I am a professional of almost twenty years, but there are indeed some artists who are self taught and fabulous. There are also some that came out of nowhere and think they are the cats meow. Someone who constantly toots their own, best be able to produce the skills they claim to own. Your wedding day is not the day you want to find out you made the wrong choice because you didn't do your research.
Feel free to email me with questions through my website here or in the posting area below and I will be happy to answer them. I am in no way against sharing information nor do I try to monopolize the city for myself. When you brand yourself correctly, the competition becomes irrelevent.
Much Love as Always,
Dana xo
