Wedding Makeup Advice??

Feb 21, 2013

Ashley G.

Hi Everyone,

I'm getting married later in the year and really need help in picking the right products to use on the day. Would love your advice / tips!

I'm going to do my own make up, which I'm a bit stressed about. I was going to enlist the help of a professional, but turns out I'm just too much of a control freak about makeup application! Haha :). Seriously though, I've had a couple of bad experiences at beauty counters and its put me off - just too much of a risk when it's so expensive (average of £150 for bridal make up). There are some amazing artists out there, but finding one is soooo hard - make up trials on average cost £40, and if I'm not keen on the application - as with the beauty counter experiences - then that's £40 of my budget wasted that I could have used to buy a few products.

I currently have tons of products, but I hear that choosing for your wedding is a different ball game as you need to take photography into account - so my By Terry foundation, strobe cream and Touch éclat are a no-no as they're brightening. You can see from my profile pic that they give the casper the friendly ghost effect under flash photography. So I'm starting from scratch! Going to stock up using birthday money.

I have fair skin which is clear from spots but prone to dryness and rosacea, blue eyes with very dark circles and fine lines underneath and brown hair. Overall; I want what most brides do - flawless healthy looking skin and really well applied definition to eyes, lips and cheeks. I'm not looking for anything radical.

I live in the uk, so I'm going to have to order some of the products I've heard good things about (such as make up forever) - but I'm on a budget so can't afford to waste money on a whim - can any professionals or make up junkies give me their run down on what to buy before I go out and waste money I don't have? I thought that researching would help me, but I'm very confused - there's a lot of conflicting advice flying around!

This is what I'm thinking about purchasing:

Embroilaisse face primer
Urban decay eyeshadow primer
Urban decay naked palette
Bobbi brown gel liner (already have this)
Some sort of make up forever foundation but don't know which.

As well as the above, I need to know what to buy for the following (advice on which colours to go for based on my skin tone would be wonderful!):

Blush/contouring/highlighting (which will work with photography)
Concealer which will hide terrible dark under eye circles
Setting powder
Lip products
Eyelashes (thinking ardell? We have a brand called eyelure in the uk which is good, but I've heard great things about the demi wispies - can anyone confirm?)
Brow kits

I'm also looking for advice on which brushes to buy (don't want much from you, do I?? Hehe). I have some mac ones, but have heard that other brands can be just as good at half the price? My mum has very kindly offered to buy brushes for my birthday if I tell her which ones I'm after. These will be an investment buy which I'll subsidise with my own money so I'm happy to buy high end if they work well!

Sorry about the long post - I just really want to get this right. Hoping you can help - any advice big or small will be appreciated :)

Ash xx