Entertainment - Wedding Makeup

How do you make sure your wedding makeup stays on all day, look flawless in your wedding photos, and still manage to make you feel like a model, but still look like you? On that special wedding day, every bride wants to look her very best and be at her most beautiful. But presenting your best face can be a little daunting. I spent years doing wedding makeup when I worked as a salon makeup artist as well as photo shoots for top magazines and advertisings. I realized that the best wedding makeup was actually the same makeup tips and tricks that I used on top models.

The dynamics are the same, whether it be a wedding, or a top photo shoot. Pictures are being taken. It must stay on all day. The model / bride wants to look beautiful yet real.

Here are some great tips and tricks that I use in photo shoots that you can easily incorporate into your look to make it last all day.

1. Make sure your foundation is a perfect match. Color blend along the side of the jaw and blend in 2-3 strokes. Is it gone? It should be. If not, or you find yourself blending forever, you have the wrong shade. It’s not that it blends in, but how fast. I can make any shade blend in if I blended it long enough.....

Want an elegant glow? Blend in a dot of shimmer cream into your foundation before applying. Sebastian Trucco makes a product called "Skin light', a face and body glow gel that lightly dries and sets, making your foundation last all day as well.

2. For under eye circles, the easiest way to lighten them is with a opposite color applied on top first. If your darkness is gray, lightly brush a soft pink eye shadow on clean skin first, and then apply your foundation. If the darkness is more blue, try a matte light peach shadow. You’ll find yourself using much less concealer and foundation.

Make sure your powder is light in shade and matte. Use a soft fluffy eye shadow brush to dust lightly over the discoloration. Tip: You want to tint the discoloration, not mask it. This trick should soften the darkness and skin tone by 45%. The foundation and concealer will do the rest.

3. Using concealer is easier when you have the perfect shade. Don’t go 1-2 shades lighter than your skin. This actually makes the darkness appear more gray and muddy. Mix your concealer shade with a drop of your foundation and then apply. You want your skin tone to appear one even shade.

For concealer to last all day, try a stage brand found in most beauty supply stores. Ben Nye, Joe Blasco, Cinema Secrets and my favorite Kryolan are known for their highly concentrated pigment and staying power. Thicker and stiffer in texture, these pansticks, concealers and new water-based formulations offer longer lasting coverage. Just mix with a dot of your foundation for a easier blend.

3. To keep foundation and concealer on all day, take a Kleenex folded into squares, and lightly press into the foundation before you’ve powdered. This removes excess oils from the foundation and leaves pure pigment on the skin. If you find this removes too much foundation, then apply a little more than you think you need, and then press. You’ll find that foundation stays on hours longer.

This is an old Hollywood makeup trick, when all there was was Pan Stick and greasy cream-based foundations. Old movie makeup artists would blot foundation to remove the oils and then set with pressing powder to keep the makeup on under hot lights. This trick still works today, even with the lighter, oil-free foundations on the market by pressing out any oils and leaving just the pigment and color on the skin. This trick also is what makes the skin look like skin, and not a foundation mask.

4. Lightly brush on loose powder with a large brush to set. This is not the time to press powder into the skin with a powder puff. This actually can make your skin look and get shinier quicker.

A photo trick that we learn fast is, not to apply a lot of powder. This is what makes your skin sweat and appear shiny in photographs. Try this trick at home. Just apply foundation and see how your skin feels. Then press powder on, and within 15-20 minutes, your skin feels tight, and break-through shine starts to come through. Why? Your skin is reacting to the 'feeling' of the powder. Find a light weight powder by trying this test: Lightly blow loose powder into the air. If it appears to float, you have a lightweight, oil-free powder. If it falls to the ground, it's heavy and you'll feel like you're wearing a ton of makeup fast.

5. Apply your blush next. Find a blush brush that is the size of the apple of your cheek for a perfect application. Pick up your color and tap onto the apples of the cheeks, slowly blending back towards the temple. When you have enough on, take a clean makeup sponge and blend. This one step makes your blush look real, rather than just sitting on the surface of your skin. For the prettiest look, you want a natural 'flushed' look. Mac makes a great one in "Mocha". It looks like a dusty pink in the pan, but on brings out a beautiful rosy wine shade that looks totally natural. Also, by applying blush first, if you look great with just your blush on, you insure that you have the right amount. If it looks too bright or harsh, lighten it up.

Also, as much as you may want to, try to stay away from using bronzer to warm up your skin. You may feel washed out in your wedding gown, but applying too much bronzer can actually make your skin look muddy, and too dark against all that white. Warm up your look by using warm tones in your blush and lipstick. This will be just enough to make your skin look rosy, not dull.

OOPS! Okay, you look like a clown, wrong color, too much........now what? With a clean dry sponge, pick up a light layer of loose powder and 'erase' as much off as possible. Too bright or too dark? Take a slightly dampened sponge and clean off as much as you can. Us either water or moisturizer on your sponge, which will pick up and 'dilute' the color.........it just may be enough to fix it and make it work. Still too much? As a last resort, apply watered down foundation over it to achieve a 'see-through' flush.

Do you find your blush streaking? Pick up your blush by lightly tapping the blush with the tips of the bristles into the product. If you are sweeping the brush across the color, you'll pick up about 10 x more color than you need, and you waste a lot of product. Shake off any excess. You should barely be able to see the color on the brush. When applying blush, don't "sweep" the color across the cheeks. You'll usually end up streaking the color on, and then having to go back to 'correct' and 'blend'. Instead, smile, and tap on gently going across your cheeks. By tapping the color onto the brush,and then tapping it onto the cheeks, you'll avoid a splotchy blush look.

6. Do your lips next. To last all day, powder lips first, then apply your lip pencil filling in the entire lip. Don’t worry too much about the outline of the mouth. Apply your lipstick shade, blot, powder and apply again. Yes, the old 40's trick of powder/blot really does work. By blotting and powdering, you are actually removing the excess wax in the lipstick that causes it to bleed. Once finished, apply a light coat of lip gloss if desired in the middle of the bottom lip right before you walk out the door.

Want lips to last all day? Try the new long-lasting wear lipsticks, like Max Factor's "lipfinity". Apply the color coat first, let dry, and then apply your regular lipstick shade over it before the Moisture Coat. The Moisture Coat gives a soft sheen, and seals in not only the stain, but your lipstick at the same time.

Want to update your older matte lipstick shades to the new shimmer based tones? Apply a light shimmer eye pencil, or eye shadow on lips and apply your darker lipstick on top ....just a little will do and you'll have a new shade. A soft chestnut brown eye shadow applied on lips first will also darken any shade that's too light.

Use a Concealer Pencil on your lips first, fill in, and then apply an older, dark lipstick. The concealer pencil lightens up the lipstick by about 3-4 shades.... Or apply a dot of concealer on the bottom of your lower lip and gloss over to blend.

Want a great shiny mouth? One of the best lip glosses I've ever tried is believe it or not, Wet & Wild's Lip Gloss Wand in Clear. Glossy enough to rival some of the more expensive brands, with great staying power and ranging only around the $1.00 price range. Can't beat that.

7. Brush and fill in eyebrows if needed with a shade that’s 1-2 shades lighter than your eyebrow hairs. Too dark and you can start looking a little harsh. Brush through with a toothbrush afterwards for a more natural look.

Use a shine gel to set your eyebrows and bring a glow to you eyes. Lanza's Shine Gel in it's easy one-touch dispenser that gives a great sheen.

8. Last but not least, your eyes. A soft shimmering cream or white is beautiful on the brow bone, and the inner corners of the eyes, both above and below the lashes. This wakes up the eyes and creates a beautiful highlight. To make eyes appear larger, apply a sand or taupe in the crease of the eye. Blend so that the shadow fades well. Keep the eyes looking neutral, while the colors emphasize the cheeks and lips. Make the most dramatic part of the eye your lashes and eyeliner. This looks the best in pictures. Take a black or brown pencil and line the lashes on the outer 1/2 or 1/4 of the eye. Blend with a q-tip.

Take your mascara and a eyeliner brush, and lightly line the eye with your mascara. Once it’s dried, smudge again, and you’ll find that your eyeliner will stay on forever. If your mascara is waterproof, that’s even better. Revlon's Colorstay Extra Thick Lashes in Waterproof is a recent find that works great. And remember to curl your lashes before, not after mascara.

9. If you’re applying false eyelashes, single eyelashes are the most natural looking. An easy way to apply them is to apply one coat of mascara, let dry. Apply a dot of glue on the tip of the lash and along the length. This is actually the part that anchors to your lashes. Then take your tweezers, looking down, and place 2-3 single lashes on the outer 1/4 of the eye. Let the glue dry, and then another coat of mascara to seal the lashes together. False eyelashes go a long way in making your eyes dramatic and the focus of the face.

Ardell makes a great eyelash glue that when dry, feels weightless. Make sure to get the glue that's white and goes clear when dry. That way you can easily see where you're placing your false lashes, and the clear tone will not interfere with your eyeliner. I like applying the false lashes after the eye makeup is completely finished.

10. Finishing Touches: When you’re done with your look, you may want to apply a little more blush, and then finish with a final brush of loose powder. Make sure everything is blended well. If you feel like you have a lot of makeup on, lightly mist with a soft spray of water to set. This will take away the feeling of makeup on your skin and also helps to set the makeup. If you want your skin to glow, lightly brush on a soft shimmering eye shadow or the new shimmer loose powders, like Revlon's SkinLights. To avoid over doing it, just dust across the tops of the cheekbones and collar bones. For a more over-all glow, you can even go across the forehead and chin.

You want to look beautiful, glowing, soft and romantic. Remember, this moment only happens once in a lifetime.