Wedding Make-up Ideas

When talking to my brides about what they want to achieve from their wedding day make-up look they often say "I want to look like me...but a little better". To me this means enhancing their best features and keeping looking natural but as though they have been on a long relaxing break and have returned refreshed.

When choosing a make-up look i always advise brides to look at a mixture of magazines and find models or real women with similar colouring to their own. There isn't much point telling the make-up artist that you want to look like the model in the picture if she has olive skin, dark hair and dark eyes and you are an english rose complexion with blonde hair and blue eyes. Yes you can take a little inspiration from the the look, but it will look totally different on you.

When thinking about your wedding make-up look at your face in detail and decide what you think would be best enhanced or what you would like to cover or distract from. Most brides want "perfect skin". An even skin tone can most certainly be achieved to help give that flawless look, one thing that make-up can not change is the skin texture. I advice my brides to take great care of the skin everyday and especially in the run up to the wedding.

In order to achieve the polished look:

• ensure you get a good quality foundation to match your skin tone perfectly. It should look totally natural, even your tone out and not look like obvious make-up.
• if you have blemishes, dark circles or anything you wish to cover up, opt for a good concealer that exactly matched your foundation. Check the concealer as some are created especially for spot overage and other for under-eye circles. Highlighting concealers are fantastic for under the eye area, but don't use them on spots!
• to enhance your eyes use a soft eyeliner, smudge the liner with a smudger brush or cotton bud to give a softer look. You want to try to avoid harsh lines around the eyes. If you don't want to use and eyeliner a deep brown or soft charcoal black eyeshadow can look amazing when smudged under the lower lash.
• try to use 2-3 different colours for the same colour palette for eyeshadow. Starting with the lighter colour on the inner corner of the eyelid, the medium shade from the inner edge of your iris (the colour part of your eye) and then create a C or backward C (depending on the eye) on the outer corner. Going one third of the way into the eyelid, in the socket and along the lash line. BLEND BLEND BLEND, the colours should appear seamless.
• opt for natural shades to help keep the look soft.
• Use a soft peachy-pink blusher to give a naturally flushed look.
• Pinky browns are great for lips, natural but a hit of colour without looking too obvious.

Hollywood starlet glamour is huge in bridal make-up at the moment, think Marilyn Monroe's sexy pout and alluring eyes.

This look is very simple to create, it is almost the same as the above look however you need to create a flicked line with liquid eyeliner (or a cake liner or pencil or the new felt tip style liners, whichever you find easiest) and apply red lipstick, not forgetting the lipliner to prevent bleeding.

It may take a few practices to get the eyeliner right, but it is worth it. Keep the rest of your make-up very fresh and natural looking, making sure emphasis is on the lips and the subtle flick of liner.