On a day- to-day basis, my makeup is reasonably basic and boring.
I flick between a handful of bases depending on my skin and the coverage I want, but the rest of my makeup tends to be the same colour-way and I don’t tend to divert from my ‘colour palette’ unless I’m going out or a special occasion….WHY?.. Because I know what colours work for my blue eyes (warm browns, coppers, golds) and I really don’t have time to diverse from my daily 5-minute makeup routine.
However, the true makeup *ME ME ME* diva comes out a bit more when you need to look your best ; so on my wedding day I used all my best and most loved makeup products……of all time. My absolute go-to makeup HERO PRODUCTS.
This is the good shit.
I custom-made my own Z-Palette with all my favourite shades. The makeup look still was based around the warm brown tones that suit me but I just went a little bit more glam and richer than I would normally. I went for my usual feline flick to make my eyes look bigger, lashes on the top and bottom to add that extra bit of oomph.
I think the key to good wedding makeup for your big day is to go a touch heavier than you think ; you don’t want to look *caked* for the eyes of your guests but you need that little bit extra for the makeup to pick up nicely on camera. The key is getting that perfect balance.
I spent around 30 minutes on the day doing my makeup. I made sure I had a nice table & lighting in my hotel room, along with a good mirror (bring your own in case!), and I set up all my products in order to make it quick and stress-free for application. Leave a bit of extra time for any hiccups you may have. Also, do your eyes FIRST, then follow with the base so any pigment/shadow droppage doesn’t ruin your perfectly applied base.
Base / Foundation:
My skin is open-pored/combination and I have areas of acne scarring and uneven
skintone. My dream skin is even, dewy, glowing, not shiny, smooth and not cakey
looking! Anything near to this is good for me. Over the years I have tried
and tested so many products to give me this ultimate finish and the products
below give me near-perfect skin.
(1.) Primer/ Base: Becca shimmering skin perfector ‘Opal’ & Urban Decay Bronzing BB cream mixed 50/50. This combination gives a great matte-satin base but with a nice glow.
(2.) Foundation: Chanel Prolumiere 5 (discontinued, best foundation ever created) followed by a combination of x2 Laura Mercier mineral powders (Classic Beige & Highlighter ‘Candlelight’ now disc. mixed 80/20%) Sounds really finickity but this is the best tried and tested combination of foundation I have used over the years – it comes out for special occasions only!
(3.) Concealer: Estee Lauder Doublewear (under eyes) & Dermablend corrective concealer(face)
(4.) Bronzer: Too Faced chocolate soleil ‘medium deep matte bronzer’
(5.) Contour: Illamasqua Sculpting powder duo used with the Charlotte Tilbury brush.
(6.) Highlight: MUA undress your skin ‘pink shimmer’ (LOVE this newly discovered product!)
(7.) Blush: Shu Uemura (from Z palette – see below)
(8.) Setting/finishing Powder & for all-day de-shining: Urban Decay Naked Skin HD powder
Brows:
For an more in-depth step-by step of how I perfect my brows, then check out my old
post here. I wanted a natural, defined yet fluffy finish to my brows. I’m kind of over
that *perfect brow* look as can end up looking scouse-brow like, so I am
wearing a little less on my brows nowadays and these are my favourite products
to achieve that.
(1.) Benefit High Brow (2.) KIKO eyebrow marker 04 (3.)Eyelure brow pencil (4.) Eyeko brow gel
Eyes:
Themain event. I didn’t do a run through before the day I just kind of went with
the flow on the day, knowing the rough look I wanted. I didn’t want to go all out
dark smokey, I wanted to keep the eyes still open and fresh looking so kept a
lot of the lid nude-looking with an exaggerated feline flick. Lashes are really
important and I would always recommend some kind of help on your big day, be it
a few individuals on the outer corners or full on strip lashes for ultimate
glamour!
Eye Primer: Too Faced Shadow insurance
Eyeshadows: MAC ‘Naked’ pigment, I put all my favourites into my custom Z-palette. Full shade list below.
Pencils / liners: Makeup Revolution inner eye brightener (this is a flesh coloured pencil to get rid of redness on inner rim, makes eyes look fresh and open), Collection Extreme black liquid liner, Too Faced Bulletproof eyeliner ‘blackout’, Armani Smooth silk eyeliner ’12 Brown’
Lashes: Shu Uemura lash curler ,Diorshow Extase mascara, Shu Uemura Farfallina lashes (my favourite ever!), MAC individual lashes on lower lashes
Brushes: The all important trio for perfect eye application and blending : Crownbrush deluxe oval shadow, Laura Mercier Eye Crease brush, MAC 224.
[1] Shu Uemura M soft beige [2] Shu Uemura M medium brown 852 [3] Chantecaille Rose Gold [4] Chantecaille Opal [5] MAC Malt [6] NARS Blondie [7] Chantecaille Patchouli [8] MAC Antiqued [9] MAC Coppering [10] MAC Haux [11] MAC Sketch [12] NARS Lola Lola [13] Shu Uemura ME medium brown 862 [14] NARS Yamal [15] NARS Galapagos [16] NARS Coconut Grove [17] Shu Uemura M dark brown 896 [18] Shu Uemura blusher M soft coral 345
I didn’t actually use ALL of the colours from my dream custom palette, shades I used and you may be able to work it out a bit better from the (basic) step-by-step above.
(1.) Eye primer all over followed by MAC ‘Naked’ pigment as a base colour ; naked is a great colour for fresh-looking ‘nude’ eyes. Line inner rims with Makeup Revolution Eye brightener.
(2.) Shade [1] which is a creamy matte shade was applied under the brow to give a touch more lift. [3] on the inner to middle of lid which is a wash of gold shimmer. [2],[6] & [7] (all matte fleshy tones) were mixed and used to add a natural socketline/ crease. All blended softly out with the MAC 224 brush.
(3.) I added more depth the the socketline with [17] mixed with [12]
(4.) To get the perfect feline flick I used my collection liquid liner (cheap and great!) and applied it all the way from the inner corner to the outer corner of the lashes, getting slightly thicker as you reach the outside.
(5.) I follow the lower lashline and UP to the brow to get that cat-eye flick and make sure the point is really sharp. CURL LASHES. Here, I started to use [16] & [8] to give some warmth all around the eyes. This coppering shade from MAC is really good to bring out the colour in both blue and green eyes. MAC 224 is your best friend here. Keep blending that sh*t.
(6.) Apply lots of layers of mascara top & bottom lashes / Soften the feline flick with Armani brown eyeliner on top and smudge / Bring eyeshadows [2] [10] & [17] under the lower lash line and smoke. / Add Bulletproof black liner into lower lashes to give depth / Apply Falsies top & bottom.
Lips :
I always hydrate my lips with my favourite Lanolips 101 ointment, I then used a long wear base colour which was the Too Faced Melted lipstick in ‘Peony’, followed by a touch of gloss and plump with the DuWop Lip venom in ‘hot pink shimmer’ (think this particular shade is exclusive to BeautyBay). The combination of these products gave me a long wear natural pink pout. I just topped up with the LipVenom during the day. Later on in the PM, I added a bright coral/orange lip with Illamasqua ‘flare’.
I hope you found this interesting and a bit useful….maybe? I know a lot of people who follow my blog/twitter were keen to hear about my makeup on the big day, if you are more interested to see my dress/shoes and a bit about my big day then go here.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments below about my makeup, wedding makeup in general, products I used etc etc.
