Wedding Makeup Tip: Keep the Glimmer & Shimmer on the Dress...Not on the Face!
I get a lot of questions regarding wedding advice (I've been to my fair share of weddings, I'd say ;-)) and one of them that has been coming up a lot lately is about makeup. What kind of makeup photographs well and what should you stay away from? Well I feel confident I could easily write a daily column on this but I'll try to keep this short and sweet. The truth is, what you see on your face or in the mirror isn't always exactly what the camera will pick up. A new trend lately is to have a little sparkle or glimmer added to your face for a fresh, ethereal look and the reality is that it does not photograph well at all. What you see when you look in the mirror is glow. What the camera sees is shine. So what is glow to you looks like you need a face blotter to the camera. Eek!
So one brand that I would stay away from on wedding days is Bare Escentuals. This makeup doesn't always photograph badly but all too many times, it simply glitters in any kind of lighting, causing an oily look. Again...EEK! Try to stick with matte makeup. It gives the appearance of porcelain. Oh yeah. ;-)
Another type you might want to steer away from is heavy, thick makeup and foundations. What looks like perfection in the mirror right after the application may actually turn into a landslide of goo after you've been wearing it for awhile, especially if it's a hot day. MAC might be great for photoshoots, but I'm not so sure you want this on your face for your wedding day because it's not exactly made to last 12 hours.
Most brides don't know a whole bunch about makeup brands or even types so it's very important to make sure you talk to your makeup stylist on the big day and absolutely request a trial run before the big day (as a matter fact, make sure to schedule that on the day of your bridal shower...Nice!). I would also say most brides want to look fresh and like themselves so make sure to relay this to your stylist as well.
A final tip: make sure you bring your backup makeup with you for the day. Also--if you do a trial run and really like the products, ask your makeup stylist to bring new, unopened products to your wedding day for you to be the first to use so you can actually purchase them from her and have it with you all day for touch-ups.