Finishing touches…

OK, so now your face is on, and it’s time to take the rollers off and tussle some hair. I would say that 99.9% of brides wear their hair with some degree of curl in it. Weather it’s in an up-do, half-up, or free flowing you are going to want to make sure it lasts all day and into the night. There are a myriad of products one can use depending on their hair texture and the desired affect but a good hairspray is going to be you best ally today.

Two of my favorite hairsprays are Sebastian Shaper Hairspray and L’OREAL Elnett Extra Strong Hold Hairspray. The Sebastian Shaper Spray is great for up-do’s as it really binds the hair together creating a beautiful helmet. However, if you are wearing your hair in a half-up or free flowing style you are going to want to avoid helmet hair. For that pupose the L’OREAL Elnett is great, It will give you moveable hold with a satin finish.

Now that your hair has been curled, pined and sprayed it’s time to get dressed. This is the moment all of your brides maids have been waiting for, and a great opportunity to get some beautiful pictures too. This could take a while depending on how complex your dress is, but I’m sure you’ll have plenty of help.

At this point you look fabulous and there isn’t much to do but take some deep breaths, smile, powder your forehead and nose, gloss your lips, tame a couple fly-away hairs, and maybe add another hair pin or two for good measure.

All that’s left for you to do now is enjoy your day and don’t forget to eat for goodness sake.

Now It’s time for lip color…

Almost done! Applying your lip color is one of the last steps before you’re done and ready to go, but hopefully the color and formula has been chosen weeks in advance. You want something that compliments the rest of the look, suites your personality, doesn’t clash with your dress, and most of all is long wearing, and wont transfer on to your new hubby.

To this end, SeneGence LipSense Liquid Lip Color is my product of choice. It literally stains the first two layers of skin creating a very natural looking hint or burst of color. The first layer of color goes on very sheer and intermingles with your natural lip color so you can look like you, only better. By applying two or more layers of color you would get a more opaque level of color. Try using two or three different shades to create your own unique variation.

I love this stuff because it does not come off. Whenever I have left a wedding where I have used SeneGence LipSense Liquid Lip Color, I have no fear what so ever, that my clients lip color will fade, smudge or bleed beyond the lip line. It’s not going anywhere!

In fact if you would like to remove it before it’s time, which in some cases has been up to 2 days, you would have to use a remover. The Oooops! Remover will help you correct any application errors or remove your long-lasting lip color at the end of the day.

Application tips…

■Before you do anything, start by marinating your lips in an ample amount of chap-stick or lip moisturizer of your choice.
■When you are ready to apply your lip color make sure you blot of any excess moisturizer. Your lips should be clean and dry.
■If you are going to use a lip liner, now would be the time to apply it. Just remember to blend the inner edge of the line in to avoid that dated dark lip pencil / light lipstick look. We don’t do that anymore…
■Now for the lip color — I like using two shades, a base color that goes all over the lip, and on top of the lip liner too. The second shade would be a highlighter. It would have to be slightly lighter than your base color and may even have some shimmer in it. Place just a little bit at the center of your lips, upper and lower.
■Lastly gloss over finished lips with moisturizing gloss and you are good to go for hours if not days. All you have to do is continue to gloss throughout the day to keep your lips moistened and the color strong.

You are almost out the door and on your way to your beautiful wedding. just a few finishing touches and you are on your way. In the next installment of this series I will talk about the finishing touches including an overview on hair.

Eye Makeup…

In one word — Waterproof… Waterproof mascara. Waterproof eyeliner. Water resistant eye shadow primers or cream eye shadow! Get it!?

Even if you are not a crier, there is a chance you may shed a tear or two on your wedding day. However, waterproof formulas aren’t just to protect against tears… Some of us have very oily eyelids, and to make sure that you look just as good on your way to the honey moon suite as you did when you walked down the aisle, waterproof everything is highly recommended.

My favorite waterproof mascara is DiorShow but a more affordable alternative is CoverGirl LashBlast. Both produce richly volumized lashes that won’t budge no matter how wet you get around the eyes.

As for Eyeliners, I like the PowerPoint Eye Pencils from MAC and I LOVE Aqua Eyes from Make Up For Ever. Both come in a beautiful assortment of colors. Both provide long lasting definition and if you work quickly you can get a nice smoky affect by smudging them in a little before they set.

I love working with cream eye shadows on any job I’m on, weather it is a wedding or television. They really give you the most bang for the buck. They are long lasting and blend beautifully on the skin. I often layer a powder eye shadow on top of a cream eye shadow for a little more intensity and staying power. My cream eye shadow of choice is SeneGence ShadowSense. All you have to do is dab some on your lid in the area you want the most color to be and then blend it from there using your finger or a soft, fluffy, densely packed brush like #217 from MAC. My second choice for cream eye shadow is L’OREAL HiP Cream Shadow Paint. You would use the L’OREAL ones in the same way that you would use the SeneGence ones but work quickly because the formula is a little dryer and sets faster.

If you opt not to use a cream eye shadow and stick with good old fashioned pressed powder eye shadow instead, at the very least use an eye shadow primer. Almost every brand has one of these now, but my favorite is still Eyeshadow Primer Potion from Urban Decay. It’s easy to use, is very light weight, and sets instantly without leaving any color on the lid.

As for the actual application of color to the lid, that topic goes beyond the scope of this entry and is best dealt with one on one in a consultation. However, here are some looks that I created for clients during the 2008 wedding season. Since I avoid being trendy for wedding work, these colors and techniques are still relevant today…

This is a classic bridal look using earth tones and a pretty pink for the lips and cheeks.

Here is a slight variation on the first look using cool gray tones accented with some pink in the crease of the eye, over the cheeks and on the lips.

This look was for one of my clients who required a little more drama. For her I used stormy silver, blue and gray shadows with a splash of lavender — it is a wedding after all.

This look is slightly different than the previous three. For this look I used pretty much one color over the entire lid.

In my next installment of this series I’ll go over lip color options!

Brow Shaping…

Now this is where I have to draw the line — no pun intended. I can not condone anyone shaping their own brows. Minor touch ups maybe, but for a full on grooming please see a professional.

Once you’ve had your brows professionally shaped, and in no less than a week in advance of your wedding day, there is very little that needs to be done with them. If your brows are very dense and evenly spread out, consider yourself lucky, you may be able to get away with just brushing them in place using a tinted or clear brow gel. Brow Set from Mac is one such product. At this point you are done and you can move on to the next task at hand.

If your brows are very light in color and sparsely sprouting above your brow bone, you might want to fill them in a little. Don’t grab the same black or brown pencil you would use to line your eyes please. There are pencils made specifically for your brows in muted tones. Better yet use a brow powder or my brow product of choice, Sonia Kashuk Brow Kit Arch Alert. There is no need to over do it unless you like looking dated. This palette comes with four colors of muted velvety matte gel so finding or making the color you need is easy breezy.

Using an angle brush like #208 from MAC or even Laura Mercier’s Smudge brush for a thicker brow and a softer look, gently stroke in color where it is most needed and then blended across the brow for a natural look. Finish by brushing the brows upward with a clean spoolie or with your brow set and you’re done.

As long as your brows have been well shaped in advance, these steps should not take you more than a minute or two complete. Now you are ready to move on to eye makeup.

Bronzer, Blush and Highlighter oh my…

Here is where it starts to get fun.. Your canvas is clean, balanced, beautiful, and ready for some color!

Let’s start with bronzer… I use bronzer on all my clients to varying degrees. Bronzer is not only a great way to warm it up, but also to frame your face. In general I use a small blush brush, pick up just a little product, then draw a large number three on the side of my clients face… Start at the center of your forerhead, close to your hair line with the first gentle stroke. Keeping the brush on your skin the whole time follow the hairline down to your check bone. Under the check bone is where you want to make you next gentle stoke outwards towards the tip of your nose, then back again to where the check bone begins near your ear. From your ear down follow the jawbone all the way across until you reach the under part of your chin. This is just my basic bronzing technique. At this point you may want to go back and build up the bronzer at your temple, under the check bone, and under the jaw bone, depending on the shape of your face and the desired affect.

There are tons of bronzers to choose from. I favor Refined Golden, Matte Bronze, and Refined Deeper Bronze from MAC.

On to Blush… For bridal work I think translucent peaches and pinks like Deep Throat and Orgasm from NARS, are ideal. I also love using cream blushes like Stockholm and New York from Face Stockholm, or any one of the gorgeous Convertible Colors by Stilla.

Once you have made your color selection simply dab the product on to the apple of your check and blend. Smile if you need help finding the apple of your check.

If you are using a powder blush, you will want to get just a little bit of product on one side of your brush; a small, soft, round brush like #7 from Face Stockholm. Gently stroke the apple of your check a couple of times, and with the clean side of the brush blend the color in, so there is no begining or end, and it looks as if you have naturally produced that color yourself.

If you are using a cream brush you can opt to use your fingers tips to apply it, or a flat, wide, densley packed foundation brush like #190 from MAC. Again simply find the apple of your check and blend to perfection.

At this point you can choose to take it one step farther with a translucent, shimmery highlighter over the check bone and/or the brow bone. Just be mindful that a little goes a long way and a lot makes you look sweaty in pictures. Keep the shimmer away from your forehead, and nose.

My favorite powder highlighter is Albatross from NARS and my favorite cream highlighter is Mousse Glace in Gleam from Kevyn Aucoin Beauty.

You are well on your way to a beautiful you now, and in my next installment we will discuss eyebrows!

Foundations and Concealers…

Where does one even begin talking about foundations and concealers… The possibilities or daunting! I’m going to examine the topic in terms of bridal beauty and how I, one artist, interprets it.

Concealer…

I start with concealer and use it to not only hide imperfections on the skin, but as a highlighter as well. Select a color one to two shades lighter than your complexion. We aren’t going for the reverse raccoon eye — We are just trying to compensate for the fact that our bone structure creates spaces on or faces where light can’t easily reach. Our brow bone casts a shadow over the under eye area, as the bridge of our nose creates a shadow where it meets with the inner corner of the eye. In photos, those natural shadows can really create an undesired affect. Not to forget that the thin skin around our eyes allows the tiny blood vessels, and the blood pooling around them, to be visible on the surface, much like a a bruise. So long story short — brighten it up in there!

You can also use your concealer over other blemishes or imperfections on the skin. However, you may have to adjust the color of the concealer you are using so not to have the opposite affect and draw attention to the imperfection, instead of covering it up. I work from Three Custom Color Specialists pro-palette of concealers and custom blend the colors for the specific purpose I have in mind, as in highlighting or true concealing. It’s very hard to find any one color that will do the trick so having two or three that you can blend lighter or darker as needed is ideal.

Foundation…

Even if your skin is absolutely beautiful, and you are able to blend your concealer so that it is completely undetectable, some form of foundation should be used on your wedding day. The reason being, that in addition to creating an even skin tone and a good working surface for your colored powders and creams, it also balances the way light reflects off your skin. Light reflection becomes particularly important when considering how many cameras are going to be pointed at you on your wedding day. A good photographer will know how to handle any situation, and be able to manipulate their light source as needed, but why not make their job a little easier. So that theycan focus on other things, like capturing those spontaneous moments that make your big day unique and memorable.

My preference is a light weigh and sheer foundation like MAC Face and Body , that doesn’t leave a makeupy finish on the skin. It should look like bare skin even though it’s not. I try to use a color that is spot on or no more than half a shade lighter than my clients skin tone. You can always warm it up with bronzer or powder later.

Pulling it all together and locking it in place…

• Apply your concealer sparingly all round your eyes, including the lid to act as a base for your eye shadows
• Apply your foundation sparingly all over your face being careful to blend in the edges near your hair line, ears, and neck.
• Set it all in place with a fine-milled translucent setting powder. This will insure longevity. Buff off any access with a clean powder brush.
• This next step is optional but often times, I will also apply a very thin layer of powder foundation just to give it that much more staying power and shine control.

This may sound like a lot of makeup but done right, it looks very natural. The key is to apply each layer very sparingly and blend, blend, blend. When I’m faced with a client who still feels like this is too much, I simply omit the final layer of powder foundation. In some cases, I even skip the setting powder, but at the very least, blot with a clean facial tissue to help pick up any excess foundation or concealer, and encourage the products to bond on your skin.

In the next segment of this series I will discuss bronzer and blush…

Moisturizers and Primers…

As I have stated before, the best advice that I can give, is hire a professional to do your hair and makeup on your wedding day. With that said this series may be useful to you if you just want to be in the know, or if hiring an artist isn’t an option for you. I will examine bridal beauty in six parts starting with Moisturizers and Primers.

Unless you were born yesterday, I’m sure you know what the purpose of moisturizer is. It hydrates, softens, and temporarily minimizes the appearance of fine lines. It is an essential ingredient for beautiful healthy skin, and readies your canvas for makeup application.

So what does Primer do? Those who tout the virtues of primer say that it goes a few steps farther than moisturizer by creating a barrier between your skin and foundation, allowing for a smoother and longer lasting application.

Personally, I’m undecided on weather it makes a significant enough difference so I don’t use it, and my work has not suffered because of it.

Either way, you will want to start with a recently cleaned face. There are a ton of skin cleansing systems on the market, and maybe I will explore those with you in another article, but getting back on track… Once you have cleaned your face, and patted it dry, you can then apply your moisturizer, eye cream, and take this opportunity to marinate your lips in some form of chap-stick. Later you will dab off the excess chap-stick, but for now let it do it’s work. This will help you get those kissable lips your groom won’t be able to resist.

If you are using a primer, now would be the time to apply it. Again, I’m not a huge advocate of primer but if your skin has a lot of texture or large pores you may find primer helpful. Just don’t go crazy. A little is all you need. In fact using to much may make it hard for your foundation to set in place which would defeat the purpose.

In the next segment of this series, I will help you with Foundations and Concealers. Please feel free to ask questions at anytime If I seem to have glossed over an area that you need help with. I’ve been doing this for 11 years, so things that are second nature to me may be foreign ground to you. Let me be your guide…

NO! Long gone are the days when brides maids are made to wear the same dress, in the same color, wearing the same makeup and hairstyle as the girl in-front or in-back of them in line. It’s funny, how going to a major event and seeing someone in the same outfit that you painstakingly chose for yourself begets waves of frustration and embarrassment, but at the weddings of yesteryear that was a pre-arranged occurrence. Is that really how you want to reward your closest friends?

Many traditions of the past are slowly being reinterpreted for modern times. In 2008 I saw weddings where the only carbon theme between the brides maids was the color of the dress. The style, cut, and fabric is all being determined by the wearer herself. In some cases, all the options are from the same designer, but the brides maids are left to choose the cut and proportion that is most appealing and flattering on them.

In regard to hair and makeup, I only did one wedding in 2008 where the hair style was predetermined. In all other cases the brides maid herself told me exactly how she wanted to look, with the brides loving approval. I consider myself lucky to never have been asked to put the same makeup on all the brides maids; we are in a time where individuality is appreciated.

There has even been some movement in what is expected of the groom and his grooms men… No longer can you just assume that the guys will be wearing a tux. However, I have to confess — I do think that the guys look better in a tuxedo. I’ve worked at weddings where I’ve asked myself “where’s the groom” just to find out that he is the guy in the gray suit and brown shoes. I hate to promote a double standard between mens and womens wedding attire but guys — wear a tux, it’s just one day, a few hours, you will forget that it’s uncomfortable the second you see your bride walking down the aisle toward you.

I look forward to seeing what weddings will look like during the 2009 wedding season and beyond. Thus far, I’m seeing a return of the up-do and an absence of the veil, but that’s for another article…

YES! Of course you can… Granted, this goes against my standard response to being fashion forward on your wedding day, but there is something to be said for a bride who is savvy enough to brake the mold, without compromising classic elegance. Your wedding day might not be the right day for a neon color like LA Sunrise by Chanel, but a deep red like NARS Jungle Red could be quite nice. Suzi Says Da! which is a decadently dark chocolate brown from OPI might also be flattering, especially at an autumn wedding. Film Noir by Rescue Beauty Lounge is one of those colors that I just want to stare at for as long as possible. Dare I say, even a black nail polish like Piha Black from LANCÔME could be exciting. Don’t knock it — I saw black nail polish on a model in the February/March 2009 issue of Modern Bride and was not the least bit offended. In fact, I liked it!

My advice would be, wear the nail color your are considering to your fittings, so you can see what it would look like with your dress. Ask someone to take a digital picture for you, and when you get home experiment with the color of the picture. Try it in black & white, and Sepia… Also consider the colors of your bouquet. Does the nail color look beautiful against all of these variables?

When choosing the brand of nail polish you are going to use, I find that OPI and Rescue Beauty Lounge have a vast assortment of colors, in a durable formula, that won’t brake the bank.

In the end, if you opt for a traditional french manicure or some other neutral tone, no one will fault you. If you are able to find just the right dark for your big day, congratulations, you are a bona fide fashionista!

You have probably been planning your wedding day for as long as you can remember. Still, little things can go wrong and often times do. With a little preplanning, you can keep minor slip-ups from becoming huge catastrophes. Here is a list of items to serve as your Bridal Emergency Kit. As long as your bridal emergency doesn’t include being stood up at the altar — like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw was by her fiancé, Mr. Big — then this list should have you covered.

• Blotting tissues, very fine milled translucent powder, or even just a few sheets of facial tissue
• Compact mirror
• Comb and or brush
• Travel-size hair spray
• Bobby pins and hair pins
• Nail file
• Clear or aerosol deodorant
• Breath freshener
• Stain removing pen, or white chalk (to camouflage stains)
• Small sewing kit
• Fashion tape
• Safety pins
• Lint roller
• Eye drops
• Aspirin or pain relievers
• Antacid tablets
• Tampons or feminine napkins
• Liquid bandages and/or traditional bandages
• Blister treatment
• Crazy glue
• An extra pair of pantyhose (if you’re wearing any to begin with)
• A crochet needle for all those tiny buttons
• Your vendors’ telephone numbers

This list is just an example of the things you may want to have handy on your wedding day. You can certainly customize the kit to your specific needs, adding additional little life-savers, or omitting superfluous items that you know you will have absolutely no use for. You may even want to delegate the responsibility of gathering these items to someone in your bridal party — someone who has gotten married herself or just someone you know you can count on.

In my experience, the most requested items on this list are safety pins, fashion tape and crazy glue. Followed in close succession by nail files, breath freshener and deodorant.

One item that could probably use a little explanation is the list of your vendors’ telephone numbers. Depending on where you are getting married, cell phone reception may not be at its best, and you may have to use a landline to check on a vendor who is running a few minutes late, or got lost. You might choose to delegate the task of getting in touch with vendors to someone else on your wedding day. Having a list of vendors including their contact information, and what they are responsible for will make this task that much easier for whomever is making those calls.

If you have hired a team of wedding professionals then you can count on them to help you through any emergencies that come up. Your hair stylist and makeup artist is adept at making sure that their work will hold up all day.
Your wedding planner will keep tabs on all of the vendors involved in your big day. Your bridal party will be keeping an eye on the finer details relating to your physical appearance. However, if you are going it alone, don’t stress, just plan ahead and be prepared.

Good luck, and if you need more help just ask the experts!