Preparing for your wedding day can feel like a minefield with dates, suppliers and bookings to worry about before you can even start to think about your makeup! Whether you’re doing your makeup yourself or having your look created by an MUA, there are a number of easily avoidable bridal beauty errors that are often overlooked in the lead up to the big day. Creator of RescuMe Academy’s Be Your Own Makeup Artist course, celebrated MUA Nigel Stanislaus, takes us through wedding beauty errors to think about before you walk down the aisle.
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Using the wrong level of SPF
SPF is definitely a skin care essential on your wedding day, particularly if you’ve booked an outdoor venue and you’re planning on getting hitched in the warmer months.
“When people think of SPF, they tend to steer towards the pharmacy-bought SPFs which tend to be heavy and feel greasy on the skin, but not all SPFs are like this,” Nigel says.
While thick, high level SPFs can shorten the wear time of your base, he says there are a number of thinner SPFs on the marker that can be comfortably worn under your foundation on the big day.
“I would generally use something like a Dermalogica SPF 50+,” Nigel says. “However, if the wedding was taking place during summer, I’d use an SPF by Korean brand Banila Co called Hello Sunny, it looks like a deodorant stick and you apply it to your face and it smooths out to almost nothing.”
As for wearing a foundation with SPF in it? Nigel suggests that bases with SPF 15 or lower will do the trick and will likely not cause flashback in your wedding photos.
“However, make sure that the foundation you apply doesn’t have more than SPF 20 in it,” he says. “SPF 15 is okay because the lower the SPF level, the more comfortable it is to wear, the higher the SPF, the more heavier and greasy the foundation tends to feel.”
But, he warns to steer clear of all products that contain SPF when it comes to evening touch ups, or if your ceremony and reception are at night in order to minimise flashback.
Forgetting that your makeup should look as good in real life as it does in photographs
We’d all be lying if we said this wasn’t top of mind when choosing our wedding makeup. You’ll want to look back at your wedding photos for years to come, after all! Nigel suggests emphasising to your MUA that you want to look fresh and well rested, rather than too ‘done’. However, striking this balance between natural and photogenic makeup can be harder than it seems so trial and error is key, says Nigel.
“Normally to create a radiant, natural daytime look, I’d use a totally different recipe of cosmetics – for example, I would probably use a BB cream, a little bit of YSL Touche Eclat, a cream blush with a glossy lip and only one coat of mascara,” Nigel says.
“However, there’s a very different mindset to doing makeup for an event where there’s flash photography, where you have almost a full face of makeup with foundation, contouring, eyelashes.”
Nigel stresses that this doesn’t have to mean high coverage, cakey makeup in order to achieve great photos, but rather you should be strategic in which products you use, slowly layering to ensure longevity with as little product as you can get away with so your complexion reads ‘natural’ in the flesh.
“First of all if find you need to use a drier foundation formula with a little bit more coverage, you’ll need a thicker, richer cream layered underneath so that it doesn’t crack,” he says.
He also opts to stay away from foundations that read too ‘matte’. “I don’t like to use matte bases because you don’t have the control to choose where you want the skin to look velvety, and where I want it to be more matte,” Nigel says. “Remember that matte = flat, and your skin doesn’t look glowing and wonderful in real life or in your photos.”
Be sure to test your makeup after your application, observing in natural daylight and in test photographs, or even better during a trial with your MUA.
“Keep in mind that when you apply makeup for night time or photography, you’ll need a little bit of contouring, longer lasting lip products and you may even need to set with a setting spray.” If in doubt, he believes a more classic, radiant makeup is always a winner.
Want to transform how you do beauty? Claim your free Foundations of Beauty, Makeup and Skincare ebook and be in the know for exclusive content and offers on RescuMe Academy’s Be Your Own Makeup Artist course here.
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