Picking the right artist to the pre-wedding facials you need to book!!

Picking the right artist to the pre-wedding facials you need to book!!

Bridal makeup isn’t one of the highest wedding-related search keywords on Google for nothing—it’s only one of the most important decisions you take for one of the biggest milestones of your life. While it’s clear that your bridal lehenga or gown is top priority for when you go shopping, it helps to remember that the outfit is guaranteed to look as good on your wedding day as it did at your fittings, but your makeup is a whole other ball game. You have to be able to trust in either your own skills or pick the right makeup artist, who is able to translate your exact vision onto your face for one of the most photographed days in your life. Here, we put together a complete guide of all things bridal makeup, from how to pick the perfect artist, the best trends of the moment and all the care you need to indulge your skin in to prep it for freshest glow ever.

What makes wedding makeup different from makeup for other events?

Wedding makeup needs to check off certain boxes: it should reflect your personality; complement your outfit; make you look like yourself, but accentuated, as opposed to like a whole other person; and most importantly, not budge throughout the ceremony.

While your lightweight foundation might do the trick for a weekend night out or a family dinner party, your wedding makeup will need to provide you with a lot more coverage. You’ll need to make sure your concealer manages to mask all those pesky dark circles, so you don’t look tired on your wedding day.

Your lipstick will need to be super pigmented, and not simply swiped on your lips—you’ll need to buff away dry flakes, prime with a little dab of foundation, then go in with a lip pencil for a base and then apply at least two coats of colour to make sure it stays through all the smiles. In case you ever wondered why wedding makeup takes so long to do, there’s your answer. Most importantly, your wedding makeup needs to either be more intense than your usual makeup, or an elevated version of what you usually do, with longer-lasting, fuller-coverage products.

What are the different kinds of Indian bridal makeup?

Indian bridal makeup is hardly one look fits all; the sheer number of cultures within our country call for different looks for every type of wedding. While many Indian brides tend to play up their eye makeup with thick kohl and eye shadow, and swipe a pink or red hue on their lips to finish off, there are multiple variations you can create with these products.

How can you pair your bridal makeup with your outfit?

If there’s one thing you’ll keep in mind for your bridal makeup, it’s balance. When you’re an Indian bride, it’s likely that your parents, friends, sisters and every other relative you have, has an opinion on every part of your bridal look—whether it’s your outfit, jewellery, makeup, hairstyle or shoes. What you need to make sure here is that everything is complementary, as opposed to fighting to cancel each other out.

Ensure that your bridal makeup adds to your outfit, not overshadows it. If you’re wearing muted tones for your clothes, picking a bright red or pink lipstick might not be the best call. Instead, pick a darker hue from the same colour family, and accentuate your eyes with a dramatic eyeliner. If you’re wearing solid colours like a black or a dark blue, play up either your eyes or your lips—you don’t want very dark makeup to make you look dull either.

Simplifying bridal eye makeup

Bridal eye makeup can be very tricky. Too much can make you look tired or garish, while too little can be underwhelming. If you’d like to keep the attention at your eyes, incorporate features like a winged eye or a dark smoky look and false eyelashes into your bridal eye makeup. If you prefer a bold lip, go easy on your eye makeup and opt for brown hues as opposed to black, highlight the inner corners of your eyes to make them look wider, and add individual long lashes as opposed to thick sets. If you’re adding glitter to your bridal eye makeup, make sure you don’t overdo the dewy finish of your skin with the highlighter, so that your face doesn’t look like a shiny disco ball.

Should you or should you not go for bridal facials pre-wedding?

Pick up any dermatologist’s brochure or look at any of their ads in a newspaper, and you’ll find them advertising bridal packages with bridal facials topping the list. Many brides-to-be tend to sign up for packages without knowing the actual needs of their skin, because they believe that they simply must.

"Bridal facials form a very important aspect of bridal skincare," says Dr Jamuna Pai. "When done by trained therapists, they can help the skin to tone, firm and rejuvenate. This helps in better circulation of blood, thereby giving a refreshed look to the face." However, she also stresses on the fact that you shouldn’t try a new treatment too close to your wedding day, as it can cause a flare-up that can take time to rectify. And while bridal facials are important, they don’t exactly work by themselves. "It’s important to put in a skin routine along with facials—just a facial done once in a while would be more like a blow-dry," advises Dr Rashmi Shetty. "It’s important for you to take care of not just that instant glow, which will only last you for maybe three to seven days, or maximum 10 days. [But] if you support it with a skincare routine at home, that’s when you get the results of a good facial."

But too much of nothing is a good thing. "We don’t advise frequent facials," says Dr Jaishree Sharad. Instead, the doctor suggests a series of corrective treatments over a few months for a long-lasting glow. "We provide a three-month bridal package where we do fruit peels, microdermabrasion, mesotherapy which involves infusion of vitamins into the skin without needles and laser toning to brighten the skin and to make it even. All these are done with two-week intervals over three months, and finally we do one facial right before the wedding day."