Wedding makeup styles are usually two-fold. There’s the bride who wants to go completely glamorous, and the bride who prefers natural wedding makeup. If you’re doing your own wedding makeup, chances are you are looking for simple makeup for your wedding. Here is a bridal makeup tutorial on natural makeup looks for your big day.
Ways to Achieve a Natural Look
- Cleanse your face with an exfoliating cleanser.
- Tone your face.
- Moisturize your face with an SPF of at least 30, especially if you’re opting to be outdoors for photographs.
- Apply primer to your face, as well as your eyes. A great primer to consider would be Estee Lauder’s Instant Fix concealer with hydra prep eyelid primer.
- Apply your foundation. One of the best and most popular bridal foundations is Estee Lauder’s Double Wear. This foundation is a high coverage one, and it will make your skin look like your skin, but only better. It’s lightweight, has a sheer feel, and looks like natural skin. You may also apply your concealer to your under eye area and as a base to your eyelids. Choose a shade that complements your natural skin tone and undertone. However, markup artists often use foundations with pink undertones for weddings. So if your foundation has a yellow undertone, perhaps you should choose a foundation with a rosy undertone instead, as pink can make you look remarkably natural and radiant. Remember that your foundation should be long-lasting, especially since you’ll probably be posing for photo ops later.
- You may contour and highlight your face. Note that contouring is not always necessary for a natural makeup look. However, weddings are super special and every bride wants to look flawless, so contouring is advisable.
- Eyebrows are a fundamental feature of natural eye makeup. To complement the natural look, your eyebrows need to look as natural as possible too. This means that you cannot over pluck your eyebrows. If you are not keen on professional threading or microblading, you owe it to yourself to find a natural looking stencil, or one that complements your face, and shape your brows. If your natural eyebrow shape is sparse, simply draw in some eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil.
- Be sure to use your blusher sparingly with natural bridal makeup looks. You may use a blusher kit with wedding makeup. Use the darkest shade on the apple of your cheeks, the lightest shade as a highlighter, and the medium shade, to sculpt or contour your cheekbones. You can also use a bronzer palette to contour your cheekbones, although you need to blend this out thoroughly when using, to diminish harsh lines.
- Choose a lip color that’s neutral. If your eyes are dramatic, choose a lighter lip color. If your focal point is your lips, you can make your lips a bit darker. Matte lip colors look exceptionally chic with dramatic eyes. You may also want to choose a shimmer or glossy shade, depending on your look. If you feel your lips need more color, simply add some liquid lip color underneath your lip gloss.
- When going for natural makeup looks for a wedding, one of the most popular eye looks is a smoky eye look. Try to choose natural, earthy eyeshadow shades like taupe, brown, and gold. Use the lightest shade eyeshadow to apply underneath your brow bone and inside the corners of your eyes. This serves as a highlighter, and gives your eyes an instant lift. Take the medium shade, and apply this to your crease. Apply this shade in a “V” shape, and use several coats to contour your crease for added smoky eye appeal. Take the darkest shade, and apply it to your eyelid in the area between your crease and upper lash line. Line your lower lash line with that same dark eyeshadow shade.
- You could also choose a shimmer eyeshadow if you’re not keen on the earthy color smoky look. The shimmer eyeshadow look is natural too, as you don’t have to apply this on thick to get the desired effect. A light application will go a long way and make you glow. Note that you can also create a smoky look with shimmer eyeshadows.
- Take a kohl or liquid eyeliner, and create a line and winged effect along your upper lash line. This will help accentuate your eyes.
- Apply a pair of gorgeous eyelashes. If your natural lashes are short, small falsies can emphasize a more natural look.
- Apply mascara over your eyelashes. If necessary, you could use a volumizing mascara to boost the appearance of your falsies, and make those eyes pop even more.
- Another technique for natural wedding makeup is when you wear a lip color comprising a beige tinge. With this look, your eyebrows don’t need to be too thick. You can just add a sparse line of eyeliner to your upper lash line. You may use a bit of mascara here, as well as some highlighter, but try not to overdo it.
- Try to create a doll-eye look where your eyeliner and eyelashes swoop at the corners, just like a doll’s. To get this look, draw a winged eye.
- Freckles can give you a natural look. If you don’t have natural freckles dusted over your face, create your own freckles with makeup for a more natural look. That being said, most brides choose the flawless look in a foundation that looks similar to their natural skin tone.
- If your skin tone is a bit darker, you should aim to achieve an amber radiance. To get this look, simply apply a highlighter underneath your foundation. Meld this with a neutral lipstick, and you have the perfect natural wedding makeup combination.
- Remember to always choose one facial focal point when doing natural wedding makeup. For instance, if you’re focusing on a dramatic eyelash look, then the rest of your makeup should be low-key. For instance, with dramatic lashes, you should choose a light pink lip color.
- You can also choose a barely there, or no-makeup wedding makeup look. For this, use a light coverage foundation, false eyelashes, and do some contouring. You can also use a sparse amount of concealer, and just a dab of blusher on your cheeks.
- For an absolute nude color, try swapping the black winged eyeliner for a lighter brown liner, with a sparse wingless line. This is an ideal hack for blondes choosing the natural look, as the black eyeliner does not necessarily go with lighter colored eyelashes and eyebrows.
Products You Will Need for This Bridal Makeup Look
- A cleanser
- A toner
- Moisturizer
- A primer
- A concealer
- A long wear foundation
- A blusher palette (a dual palette is enough for a simple look, though)
- A bronzing palette
- An eyeshadow palette
- A highlighter and contouring kit
- An eyeliner (brown for lighter skin tone, and black for a medium to dark skin tone)
- A lip color (This can be in a nude or light pink shade)
- Lip gloss
FAQs
Brides usually choose a natural or super glam wedding makeup look. However, most bridal makeup tutorials are popularizing the natural look. It’s always best to look like yourself, only better, on your wedding day. Your wedding makeup should enhance your natural beauty, and not make you look like another person.
Therefore, the best bridal makeup looks to opt for would be natural, where one chooses one or two focal features. For instance, if you choose your eyes as a focal point, your wedding makeup on your cheeks and lips should be subtle.
Doing your wedding makeup at home is not as daunting as it seems. The fact that more brides are choosing a natural look , makes this makeup technique easier, as applying natural makeup is easier than glam makeup. Cleanse and tone your face as you usually do. You may also apply a toner. Moisturize with an SPF of at least 30 is key, especially since you are probably going to be spending some time outdoors.
If you don’t need heavy coverage, it’s best to opt for a light coverage foundation when doing simple bridal makeup. With simple makeup for weddings, you need to focus mainly on your skin, lips, and eyes. If you’re using a bronzer to contour your face, make sure that you consistently blend out harsh lines. Don’t forget to apply a bit of concealer under your eyes and over your eyelids. Dark undereye marks can make you look tired, and concealer can brighten up your eye area.
For a simple makeup look, you may want to apply a sparse eyeliner on your upper lash line. However, you can also opt for a thinner winged eye. You may use a dark eyeliner if you are medium toned. However, it’s best to use a lighter shade eyeliner if you are fair skinned, as a black eyeliner will not complement light eyebrows or eyelashes.
You can create a smoky eyeshadow look too. Use an eyeshadow palette with earthy colors like taupe, brown, or gold. You can prime your eyelids, and apply a neutral tone over the base of your eyelid. Select a few shades from the eyeshadow palette. Choose the lightest color to apply under your brow bone and along the inner corners of your eyes.
Then take a medium color eyeshadow and apply it to your crease in a “V” shape. If you want to intensify the crease and a smoky eye look, apply more layers of the shade, until you achieve the desired smoky look. Constantly blend the shades to reduce any harsh lines, and to make the application appear smoother. Apply the darkest eyeshadow shade over the middle of your eyelid, just beneath your brow bone and above your upper lash line. Remember to keep blending the shades to help remove harsh lines. You can also apply some of the darkest eyeshadow shade along your lower lash line.
You may also choose to apply a set of false eyelashes. Apply some mascara over these. Keep your blusher sparse and rosy for wedding makeup. If you like, you could apply a blusher palette to create more chiseled cheeks. These blusher palettes usually contain a sculpt, define, and highlighter section. It’s not necessary to use a blusher palette if you’re going for a toned-down look. However, if you do use a palette, apply the makeup thinly.
Use a lip liner to define the shape of your lips. Remember that you are going for a sheer look, so there’s no need to change the shape drastically. Keep your liner within the natural outline of your lips. If you make the outline too far away from your lip line, your lips may appear bigger than what they actually are. Use a nude color lipstick, or a light-colored one that matches your skin tone. You can also avoid using lip color completely, and select a lip gloss. Wedding makeup lip color can be both matte or gloss. If you’re going for a glossy look, apply a sheer lip color, before you apply the lip gloss.
You can also add natural facial features like freckles to your wedding makeup regimen. Utilize an eye pencil in a lighter shade than your hair color and eyebrows, to create your fake freckles. It’s important to ensure that the area is well-moisturized. Mix some henna in a shade slightly lighter than your hair and eyebrows. Then dip your eyebrow pencil into the henna. Start creating the freckles along your nose and cheeks with the eyebrow pencil. These dots need not be perfectly placed, but must look like random or irregularly set dots. Avoid following a pattern. To make your freckles seem natural, you need to give them a smudged appearance. So, run or tap your finger onto each freckle as soon as it is placed. This creates the impression that the freckles are deeper in your skin’s surface.
Party makeup provides a full glamour effect. Wedding makeup is far more subtle than party makeup. With party makeup, you can expect bold colored eyeshadows, bright red lip colors, or other vivid lip colors. Lip pencils and similar products sometimes drastically change the shape of lips. Wedding makeup can be glamorous too, but it has become increasingly natural.
Party eye makeup consists of glittery looks and dramatic smoky eye looks in vibrant colors. Bridal eye makeup also comprises smoky eyes, but the smoky eye look here is created by using earthy eyeshadow shades like taupe, gold, or various shades of brown. Eyeliner can be black, red, blue, yellow, gold, or green with party makeup. With wedding makeup, eyeliner is mostly black — or a light brown for those with a lighter skin tone.
With party makeup, the entire face is usually covered with a high coverage foundation. Ample concealer is often used with party makeup. With wedding makeup, you can go for a full or high coverage foundation and a lot of concealer, for that flawless look. However, you can also go more natural, and use a foundation with low coverage. You may also use your concealer very sparingly, just to brighten your undereye area, or to create a base for your eyelids. Makeup artists also like to use a foundation with pink undertones for weddings, although you can use a foundation with a warm yellow undertone. With party makeup, you can just use a foundation that complements your skin’s natural tone and undertone.
With party makeup, you can use a blusher palette to define and highlight your cheeks. This is not necessary with wedding makeup. All you need to do is apply a sheer or lightly rosy touch of blusher to your cheeks. With party makeup, you’re allowed to apply your blusher on heavier and in brighter shades.
Yes, you most certainly can do your own bridal makeup. Bridal makeup looks have changed over the years. Brides can opt for a full glam look, or choose to be naturally beautiful on this momentous occasion. Depending on your wedding makeup skills and preferences, you could go for a semi-natural look, or a natural one. If you want a full glam bridal makeup look, and you have the skills, you can also do your own bridal makeup.
With a semi-natural look, you’ll still apply the full coverage foundation and concealer for a perfect matte or dewy finish. With a completely natural look, you would use little to no concealer, and a low coverage foundation or BB cream. Once you’ve prepared your face and created your canvas, you may go on to apply your makeup.
Most natural looks comprise a smoky eye, with eyeshadow shades like taupe or brown. Note that you can however use light pastel colored eyeshadows as an alternative look, if you are focusing more on your lips. The general wedding makeup rule here would be to go light on the eyes if you’re focusing on your mouth. Therefore, if your eye look is subtle, your lip color needs to be darker or more dramatic.
