If you’re perfectly capable of doing your own makeup, do you really need to pay somebody else to do it on your wedding day?
Strictly speaking, no.
Plenty of women can do their own makeup beautifully. But I’d argue that professional bridal makeup isn’t only about whether you can apply foundation and mascara yourself.
Your wedding morning is busy. There are people coming and going, questions being asked, things being delivered, and approximately 400 thoughts competing for space in your head.
Having your makeup done gives you something surprisingly valuable amongst all of that:
A reason to sit still.
For an hour, somebody else takes over. You don’t have to make anything happen. You can sit down, breathe, be looked after, and enjoy a little bit of luxury before the day really gets going.
And yes, you also end up with rather fabulous makeup.
When should you do your own wedding makeup?
There is one type of bride I would genuinely encourage to consider it.
If you do your makeup in a very particular way, absolutely love how you do it, and know that you’re going to micromanage every stroke of somebody else’s brush, you may be happier doing it yourself.
I once had a client who corrected virtually everything I did. Particularly around her eyes, she’d ask me to change something, then something else, then something else.
Eventually I told her, very nicely, that I thought she should do it herself.
There was nothing I could give her that she wasn’t already happier doing her own way.
Don’t hire a makeup artist simply because you’ve been told that’s what brides are supposed to do.
But if you’d like someone else to take care of you, it’s worth finding an artist whose work you love and, just as importantly, someone you feel comfortable having around on your wedding morning.
What does a professional bridal makeup artist actually do differently?
One of the biggest misconceptions about bridal makeup is that making it last longer means putting more of it on.
It doesn’t.
Longevity comes from skin preparation, product choice, layering and application.
We know which products work well together. We know how different skin types behave. We adjust what we’re using depending on your skin, the weather and the finish we’re trying to create.
A scorching August wedding may require a different approach from a December one.
We’ll use waterproof products where appropriate, powder strategically and use fixing products to help everything stay where we put it.
The aim isn’t for you to feel plastered in makeup.
It’s for the makeup you loved at 10am to still resemble the makeup on your face at 10pm.
Will professional wedding makeup still look like me?
It absolutely can – and this is one of the reasons we have a bridal hair and makeup preview.
I can tell you until I’m blue in the face that I won’t make you look unlike yourself, but you don’t have to take my word for it.
We’ll show you.
Some brides love makeup and want something glamorous. Others barely wear it and want the lightest possible touch.
We’re not working to somebody else’s creative brief here. This isn’t a fashion shoot where a creative director has decided what you’re going to look like.
You’re the brief.
We can advise you. We can suggest things you may not have considered. We can show you techniques and products that work beautifully on your features.
But ultimately, you need to look in the mirror and feel comfortable.
Does bridal makeup really photograph differently?
Yes, although again, that doesn’t mean it needs to be heavy.
We understand which products can create unwanted reflection or flashback and which finishes work particularly well on camera.
We also think about definition.
Something that looks perfectly noticeable when you’re standing six inches from the bathroom mirror can disappear in a photograph taken from several metres away.
We want your eyes, lips and facial structure to carry through in photographs without you looking heavily made-up when somebody is standing next to you.
Sometimes that might mean slightly more definition around the eyes. Sometimes it’s making sure the lip isn’t so neutral that it disappears completely.
It’s a balancing act between looking beautiful in person and looking beautiful on camera.
Can my makeup artist use my own products?
Absolutely.
If you have a lipstick you adore, a foundation you know works beautifully on your skin, or products you use because of sensitivities or allergies, bring them to your preview.
We can use a mixture of yours and ours, and in some circumstances we can work predominantly with your products.
The advantage of a professional kit, though, is options.
We’re not tied to one cosmetics brand. We’ve tried products from all over the place and carry different formulations, colours and finishes for different skin types and tones.
We also have professional brushes and palettes, colour-correcting products, hygiene supplies and the ability to mix and adapt products when something isn’t quite right straight from the bottle.
And yes, an alarming number of foundation shades.
What can go wrong when you do your own wedding makeup?
Sometimes nothing.
You might do an absolutely brilliant job.
But wedding-day nerves can make people do peculiar things.
You can suddenly become heavy-handed with something you normally apply perfectly. Forget to blend your foundation properly around your jaw. Apply far less definition than you intended. Use a product that doesn’t photograph particularly well. Or discover a few hours later that half your makeup has disappeared.
One of the biggest differences with professional bridal makeup isn’t necessarily how it looks the second we’ve finished.
It’s how it performs over the hours that follow.
Your makeup has quite a day ahead of it.
There may be tears. Heat. Kisses. Hugs. Champagne. Dancing. More tears. Somebody’s aunt kissing you enthusiastically on both cheeks.
It needs to cope.
You’re also paying for something that has nothing to do with makeup
After doing weddings since 2010, I’ve come to realise that hair and makeup artists are frequently part beauty team, part wedding-morning organiser, and part agony aunt.
We’re impartial.
We’re not emotionally involved in the family dynamics. We’re not worrying about the flowers. We haven’t fallen out with a bridesmaid.
So if you need to sit in my chair and have a little rant, you can.
If the room is becoming overwhelming and I can see you need some space, we’ll help create it.
Over the years I’ve helped with bouquets, steamed dresses, sewn things back together, managed bridesmaids and mothers, fixed various minor emergencies and, on one particularly hot wedding day, become involved in the crisis of a melting cake.
None of these things were technically in the makeup brief.
But that’s weddings.
An experienced wedding hair and makeup artist has been in that room many, many times before.
“But I can do my makeup myself. Why should I pay someone?”
You can do lots of things yourself.
Sometimes you choose not to because outsourcing them saves time. Sometimes it removes stress. And sometimes you pay someone simply because having it done for you feels bloody lovely.
With professional bridal makeup, you’re not only buying the makeup.
You’re buying the expertise to make it last and photograph beautifully.
You’re buying someone who has already worked out what they’re doing because you’ve had a preview.
You’re taking one job off your own list.
And you’re buying an hour in which you’re required to do absolutely nothing except sit in a chair and let somebody look after you.
For me, that’s one of the most underrated parts of wedding hair and makeup.
How you start your wedding morning can set the tone for everything that follows.
So if having a professional there allows you to start yours feeling calm, looked after, and excited rather than fighting with your eyeliner in a bathroom mirror…
I’d say that’s money rather well spent.
Planning your wedding hair and makeup? CJC Hair & Makeup has been looking after brides and bridal parties since 2010. We’ll help you plan your preview, your wedding-morning timings and a look that feels completely like you – just on a particularly good day.
