Bridal Beauty: Showing the Love in Color
You’re engaged! The glow of love has enveloped you in its haze. The wedding has been planned and you are taking care of every detail and you’re confident that things are going smoothly: dress, shoes, jewelry, bridesmaids, colors, reception—everything is taken care of. Take this planning one step further and plan your “look” for the day. You already visualize how you will look, so let’s translate that “picture” in your head to real life and map out your make-up. While Afro-Love girls are pretty spontaneous, your bridal make-up should not be!
NARS Cosmetics make-up artist, Lilia Ultreras is here to help.
The key to looking absolutely angelic on that special day is planning! Great skin is crucial to having a long-lasting make-up that doesn’t vanish as your day (or night) progresses. Lilia recommends that you invest in a few key skincare items from the NARSskin line.
"Skin should have a satin finish. Prep the skin the night before with the NARSskin Aqua Gel Hydrator, a lightweight gel-cream masque that’s 87% water to provide deep hydration. Leave it on overnight to improve the luminousity of your skin."
Lilia also suggests the NARSskin Vitamin Serum to provide the necessary vitamin support.
"Make-up primer is crucial to the preparation of the skin so that you have flawless skin that lasts all day. The NARSskin Primer contains green tea, honey, jasmine, grape, lavendar and other botanical extracts. It’s all natural for a holistic flavor and creates a longer lasting foundation and better skin texture" comments Lilia.
Choose a foundation to match your skin–NARS Balanced Foundation is a good choice– and mix in a shimmer product on the back of your hand with the foundation.
NARS Copacabana is a good choice since the stick will easily liquefy and blend with the foundation to create a creamy "glowy" foundation that provides a medium coverage without being heavy.
Lilia recommends the Rivera Multiple for cheek color because the "soft pink color is so pretty. and it has a bit of irridescence."
According to Ultreras, decide which feature–eyes or lips– you want to highlight and then play the rest neutral.
Focus on the Eyes:
If you aer playing up the eyes, Lilia suggests, " for a smoky eye, try soft neutral tones (browns and earth-tones). Rather than going with black, use a softer brown tone. Start with Bellisima, a soft neutral with a twinkle, as the wash. Try Bengali or Mogambo to smoke it up. Start lightly and blend up." Lilia continues, "This is a really great for blue or green eyes. For brown eyes, add more peach tones to bring out the color. Apply NARS Black Orchid Waterproof Mascara to lashes. If it’s an indoor wedding, try wearing individual false lashes to add depth and fullness to the eyes. For an outdoor wedding, go with the natural look lashes of mascara alone. "
If you want to use false lashes, make sure you practice lash application for a couple weeks before the event.
For lips, Lilia suggest Barbarella lip color with Giza Lip Gloss for a soft neutral lip.
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Focus on the Lips:
If your look features a strong lip and neutral eyes, Lilia has some great ideas.
"Madrague creates a classic soft eye. Corfu cream shadow makes a perfect base for Madrague and provides a clean simple eye." Use the same Black Orchid Waterproof Mascara for the smoky eye. Add in false lashes only if you are having an indoor wedding.
For lips, go sheer with Gipsy Lipstick or go matte with the Velvet Matte Lip Pencil . Ultreras comments " Cruella or Bahama would be pretty. Very clean, yet soft and classically pretty. It’s not going to be outdated. You need classic loook to work with your features."
Either look that you choose for your wedding day will be fabulous. If you are unsure of how you will look, have a trial run of your bridal make-up from a counter and then have someone take a photo of you. You can then decide if you like that look for your wedding and the photos. Once you decide, buy all the products you will need. Practice with your brushes and the products, following the face chart from the make-up artist. When your wedding day arrives, it will then be a snap to apply your make-up with precision.
Do make sure that you take a lip color with you for your handbag for touch-ups. You will be set for a gloriously beautiful wedding day.
NARS Cosmetics can be found at Neiman Marcus, NARSCosmetics.com ; Saks Fifth Avenue and Sephora.com
Lilia Ultreras is a make-up artist stylist with NARS Cosmetics and part of the artistry team doing both national and international appearances. With over 12 years of experience as a make-up artist, Ultreras has worked creating looks for New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Fashion Weeks as well as work with celebrities.
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