Back when I was getting married, there were very few resources online for doing your own wedding makeup. Sure, there was a conversation going about people that didn’t want to wear makeup for their wedding (respect fist bump), but that wasn’t me. I’m a super femme, super makeup-loving girl. And because of that, I do my own makeup every single day, making me reasonably good at it. What I was looking for was some help on figuring out how to fancy up that makeup just a little, on the most photographed day of my life. The only advice I could find was that I should get a makeup consultation, and buy all new makeup for the wedding. Which I did, because I didn’t want to screw it up. Hundreds of dollars later, I was left with makeup that I never touched again (except some killer eyeliner that I’ve used every day since).
These days, I want to make sure other ladies who are pondering doing their own makeup feel like they have the resources and support to feel confident doing so (even if they want to glam it up a little). And in an ideal world, I’d like to be able to suggest products that will rock for your wedding, but you can also use in your regular life. That way, unlike me, you won’t be approaching your five-year anniversary with an almost full bottle of really expensive wedding foundation.
Oh, This is The Wedding Foundation I Wanted
When bareMinerals approached us to ask us to write about their new liquid foundation bareSkin, I was excited. I’d gotten a bareMinerals makeover at Alt Summit in January, and loved it so much, that as I’ve run out of makeup products, I’ve been replacing them with new stuff from bareMinerals. So we shipped off a bunch of makeup to two photographers from the APW community (Elicia Bryan and Bri McDaniel in Atlanta, who also happen to be planning weddings of their own) to test-drive bareSkin and a few other bareMinerals products, using APW tutorials as their guides. Rad. BUT. The bareMinerals people were also nice enough to send me a box of foundation, which I started using a few weeks ago. And you guys? It’s magic.
I use foundation every day. I use it to even out my skin tone, and brighten my pale, pale face up a little bit. But I don’t want to use any kind of foundation and powder combo that you can actually see. I have no interest in looking like I’m wearing a full face of makeup. I basically just want my SPF to make me look awesome. This means I’ve been around the block with foundation for the last twenty years. And trust me when I say, there is a lot of terrible foundation out there, and even more heavy foundation. As it turned out, bareSkin is some of the best foundation I’ve ever used (and I will keep using it personally from now till you pry it out of my hands). But it also is the answer to that question I had five years ago. It’s makeup that’s perfect for every day, but you can also dial up for your wedding. Here is why bareSkin is rad:
- It’s is really easy to apply. This is what’s super important when you’re doing your own wedding makeup. Foundation can be a real bitch to apply in a way that looks professional, and this stuff is dead easy. (I used it for our headshots this week, running late, and a minute later I had a full face of makeup that looked professionally applied.)
- It’s “buildable,” in makeup speak. Meaning, you can apply it super lightly in your day to day life, or easily build it up on a day you’re going to say… get photographed a lot. So you’re not going to have a mostly full bottle five years after your wedding.
- It takes one to two drops of bareSkin on the brush for each side of your face. This foundation bottle is going to last me forever.
- In our tutorial, Bri talks about how amazing the foundation feels going on. That’s not any kind of marketing talk. It’s… whoa. I don’t know how they pulled it off.
- It doesn’t have a lot of crap in it. Have you ever read the list of ingredients on foundation? It can be… horrifying. bareSkin has no silicone, no oil, no parabens, no fragrance, and is hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic (which basically means it won’t make you break out).
- It has SPF. That’s going to make it perfect for a daytime outdoor wedding (me!). But if you’re going to have a wedding with a lot of direct flash photography, check with your photographer about what’s going to work best.
- It comes in a ton (I mean a ton) of shades. The bareMinerals team sent me FIVE options when I told them I was fair. But okay, they cater to white girls, what else is news? The news is that they sent Bri just as many shades, because they know that nude doesn’t mean peach. Bam.
Bri’s Look
Now, on to the real point of this post. (I frankly wasn’t planning to write a review of bareSkin till I tried it and then WHOA. Where was that five years ago?) Elicia Bryan and Bri McDaniel got a full suite of bareMinerals products to use, but otherwise we wanted to mimic what a real world makeup trial looks like when you’ve got nothing but a bunch of fancy product and some Internet tutorials at your fingertips (or as Maddie likes to call it, Friday night).
When Bri mentioned she wanted to try doing a bold lip, we suggested she use this APW tutorial as her guide. One of the hardest parts of doing your own makeup using online tutorials is knowing whether it’s going to translate to your face shape and your skin tone. It’s can be smart to look for tutorials on people who look like you, as evidence that it’s going to work, but in the wedding industry, that’s pretty much impossible if you’re not blond and fair skinned. So we wanted to see if the basic steps of our tutorial on Sharon would translate to Bri.
Bri’s Take:
The cutest? The cutest. If we’ve learned anything from hair and makeup shoots, it’s that if you go big on one part of your face, scale everything else back. Trade secrets! This is what Bri had to say about the experience:
In my normal life, I’m a wedding photographer, but I’m also planning a super chill beach house wedding on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for May of next year. When APW asked if I’d be willing to do a makeup trial with bareMinerals, I wasn’t sure. I’m not the most gifted when it comes to makeup (I’m usually a mascara only girl), but I was up for the experiment.
With my look, I really wanted to go for an overall natural look with a bold lip (my fiancé adores my lips, so I really want them to stand out for him). The most important thing I took from this shoot is you just need to practice, practice, practice. Not everyone is gifted with doing makeup. I’m the prime example. Most of the time I just leave the house with mascara on and call it a day. I also suggest getting pictures taken of your final look before the wedding. If your photography includes an engagement session or bridals, you can test run your makeup while also getting more comfortable with your photographer at the same time. (Editor’s note: photos are a great idea. How your makeup looks in a mirror will be different from how it looks on camera, and sometimes flash can do weird things to the appearance of makeup that has SPF.)
Oh, and a quick pause and praise for bareMinerals. Because dayummm this is the best make up I’ve ever had on my skin, and I mean it! Every single product feels like butter. It feels like they formulated this stuff for me only. The primer was made to flow onto my skin. The foundation was mixed in heaven, and floated down with a cute parachute from the sky, labeled for Bri!
Bri’s Bold Lip Look
1. I started with the primer, which went like butter on my skin. (Editor’s note: if you have oily skin, or an uneven skin tone, bareMinerals makes more than one kind of primer.)
2. Then I applied the foundation in “Bare Espresso 19”. Butter. It seriously just glided on. The new brush I used to apply it is brilliant. Seriously I want to go on another praise tangent but I will refrain. But the foundation brush is cool. You just squirt a bit in the center and then apply all over your face in circular motions.
3. Then I applied the mineral veil and looked in the mirror. Why has no one ever told me about this veil before?!
4. Instead of blush, I used “The Skinny Dip” bronzer on my cheeks. I really wanted to channel a natural glow, and with the mineral veil already applied, I didn’t have to go so heavy on the cheeks.
5. Next came the eyeshadow. This has always been my greatest weakness, but again I wanted something natural. I went for a light color on the overall lid (the taupe shade from this palette), and then a pop of dark purple called “Passion” in the creases to add just a little drama.
6. I then applied a charcoal eyeliner. All I needed was a little line of the bottom and some on the lash line, and it really highlighted my natural beauty.
7. Then the mascara. I have tried every mascara out there (remember I’m a mascara girl) and this is the best!! The brush latched right on to my lashes. I had to give myself a moment with this mascara.
8. After mascara came a waterproof top coat. Of all the pieces I used, I feel this is the most important! There is nothing like spending like an hour on your makeup and right before pictures, you get a letter from your honey before the ceremony and the waterworks start. You could either look like a raccoon or ghost ready to scare the shit out of guests, or use this waterproof top coat and not worry about it at all.
9. And now to the main show; my lips. I wanted them to stand out the most in the overall look. I lined them in a shade called “Thrilled,” to make them look even more plump, and then I applied some “Get Ready” lipstick (butter in a small tube) and gloss (the same light pink barely there shade that Elicia used, called “Rebel”) on top for a bit more shine. BAM! Easy peasy and I looked like a hottie.
This post was sponsored by bareMinerals. Thanks bareMinerals for helping make the APW Mission possible!
Have other looks you’d like to see tested out? Leave a note in the comments!
Editor’s Note: A bunch of you asked about SPF foundations in our previous tutorial, so we’ll be bringing you a comparison post that addresses the SPF question very soon!
