How To: Fresh Peachy Makeup with a Bold Eye

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The Info—Stylist: Shana Astrachan of Fox & Doll Hair and Makeup/ Photography: Hart & Sol West, Emily Takes Photos / Venue: The Box SF / Flowers: Green Snapdragon Floral Design /Dress: Little Borrowed Dress / Jewelry: BrideBlu Vintage + Handmade Jewelry

Welcome to the APW makeup tutorials!! Hooray! These are so you all can practice some tips and tricks, and be 110% comfortable doing your own makeup on your wedding day (Like I did. Though I wish I’d had these extra tips. Humph.) You’ll be getting a variety of these makeup tutorials all month, for all different kinds of skin and face shapes, just in time for wedding season. A huge thank you to P&G Beauty for supporting APW and making this possible (and making wedding makeup totally affordable).

At first this seems like a lot of detail, right? I know. But we figured we had a professional makeup artist, and we wanted to give you all the tricks she had in her bag. But the basic routine is this: foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara (and possibly false eyelashes for extra fun!), pinky peach blush, lips. So, that’s the quick overview, and there are tons of extra tips in the pictures you can follow if you want to be extra awesome. But no being overwhelmed by this! Those are the rules.

Also, have I mentioned that I’m now in love with false eyelashes? I really truly am. But on to Shana’s tips! (You can ask her any questions you want on Twitter at 1pm EST/ 10am PST, yay! And if you want a jumpstart, list your questions, and your Twitter handle if you’ve got one in the comments, and we’ll answer your questions first.)

For Face: It’s all about primer. Before any makeup goes on your face, apply primer. We used Olay Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution here. But the general idea is that primer will make sure that this look stays put. You guys asked us how to make sure your wedding day makeup doesn’t melt off mid-reception, and while we think a little makeup melt can look lovely (you look lovely however you come), the way to solve this problem is primer.

For Eyes: Here, the same rule goes double. If you want eye shadow to stay on even longer, us an eye primer first (on top of whatever primer you just used for the rest of your face). That, my friends, is two primers for the eyes. BAM.

For Adding False Lashes: Shana taught us that there are two primary tricks to getting false lashes to look great (because goodness knows we’ve all seen the movie When False Eyelashes Go Wrong). First: apply the glue with a fine tip tool (like a toothpick) rather than the glue bottle itself. (What? Doesn’t everyone do that?) Second: instead of applying one long line of lashes, which can look really fake, cut the strip of lashes into three parts, and only apply two of them to your lash line, focusing on the outer edges of your eye. This will open up your eye, but you won’t look like you’re trying to emulate a porcelain doll, or worse. (Seriously though, after having Shana do my false eyelashes, I went from thinking they were weird and gross to thinking they were glam and awesome, and needing to teach myself how to do them at home.)

For Creating Bold Eye Liner: Liquid eyeliner is usually the best for creating bold, thick lines, but a lot of people have a hard time controlling the liquid. (Read: me. It does not look any better now than when I used it at Rocky Horror in High School. No good for weddings.) So we used CoverGirl LiquilineBlast eyeliner, which has the impact of a liquid in pencil form. Am I going to be acquiring this product? Um, yes. I’m mostly just annoyed I didn’t somehow snag it after the shoot. Rats.

For Lips: This is the pro-makeup artist tip I learned. First, use a lipstick brush. Then second, don’t be afraid to layer colors until you get the right hue you want. You mix it all up like you’re doing an oil painting (this right here is the reason I’ve loved makeup since I was old enough to use it; see my post on the kind of feminist I am). And for extra staying power, use a lip liner first.

Relax. Stop worrying. You’re going to look beautiful.

I know. Relax is the last step of all of these tutorials, but it’s the step I most needed to hear during my own lead up to wedding hair and makeup. Everyone kept muttering that I was going to screw it up, and I needed someone to tell me I was going to look great. (Hint: my makeup looked so good that people complained to me on my wedding day that their wedding makeup had looked over done, and they were mad mine looked just right. How did I do it? I DID IT MYSELF.) So take this inspiration, and run with it.

And we’ll see you on Twitter to discuss at 1pm EST/ 10am PST, with @ShanaAstrachan and @PGBeauty (hashtag #APWPGBeauty.)