A Beautiful Indian Princess...(Bridal Makeup Tips!)

Today I did makeup for an Indian bride. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the festivities that precede an Indian wedding, here's a quick lesson. The week before a Hindu wedding takes place is filled with other ceremonies, each surrounded with a special meaning. Today was my bride's Henna or Mehndi (as we call it in India), ceremony. 

Not only was her outfit beautiful, but she was the sweetest, friendliest, and excited bride. Those are my favorite! Weddings make me giddy as I envision what my own special day will be like. There is so much love in the air as the bride gets ready to wed. 

My bride wanted her makeup to match her outfit perfectly, so she chose pink and silver as those were the 2 colors on her outfit. After talking about it some more, we decided to do gold and pink instead, and we were both very happy with the results! MUA TIP: Each bride will have a specific look in mind- but remember, you are the expert. If you do not think it will work, voice that opinion instead of doing what she has in mind and then having her be unhappy. As a normal consumer, most brides do not know much about makeup, or what will look good on camera and accentuate her outfit. It is your job to make her look good, so sometimes you need to help guide her to the right decision. And in the end, I guarantee both of you will be happy!

Here she is casually dressed in sweats and a hoodie, with just her eyes done. Still so pretty! Hair is in the works at this point as well..

Most of my brides choose to go with airbrush foundation, and I personally think this is the better choice. I applied 2 layers of Dinair airbrush makeup, some light pink blush NOT on the apples of her cheeks, rather, towards the hairline, and a lot of highlight. MUA TIP: if you choose a blush shade that is similar in tone to the eyeshadow, do not apply the blush to the apples of the cheek. Doing so creates too much of a symmetrical makeup look, and the client will look extremely monochromatic. It is okay to use blush, eyeshadow, and lipsticks from the same color family, but product placement is then very important. Creating a bit of asymmetry through the cheeks lightens up the look.

Here is a quick face shot I took. Sorry for the terrible lighting! I know you can't tell but the eyeshadow was actually a mixture of a bright and dark pink, to create a mid toned shade of pink.

We ended with some pale pink lipstick, and added a plum lip liner to darken the lips a bit and create a shaded affect. We added some doll like lashes, and my bride was ready to go!