Makeup Must-dos

Celebrity makeup artist Bruce Grayson shares how you can make your wedding-day makeup stay red-carpet perfect all-night long. By Stephanie Gray

Photography courtesy Alvina Valenta.

If you’re like most brides then you’ve put your beauty into the hands of a trained professional. Celebrities do it all the time. Just ask L.A. makeup artist and Olay spokesperson Bruce Grayson, who is also the department head for the Primetime Emmy Awards and Academy Awards. With a celebrity roster that includes Katie Holmes, Brooke Shields and Hayden Panettiere, Grayson knows how to make a star shine.

While you might be letting the artist paint your canvas, it’s probably not in your budget to have he/she follow you throughout the night to do touch-ups. That’s where Grayson steps in. He knows what you need to do before, during and after to ensure you’re looking picture-perfect from the time you wake until long into the evening.

Preparation

• It’s your job to start a good skin-care regime six to eight months before your wedding day. Your skin should be in tip-top shape on the day of.

Your Makeup Artist

• Trust your artist. Look at pictures of his/her work and make sure you do a trial run. You don’t want surprises on the big day.
• Ask for a classic look. You don’t want to look back at your pictures in 20 years and think, “Why did I do that?”
• Less is more. Do not let your makeup get piled on. You want your groom to know who his bride is!
• Use one colour of eyeshadow and either black or brown eyeliner.
• Lipstick should complement your skin otherwise it can be distracting. Mauves and berries are the freshest.

During the Day

• If your skin is oily, make sure to include blotting papers in your touch-up kit. Press and lift on oily areas—particularly above eyebrows and around nose.
• Do touch-ups of concealer, foundation and lipstick throughout. Make sure brows are brushed.

Red-Carpet Mistakes

• Less is more particularly with foundation and eye makeup. This is especially true if you’re marrying in the summer or in a Caribbean destination.
• Don’t use too much shimmer. You don’t want to look like a disco ball!
• The best looks in magazines are always SIMPLE!

Must-Have Products:

• Try Olay Definity Colour Recapture, $35. Available at drugstores across Canada. Its’ coverage is between a tinted moisturizer and foundation, and it goes on very sheer. It has SPF 15 and comes in three shades—developed to suit the majority of skin tones.
• Blu_ray polishing cloths from Cargo, $15. Available at Sephora. The cloths gently exfoliate the skin, prepping it before makeup. Since HDTV reveals every flaw, the blu_ray line was specifically designed for makeup artists working onset, and is perfect for you—guaranteed to be in front of the lens!

Find this and other great features at www.weddingbells.ca/articles/article/makeup-must-dos/