What you need to survive your wedding day from your professional makeup artist.

The Bridal Touch Up Kit

A big question from all of my brides, is “what products will I need to get to touch up with through the day?”

The simple answer to this burning question, is “lipstick”( or gloss / liner / basically, your lip colour in whatever shape or form that may be).

But the real answer isn’t all that simple unfortunately as it really depends on 3 things:

The colour lips you have gone for- For instance a bold red lip requires more frequent touching up than a natural colour.
What condition your skin is in- Is it oily, dry or problematic?
How much makeup you want to wear.

For my style of beautiful, luminous makeup, my brides will know just how much blending and buffing I do to create this look- which also gives the foundation longevity. But if you have really oily skin and open pores, chances are that your oil flow is going to shine through at some stage, creating a bit of a shiny mess. There are many products out there to choose from- from pressed powders, blotting paper, sponges…but which one do you choose?

Makeup is such a personal thing these days- and I’m in favour of trialling different products to find what suits you. Personally, I like to use products that give an experience- that make you feel good. So for this reason, right or wrong, I actually don’t like blotting paper. I know, I know, some people swear by it ( and that’s great!) but it’s just not my thing. The fact of blotting my skin with a sheet of fine tissue like paper just doesn’t give me a nice experience- no pretty packaging, no nice mirror to quickly check my whole face, nothing. Just paper mopping up excess oil. Not for me. I deeply apologise for being short sighted here, and to all those people who love these products. By all means, this is my personal feeling, so if you love it, use it!

Rather, if you have a heavy oil flow and find your skin just secretes oil all day long, you’ll need to use the correct skin care, primer, foundation and setting powder/ spray. It’s not just a one product wonder that’s going to control that oil flow. So don’t expect it to be a one product touch up either. If your skin is that oily, I would suggest you have a pressed powder, alongside a little bit of foundation, teamed up with a sponge. I would suggest using a sponge rather than a brush, so you can sponge away the oil flow, then touch up with the foundation and powder to keep your skin looking fresh, not greasy. ( There is a a big difference!)

If you have dry or normal skin- you may not even need anything at all- but if you’re like me and want something there as a backup- I would take my trusty concealer wand, with a pressed powder and sponge. I always find sponges the best to touch up with as you can quickly press the product into the skin, rather than fluffing around with a brush (brushes don’t tend to fare well on sweaty, oily skin either).

So what are you going to do about your lip colour?

It’s important to line the lips with a lip liner and fill in the whole of the lip. Lip liners are waxier than lipstick, which means the product grabs to the skin, making it last longer. So by setting a lipstick into the lip on top of a filled in lip with liner, this will only give you longevity in your lip colour.

In my experience, ( and I have pretty sensitive lips- I had a reaction years ago to a big brand designer lip gloss and my lips have never been the same) even the ‘long lasting’ lip colours don’t work on me- so I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to recommending a product that’s “long lasting” simply because I’ve tried and tested SO MANY and on me, none of them work. So I always use the ‘liner first’ trick.

A bold lip colour may transfer to your partner, ( you don’t exactly want pash rash in your photos) so I would absolutely recommend you find your lip colour in the earlier stages of wedding planning, and wear that colour over and over again to make sure you are happy with it. How does it transfer onto your wine glass? After food? After you kiss your partner? You get the drift. With bold colour lips I recommend you have access to a small packet of makeup or baby wipes just in case of any transfer. You don’t want to look like you guys have been making out in the back seat like you were 17….. 😉

The best way to find out what is right for you? Ask your makeup artist! If they have enough experience in skin care like me, I can advise the best way to not only look after it properly up until the day, but what products you’ll likely need, or won’t need.

Here is my bridal survival kit offered exclusively to my brides. – Presented to you in a cute little pouch so you can easily keep it with you on the day.

After many years as a professional bridal makeup artist, I can honestly say these are the things that I seem to have noticed that brides need, and quite often, don’t have and are sending people to get during the morning of the wedding. It includes: Hairspray, a lip product ( gloss or lipstick) , pressed powder with sponge, panadol, face wipes, tissues, cotton tips, bandaids, a nail file, bobby pins, safety pins, and mints to keep your breath minty fresh 🙂

bowral makeup artist