Making Up the Bride: Inspiration for Take 2

Ok I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about makeup. Smoky eye? Sexy eye? Um one means one thing and the other means a completely different thing. So with this caveat, my first makeup trial was probably doomed to failure from the start. I probably said one thing and was really thinking another.

Here goes. This is what I looked like after my first makeup trial.

I think I look like a raccoon. I also hate that the makeup is cakey (is that a word?) and not more seemless. When I do wear makeup, I prefer DiorSkin AirFlash Spray Foundation as my base. So I'm probably also suffering from what every bride who typically doesn't wear makeup suffers from - fear of looking like a clown or not me. Besides the foundation - I think the blush and the lipstick are too much.

Tonight I have my next makeup trial. This trial is with another makeup artist (MUA) - one who made me up last year for our friends double wedding.

So I pulled looks that routinely catch my attention when I'm flipping through magazines at the salon.

What I like about the looks is the pale lipsticks (top two photos), the touch of pale blush (top two photos, bottom right photo), the shadowing of the outside edge of the eye (left two photos), and lighter shadow near the nose that gradually moves to the darker edge (left two photos, bottom right photo).

What I like about the top two looks is that the blush isn't overwhelming and much more natural. The two bottom looks caught my attention for the paler blush with pale lipsticks - the eyes are too smoky.

I also pulled looks that I dislike and totally could not imagine on me. Here those looks are:

There's too much blush on the photo on the left. And the smoky eye is just too dark - especially with the pale lipstick (which I actually do like). (Now that I've seen an example of smoky eye I think it's not well suited for my face.

Hopefully these images give the MUA a better idea of what I'd like for our wedding. Basically I want to feel like me - the me cubes fell in love with. (Maybe this next admission makes me a bad bride but I love the makeup I wore for our playa wedding - none. You can see what my face looked like in the recap of me getting ready.)

Did you struggle with getting your makeup right?

Making Up the Bride: The Hair and Makeup Trial

Yesterday I had a hair and makeup trial. Overall both cubes and I liked the hairstyle. From the Front and side I think it's a little too severe. I was a little disappointed that my hair didn't really look like the images I gave for inspiration.

Two things for the hair that I'd change for the day of the wedding are that the bangs will be loose rather than pulled back across my forehead for a softer look and the ponytail with the curls will be lower so that the curls brush my shoulder. Luckily I'm going to have another trial.

Did you like the results of your hair and makeup trial?

The Inspiration Photography Credits (Clockwise from top left):

1. Melissa Musgrove, February 11, 2010
2. Unknown
3. Steve Depino via Style Me Pretty, February 18th, 2010