Caroline's Blog

Caroline, a makeup junkie since an early age, loves nothing more than perusing the West End’s beauty halls. A trained makeup artist (she has worked for Lancôme, Chanel & Clinique), she keeps up her skills running a wedding makeup business part-time.

By day, Caroline works in the Clinique online team. Clinique is part of the Estee Lauder group so she’s oozing with insider knowledge on the likes of MAC, Bobbi Brown & Estee Lauder. Her favourite online stores are Clinique.co.uk (of course!), CocoRibbon.com, TheWhiteCompany.com and Asos.com.

Wedding Essentials...

Published on Tuesday 24th June 2008

With the wedding season in full swing, I don’t know about everyone else but between friends and families and wedding makeups, I seem to have most weekends booked up from now until August.

Makeup’s hugely important to the bride and like everything that goes into the big day, she wants it to be perfect. If the bride is a bit of a ‘bridezilla’ then things can get difficult! Believe me I’ve encountered a fair few since I have been doing weddings – the worst being my best friend a few years ago.

Trial all done and dusted, the night before the big day I did six different versions of her ‘eye look’ whilst she tried to decide which one she liked best. Nightmare. Brides get away with murder on their wedding day!

There are endless tricks and techniques to creating the perfect look for a wedding day makeup but the key thing is to start with is a great base – a primer that you apply pre-foundation to make the makeup last that bit longer. There’s a variety of bases on the market; which one to use depends on the bride’s skin and also the weather.

If the sun’s shining (fingers crossed) and drinks / photos are going to be outside then always opt for one with an SPF. Do make sure that it’s an oil-free SPF so that you get a matte effect under the foundation.

Always wondered what green bases are for? Well if the bride has any redness in her skin tone that she wants to conceal then now’s the time for a base with a green tint to neutralise this! I like the Intral Redness Relief Recovery Cream by Darphin as it’s very gentle and soothing and smells great too.

If the bride has oilier skin I like the Body Shops Matte it Face and Lips. It works really well at controlling oil and because it’s a clear gel formula it can also be put over makeup if you need to reapply during the day.

If the bride has none of the above concerns and just wants to ensure that her makeup’ll look perfect all day then I always use Laura Mercier’s Foundation Primer. It’s really lightweight, works brilliantly and it’s also great value for money as you only need the smallest amount.

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