Attending a weddign and unsure what makeup to wear and how to do my hair

[GraceLouKay]

I am attednding my aunts wedding and I am not sure how to do my makeup and hair for it. I have very straight medium thickness hair. I don't have very dry skin but I have a little irritation. I also have freckles. Any advice from anyone would help significantly!!😁

[CattyT3]

I wanted to suggest a couple of things for preparation before you even finalize your final makeup look. If you are unsure about what styles of wearing certain makeup items looks on your features, and how to best work with your features to achieve your desired look will go, look up videos from makeup artists who actually educate on how to work with your features to get your desired results.

If you are doing your own makeup  - PRACTICE and make sure every item you end up using not only works together, lasts all day, looks good in photos but ALSO (most importantly) does not upset your skin or eyes. I actually had an entire hamper I took on the plane with me to hand the makeup artists my own makeup I trusted because I was not risking my reactive skin having an upset in the summer heatwaves while I was already going to be running on a tight schedule. Each day I had to get my makeup done in the morning first out of everyone and have it last through the entire night, and my makeup would be the only one other than the bride's that would be perfectly in place each day. So I absolutely believe in the power of your own makeup (and skincare!) for professional makeup jobs too.

Know your features and what does and doesn't work for them even if a makeup artist is doing your makeup. For example, I have slightly hooded almond eyes, so even though I am South Asian, the details in how I apply each step of my eye makeup is heavily inspired by East Asian makeup for monolid eye shapes, even if I want a final look with heavy Arab kohl eyeliner. Western style for eye makeup just does not work for my face in the same way. This kind of detail research is how I was able to explain to the makeup artists for my brother's wedding ceremonies every day what products and the shapes of lines to use to get me the exact look I need for my face.

Picking out your look can send you down a rabbit hole of so many exciting and complex makeup looks. If a professional is doing the look - amazing, you can go to town with a heavy eye look that is fine tuned and something you might not be able to do. If you are doing it yourself, see if you want to go down the road of a synergistic color look (so keeping to using the colors of you clothes),  or if you want to make a particular feature of your makeup "pop" from your combination of clothing color and fabric and the other accessories - bag, shoes, jewelry, before committing to perfecting a final look (& possibly a backup safe look if on the day the fast pace of the day just makes the original makeup look not come together as you want).
An example I can give of the latter is that I had a very heavily embroidered rust-orange full sleeve top and less embroidered but matching full length lengha skirt. I went against the typical Indian style of going super heavy with the makeup and chose to keep my base as natural looking as flawless makeup can, chose a slightly darker and less orange brown for my lip - to keep it in theme of my dress color but not washed out, and made my eyelids a contrasting turquoise as my facial feature point with the upper lid blending into the orange brown of my dress so it barely looked a different color from my actual skin color.

I know for Western style weddings the natural finish is much more favorable, but if you wanted to have even a light wash of slightly coral toned or copper-orange glittery eyeshadow (so peach effectively)/ shiny eyelid on your eyelids, that would be the contrast color for pop to work with & is a great color tone to be able to have very understated eye makeup that still comes on camera very beautifully. Playing around with peach and neighboring colors (a bit darker or lighter, for example) for the eyes to see what fits with your features and skin tone along with the dress. You can even use a similar toned or the same thing for highlighter if your eyeshadow looks good enough to work as a highlighter too. I do with with my #fenty killa# Fenty Killawatt palette a lot.

For lip color, I honestly took my trusted lipsticks in different tones and colors, and at the end of the look, I'd talk with the makeup artist about what would work best now I have seen the rest of the makeup on my face and my jewelry as well. So I don't have an meticulous an explanation for you on that, but for lip shape, I did ask the makeup artists to all over line my lips in the way I like to do so myself because it compliments my face best - normally if I leave then to it, they don't over line my lips at all and I don't like the balance of my lip size to the rest of my makeup this way. So shape is equally as important as the color and the finish of the lipstick you choose.

I have a few friends who are blessed with freckles, and all love wearing blues a lot and while they both have different hair colors, textures and lengths (long red w/ dark blue eyes, long auburn w/hazel eyes, and short blonde w/ light blue eyes) - they all look amazing with even a simple copper eyeshadow swipe on their eyelid. So I am hopeful this will work for you if you so wish to go with this color family for eyes on the day.

It might be that to offset the eye look you end up with, you might want to go a bit heavier than normal with things like bronzer to make the look feel more complete as well - small details of how your bone structure catches the light will be all the more important for wedding photos. I don't have much detail to say on this unfortunately either as this is the part of makeup I only just began dabbling in myself, so have left this up to the makeup artist and I would just say if I liked it or wanted more/ less of what they were doing.

Good luck on figuring out the final look you want - I hope many other people reply too so you have a wealth of inspiration and good guidance!

[CynthieLu]

I think a half up half down style would be nice @GraceLouKay They can be pretty but not over the top 🙂

It really depends what you like and are comfortable with. Whatever you wear, I think you'll feel your best if you are bit in your comfort zone. ✨️ 

What do you normally wear for make up? I think that but a touch more classy/elegant. Depending on the wedding to,  inside or outside?

If it's outdoors I'd say swap your foundation for a tinted spf to protect you from the sun. 

Even the dress matters to match it's style a bit to your hair and makeup. 

I think you'll be great no matter what, but these little things can help you decide. 💜

[CattyT3]

I had a lot of good luck using a Japanese SPF primer as my base immediately before the makeup went on for me for my family wedding makeup - the Canmake Mermaid UV clear SPF 50 - makeup was perfect even with a whole photography session outside in the Texas summer heatwave season.
So just play around with the way SPF can be incorporated into your prep or makeup to keep your skin happy and looking its best for the day : )

[GraceLouKay]

@CattyT3That sounds great! I think it will be an inside wedding, but always good tips!

[GraceLouKay]

Okay. I think I figured out my hair plan. It is an inside wedding I believe. I am wearing a blueish knee length dress. It isn't very fancy, but I will be dressed up in it. Thanks for the help! 😁

[CynthieLu]

(Be sure to tag the person you are responding to by using the @ key and typing thier name, then they are less likely to miss it 😀)

@GraceLouKay 

Ooh inside is helpful,  less to factor in for weather. 😉 I hope you have a really fun time! 

[GraceLouKay]

@CynthieLu 

Thanks for the tip! I'm hoping it will be great!

[CynthieLu]

Is this your first wedding? @GraceLouKay They usual are pretty fun and great way to see people, friends or family you may not have seen in along time 😄

[GraceLouKay]

This is the first one I've attended in a while @CynthieLu . I was a flower girl a lot when I was younger too. My aunt is getting married and it is really exciting!

[SportyGirly125]

@GraceLouKay @Do you wear makeup regularly?  I would go with what your comfortable with. Also, maybe look at Pinterest for some look/hair inspo or on Google. What color will you be wearing?

[GraceLouKay]

@SportyGirly125 I do usually wear a little on a day to day basis. I am planning on wearing a dark blueish dress. I am thinking for hair I might curl it then do a half up braided look maybe.

[CattyT3]

This is essentially what a lot my family ladies did for their hair - a braid that went into the updo, and some had feature pieces curled loosely. They had a couple of flowers put into the hair too actually. Depends on your taste if you want that.
I have straight somewhat thick hair too and my favorite hair look I had was loose curls half tied back in a small bun (before the sponge fell out at the start of the actual ceremony) - so it was half just held back instead - still looks great in all the pictures!
So I advocate for your hair styling idea!

[GraceLouKay]

@CattyT3That sounds like a good idea!

[SportyGirly125]

@GraceLouKay @You could wear gold on the eyes or silver. You could even do false lashes and a red lip. 

[GraceLouKay]

@SportyGirly125  I was planning on something like that. Probably a pinkish color with gold and just a little bit of a smoky look too.