Beautiful Bridal Makeup: 5 Expert Tips for Contouring on the Wedding Day

Posted on April 23, 2017November 3, 2020 by Ruby Deevoy

Beautiful Bridal Makeup: 5 Expert Tips for Contouring on the Wedding Day

Contouring – every bridal makeup artist’s most feared technique, but, with the right training, the potential to be transformed into the favourite!

Learn how to apply beautiful bridal makeup and contour like a pro on our 2 day bridal makeup course.

There’s something about skilful contouring that can set a bridal makeup look apart from the rest and when done correctly, it can even be utilised for your more, subtle, makeup styles.

The art of contouring isn’t only reserved for very heavy makeup, as Kim Kardashian might have us believe (although this is an option!); when applied with care and expertise and blended perfectly it is possible to achieve sharp, high cheekbones and graceful, angular facial features in a very natural way.

Follow our pro makeup artist contouring tips for beautiful bridal makeup:

Less is More

When it comes to creating beautiful bridal makeup, it is important to apply slowly and build up layers gradually and this applies even more so when it comes to contouring.

As you’ve probably already realised, it’s very easy to overdo contouring and once the makeup is on, it’s hard to remove it and start again (and not exactly a situation you want to get into with clients!).

To avoid ending up with a bit of a clown look, use only a very small amount of your lighter and darker shades of foundation or contour stick, blend well and then add more if you need to.

Map the Face

Contouring is done best when taking the whole face into account from the start, rather than doing it bit by bit, so begin the process by mapping the face.

Take a shade that is about two steps darker than the overall base and trace along the temples, the hollows underneath the cheekbones and down either side of the nose bridge narrowing at the tip to create the illusion of smaller size or up into the brow bone for elegant length.

Blend, Blend, Blend!

Blending is key to perfect contouring, particularly if you’re aiming for a softer bridal makeup look. Avoid using a brush or sponge that is too small and instead, opt for a broad surface to do your blending such as the larger end of a beauty blender. If you’re aiming for a sharper look for the nose, use a narrower brush or the smaller side of the beauty blender for increased precision.

Highlight Darker Skin

When working on a bride with darker skin, focus more on the highlighting to pop out the raised areas rather than shading in the hollows, as you would on fair skin.

Highlight along the cheekbones, the bridge on the nose, chin and centre forehead.

Use Matte & Shimmer

Stay away from darker shades that contain any shimmer – matte makeup in the natural hollows of the face will help to create depth, whereas shimmer brings areas out. Because of this, a shimmery highlighter works really nicely for the raised areas that you want to make pop, so mix your products up and use a bit of both!

Know Your Products

Contouring can be a tricky technique to master, so anything you can do to make your life easier when starting out should be welcomed. One thing you should do is to know which products are best for your skill set.

When first starting out, using powdered products is best as these are really easy to blend; when you’re feeling a little more confident you can move onto cream or cream to powder for a stronger look and finally, stick concealers for thick application.

Wedding Makeup Tips: 6 Steps to Beautiful Bridal Contouring

Posted on February 16, 2017November 3, 2020 by Ruby Deevoy

Wedding Makeup Tips: 6 Steps to Beautiful Bridal Contouring

Highlighting and contouring can be a fantastic bridal makeup technique to slim the face, give a healthy glow and really make those features pop, or it can be an utter disaster. It all comes down to whether or not you know your stuff!

Sky high cheekbones and a makeup transformation isn’t for everyone, but for your brides who are after a real ‘photo shoot finish’, amazing contouring and highlighting is a must; however, the way that we teach contouring on our bridal makeup courses will help you to see this skill in a new light. It’s not all about piling it on Kardashian style for a very ‘done’ look: if applied correctly, highlighting and contouring can actually be used in a much more subtle way, for a more natural looking bone structure boost.

Become a contouring pro on our 2 day bridal makeup course, London! Only 5 places left on our upcoming March course. Book now!

Want to know more about how to master the art of contouring? Here are our top tips:

Start with a great base

For contouring that really works, you absolutely have to start with a flawless, even base. Before you even attempt to start applying any light or shade, make sure that you have worked on your client’s skin to achieve beautiful, even skin tone with products that match their colouring just right. From this starting point, you’ll find achieving the look you want much easier.

Blend!

You want to avoid harsh lines when it comes to bridal contouring as this won’t well work at all! Instead, what you want to aim for is a very natural looking shadow. To achieve this, the key is to blend, blend, blend! Choose your favourite blending tool, whether that’s a sponge or a brush and gently work each contoured area until you’re happy. Don’t rush this – take your time for real perfection.

Know where to work

It’s no good just winging it when you contour and highlight – you’ve really got to be applying your products with strict direction for best results. Getting it even slightly off can change the overall appearance and that’s why we’ll take you through it, step by step, on our bridal makeup courses.

What you want to aim for is an oval face shape with certain features emphasized or receded, so discuss with your client what features they want to play up and which they want to play down, don’t just make the decision for them.

For the contour, focus on the cheekbones building up around the centre of your ear and blending out gradually until you reach mid-cheek. If you’re hoping to slim your client’s face down a bit, blend the contour shade in around the forehead almost in the hairline and on either side of the bridge of the nose. Highlight the tops of the cheekbones, the chin, the centre of the forehead, bridge of the nose, arch of the eyebrow and for extra pouty lips, the cupids bow.

Less is more

Don’t go crazy with product! Add it little by little until you reach the ideal amount. Going overboard with highlighting and contouring will leave your client looking a bit clown-like, which is probably not the look you’re going for! Build it up rather than going overboard and be sure to have your client sitting in natural light so that you can see exactly how it’s going.

Choose the right shades

To get the contrast just right, you’ve got to use the shades that are perfect for your client. Ideally what you want is to go two shades darker than their skin tone with the contour and two shades lighter with the highlight, for a really natural look that brings everything out just the way you want it too, without looking too obvious. We’ll help you figure out how to select the right shades for your clients on our bridal makeup courses!

Use great products

As with all makeup, the quality really does count. Invest in excellent palettes for ease of use, longevity and for a look that is more gorgeous than scary!

Avoid making do with a bronzer for contouring as the warm tones and often shimmery finish won’t help achieve a natural look – you’re trying to mimic light and shade and that generally won’t contain glitter! You can opt for a slightly pearlescent highlighter though, for a ‘radiant’ look, but go easy.

Wedding Makeup: How to Create a Bridal Makeup Look That Lasts

Posted on November 27, 2016November 3, 2020 by Ruby Deevoy

November 27, 2016amazing makeup, bridal makeup, makeup course, tips & techniques

Creating beautiful makeup is one thing, but when you’re applying wedding makeup for a bride about to embark on one of the biggest days of her life you also have to create makeup that lasts.

As a wedding makeup artist, it’s your job to ensure that the bride looks just as gorgeous the moment she walks down the aisle right up until the end of the night, but unless you’re booked to stay on call for the whole day (which is very rare!), you’re going to have to do that without the need for touch-ups.

If you’re new to makeup this may seem like a daunting task, but with the right expert tips and techniques on correct wedding makeup prep, application, finish and products this is more doable than you might think. Join us on our 2 day bridal makeup course to really get to grips with how to do this like a pro…

Knowing how to create a wedding makeup look that stays put through tears, kisses and dancing is just as important as being able to apply makeup beautifully in the first instance – brides want to feel confident that they will look great all day and night, not to mention in there wedding photos! Being able to do this is one key factor to securing further clients via word of mouth.

Create beautiful wedding makeup that lasts with these top tips:

Perfect Prep

Getting the skin prep right goes a long way to creating a flawless base that doesn’t budge. If you start right, this rest will follow with much more ease.

Firstly, make sure that the skin is clean, dry and well moisturised before you begin. Allow any moisturiser to fully absorb for at least 5 minutes before starting to apply makeup and always use a separate eye cream – this is essential for avoiding under-eye creases.

Next – never skip the primer! Primer is a makeup artist’s best friend and you should never attempt applying makeup without it. Using a good quality face primer will minimise pores and leave the skin looking smooth and supple. When you apply foundation on top of primer, the foundation will cling to the primer, rather than bare skin, so it won’t be absorbed over time and it won’t slide off at the first sign of sweat.

Use an eye primer for eyes, rather than the face primer, for best results and eye makeup that stays put too.

Don’t forget about the lips! They need prepping too. Wedding makeup is all about that flawless finish and the last thing you want is dry looking lips. Apply lots of lip balm and very gently buff the lips with a soft toothbrush or damp cloth.

Flawless Finish

Once you’ve applied your base, remember to seal it all in with a very light dusting of translucent powder – this will both mattify the skin (shine does not look great in photos!) whilst fixing foundation and concealer. When I say light, I mean light! You don’t want to end up with a dry or cakey effect, so take it easy.

Investing in a setting spray is also well worth it – a light spritz of this will help makeup remain steadfast.

Pick Your Products

Choosing the right products for your client’s wedding makeup is of course a huge part of the task, so do it wisely!

It may seem obvious, but it really does pay to go for makeup that claims to be ‘long-lasting’ and it goes without saying that waterproof mascara is a must.

Try to avoid using ‘illuminating’ makeup, gloss or glitter and anything containing zinc oxide, as all of these things show up badly on camera. Stick to a matte lip whenever possible – gloss will only cause lippie to slide off at the first sip of champagne anyway!

Hair & Makeup Trial: Make The Most of Your Trials & Book Those Clients!

Posted on November 13, 2016November 3, 2020 by Ruby Deevoy

The hair & makeup trial day with your clients is an important time for all wedding hair and makeup artists – you’ve secured the interest of this person (which is the hard part!) and now you have to make sure that you create a look they love so they go ahead and book with you, rather than somebody else.

The prospect of this can be quite daunting for many, regardless of whether you’re brand new to it or have been a pro for years, and the best way to overcome that is to feel totally confident in knowing what you’re doing and how to make your clients genuinely thrilled with the result!

To help you on your way to booking every client you get to have a hair & makeup trial with, here are Pam Wrigley’s top tips:

Hair & Makeup Trial Tips

Prepare in Advance

When your clients first get in touch, this is your opportunity to start figuring out their likes and dislikes even before you meet.

If you’re on the phone, be sure to make some notes and if it’s via email be prepared when you do meet face to face and know exactly what you’ve already discussed. Ask questions, but not too many at this point – just enough to give you some idea of which direction they might be heading in.

You will of course find out about the wedding date and if you can, find out a little bit about the venue too. You’ll also want to find out about hair length and type beforehand so you can start coming up with ideas; you might even want to ask them to send over a photo so you can see in advance what you’re going to be working with. Come up with some ideas to chat about with your client, but only loosely. Remain open to their input as well.

You might also want to ask your client to prepare in advance too by telling them to have a think about what they might be after and bring in photos that inspire them. You should also ask them to arrive with hair washed the night before that is totally un-styled with no product, so that it’s easier for you to handle.

Communicate

The key to a happy client is effective communication and sometimes getting that going will be down to you. You might be lucky and get a client that is very outspoken about their wants and needs, but it’s not at all unusual to get a client who is quite shy about saying what they really think.

Don’t be afraid of being told they don’t like what you’ve done! In fact, you should relish it if they do. It would be quite amazing if you managed to get their dream look down on the first attempt at the hair & makeup trial, so if they’re keeping quiet and just going along with what you say, there is a good chance that they’re just being polite. You don’t want a client to be polite, you want them to be honest so that when your time is up, you’re confident that they were so swept away by your work that they will definitely be booking.

Make sure that you’re asking questions throughout, almost prompting them to give a negative response so they feel like they’re allowed to speak their mind. Keep chatting and probing until you’ve really got somewhere with that communication.

Body Language

Even when you try your best to get a client to talk openly to you, it can be challenging. Your best bet is to really hit the nail on the head with your questions and suggestions and the way you do that is by watching their body language and responding accordingly.

Body language is incredibly telling, so watch out for them looking closed off and uncomfortable at the hair & makeup trial. Don’t point it out, just work with it until they really relax and look happy!

Bridal Makeup Course: What’s It All About?

Posted on September 25, 2016November 3, 2020 by Ruby Deevoy

We’re not all about hair, here at CBH, we also run a 2 day bridal makeup course in London that is perfect for anyone wanting to kickstart their career as a bridal makeup artist – whether that’s refreshing your existing knowledge and qualifications or starting out as a total newbie.

If you’re thinking of attending our bridal makeup course, you’ll be thrilled to hear that you will be taught by award-winning bridal makeup artist Pam Wrigley (been on one of our hair courses with Pam? Don’t forget to get in touch for your multiple course booking discount!), in groups of only up to 10 students at a time, meaning that you’ll always get lots of 1-2-1 attention and be able to go at a pace that suits you.

On our bridal makeup course, we’ll cover everything you need to know to become a really fabulous bridal makeup artist. You’ll cover all the basics, as well as some more complex techniques and business advice for starting or boosting a successful freelance business. Pam has been working in this field for over 20 years, so she has lots of tips you can’t afford to miss!

What’s Included on the Bridal Makeup Course?

Want to know exactly what you’ll be learning? Here’s our timetable breakdown:

Day 1

Skin Types
Kit Essentials
Foundation Matching
Natural & Vintage Makeup
Cream Contouring & Blush Application
The Perfect Eye Line
Advice on makeup artist discount schemes

Day 2

Smoky, Sultry, Sexy Eyes
Powder Contouring & Blush Application
Trial Runs made easy
Beautiful Brows
The Perfect Lip
Individual & Strip Lash Application
Advice on makeup artist discount
Kit & Business Advice

We supply everything you need for training.

Upcoming Dates:

London

10th & 11th October 2016

23rd & 24th March 2017

19th & 20th June 2017

Manchester

16th & 17th October 2016

15th & 16th May 2017

Book Now

We know that creating the best makeup that someone has ever had is a pretty tall order, but that’s what’s expected of you on a bride’s big day! There’s no need to freak out about it though, once you’ve attended one of our 2 day makeup courses, you’ll feel happy and confident to create any wedding makeup look and know that you’re doing it beautifully.

But being a bridal makeup artist isn’t all about technique, believe it or not! On our bridal makeup course you’ll also be given tons of invaluable advice on how to be exactly what your client needs, every time. Find out what you can do to be a step above the rest!

Be ready to work on all skin types, handle all sorts of makeup concerns and deal with any last minute issues…

Price: £449

Qualification: AQA UAS Certificate

Suitable for ALL levels

Book both a bridal hair & bridal makeup course and save £100

PLUS – Get 6 months online bridal hair training absolutely FREE!

Bridal Makeup bridal makeup course Makeup Artist wedding makeup

Wedding Hair & Makeup Planners: Available NOW!

Posted on November 30, 2015January 26, 2016 by Ruby Deevoy

Wedding Hair & Makeup Planners: Available NOW!

If you’re a bridal hairstylist or you’re starting up a new career as one after attending one of our fabulous 2 day, 4 day or online courses, then you’ll know that staying well organised is key to the success of your business.

The wedding day can be a stressful and hectic time for everyone involved and Pam knows that it will often fall on you to keep it all together! Make sure the big day goes smoothly for you and all your clients, with our brand new Create Beautiful Hair & Makeup Wedding Planners…

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Hair Planner

£12.50 (incl. UK P&P)
50 Sheets per booket

Top tip!
Try to arrange your trial runs in the quieter winter months – Jan, Feb & March so you can save you summer weekends for weddings!

Your brides will thank you for it – it’s one more thing to tick off their ‘to-do’ list

Shop Now

Makeup Planner

£12.50 (incl. UK P&P)
50 Sheets per booket

Top tip!
You need natural light to do a beautiful makeup.
Lighting in most homes is ‘yellow’ & will affect the way the makeup looks.

Don’t make it hard for yourself – arrange the trial run for during the day.

Shop Now

Joint Hair & Makeup Planner Sheets

£29 (incl. UK P&P)

Individual Planner sheets are invaluable If you do both hair and makeup

A bit too long to be kept in a book – we recommend you keep them in an A5 folder.

50 individual Hair & Makeup sheets

Top tip!
Keep to your timetable – If you have a difficult bridesmaid and time is slipping away – promise her you’ll be back to help her once the bride is ready – and move her out of the chair!!

Remember the bride is the most important person on the big day.

Shop Now

Beautiful Bridal Makeup: 5 Expert Tips for Contouring on the Wedding Day

Follow our pro makeup artist contouring tips for beautiful bridal makeup:

Less is More

Map the Face

Blend, Blend, Blend!

Highlight Darker Skin

Use Matte & Shimmer

Know Your Products

Wedding Makeup Tips: 6 Steps to Beautiful Bridal Contouring

Want to know more about how to master the art of contouring? Here are our top tips:

Start with a great base

Blend!

Know where to work

Less is more

Choose the right shades

Use great products

Create beautiful wedding makeup that lasts with these top tips:

Perfect Prep

Flawless Finish

Pick Your Products

Hair & Makeup Trial Tips

Prepare in Advance

Communicate

Body Language

What’s Included on the Bridal Makeup Course?

Day 1

Day 2

London

Manchester

Book both a bridal hair & bridal makeup course and save £100

PLUS – Get 6 months online bridal hair training absolutely FREE!

Wedding Hair & Makeup Planners: Available NOW!

Hair Planner

Makeup Planner

Joint Hair & Makeup Planner Sheets

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