My wedding makeup

Start with the reference — how do you want to look?

When you choose your wedding makeup, the first thing to settle is not a lipstick shade or the shape of a liner. It is how you want to look, and how you want to feel, on that day.

Do you want the most natural version of yourself, where makeup only softly emphasizes your features? Or something more expressive — visible contouring, defined eyes, a stronger lip, lashes?

This is where the difference between soft glam and full glam matters, and it is worth naming before you write to anyone.

What I wanted, and what I got.

Looking at my own reference now, with a professional eye, I can see exactly what I was asking for: full glam. An expressive look — clear contouring, strongly defined eyes, an accent lip, lashes. A polished, striking result.

The artist I chose worked mostly in soft glam. She did not use the more intense techniques my reference required. So she gave me makeup in her habitual style rather than the one in the photograph I had shown her.

Only later, going back through her portfolio with a professional eye, did I see the pattern: almost every look was done in the same technique.

Ask the portfolio, not the artist.

Look at the actual work. Does the portfolio contain makeup at the intensity and in the technique you want?

If you love full glam and nearly everything you see is light soft glam, pause. The reverse is just as true: if you want the most natural makeup possible, an artist known for very bold looks may not be the right choice either.

A good reference helps you name what you want. The portfolio tells you whether that result is where this particular artist is strongest.

The same goes for hair.

I would check the hair portfolio separately, and I would do it as carefully as the makeup.

My reference had a soft Hollywood wave — smooth, brushed out, held as one piece. What I got were ordinary curls. They were curled, but never brushed into that wave, and after a while they visibly began to fall out.

Later I understood that she specialized in makeup first, and hair was not her strength. Looking carefully at her work, I could have seen that before the wedding.

And here the mistake was mine: I studied her portfolio as a makeup artist and barely looked at her as a hairstylist.

So if one person is doing both your makeup and your hair, judge the two separately. Beautiful makeup in a portfolio does not mean the same hands are equally good at complex, long-holding bridal hair.