how to prepare your face for your wedding

Tell your makeup artist if you don't want pink lips!

As some of you may know, I have locked in my makeup artist! This is much to the delight of, well, me (and hopefully Meredith!) and much to the dismay of the other brides who were also angling for this date.

Remember that time I got engaged like 87 months before our wedding? Yeah, this is why. A long engagement is kind of like getting A-level seating on the Bolt Bus. You want to sit in the front and get to chat with the driver the whole trip? All yours. Want to stretch out on the back row of three seats? You can do it because you're first on the bus! You know what DOESN'T happen when you're an A? Getting stuck sitting in front of the toilet and/or next to a 14 year-old girl who loves Robert Pattinson and just found out what you do for a living. It's all about options, people.

But, I digress. I wanted to impart some very useful information that Meredith imparted to me when I had my makeup trial a few weeks back. After all, we're not talking about a makeup artist who's working on your elbows: this is your face. This is what people will be staring at ALL NIGHT. You want to look awesome. And awesome, my friends, takes a bit of prep work.

Tips for face-awesomeness 

Bliss helps with the face awesomeness

Before your appointment:

Find photos: Before you meet with your makeup artist, prepare a Pinterest with inspiration for your bridal look. I don't mean inspiration like pictures of pre-Raphaelite goddesses floating in a golden pond. Makeup artists can't work with that nonsense. I mean actual photographs of makeup on a model (or normal being) that you think would also work well with your complexion. Complexion is the key word in that sentence. I'm sure that Kate Winslet's English rose look would look very pretty on someone who is also a rose and English, but maybe not so much when your family is from south of the Equator.

Bring your makeup with you: Most ladies are rather particular about certain products that they use. If you're addicted to an eyeliner pen or have a very specific range of lip color that you can handle, bring them with you to your appointment. Hopefully this way you won't find yourself wearing loads of copper shadow when you much prefer a charcoal. I feel like that last sentence just came out of Harper's Bazaar circa 1957.

Have a sense of what you're wearing: It's OK to have your makeup appointment before you choose your dress. But it's definitely better to have some sense of what you'll be sporting on the big day. Are you going for something simple and flowy? Then you don't want a crazy smokey eye. Ditto for any gown with bling: you want your face to outshine your decolletage and not the other way around.

Leading up to the big day:

Eye cream: This was my favorite tip from Meredith. Do you ever get those weird under-eye lines where your concealer kind of pools and makes you realize that you don't have the skin of a 14-year-old Robert Pattinson fan any more? This is what eye cream is for. If you're like me, you might pretend that you use it every day, but really it's kind of once a week ... or every two and whatever half-Asians don't really need that anyway, right? Sadly, wrong. But! Since my appointment, I have been dutifully applying every morning and night and it's made a huge difference. No more wayward concealer, my eyes are brighter and I'm making sure I'll still look 18 when I'm 38.
Recommendation: Anything from Perricone. Their creams are heavenly and smell great.

Eyebrows: Find one person that you love and stick with her/him up until the big day. (Side note: Does anyone have a dude who does their brows though? Just curious.) A Bolt Bus C-level disaster would definitely be trying out a new brow person right before your wedding and ending up with Edith Piaf's brows when you were going for Brooke Shields. Along the same lines, make sure your person is available within a few days of your wedding.
Recommendation: I swear by Thread Salon and am quite pleased there's one within walking distance of my new office.

Face wash: Like the above advice, find one facial cleanser that really works for your skin and don't deviate. After trying everything under the sun (read: whatever was on the giveaway table at work), I've finally realized that good ol' Clean and Clear is the way to be. For anyone with even a smattering of blackheads or the occasional breakout, a formula with salicylic acid will change your life. My skin has seriously never looked better.
Recommendation: Clean & Clear Advantage 3-in-1 Foaming Acne Wash

Facials: Do you know how long it takes your skin to recover from a monster session of extractions? Do you know what extractions are?  These are things you should find out well in advance of scheduling your last pre-wedding facial. Splotchy face is not a good look.
Recommendation: Bliss' Triple Oxygen Facial. My skin felt bouncy, if that's a thing. But my pores were clear, I was glowing and I felt fabulous.