Tales from a Crafty Bridesmaid: Beauty

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a real girl. Sure I have a closet full of shoes, but that's about as girly as I get. Makeup, hair, handbags, clothes. While I like looking at it, I don't own a lot of it. I also dislike having to put makeup on my face, do my hair, or put together an outfit. It's a lot of work! Seriously, it is a project to get me out the door for a function. Thank god I work in an engineering environment that allows me to wear sneakers, jeans, a sweatshirt, and doesn't allow me to wear makeup.

I follow a lot of blogs. One that I can't seem to pry myself away from is Weddingbee. Brides from all walks of life share their skills. One in particular, Miss Rainbow, is a makeup artist (MUA) shared some incredible beauty and money saving tips that you can find here. I followed her directions, purchased almost the same items (I use Dove Deep moisturizer with SPF15, Make Up Forever (MUFE) HD Invisible Cover Foundation, Sonia Kashuk skunk brush). My face, while looking very natural, was pretty flawless. Can I tell you about the finishing powder? It is AMAZING at setting your makeup. In the past, my eye shadow and eye liner have always, always bleed into the crease of my lid. But after applying a light dusting of the silica powder, it didn't move. Not. One. Bit.

Not the best pictures to show you my makeup, but you get the idea. My only failing point is my lip gloss. I knew better than to apply gloss (since I was going with anti-shine), but I completely forgot to grab lipstick on my way out (not to mention, I hate lipstick). Not only was it shiny, it was really bright. OOPS!

photo credit: mkchow, friend of the bride and groom.

Bridesmiad love (we're missing the maid of honor). Both girls also DIY'd their makeup.
photo credit: mkchow, friend of the bride and groom.



I have to tell you a funny story. Well, it's only funny now, it wasn't funny to the bride the day of her wedding. The bride had her makeup done "professionally". Her ceremony started at 11:30am. By the time formal pictures were all done after the ceremony (approximately 1pm), her makeup had run. Her false eyelashes needed to be glued back on, her eye shadow needed reapplying, as did the "waterproof" eyeliner. I was going to attempt to fix her once we purchased some eyelash glue. But we decided to run to the mall and have someone at Sephora help out. Best decision ever made. We walked through the mall and into the Sephora. I asked if someone could help my bride with an emergency makeup fix. At first we were told that they couldn't help, but then a MUA appeared and basically redid her entire face. The running joke was that MUA fixed her face and moved her nose. Sephora came to the rescue, our bride looked even more amazing than before. And all just in time for the wedding party photos to begin. It was an adventure that we will never forget.

In addition to DIY makeup, I also DIY'd my hair and my nails. I don't have any pictures to show, but I learned three things. 1) Thermal setting spray makes my hair nappy. 2) I need to invest in hairspray. I shoulda skipped the setting spray, put my hair in rollers, styled it and then sprayed it with hairspray. 3) DIY french manicures are harder and take longer than you think. Oh and no one notices them at all.

For the next event, I need to remember to K-I-S-S. Keep It Simple, Stupid!