Molly's Preview

This weekend, I had the honor of getting Molly ready for her wedding to fiance Marvin. It was special for me because they're the managers for my spa! I was so excited to make Molly even more beautiful than she already is for her wedding day. Here's a little preview of the beautiful couple!

I'm so excited to get the photos back from their nuptuals in a couple weeks. Molly is more of a natural girl who doesn't even wear eyeliner, so we went with a dewey fresh-faced look with an emphasis on big eyes with champagne eyeshadow with light shimmer and beautiful lashes. More photos to come soon!

Angela and Jim's Wedding

Here are the photos from Angela's summer nuptial to Jim, the father of her beautiful children! I had such a great time getting Angela and her daughter ready for their walk down the aisle. We went for a classic smokey eye with big lashes and a pale pink lip. She looked chic and sophisticated for her garden wedding.

Congratulations Angela and Jim!

Special thanks to Jessica Sterling of Jessica Sterling Photography for these shots! Love the candid ones of me and the flower girl! She was so cute with her little Starbucks cup full of Hot Cocoa.

Don't Go Empty Handed On Your Wedding Day

You've planned for six months.. a year.. two... your whole life for your wedding day. This involves a great deal of planning, budgeting, and making note of every little detail. When that day finally arrives, it's time to relax, enjoy your special moments, and be relaxed. Unfortunately, the day can be filled with little emergencies. Having a Bridal Emergency kit on hand with a bridesmaid is the best way to be prepared for any little mishap that can occur and keep you looking and feeling your best, minus the stress! In this post, I'll break down what I've seen the most prepared brides have on hand that was genius, and some things you may not even realize will come in handy!

The first thing to remember is to have a bag on hand big enough to hold all your little discreet details. Have a bridesmaid tote it to your ceremony and keep it somewhere close at the reception. After all, these are your best girls there to help you out! These bags can still be a stylish detail to your event and not an eye sore. Check out our favorites..

Bride Cosmetic Bag $22.39 Target.com

Gold Sparkle Shoulder Bag $19.99 Daisyshoppe.com

Dreamy Lovers Tote $1.50 Forever21.com

Now that you've picked out the best emergency bag for your needs and budget, let's take a look at what to fill it with..

• Q-Tips these are a MUST; make-up removing, nail polish smudging, so many uses!
• Makeup Remover
• Cream Cleanser - can take off any amount of makeup while still hydrating the skin
• Mario Bedascu Drying Lotion - for last minute stress breakouts
• Lipstick - in a color close to or the exact match of the one you are wearing
• Lipgloss - clear or neutral pink is your best bet
• Tissues
• Extra pair of cheap diamond earrings
• Extra Wedding Band - you can find cheap gold or silver rings at Forever21
• Mini Sewing Kit - make sure you have thread in white, ivory, and bridesmaid dress colors
• Tampon
• Tide To Go Pen
• Lip Balm
• Deodorant
• Mini Alcohol Bottle - to calm the last minute nerves!!
• Nail File
• Clear Nail Polish
• Nail Clipper
• Bobby Pins - in the bride's and bridesmaid's hair colors
• Rat Comb - to smooth out any bumps in the bridal hair from getting on the gown!
• Band Aids
• Aspirin
• Aleve
• Immodium A.D. - this is pretty self explanatory but the bride wants to be out of the bathroom during her big day!! Not a lot of kits even think of this, but lots of alcohol is not good for anxious tummies!
• Floss
• Baby Wipes or Disposable Travel Washcloths
• Batteries
• Phone Charger
• Foldable Flats - for when your feet are DONE with those beautiful, but hurtful heels
• Permanent Marker
• Vaseline - this keeps panties from riding up and lipstick from getting on teeth!
• Mints
• Visine
• I.D.
• Credit Card
• Chalk - gets stains out of the wedding dress
• Baby Powder - no chafing on any body part here!
• Bridal and Bridesmaid Dresses Extra Buttons
• Small Scissors
• Safety Pins
• Glamour Tape - to hold straps up, etc.
• Straws - making hydration intake easily accessible with no ruining of lipstick
• Tweezers
• Mirror
• Granola Bar/Banana - keep up your potassium and protein!
• Mini Lint Roller
• Hand Sanitizer
• Mini Hair Spray

More than you thought, I know. The sad truth is, those cute little pre-made kits in wedding stores don't cut it. There are common mishaps that involve every single one of these supplies and on your wedding day, it's better to be prepared than be longing for something you didn't bring or begging a bridesmaid to run to a 7/11 pre-ceremony. Most of these items can be found at your neighborhood Target and Walmart and you probably already have a majority of them in your current medicine cabinet and bathroom drawers! A bride can easily put together this kit for under 100 bucks and get a good night's sleep knowing she's ready for whatever comes, and have only happy memories of her wedding day!

Angela and Jim's Purple Perfect Wedding

This past Saturday, I had the honor of being Angela's artist for her marriage to Jim. A couple of Angela's friends got together and hired me to do her bridal makeup as a surprise wedding present!

My biggest surprise? How calm she was! Amidst her children needing to get ready and quite a large family bustling about, she was the perfect example of what a happy and calm bride was! Patient, relaxed, with no hurry in her voice or expression. I'll have what she's having, please!

We talked as I worked and she sipped on a glass of champagne. Her ceremony was at the beautiful Sheraton Hotel in Anaheim right by Disneyland in the courtyard with picturesque waterfalls and rock accents. It was simply gorgeous. What I loved best was her attention to the details. Her daughter was the flower girl and had customized satin purple Converse as did her baby boy!

Angela was such a pleasure to work with and a beautiful bride! We went for a dramatic shimmering eye with a soft pink lip. Very Kim Kardashian and gorgeous on her. Here's a sneak peak with more to come in the near future

Congratulations Angela and Jim!!

The Classic Bride: Glam Lips

I can't believe I'm actually about to write this, but it's true.. Fall is almost here! Come Autumn, all the tones go deeper and hues come out in gorgeous plums and reds. A red lip is seen on almost every woman looking to be the ultimate classy chic bride from September to March! The look is easier than it seems! I gave Alissa a bridal look that is perfectly easy on the eyes with lovely eyes and a killer dramatic pout.            

A red lip has some essential steps needed to pull it off. 

Firstly, match the undertones of the lipstick with the undertone of your skin. If you have a cool skin tone, such as pink, then the red shade you choose needs to have undertones of blue or purple. Alissa has very pinkish hues in her skin, so this deep blue-red lipstick by Mary Kay called Red Salsa was perfect with her and topped with a deep pinkish red gloss. If you have warmer tones in your skin such as yellow, then more orange based reds are best.
Conceal around the lip line. Blend a concealer that is one slight shade lighter than the skin tone around the mouth stopping at the lip line. This creates the appearance that the lips are slightly prominent and gives a clean edge.
Choose a lip liner in the same shade family as the color you are using and line the lips. Correct any shape concerns. Fill in the liner.
Fill in the lip color with a lip brush. Use the edge of the brush to create a smooth, straight line along the lip line. Blot to adhere the color to the lips and remove any excess, then fill in again.
Top with a gloss of your choice and you have yourself a gorgeous red lip!

Today For You, Tomorrow For Me!

If I'm not doing weddings, I love doing costume makeup, especially theatrical. It's a talent to make someone look like a character and the results can be astounding! Last week I entered a Project Broadway competition in which models were transformed to resemble a character from leading Broadway musicals. I was ecstatic to join this project, especially when my team of three cosmetologists and an esthetician pulled RENT as our musical. We chose the character Angel and had the perfect model, Haley, to begin our transformation.

The goal was challenging. I needed to transform Haley, a woman, into a man who dresses as a woman. For work like this, concealers and contours are essential! I applied a foundation three shades darker than Haley's natural skin tone to get her skin to a darker ethnicity more similar to Angel's background. Her brows were thickened and sharply defined with a deep brown eyebrow pencil. Her eyes were going to be one of the most defined features for this look. I used darker mattes to accentuate her eye into an elongated shape and filled in her crease to deeply set her eyes. 

Men who dress like women are all about highlighting! For Haley, I used a white eye pencil (Milk by NYX) right under her brow to the crease and went over it with a shimmery white pigment. Two sets of lashes were used for her eyes. The part that changed her the most, however, was contouring. I took a darker powder and an angled face brush and darkly shaded a sharp line into her cheek bones and along her neck to create the shadow of an adam's apple. The five o'clock shadow was created with brown powder eyeshadow through facial gauze and an eyebrow pencil lightly shaded to create a double chin. And for her finishing touches, I used a bright red lip liner and lipstick with dabs of white eyeshadow in the center of her pout with a clear gloss overcoat to make her lips fuller.

Here was our finished look! The fabulous Haley as Angel from RENT

The entire project was a blast to work on and the best part was that our fabulous team came in second place for our efforts!

I said, "Yes!" too!

So I wrote a little bit before about the joyous update of planning my own wedding!! This week I received our engagement photos that my fiance and I had the pleasure of doing with Michelle Kirchner of MK Studios. Be sure to check out her link, she is a true artist! We picked the Los Rios Historic District in nearby San Juan Capistrano because of its beautiful vintage appeal with the old cottage homes and train station. The photos turned out beautifully. I did my own make up for the portraits, so I decided to share some of our favorite shots.

For the day time pictures I decided to go with a very light smokey eye and concentrate on big, natural looking lashes with individuals temporarily glued in and a peachy pink lipgloss. This is the iconic Chanel lipgloss in Orgasm and is a must have in any girl's make up bag!

Congratulations also to everyone engaged or married this summer!!

Lauren's Country Wedding

Last month on April 15th I had the wonderful pleasure of getting Lauren ready for her wedding. What a beautiful woman, inside and out! Just take a look for yourself..

We had a smooth trial together before her big day and decided on a very natural look with a slightly smokey eye and a pale lip. What I loved so much about Lauren's makeup was that she kept it true to herself! So many times I encounter brides that want to go full glam with a red lip that they have never worn before only to receive pictures and barely recognize themselves! Of course, it is gorgeous on some women, but for Lauren, this was perfect.

Lauren is a burn survivor who experienced a third degree burn when she was younger from a pot of boiling water. I used a mixture of yellow and skin-tone concealer to mask the dark shadows, sallows and pigmentation of the scarring along her forehead and cheek bone so you wouldn't notice them in her photos, but never one to be shy, Lauren left her arms untouched and stood radiant just as she was! For her hair, she chose this gorgeous braided back up do I fell in love with!

The wedding took place at Strawberry Farms, a rolling hill golf course set in the hilly area of Irvine, CA with a picture-esque barn reception. I had the opportunity to also work with her younger sister, a bridesmaid, and the mother of the bride. The whole day was surprisingly relaxing! She showed not a bit of nervousness as she sat around with her friends, chatting, laughing and sipping mimosas. I hope my day goes just as smooth!

You can see more photos of Lauren and her bridal party on my Portfolio. Photos courtesy of David Nget Photography. Congratulations to Lauren and Doug!

Ring By Spring!

Spring is my second favorite season because, come April, everything becomes Wedding Fever! I remember in college, a girl's goal was not just to graduate, but to have a "Ring By Spring", meaning she would become engaged before spring of her senior year. Of course, that didn't happen for me. I was lucky just to finally get out of there with a Bachelor's Degree! But for many of my friends, they were wonderfully blessed with amazing men that came into their lives early and their college wish was granted!

With so much going on during wedding season, I want to take the stress out of your very special day. I am in the middle of planning my own wedding and know all too well the stress and struggle of getting everything settled and having the budget to match those extensive plans! That's why Kiss the Bride Beauty Services makes sure that every month brings you a new promotion to take the bite out of your beauty planning!

This month, in honor of Mother's Day and all things Spring:

• Every Mother of the Bride or Groom makeup is complimentary
• Free Trial Run when you book your event or wedding in May
• Free Lash and Application with any prom makeup service

I hope that this helps any bride with her budget, and I am excited to begin gearing up to meet and work with all of you.

-Lauren of Kiss the Bride Beauty Services