Speaking of weddings, a great resource for all GTA brides-to-be out there is Toronto Wedding Professionals.

Toronto Wedding Professionals consolidates wedding vendors and resources throughout Southern Ontario on one frequently updated blog. Here’s a little bit more about TWP taken from the site:

This blog will showcase local event & wedding vendors that covers Southern Ontario. It will provide you with useful information, websites, inspiration, ideas, vendor profiles and interviews from wedding vendors that can make your wedding special & unique.

TWP is an initiative orchestrated by Dan Deveau, the talented owner and primary photographer behind Life In a Flash Photography. Check out Dan’s site to see his fresh perspective on wedding photography and the truly wonderful work he has provided for many couples throughout Southern Ontario.

Be sure to check out the TWP site for plenty of helpful wedding planning tips!

So maybe you've decided you should do your own make-up on your wedding day, or perhaps the make-up artist you wanted is fully booked? Try these pro make-up tricks to help put your best face forward for the professional photography ahead of you and to help the make-up stay put into the wee hours of the morning:

CHOOSE YOUR LOOK

Look through magazines and books for examples of naturally enhanced make-up so you have a guide to work with when doing your own. Avoid a look that's too trendy and stick to a look that's more traditional (think about what you'll think in 25 years when you look back on your wedding photos).
TIP: Do at least a couple of trial runs on yourself with your desired look to get a feel for the time it will take and to see how the final product turns out (just in case you need to re-evaluate the look and go back to the drawing board!)

FACE MAKE-UP

Use a foundation primer after cleansing and moisturizing, but before applying foundation.
TIP: Choose a primer that contains mattifying ingredients to help absorb and reduce excess shine on the face throughout the day.

Use a light to medium coverage foundation. You want your skin to be glowing and not hidden behind layers of caked-on make-up for the close-up photos you'll be taking. Blend!

Use concealer to get rid of any unevenness in the skin (i.e. undereye circles, blemishes). Be sure to blend.

Set the concealer and foundation with a dusting of translucent powder. Powder will help to keep the concealer and foundation stay put and reduce shine on the face.
TIP: Pack some powder for the rest of the day to touch up the T-zone and any other oil-prone areas of the face. You will be thankful you did it, especially with all the flash photography you'll face. You're definitely the star for the big day, but we have to make sure you're not shining in the wrong places!

Dust some matte blush (save the shimmer for nightclubs) on the cheeks, to give yourself a glow and ensure you don't fade when the bright flash of the camera starts going.

EYE MAKE-UP

Apply a layer of a cream eyeshadow (try MAC’s Paint Pots in a neutral colour). The layer of cream eyeshadow will act as a base for the powder eyeshadow to adhere to and help it last (and remain crease-free!) throughout the day.

Use gel liner or liquid liner to keep your eyeliner lasting all day. Keep the line thin and tight with the lashline (see the technique). The line can get slightly thicker towards the outer edge of the eye (where the lashes are prominent), and can be extended just slightly to product a wide-eyed look.

Apply neutral shades of eyeshadow to enhance the structure around the eye. Use a matte brown for the crease, and a highlighter shade on the browbone (slight shimmer is ok, but avoid frosty eyeshadows as it will be too much for your photos.)

Curl your eyelashes and add some false eyelashes for a professional make-up look. False eyelashes have an eye-opening and enlarging effect on the eye that even the most perfect application of eyeliner can't produce. You should definitely practice these a couple of times to get a handle for the application or ask a friend to help you apply tip.
TIP: Cut a false eyelash set into halves. Use the half-set on the outer edge of the top lashes for a wide-eyed look. Make sure you place the longer false lashes towards the outer edge of the eye (where your own longer lashes are). Using the half-set will be alot easier to apply on yourself than a full set of falsies.

Curl your eyelashes once more to align the false set with your own and set the look with two coats of a waterproof (important) mascara.

LIPS

Choose a lipstick that is 2 shades darker than your inner bottom lip for a naturally enhanced look. Use it with a matching lipliner to prevent any feathering of your lipstick and lipgloss. Once the lipliner has been applied, take a lip brush, smile and blend the the lipliner towards the centre of your lips so that it can act as a base for the lipstick to cling to.

Apply the lipstick with the lip brush for more control. Do one layer of lipstick and blot with a one-ply tissue so the colour seaps into the lips. Then, using the lip brush once more, top off with another coat of lipstick for long-lasting lip colour. Finish with gloss if desired.
TIP: Rather than applying gloss all over the lips, apply a light coat and concentrate the gloss on the middle bottom lip to make the lips look full. Your groom will thank you for not overdoing the lipstick and gloss - especially when it comes to the "you may kiss the bride" kiss!

SHOPPING TIPS

Make an appointment with a make-up counter to get some free products. Usually, a make-up application is 'free' upon the purchase of a certain amount of products (approximately $50). If you need to update your make-up bag, this is a great way to gain some full-sized products for touch-ups on the day of...and you can also gain helpful tips from the artist you work with. Make sure you hold onto a mirror as you're getting your make-up applied so you have an idea of how to replicate the look.

You can also ask for sample sizes in the colours you need. These sample sizes given are usually perfect for touch-ups and small enough for putting in your purse for later rather than lugging the full-sized products.

This is your big day and no part of it (especially the make-up) should be stressful so smile and have fun. For as much as make-up can fake glowing skin, it can’t replace the natural glow of a happy bride’s smile! Enjoy!

Q: There seem to be tons of brushes out there to choose from. Do I really need make-up brushes to apply my make-up?
A: No matter what a salesperson may tell you, it really depends. If you have a basic make-up kit or use a minimal amount of make-up (i.e. a routine of powder, lip gloss and mascara), then brushes will just be added fuss and useless to you.

If you do anything more, a good set of brushes is an absolute necessity in my opinion. The product glides on better when you use good-quality brushes. Brushes can last you a long time provided that you take care of them properly - I've had some of mine for ten years! It may seem like a lot of money to spend initially, but it pays off long-term, as you won't have to spend on little applicators, sponges, etc.

Some basic brushes that you need:
1. powder/bronzer brush
2. blush brush (i prefer an angled type)
3. eyeshadow brush - medium, dome-shaped
4. eyeshadow brush - crease, smudging brush
5. eyeshadow brush - slanted (for filling in eyebrows or doing eyeliner)
6. lip brush

See here for more details.

Price: $8
Where to find: drugstores
Review: love it, kitessential

Filling in the brows is a trick I had to master at an early age, as my fascination with tweezers began when I was the tender age of 12. My brows never recovered - instead only to grow back in areas outside of where I would need them to (isn't that how it always goes?!). I didn't get the technique and the product right immediately, so there is past photo evidence out there of my brows looking either caterpillar thick (in an attempt to overcompensate for over-tweezing) to pencil thin (bad early 90s trend). I was pretty much filling in the brows before I actually knew how to do it properly, but fortunately, with experimentation and experience, there were gradual improvements.

Aside from the technique, one of the integral components to getting a great set of brows (if you don't have them already naturally) is to buy the right eyebrow fill-in product. I swear by Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown for my own applications and for clients with brown to black hair colour*. The Rimmel pencil in Dark Brown is perfect for a natural eyebrow look. The texture of the pencil is more waxy (and less creamy) which aids in achieving those light, feathery strokes when filling the perfect brow in. It also helps to ensure that the brow is not drawn on too heavy (think of those permanent tattooed brows that look obviously unnatural). The price point of $8 means you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on an expensive 'eyebrow kit' to resurrect your brows to their previous glory.

*The pencil also comes in a Hazel colour for those with lighter coloured hair. For blonde haired ladies, I would suggest an ashy blonde

TIP: Use a matching coloured matte (no sparkles allowed for this one) eyeshadow with an angled brush to blend in the pencil and give it a softer look. The powder also helps to set the look and make sure your great brows take you from morning to evening!

For more tips on how to fill in brows, check out this previous Beauty 101 post on the Power of Good Brows. See the before and after of Cheryl (pictured above).

A beautiful last Sunday of summer with the gorgeous Scerena - what a nice way to end the weekend! Not many people can wear the bold red lip colour well, but Scerena pulled it off effortlessly making it all come together with her outfit and accessories. She kept her clothes neutral (mainly black and white), and then added accents of colour with red accessories (and lips!) for an extremely classy look.
The same advice applies to make-up when dealing with bold colours: If you're going for a bold lipstick colour, pair it with a softer eye make-up look (and vice versa pair a dramatic smoky eye with a neutral lip colour). Keep this in mind and you'll avoid having that "too much make-up" look that just never looks right!