Weddingbee Blog

“The best thing is to look natural, but it takes makeup to look natural.” - Calvin Klein

I can style an outfit, revamp a person’s wardrobe and pick out a fashion collection for a season in two snaps…no sweat.

But makeup??? I’m hopeless.

Lip gloss is my best friend—oh, and I love red lipstick. But eyeshadow, blush and everything in between? I’m a hot mess. Like, if you left me to my devices for too long, I end up looking like this:

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When I was little I had to wear tons of makeup for my ballet performances, and nothing felt better than taking it off at the end of the night.

So the distaste for it carried through by teen and adult years, I guess. And while the rest of my girls’ eyes would light up when we’d pass by the MAC counter, I’d make a beeline for the shoe department. (And I still do! :))

So as you can guess, I wasn’t looking forward to tackling the makeup part of my wedding in the beginning….or the middle of the wedding planning. But now it’s the last big thing to tackle on my to do list and I can’t escape it. So I started my search. I saw some pictures of some of the Hawaiian makeup artists’ work and they looked good, but not me and the makeup that I like—natural and romantic. Oh, um, and they’re a total money suck; it’s bad enough I have to wear makeup on our wedding but to pay someone serious cash for it? OOF.

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Then I convinced myself, through Miss Meerkat’s awesome makeup tutorial post and Miss Sloth’s impressive makeup adventures, that maybe I could learn to do my own makeup and not have to deal with my fears of cakey foundation and ’80s eye makeup.

OK, so I was officially motivated, excited even. I started finding looks that make my heart skip a beat. And being olive skinned, I spent HOURS trying to find these looks on fellow olive-skinned beauties.

I found 2.

FAIL.

So, I kept the other inspiration pics on the fairer skinned gals and would try and translate this for my darker skin.

Wanna see??

~ Show-stopping eyes and romantic lips ~

It’s not super obvious in my profile pic, but I have big, almond shaped eyes. When I’m excited, they are huge. I used to loathe them growing up, because all the popular girls had sparkly, small eyes. But over the years, I’ve grown to love mine and think it’d be fun to highlight them on our wedding day.

Lily’s eyes are stunning. The shadow, the liner, the lashes…even the brows! I can’t stop staring at them.

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L-O-V-E the peachy lips with the glam eyes. *sigh*

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Obsessed. I mean, if I could look like this, I would be in makeup heaven. She’s such a babe!

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~ Lips love ~

I heart all shades of red & coral lipstick. It’s kind of my thing. And, I think it’d look lovely with my dress. BUT I know it won’t look lovely on Mr. O’s lips post wedding kiss. GAH.

OK, she looks a little fierce here, but look at that lip color. It’s not too bold but makes just enough of a statement, don’t you think?

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As if I needed another reason to crush on January Jones. This is my favorite statement lip look and her eye makeup still looks amazing. It’s a makeup miracle!

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So these are my dream looks. Whether some of these will translate on my olive skin, we’ll find out soon enough! Until then, I’m off to the makeup counters and the land of Sephora to pick and prod and sample galore…I can’t wait to report back with what I find!

Bees, I’d love your thoughts. Which wedding day look do you prefer on this Ostrich and what look {and brands} are you loving for your day? And any tips on rockin’ red lipstick and the wedding day kiss would be HUGE.