Bridal Glow on a Budget

If you’re on a budget, hiring a pricey makeup artist to create your bridal glow isn’t the best way to spend your dollars. With a little bit of practice and the right tools, any bride can create her own beautiful bridal glow for under $40. Even better, the $40 spent on the right makeup is a lasting gift to yourself that keeps on giving – unlike the makeup artist, whose fabulous makeup kit is whisked away once you’re made up. Ready to glow? Read on for two critical tips to get a flawless blushing bride glow that lasts.

1. Create a long-lasting foundation.

The typical wedding day lasts 8 hours, but goes by in a blur. This means your makeup will have to last throughout ceremony tears, touching toasts, cake smashing and dance floor boogying – with minimal touch-ups. It’s a tall order for your makeup, which is why it might take more than one foundation to do the trick.

Foundation 1: Long Lasting Liquid

We recommend both a dewy, long-lasting liquid foundation paired with a mineral foundation dusted lightly on top to keep it in place. Choose a long-lasting foundation that suits your skin type (i.e. oily skin should go for a dryer, non-oily foundation while dry skinned divas are best suited to a more moisturizing formula), and test it out by carefully applying in the morning and avoiding touch ups throughout the day. When you get home from work, check out the damage – is your foundation still doing it’s job? If so, you’ve found a winner.

Foundation 2: Flawless Mineral Powder

After evening out your allover skin tone with your long lasting foundation, it’s time to apply your hidden ace – a mineral foundation. We absolutely love i.d. Bare Escentual’s line of mineral foundations – they have an SPF (to avoid sunburn at an outdoor summer ceremony), are full coverage, look natural, and stay put all day long. Dip your finger lightly in the mineral foundation and apply directly to stress-related zits for fuller coverage (press foundation into the skin until the blemish blends evenly), and use a blush brush (their kabuki brush works great) to add a light layer of the mineral powder across all your potential shine areas – forehead, nose, cheeks and chin. If you tend to crinkle a lot around the eyes when you smile, go light on the mineral foundation in these areas to avoid looking overly made up. Liquid foundation will soften your lines, while powder foundation can tend to settle in the lines and look harsh.

Now that your skin is perfectly even toned and mattified, it’s time to bring in the bridal glow.

2. Get Your Glow On with Creme Blush.


With a perfectly matte base, it’s time to bring on the bridal glow. Use a cream (or liquid) blush for a completely natural, just-flushed look. Unlike mattifying powder blush, liquid blush is a soft, natural look that brings more depth to the cheekbones. Many also come with a bit of highlighter in the shade, which really makes a bride look radiant on her big day. The Bodyography Creme Blush is perfect for layering on until you get your desired shade of blush. Peachy, nectar hues look gorgeous on just about every skin tone and always look fresh and natural.

Extra-Long Lasting Tip:

For a peachy glow that never fades, add the first layer of creme blush after your liquid foundation. Brush the mineral foundation over to set, and reapply an additional layer of blush. This will give you the same sheer glow, but has tremendous staying power and won’t fade throughout the day.