A Makeup Trial (Or: Why I Heart Sephora)

I am one of those people who doesn't really know what she's doing with makeup. On an average day I put on a tiny amount of brown eye liner, a little mascara, some bronzer that I bought about a bazillion years ago at The Body Shop, and some chapstick. Makeup look done. Despite the fact that I am fairly makeup illiterate, I decided a while back that I would definitely be doing my own makeup on my wedding day. I have a couple of reasons for this. First of all, our wedding is in a not-too-big town in Maine, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a really great makeup artist for the big day. Second of all (and more importantly), I feel like it's kind of a waste to spend a whole ton of money to have someone else do your makeup just for your wedding day, when you could spend that money on some really nice makeup that you could keep for yourself and continue using over and over instead.

And that made the decision for me. I would buy myself some nice new makeup. (Or in actuality, my sister would buy me some new makeup for Christmas as a gift.) I would then be able to use my new makeup on my wedding day... and on any other day that I wanted, since it would be mine to keep :-) So... this past weekend my sister and I headed out to the mall to pay a visit to the friendly makeup artists at Sephora so that I could find my "bridal" makeup look.

Like any good bride, I went with some inspiration in hand:

Oh Leighton Meester. Your character may be kind of a bitch on Gossip Girl, but I think you're gorgeous anyways... and I love your makeup here. Can I have glowy cheeks too, just like you? Please? Thank you!

...and Jessica Alba, your makeup also looks sparkly and radiant. I like how your eyes are a bit more dramatic in this picture than in the previous one of Leighton. Maybe we can make my eyes look like this too. Mmm kay?

I showed these two pictures to the makeup artist at Sephora, and she got right to work. She was also really good about explaining exactly what she was doing as she applied my makeup, so that I would be able to recreate the look at home. And now, here is my transformation from regular old ho-hum to stunning Leighton Meester / Jessica Alba lookalike (or something like that)...

Here's the "before" picture:

Ick. The Astronomer with no makeup on!

...and here's what I looked like a couple of hours after the makeup trial, when I finally managed to get my hands on a camera:





My makeup artist gave me a cute little form, listing the names of all of the products that she used. The form also showed pictures reminding me how to apply the different products. Meet Sephora Sally. Doesn't she look just like me?



Here is the list of all of the products that were used during my makeup trial. My sister bought some of them for me for Christmas... plus a really great set of makeup brushes that I am super excited about. (I currently apply my eye makeup with my fingers, so this seems like a giant step up!)

Complexion:
- Smashbox luminous tinted moisturizer
- Smashbox flash artificial light
- Smashbox HD concealer light (for those pesky under-eye circles!)

Eyes:
- Smashbox eye shadow in walnut and shell
- Smashbox primer for eye shadow (this stuff was awesome!! It made my eye shadow stay put for hours, and I never got any pesky creases in my eye makeup in all that time.)
- Makeup Forever Aqua eye liner in colors 0L (for the liner) and 23L (a lighter color for highlighting the inside corners of my eyes)
- Korres black mascara

Cheeks:
- Smashbox blush in "paradise" (We ended up buying NARS blush in super-orgasm instead, since I still felt like my cheeks needed some extra "oomph" in the pictures, and the NARS blush has a lot more shimmer.)
- Smashbox suntan matte bronzer

(My makeup trial didn't include lips, since I'm planning on just using some lip gloss that I already own.)

Has anyone else out there had a makeup trial at Sephora? How did it go? ...are you planning on DIY-ing your wedding day makeup, or are you hiring a professional?