Bridal make up artist ( The difference between a high-end and medium-end MUA)

What a mouthful of a blog post.

Sorry but that's exactly what this post is about. Seriously there are so many makeup artists (MUA) around these days with so many different prices and styles, it's really hard to find the 'perfect' one unless you really do go and have a trial done with each and everyone of them.What most brides do, is get a few recommendations, go for trial and choose the one which suits her best.

However, being a bride working in Slim River and working on-calls quite frequently, who has time for all that hassle?? What i did was get a recommendation , research on the forums and then just stick to it.

Of course, i could not find anything about make-up artists in JB, cos many of them don't have blogs and neither are there much information about them on forums (English ones anyway). But KL make-up artists are a savvy lot. They have websites, FB profiles , glowing reviews and horror stories up on the forums.Definitely a bride could do much research on the net. However, pictures do lie so a recommendation is always your best bet.

So, having had gone through 3 make up artists (one free with bridal shoot , one famous one from KL who was recommended by a friend and has glowing reviews on forums, and the MUA from JB was one who made up all my friends during their weddings).

Of course price range was also different. I do not want to 'spoil market' or anything but the price for my KL MUA was slightly less than double the price i paid for my JB MUA.

The MUA i got from Keep Gallery for my pre-wedding photoshoot was needless to say included in the package. My mistake was not insisting on choosing a make-up artist that was recommended by the forums. In fact, i did not choose at all as the sales assistant at KG insisted that all the make up artists were VERY professional and will assign the MUA based on the photographer. I thought that was odd but did not bother arguing.. Big mistake.

This is what happened.

Okay not fair i was making a face. 

This was the nicest picture i could find.

If you want to see the ugliest picture click here cos it pains me to put it up again.

Two layers of fake lashes, 'garang' eye brows and over the top eye make-up!

Bad mistake. I did tell her the make up was a tad... heavy, but she insisted that make up for photo shoots HAVE to be heavy!After chatting with my KL MUA i realized it was a big fat lie.

So what my pre-wedding MUA achieved was, obliterated all my features in one sweep by dolloping a humongous amount of foundation on my face and then for good measure decided to add on 2-3 layers of foundation on top of that.From those first few strokes, i did not look like me anymore. Being a MUA virgin then, i thought this must be how it's like. Maybe my features are not compatible with make up. Running though my mind was 'How will i face people on the actual day itself looking like this?'

Bleh.. even now i shudder at the thought of my transvestite-like self in a wedding gown parading around various parts of KL having my photo taken.Worse still, some ang moh guy had photographic evidence of it (read here) and is probably saying to hi friends back home, "... and this is how brides look like in Malaysia. Ghastly!" (assuming of course that he is Brit and speaks in Enid Blyton English.)

Thankfully the photos turned out all right. But certainly i looked unlike myself.Too much make up was the key word.

Thankfully my make-up in JB was not as horrendous but oh the stress that this make-up artist put me through!

Because i've seen her work on many of my friends, this JB make up artist- let's just call her Annie, seemed to be a really good choice. And her asking price for a whole day make-up and hair plus staying back for the second outfit change was only a middlish 3 figure sum. She was an obvious choice since i did not know any other make up artists in JB anyway. So i booked her- a freaking 6 months before hand.

So 2 months before my wedding i sent her a simple sms reminder- which yielded no reply. I then called her only to get this response:

'Oh.. you are Mei May's friend right?" (at least she remembered)"Um.. would you mind if i ask my colleague May to do the make up for you? i might be going overseas ler."

OMG. Of course i mind. I didn't book you 6 months in advance only to have you pull out 2 months ahead. And she did not even have the decency to contact me first!

Tried to find another MUA but 2 months before my wedding many of them had already been booked. And those attached to the bridal houses could not come over to the lunch venue. I had to go over to their shop!

So what to do. I accepted May with the promise that she would come and do trial make up for me beforehand.

But then.. 3 weeks before my wedding Annie suddenly says she will be available after all.So she will be doing make up for the lunch plus a stay back for the second walk in while May will do my morning make-up. Okay whatever , by that time i was so just wanting to get over with the whole wedding planning thing. And of course May did not turn up for the trial make up. I just had to trust whatever make-up style and skills she had.

And these are the results.

Morning make-up by May.

By the way love my JB photographer. Go see his work here.

May was okay. She didn't do anything outlandish. Make -up ran a bit and hair was a bit messy but i was pretty satisfied with the results.

Then for the afternoon lunch, i had Annie as my MUA.

Gorgeous photography and make-up was at least natural. She did ask my opinion first before putting on the fringe hair piece and i was game to experiment.

However was a bit bummed she did not change my hairstyle or make-up for me for the second march-in which was essentially the whole purpose of her staying back right? But nooo.. she just parted the fake fringe a bit, added a big purple bow, helped me get into my dress and that was it!

Bummer.. i was getting sick of that fake fringe and wanted it off! But of course she was hungry and wanted to leave FAST. Cheh.. and it did not help my make up had been on since 6 am in the morning. For the Lunch Annie came late! No wonder she asked me not to remove the make-up May did for me in the morning. Sh said that she had her ways. Should have known better. May told me i should remove the make-up cos the lunch would be a whole kind of make up look.

Anyway since Annie said not to remove the morning make up , i being the obedient bride heeded her instructions. So Annie basically just did some touch up and changed some eye make-up. The result of that and the fact that they used brandless make-up? OXIDATION!! Luckily my photographer was so good with playing with lighting, it did not show in any of my official pictures. But you could see clearly from my friends digital camera pics that my face was turning an ugly shade of grey!! So you do pay for what you get.

Now on to my KL wedding with Remy Ngan.

By far the best! Attentive, punctual, professional and most importantly a naturally talented artist!Sorry for gushing but she really is all that. I did not have a trial make-up with her as i was really busy and tired after the JB wedding. Furthermore since she is the more 'famous' make-up artist she had to be better than my JB make-up artist. And my JB make-up though using less than stellar make-up products did manage to make me feel pretty. I'm not fussy.

And i didn't need the trial anyway. She knew exactly what to do with my hair and make-up. She took one look at me and told me what king of person she envisioned me to be and how she would make me up to look as natural as possible. The point when i totally connected with her was when she told me : 'Why did you pre-wedding make up artist make you look so old? ' She sees what i see. I need less heavy make-up!

This is me before make up.

She is totally painting me like i'm a piece of art.

And I'm loving it. I just knew there was something different about her.

And these are the results.

I specifically requested for flowers 'cos i love the flower-in-hair look.

 Natural make-up to hide my imperfections and unconventional facial features, beautiful yet simple  hairdo, what more can a bride ask for? It almost looks effortless.It helped so much that she had a great eye of aesthetics in general. She picked up straight away that my evening gown needed major ironing (Thanks Yeng Wen and Yung2!) and she helped me look better in my wedding gown. I can't tell you how but don't you think i filled this gown so much better than my JB ones? She even prepared a 'care pack' of q-tips and a straw for me to use throughout the day.Thoughtful and experienced or what?

And i so do love my dinner hairdo.I think this is the very first time in my life that i actually looked elegant!

I don't really know how she did it. But i remember her using her fingers, minimal bobby pins and minimal hairspray too.It was actually already really nice without the flowers but yeah i sort of insisted i wanted flowers! And these posies were fresh of my bouquet. On hindsight she was spot on that i didn't need the roses, but still with the roses it wasn't a total mess either.

And the front part of the hair did not bother me at all. It stayed in place quite well the whole night!

I would say money well spent! 

I wish i had her for JB. The make-up products she used were a mix of high end and medium range brands. She has though a penchant for Japanese based cosmetics some of which are not even available in Malaysia.I had a peek and saw Paul & Joe, MAC and Canmake among others. She also used a Beautymaker product to prep my skin before make -up.

Thanks Remy!!

 So yup, that is the difference a make-up artist makes to a bride. So girls do your research and find someone who really suits you cos looking good gives you the confidence to thoroughly enjoy your day without feeling self conscious about donning a can-can and over the top gown and lots of make-up.

PS. I'm not affiliate to Remy in any way but i am a fan.