When you have a special occasion or wedding is not a time to allow just anyone to play with your face or learn work as a makeup artist. Follow our tips to find and choose a good makeup artist.
Finding a really good makeup artist is hard, especially these days that everyone is looking for cash here and there and everyone and their sister and aunty and cousin is a makeup artist. As a bride, everyone will be staring at your face, at your makeup, and they will say ‘wow’ if it is fine BUT will gossip you if you look like a mini masquerade – and much of that depends on who you hire as your wedding day makeup artist.
We are happy to see many brides paying to get their face professionally done for their weddings, but many Naija brides fail to do their due diligence when choosing a makeup artist. We are tired of brides looking like masquerades in the name of makeup. Well-done makeup should not make you look unrecognizable but instead, make you look like a polished version of yourself. That’s what a skilled or professional makeup artist will give you. So, how do you know the i-wan-be-makeup-artist types from the real deal, and avoid being used as a muse for makeup practical by a learner who is looking for fast ‘chop-money’? Well, that’s what you’ll find out in this post.
- RELATED: How to Apply Eyeshadow Properly Like a Pro (Beginner Video Tutorial)
- ALSO: How to Define and Fill Eyebrow Like a Pro Using Eyepencil and Concealer (Video)
Steps to Choosing a Good Wedding Makeup Artist that Will Deliver
There are two main processes to finding a good makeup artist for your wedding or any occasion – (1) first you have to search and make a list of who and who to contact, (2) and then you have to select which one is the best fit for you.
A: Where (and How) to Find a Skilled Makeup Artist: The Discovery Process
Most Nigerian brides travel to their villages for the traditional wedding, and it is not that cheap to transport a Lagos makeup artist outside their base. So, where do you start looking when you don’t know a single makeup artist in an area. Follow our steps below:
- Ask stylish people if they know or have used a good makeup artist that they can recommend to you
- OR Internet Search: Search in Google, Instagram or Pinterest for makeup artists in your area (for most of our readers, they would type something like: ‘Nigerian makeup artists or Lagos makeup artists);
- Track Record with Doing Bridal Makeup: Be sure that the makeup artist you’re considering has done a lot of your type of events – for most of our readers, they would be looking for bridal makeup artists, not those that have not done any or plenty wedding makeup for brides. Some makeup artists are better experienced with prepping the face of runway models or film actors or stage – and they may not give you the kind of look you have in mind. OR, put in another way: if you like light makeup and hire a makeup artist that usually does heavy makeup, you will hate your wedding-day face in pictures; same goes for a bride that likes full coverage makeup hiring a makeup artist that does light-handed makeup.
- Before and After Photos: Take a look at the before and after pictures of the artist’s past clients, from an event similar to that which you will be attending (for most of our readers, you want to see before and after wedding makeup pictures – maybe you are going to be a bride, or a wedding guest, or even the mother/ sister of the bride (or groom).
- Make a List of Who to Contact: Make a list of 3 to 5 makeup artists whose before and after faces look like the face you want on your wedding day.
HINT: Follow the above 5 steps to make a list of possible makeup artists you should contact. Follow the next steps to know what to do to pick the one that is right for you.
B: Choosing the Right Makeup Artist
Once you have made a list of the good makeup artists out there, you have to choose one. Obviously, not all of them will be right for you. Here’s a guide to help you filter the good from the not-so-good list of makeup artists you compiled:
#1. Contact them one by one and have them do a TRIAL of their work on you: The idea here is to interview them to see if you ‘vibe with the person; to ‘test’ their work on your face (before your big day) so that you can see if they do your style of makeup; see photos of brides they have done makeup for in the past; show them pictures of wedding-day makeup that you like and ask if they can try it on your face; and finally to ask about price and their availability on your wedding date.
#2. See Sample Works Before You Pay, NOT Try Before You Buy: How can you be sure that a makeup artist that claims to know his/ her stuff will give you a glam face? Testing with your money could mean a hit or miss BUT the surefire way to know is to see pictures of their before and after makeovers. If you have lots of spots from pimples or have tribal marks, you’d want to see before and after makeup showing where the makeup artist truly covered a client’s spots or tribal marks. You may also want to find out that they won’t over-paint you to look like a masquerade. Seeing previous works is the only way to believing before you pay or hire a makeup artist.
- SEE Before and After Bridal Makeup from 11 Top Nigerian Makeup Artists (give idea of best artists to hire for your makeup)
#3. Hire a Professional: Don’t Allow Anyone to Learn Work with Your Face: Allowing someone to do your makeup free – whether they are an expert or an amateur is risky. Well, except you want to risk your wedding pictures – most brides tell us that one of their biggest regrets is ‘the way their poorly-done makeup made them look in their wedding photos’.
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Ebun says
Hello Stella , I have got a lot of inspiration from your site .My wedding is coming up in June and mysef and fiance came up with this color combo …Peach , silver and emerald green . am thinkiing of using peach as my lace top / silver aso oke with green embrodery but i dont know how he can use his for the engagement . cud you advise please . And also what do you think of thses colors and how can we combine it for family aso ebi gele only and aso ebi ladies / decor / chief brides maid n bestman . Sorry please i hop u understand my writeup
Hi Ebun, yout colour combo is elegant – it’s a sweet combination. Regarding how to combine matching colours with that combo for your groom’s trad wear, family members’ aso-ebi, friends’ aso-ebi, venue decoration and bridesmaids and groomsmen outfits, here’s an idea you can work with or change to suit you:
-GROOM’S TRAD WEAR: 2 colours only. Your aso-oke wrapper (silver) = his agbada AND cap (cap may or may not have the green (embroidery). His dashiki/ inner kaftan can be a neutral colour (white, cream etc). OR you may decide to have him rock only 1 colour for his entire trad attire = the colour of your lace top (PEACH); in that case his cap would be the colour of your wrapper.
-FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS’ ASOEBI: Pick one of your colours as the GELE or outfit, and then pair with suitable matching colours. For example:
PEACH GELE: green/ emerald green attire and peach gele
Blue/ navy attire and peach or gold gele or even silver gele.
Another aso-ebi group can be: Green Gele with silver/ carton colour/ cream attire
-VENUE DECOR colour combo: you won’t want to be wearing peach/ silver nd your decor / chairs and walls are all coloured like you.
Venues always look elegant in Neutral (white or cream) AND A touch of Green (that your embroidery colour) + white OR cream.
Like: white Chairs with green sash. OR whte or cream table covers with a green mapkins placed on top of flat plates.
-BRIDESMAIDS N BESTMAN during your white wedding: peach or green dresses (or purple for chief BM if BMs wear peach).
Groomsmen: blue or black or navy blue suit with peach ties.
I hope those tips would inspire you – just feel free to change up these suggestions to suit you.
Thanks a lot for taking out time to outline this for me ..i am really impressed. God bless u for d good work u r doing on this platform
Thanks, Ebun. God bless you too. I’m happy to know that the above article has made you confident on choosing a good makeup artist.
Hi Stella. Thanks for the nice work on your website. I am looking for a make-up artist for my wedding in July. I will appreciate if I get responses. Thank you so much.
hi, I agree with your post because even as a makeup artist its hard to allow someone else that i have not really seen their job to handle my face ,so at some point you are right but a teacher once needed someone to teach her/him and newbie MUAs are really ready to satisfy their clients more its a fact
Thanks, Maria. I feel you – everyone, especially brides on their wedding day, likes to have an experienced makeup artist do their makeup. But when everyone flaunts themselves as experts, it can be difficult for brides to know who is the real deal – that was why we wrote this article. Thanks foe your feedback. I agree that new and good makeup artists are likely to satisfy their clients, in order to win them back and also increase their customer-base. *But we don’t expect student makeup artists to use clients’ faces for practicals – they should be using their friends and colleagues’ faces until they graduate. Haha
My wedding is around the corner and I would like you to tell me a lovely lace fabric that worth 3000 for 5 yards as aso ebi for my friends, because I don’t really want to stress them as we just through with our programme in school.thanks
Hi Yinda. I suggest that you talk to this Aso-ebi seller (Temitope) – contact her on Facebook and tell her that NaijaGlamWedding pointed you to her (click here to go to her FB page). You’re a considerate bride, and that is very good. We always advice our brides to pick asoebis that their friends can afford.
Hi Stella,
I read your post on ‘How to select the make up artist of your choice’
I must say it was very nice of you. However, most brides and soon-to-be brides most times go for names other than quality. Don’t get me wrong please. I believe in establishment of one’s career. But sometimes, one has to overlook ‘names’ and go for what one really wants.
There are many advantages to working with a new bee in the industry. Firstly, they are more flexible. They are more willing to listen to what you have to say. At this stage, they are more or less concerned more with breaking into the industry than just making somr few bucks here and there. Whereas a household name is already balanced in the business and is therefore prepared to make money. At this moment, the new bee will go with anything you want and work with u to achieve that. She needs to know that you’ll recommend her for her efforts.
Secondly, they are more affordable and of course available. They can afford to book you in between days for practice sessions before your D day assuming you stay in same city.
Lastly, you get to meet with the main person. A beginner, most times do not have the financial capacity to have several assistants. Therefore, they take thier jobs personally other than sending others to you. There is always a feeling of satisfaction when a bride is attended to by the make up artiste herself instead of sending someone no matter how good he/she maybe
I’m a make up artiste and I must say very good at my job. I’m not a big name now but I’m diligently working towards that. Soon to be brides can reach me on 07035230985, 08092990962. I would be happy to answer fufther questions about my work. They won’t regret they did.
Thanks!
Thanks for that awesome contribution, Vivienne. Your points are very correct.
I agree that there are loads of talented MUAs who are just not yet in the public eye. I also believe that even among the popular MUAs, some are not even that good, but were just lucky. So, while there are the not-so-good (MUAs) among the popular and not-popular MUAs, we at NaijaGlamWedding.com are always about educating brides-to-be on how to spot the talented ones (popular or not). That was why I wrote this article.
Thanks for adding your own voice to the discussion, and thanks for stopping by.
Pls Stella how do I get ur number….
Hi Ogechi. You can easily contact me by clicking here OR through our Social media pages (click).
Hi Stella, nice meeting you. Yet to fix the date for my wedding but like Eka I’ve picked my colours to be turquoise,orange and purple. What do you think about the combo and how can I rock it for both traditional and white wedding? Thanks.
Hi Dorcas, you have chosen a great colour combination for your wedding. Just like the tips I gave to Eka (in the comments), you need to define how to use your colours between your traditional and white wedding. I’m a big fan of keeping colour combos simple, and so suggest choosing two of those colors as your main color combination and then adding a touch of the third. It is easier that way, and prevents colour-clashing. FOR EXAMPLE: you can use turquoise + orange OR purple + orange as your main wedding colour scheme, and then make turquoise your accents. You may want to use one set of main colour scheme for the white wedding (bridesmaid + maid of honour dress, etc) and use the other as a main colour for the traditional (aso-ebi and Gele or men’s Cap). A great way Turquoise + white on your wedding cake and/OR on the table decoration/ chair covers, your invitation cards etc. That’s just my contribution, but feel free to style your wedding colours as your creativity leads you.
Hi Stella, your site is a blessing to soon- to- be brides like myself. although I’ve not picked a date yet am planning my wedding events in advance. I’ve picked the colours Purple(Royal)/ Peach/ Gold for my day but I don’t know if that combination is ok. really need your thoughts on this. thanks
Hi Eka, thanks – we love getting positive feedback from our soon-to-be-brides. You’ve started out well, to have picked your wedding colour scheme, which sets the tone and ambiance of a wedding.
Purple, peach and gold are a popular wedding colour combination. You just have to think of how to infuse the colours into your main wedding (trad and white) elements. There are lots of ways you can pull that combo. For example:
-For the traditional wedding: purple and Gold attire for the couple, light-purple aso-ebi outfit with gold Gele for the women
-For the white wedding, ideas include: purple, peach and gold flower bouquet, purple bridesmaid dresses + peach for the chief bridesmaid, gold or peach decorated wedding cake, purple themed wedding lights as part of the hall decoration OR purple + peach for the table/ chair covers and hand napkins placed on the table.
Hopefully, those ideas can make you start thinking up even better ways of infusing your wedding colour scheme into different elements of your big day.
Hi Stella,
I am also going with Royal blue for the bridesmaid and peach for chief bridesmaid for my wedding but now I have issues with what colour the groomsmen should go for. The groom will be wearing a white and black tuxedo. What colour would you advice the groomsmen and best man to go for?
Thanks
Hi Mary, welcome to our Nigerian wedding blog. Traditionally, the groomsmen attire/ suits should coordinate with that of your groom – their outfits/ suits should be similar in style. Your groom should aim at using accessories to differentiate his look from that of his groomsmen – examples include: his tie colour/ design, cuff links, and other small details. He may even want to have the same style of suit with his groomsmen, but his own could be slightly different in colour and/ or a few small details.
2.) Your groomsmen style should also sync with your bridesmaids – one way is to use the bridesmaids dress colour to inspire the colour of your groomsmen ties or socks or shirts. That way, your entire wedding party outfit will be cohesive.
**Hope that helps.