This post on my Charlotte Tilbury make up haul is partly just a vehicle for me to announce some exciting news/humble brag: our wedding is only being featured on my favourite wedding blog, Love My Dress! The article is being written by the lovely Emily who I met while browsing dried flower crowns – can’t believe I just wrote that line – at A Most Curious Wedding Fair last March. It posts on Monday 5th September and I am very close to peeing my pants with excitement.
Anyway, writing my submission for LMD got me thinking about all the things about our day that shied away from the traditional (big country house aside!) We ditched the cake, had a website instead of paper invites, our ‘top table’ was bang in the middle of the action, the bridesmaids wore white and I wore green, Pete had a groomswoman and our ring bearer had four legs and a waggy tail… Also, I did my hair and make up myself. I chose to do the latter partly because I don’t trust any make up artist not to make me look like a Towie extra, but mainly because I wanted an excuse to splurge at my favourite luxury make up brand, Charlotte Tilbury. And splurge I did… after an hour’s tutorial at the new Covent Garden mecca, I literally handed over my credit card, eyes shut, and said “I’ll take it all!”
So, what did I remortgage our marital home for? First up was the famous Magic Foundation which comes in 12 different shades, making it reassuringly easy to avoid any hint of tangerine face. I normally use a blend of lighter Becca Ever-Matte Shine Proof Foundation and darker MAC Pro-long Wear Waterproof Foundation depending on how tan I am, but the Magic Foundation Shade 4 seems to work on my skin even when I’m a bit darker than usual. The blurb on the website calls this ‘totally full-coverage yet completely weightless’ and, to be fair, it really did give me great poreless-looking skin with a proper glow. It was massively satisfying watching my blotches and shine magically Photoshopped away during my tutorial. Embarrassingly I also learned to use a brush to apply foundation for the first time. Yes, I’ve been using my fingers for almost two decades and apparently that’s not good! I made do with this cheap Real Techniques buffing brush from Boots and it really does make a huge difference to how the base goes on.
Next up, concealer. Because I was so bloody excited I got less than two hours sleep the night before the wedding, which meant this little copper tube, aka The Retoucher, was my lifeline on the big day. It hid my dark circles and barely needed reapplying from the first application at about 10.30am to my collapse at 11pm… obviously I was too drunk and sweaty to care anyway post First Dance, but nonetheless!
I’ve been a powder addict since my school days when a pressed powder compact was about the only make up product I owned (Natural Collection or Body Shop if I remember right). I’ve always had an unholy fear of a shiny nose and this Air Brush Flawless Finish powder is the perfect talisman. As you can see from this pic, I’ve used it a lot over the last six weeks! Not sure if that’s a reflection on the lasting power of the product or that obsessive fear I mentioned…
Unfortunately while my teenaged self was manically powdering her nose, she was also plucking her eyebrows into sad, brutalised lines. I’ve been trying to make it up to them ever since and own a scary amount of eyebrow paraphernalia. Having gone too far the other way in the recent past (Pete actually spotted my eyebrows from 10 metres across the street) I was always going to invest in a great eyebrow pencil for the wedding. I wanted a tool that would create a natural looking but thick brow; while this Brow Lift pencil in Cara D didn’t make me look like Cara Delevingne, it did make my brows look frickin’ awesome. The Shape end has a great brush while the squared off Shade stick lets you precisely shade in individual brows. But my favourite bit has to be the hidden ‘Lift’ highlighter in the middle, which really does lift your face when applied on the brow bone. It looks fab in the inner corner of the eye too.
It’s likely that you’ve seen the product above before; this is the famous Filmstar Bronze & Glow, raved about by vloggers and the many celebrities flaunting Charlotte Tilbury on the red carpet. There’s a reason – it’s amazing. When my make up artist swept the highlighter over my cheekbones and then used the same Powder & Sculpt brush to shade underneath, I actually gawped at the change in my face. This little palette delivers serious bone structure in a few brush sweeps and the case is super pretty too. I don’t generally buy into full-on contouring but the subtle effect is less Kardashian and more Hollywood glam. If you’re going to buy one Charlotte Tilbury product, make it this one! And if you want to see it in action, there are a ton of YouTube videos by beauty vloggers that do it justice (I’m not doing a video – there’s a reason I didn’t do a wedding speech).
In the store I finished with the Cheek to Chic blusher in Ecstasy but resisted buying it, as I have so many blushers I already love at home (on the wedding day I used my cheap but fabulous Topshop Everything Stick in Tenacious).
So, face done, we moved to eyes. This is the Rock ‘N’ Kohl in Elizabeth Violet, the liner responsible for my Tilbury infatuation. The mauve stick pictured here has been in my make up bag for about two years (I know that’s bad) and delivered the perfect smudge of purple to bring out the green in my eyes and dress on the big day. It probably delivered a hefty dose of bacteria too, but hey ho.
Now this pot of shimmery fairy poop (Tilbury’s Eyes to Mesmerize) is the only bit of make up I bought exclusively for the wedding day; the greeny grey shade seemed to have been created with my exact dress colour in mind. This is Veruschka, a “minky-mossy golden grey-green” cream eyeshadow that you can build up to various intensities of gorgeousness. I love this product so much but it’s not exactly everyday wear, so unless you attend glamorous events on a regular basis it’s probably one to invest in for a special occasion.
I didn’t buy new mascara because I couldn’t bear to cheat on my current squeeze, ‘Better Than Sex’ by Too Faced. This is a great brand; vegan-friendly (more on that below) and a fail safe source of brilliant eye products. This mascara has an ‘hour glass’ wand that picks out each individual lash to lengthen, thicken and curl. I don’t understand mascaras that don’t even pretend to deliver on all three of these things – who thinks ‘actually, I’d like short, thick lashes please’? Anyway, this one is fab and lasts forever too.
Finally, a touch of Matt Revolution lipstick in Sexy Sienna, a gold bullet that hasn’t left my handbag since June. I love the subtlety of the warm coral colour and it doesn’t dry out your lips either (it contains Lipstick Tree & Orchid extract apparently. I feel like ‘Lipstick Tree’ may be a made-up thing, but whatever it is, it works).
One thing I haven’t mentioned about Charlotte Tilbury, and definitely should, is that all the products are 100% cruelty-free. Tilbury has a strict no animal testing policy, which is sadly rarer than you’d think and a huge reason why I decided to spend all my money here instead of, for instance, MAC or Tom Ford (whose eye creams are the big competitor to the Eyes to Mesmerize range). Similarly Becca, Too Faced and Topshop have cruelty-free policies. So my make up haul might’ve been expensive but I was able to feel confident on my wedding day that nothing on my face had caused an animal any harm; I don’t think you can put a price on that.
Doing my own make up for my wedding was the least stressful thing, contrary to what many people might think. I felt completely in control of how I would look, was able to practice beforehand, and I could build it up bit by bit throughout the morning with plenty of time to enjoy fizz and fun with my bridesmaids while I did it. It also meant that there were no strangers in the room aside from our photographer, so it all felt much more intimate. I’d absolutely recommend it to any bride. I’ve also worn almost all the products daily since the wedding so the cost-per-wear is becoming almost cheap! Almost….
And you looked absolutely, elegantly, timeless. A true beautiful Bride. I’ve known you since the ‘body shop powder days’ and you haven’t aged a day!
Aw, thanks gorgeous! Big love xx