The Best Wedding Makeup Products: 15 Wedding Day Makeup Essentials
These 15 hero products are all you need to do your own glowing wedding makeup or touch-ups during the day, if you're having it done professionally
We have included third party products to help you navigate and enjoy life’s biggest moments. Purchases made through links on this page may earn us a commission.
Doing your own wedding day makeup has lots of advantages. It’s cheaper for one, but you also get to use products you know you love and that work with your skin tone.
There’s likely to be some gaps in your makeup bag from your every day look to bridal ready. We’ve rounded up the best wedding makeup products that are loved by expert makeup artists and real brides.
From primers to stop makeup slipping to a fail-safe mascara, use these hero products to achieve a natural, glowing look on your big day. If you’re having your makeup done professionally on your wedding morning, keep these products in your emergency wedding day kit for touch ups in the evening.
READ MORE: The Ultimate Six Month Bridal Beauty Prep Countdown
To keep your wedding makeup looking its best, remember:
- Always test out your full wedding day makeup and wear it for a full day. You’ll see what wears off, what smudges, what looks too heavy after 10 hours. That concealer that looks amazing at 9am might have settled into all your fine lines by 3pm.
- A good skin regime is incredibly important. You can try to topically treat spotty, red or dry skin on the day, but it’s much better to have started a routine that works with your skin type three to six months ahead of the day.
- Don’t forget the first and final layer: your primer and a last spritz of setting spray. These are essential for keeping you looking fresh all day!
READ MORE: 18 of the Best Anti-Redness Products for Calm Wedding Skin
The Best Wedding Makeup Products
1. Laura Mercier Oil-Free Foundation Primer – £30.50, Amazon
Your first step should always be a primer (after your normal serum and moisturiser). Primer preps the skin to reduce the appearance of pores, helps your makeup go on more smoothly and keeps it look fresh until late into the night. Laura Mercier’s oil-free formula is specifically designed for oily, sensitive and acne prone skin. It contains oil-controlling ingredients to prevent shine, a high water content to treat dehydrated skin and plenty of antioxidant-rich vitamins.
READ MORE: 11 Tips for Growing Your Hair Longer, Faster
2. Giorgio Armani Power Fabric Foundation – £37.50, John Lewis
This miracle foundation is a matt version of Armani’s iconic Luminous Silk Foundation. It’s a long-wear, full coverage liquid foundation that blurs into a silky smooth second skin. If you want to feel truly confident, we can’t recommend Power Fabric highly enough – it weightlessly conceals all imperfections for a flawless, glowing, no-makeup look. Added bonus: it comes in 17 shades and is SPF25.
READ MORE: The Best Foundations for Brides
3. Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter – £30, John Lewis
This looks like foundation but its actually a complexion booster that illuminates skin and gives it an airbrushed, poreless-looking, creamy finish. If you want your skin to appear lit from within (and who doesn’t after 13 months of stressful wedding planning?), the Hollywood Flawless Filter is like celeb skin in a bottle. You can apply over your primer before foundation; a dab mixed into your foundation; or dotted along cheekbones, the nose and cupid’s bow for an A-list glow.
READ MORE: 53 Ultimate Wedding Hairstyle Ideas
4. MAC Pro Longwear Concealer – £19.50, MAC Cosmetics
This blendable concealer doesn’t crease, stays on through tears, and provides medium to full matte coverage for up to 15 hours. That’s a wedding day winner if ever we saw one. Apply using the ‘inverted triangle technique’ – dot an upside down triangle under the eyes to the middle of the cheek, then blend to brighten and cover the whole area.
READ MORE: 13 Best At-Home IPL and Laser Hair Removal Machines
5. Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara – £19, LookFantastic
If the name alone doesn’t interest you…Too Faced’s mascara lifts, lengthens, curls, thickens and separates lashes for a dramatic look that doesn’t need any falsies. The hourglass brush makes sure every little lash is covered, while collagen thickens and Acacia Senegal tree extract hydrates. It doesn’t smudge or flake but you can remove it easily at the end of the night.
READ MORE: Tried & Tested: The Best Waterproof Mascaras
6. Nars Blush in Orgasm – £29.99, Amazon
Nars Blush in Orgasm is another cult favourite, famous for giving a supple, luminous glow. Orgasm is a universally-flattering peachy pink blush with a touch of golden shimmer that gives you a lovely flush. There’s a cream version too, but all makeup artists will tell you powder blush is better for going the distance all day. Trust the hype on this one.
READ MORE: How to Fix a Broken Nail at Home
7. Skindinavia Bridal Setting Spray – £41.99, Amazon
Skindinavia are actually the brand behind Urban Decay’s famous All-Nighter setting spray, and they’ve created one specifically for brides. This award-winning formula promises to keep your makeup photo-ready for up to 16 hours. It contains their patented Temperature Control Technology that forms a lightweight, ultra-fine, breathable layer over the makeup with timed-release evaporation, meaning moisture is retained longer and heat is drawn away from the skin. The result is smoother, vibrant, kiss-proof, sweat-proof, cry-proof makeup.
READ MORE: 13 of the Best Hand Creams for Dry Skin
8. MAC Strobe Cream – £25, LookFantastic
The iconic strobe cream is an illuminating moisturiser/primer, which brightens and banishes any signs of dullness. It’s packed with vitamins, botanicals and green tea, to give you the radiant look of eight hours’ sleep. If you don’t want to splash out on lots of different products, this could take the place of both your primer and a brightener like Charlotte Tilbury’s Flawless Filter.
READ MORE: The Complete Guide to Improving Your Hair and Nails
9. Bobbi Brown Sheer Finish Loose Powder – £28, Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown’s long-lasting loose powder sets foundation for a smooth, flawless finish. It’s 100% oil free, with vitamin E to keep you comfortable throughout the day. The yellow base complements all skin tones to keep you looking natural and fresh, not cakey and heavy.
READ MORE: The Most Reliable Period Products If It’s Your TOTM
10. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder – £40, SpaceNK
This is another setting powder, yes, but you may want two on the day. Bobbi Brown is a great choice for during the day for your photos, but swap to the Hourglass powder for the evening. It’s designed to mimic flattering light sources to give you an Instagram-filter finish. Multi-dimensional, ultra-fine pearl particles make skin appear more youthful and refined – basically like you’re standing in the most perfect golden hour sunset.
READ MORE: The Best Wedding Day Lipsticks
11. Charlotte Tilbury Luscious Lip Slick Duo in Pillow Talk – £38
That universally flattering lip colour everyone’s always raving about? It’s the nude Pillow Talk. This kit contains a waterproof lip liner (a must during all that kissing, toasting and eating) and the classic pink-nude Matte Revolution lipstick. Your lips will look luscious, more defined, softer and smoother.
READ MORE: Everything You Need to Know About Eyelash Extensions
12. Glossier Boy Brow – £14, Glossier
There’s a reason Boy Brow has such a cult following. If the Scouse brow look isn’t for you, Boy Brow helps shape, thicken and fluff your natural brows for the ultimate groomed look. It’s a creamy wax pomade that doesn’t stiffen for flake for an easy hold that’ll frame your face. It comes in four colours – blonde, brown, black and clear – for a little healthy boost to your brows.
READ MORE: The Best Eyebrow Kits to Frame Your Face
13. Tom Ford Nude Dip Eyeshadow Quad – £68, Selfridges
This eye colour quad contains four richly-pigmented shadows with four different finishes – sheer sparkle, satin, shimmer and matt. This is pricey but it looks gorgeous and contains just the right dewy, natural colours for a neutral bridal look. The silky gold, peachy and brown tones won’t crease and last for a long time.
READ MORE: 13 of the Best Nail Strengtheners
14. Fenty Beauty Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter Duo – £28, Harvey Nichols
Rihanna’s beauty brand has quickly gained popularity among makeup artists for its inclusive breadth of colours, quality long-lasting formulas and brilliant price point. This highlighter duo contains two cream-powder hybrids that melt into skin with a superfine shimmer. The two colours here take you from subtle day glow (think sheer highlighted collarbones, bridge of the nose, cheeks, brow bone) to supercharged shine for evening. This’ll be a honeymoon favourite.
READ MORE: The Best Contour Palettes to Rival Kim K’s Cheekbones
15. Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder – £24.99, Amazon
Benefit’s Hoola powder is award-winning for good reason. This finely-milled bronzer gives you sun-kissed radiance without any shimmer. It’s a warm, matt colour that never looks orange or flat. You can use it to contour as well as sweep over your chin, cheeks and forehead. There’s different shades too: Hoola Lite, Hoola Caramel and Hoola Toasted.
Want an all-over glow? We tried and tested the best fake tans on the market to find the perfect, non-staining, least biscuity-smelling fake tan for your wedding day.
