Bridal makeup: Keep it light

Usually bridal makeup is heavy as the girls want to look special, but Bollywood beauty and makeup expert Puja Taluja believes less is more and says keep it minimal.

"It's a good idea for a bride to start taking care of her skin and hair a couple of months before the wedding day. With a glowing skin, the job gets much easier for a makeup artist to achieve a flawless base," Taluja told IANS.

The makeup starts with primer to smoothen out the skin. After that comes foundation.

"Get the base right. Most of us want to look fairer than what we already are, which is a very bad idea as you end up looking made up. Even the pictures come out very badly. So make sure the base is applied and blended very well and matches skin tone," she said.

Many brides go for glitter on their eyes along with heavy eye makeup. It's a complete no-no in Taluja's makeup dictionary.

"It's important to do up the eyes really well. But make sure not to use too many colours or too much glitter as it looks tacky," she said.

Use highlighter under the brow bone.

"It looks great. Use eyeliner to make the eyes stand out. Eye lashes are also a good option, but it's very important to use natural lashes with real hair," she said.

"Lots of brides experiment with coloured lenses, which is a bad option, unless you stick to a natural colour like hazel," she explained.

For the cheeks, she recommends coral colour as it blends well with Indian skin tone.

While doing lip makeup, apply lip liner before lipstick.

"But make sure the lip line doesn't look different from the lipstick. Avoid using a gloss as it ends up bleeding and smudging the lipstick. Once the makeup is done, spray a makeup fix on the face to make it stay longer and fresh," Taluja concluded.