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Makeup and your Wedding Day with Amelia Webb

Jul 20, 2020

What a fantastic chat we had with freelance makeup artist Amelia Webb. Extremely talented, with over 50k followers on Instagram, Amelia is the perfect person to ask when it comes to makeup and your wedding day. We delve right into the world bridal makeup and find out the questions you should be asking your makeup artist, how also to care for your skin in the lead up to the wedding, and the importance of trials, trials, trials!

Transcript:

Anthony Hey, guys, Anthony here. Bringing you another podcast today with another great Melbourne supplier, Amelia Webb. She’s a makeup artist. She has over 50000 followers on Instagram who just adore what she does. And I think you’re gonna get great value out of the advice she gives on choosing a makeup artist and how to prepare for your wedding.

Anthony Hello, Amelia. How are you?

Amelia  Hello. I’m good. How are you?

Anthony Yeah. Good. I finally get to have a chat to you about the amazing work that you’re doing.

Amelia Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

Anthony I know you’ve got a massive following on Instagram, which is fantastic. So there’s a lot of fans out there who clearly love what you’re doing. Love seeing you on there, love seeing your little one on there. And, of course, love to see your work and the amazing artistry that you have. And I’m just wondering, how did it all start for you? When when did you get into makeup artistry? Tell me about that journey.

Amelia So it started back in 2013. I’m actually originally from Adelaide, so I moved over to Melbourne, went into an office admin job, and then I just was in there for about a year, I think it was. And I just didn’t really love it. I kind of didn’t have a career path. And I was like, I’m not enjoying this. I need to change what I’m doing. And I’ve always loved makeup. I love getting dressed up. I love doing my makeup. I love doing my hair. And it was actually one of my girlfriends, she said to me,  ‘why don’t you do a makeup course case of qualified and see how you go?’ And I was like, oh, yeah. Okay. So I did just a basic certificate just to get myself qualified, which took me, I think, three months. So it was easy to fit in while I was working. And when I started, I actually was so excited to come home to do my study. So I would work my nine to five job, come home and do my study. And when I finished, I didn’t realize how much I was going to going to love it. And then that’s when I just started my Instagram account. I started it, I think it must’ve been to the end of 2013 and I literally just started posting all my work on then.

Anthony Fantastic. And your audience has grown from there. Isn’t it really, it’s been really good.

Amelia I think at the start I was still doing my full time job. So when I started to pick up more weddings, I was working seven days a week and I just absolutely ran myself into the ground. I was so busy with my office job and then I was so busy with my weddings. I started to get to a point where I was like, I’m not enjoying either, because I was just I was getting really busy and I loved that I was busy with makeup and that was like my third job at that time. But it was hard to juggle and I was starting to be like, okay, I’m going to have to quit my office job.

Anthony Yeah, definitely. And you know what? I can share a similar sort of story. I was a high school teacher for many years, teaching multimedia. And then started running the business. And of course, both of them require a lot of creative energy and I just couldn’t commit to both of them. They were both suffering. So I had to make the decision too. And it’s been so good being in the wedding industry. I think it’s got so many pluses and so many great things that it offers us suppliers. Of course, though, the last few months have been a little bit tough with COVID and I’m curious to know how you’re coping and what strategies you are putting in place to to ride it out, and what are you focusing on?

Amelia Yeah. So it’s obviously taken a massive toll. I’ve had to reschedule all of these poor brides that I just feel absolutely awful for. Most of them we’ve been able to reschedule. I think I’m just keeping myself busy, especially with my social media and my son. I’m very lucky that I can do a lot of my work from home. And then I have Aston my son, keeping me busy.

Anthony  I’m sure is doing a good job of that too.  Undoubtedly. So to all the brides out there and, you know, there’s lots still out there planning and probably at some point. Well, not probably they will at some point need to make a decision on a make up artist. And it’s a very important decision. What advice can you give them in terms of, you know, hiring the right person? That’s going to be the right thing to them?

Amelia I think it’s just looking, obviously, most of all the suppliers are all on Instagram now. So I think it’s important to go through all of their work on Instagram, obviously recommendations. I feel like most of my work comes through recommendations and then through Instagram. So which is another good thing, because the more weddings that you do, the more bridesmaids that you do. And I have a lot of people that I’ve done in previous weddings that were bridesmaids that will book me again for their wedding day. And then sometimes because obviously it’s really important to get a trial done. Again, like booking a couple of trials with different artists because everyone is really different and has their own style. I have had some people say that they don’t want to trial and I will always say to them, I prefer to do one, especially even just for me as well, because I’ve never done this client’s makeup before so I don’t know what type of skin they have. I don’t know how makeup will last on them. I don’t know what they like. So I would feel like I’m not prepared for their wedding day. And I would hate to do something that they didn’t like. So that’s why it’s really important to do a trial. So you know exactly what you’re doing on the wedding day for them.

Anthony So even before the trial, though, what are what are some key questions that they should ask a potential makeup artist to make sure that they’re going to get, you know, a qualified, safe and professional person come on board?

Amelia I think it’s important to find an artist that has had the experience in doing wedding makeup. So you can obviously search and make sure that they’ve done a few weddings and that they’ve got that experience. And just asking them a lot of questions about the style they want to do. How do they run the day on the wedding day? So how long do they need for the makeup? Just asking those types of questions, I think.

Anthony What about a question on the qualifications? Is that important? Do you ever get asked that sort of question?

Amelia I actually don’t get asked that question. I think nowadays there are a lot of people, artists that don’t have a specific qualification or they don’t have the qualification, but I don’t necessarily think it is super important now. I think if they’ve got the experience, then I don’t think it is super important.

Anthony Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that experience is all over the social media accounts. And you can get a really good idea of the quality of their work just purely by those images. Would that be correct?

Amelia  Yeah, exactly.

Anthony So alright, so the trial is important of course. You’ve worked out the skin type and the sort of look that they’re after. You know, makeup is an art and there’s just so many different approaches to the work and so many variables for a wedding. Things like the dress type and the hair. What how did they play into it? In terms of the look you might suggest for a bride.

Amelia So that’s another reason why it is super important to have a trial. So then you can work it out. You can see a picture of their dress. You can ask them how they’re going to wear their hair. So then you can kind of incorporate it all together. If they’re having their hair completely all pulled back of their face, then you can focus maybe more on the eye. Or if they’re having their hair, like, really big and they want their hair, their statement, then they wouldn’t do a super glam makeup. You would probably dull that down a little bit because the hair was the focus because that’s what I wanted.

Anthony  Sure.

Amelia Again with the dress. If the dress is like this statement piece, you wouldn’t, I wouldn’t recommend doing like a full glam makeup because then it’s just going to be too much. You just dial that down a little bit. So that’s why it’s really important to to talk about the dress and the hair as well so yeah you can incorporate it all together.

Anthony And in terms of the weather and, you know, a winter wedding, versus a summer wedding. The makeup and the sort of makeup that you might use would be different. Is that is that right?

Amelia No, definitely because I think especially in winter your your skin can be a little bit more dry. So you have the opportunity to do that a little bit more dewy look or even in winter, sometimes people like to do like that, really like a dark lip, like something a little bit bolder on a lip because we’re in winter. And then in summer, it’s really hot here in Australia. So, you know, we’ll be sweating a lot. So it’s important to make sure that you’re using the right products on the skin. So your makeup’s not going to completely drip off throughout the day. So you would probably go a little bit more matte and then adding in a little bit more highlight in a specific area to help that. So you’re not going to be sweating it off through the day.

Anthony Yeah. Right. Absolutely.

Amelia So, you know, it’s really important also to have waterproof products as well so it’s not going to be running down your face.

Anthony For sure and, you know, weddings are a pretty emotional days and inevitably there’s tears. We see it all the time. You know how many times I’ve heard don’t rub, but dab.

Amelia Dab, yep!

Anthony Dab don’t rub and that’s really important. So, yeah. waterproof. Do you always use waterproof or it really depends?

Amelia No, I always use waterproof. I think when you’re getting your makeup done, I find that waterproof lasts longer too. I think it’s really important when you get your makeup done that it is, it’s always going to have to be waterproof.

Anthony Yeah, sure. Okay great. Considerations for, you know, the sort of lipstick. How does a bride make that decision?

Amelia Lip stick is always a hard one, because it’s a very personal preference, the lipstick.  I actually always ask the bride to either bring a couple of their own lipsticks that they would normally wear. Just to see how that would go with the makeup look. But then also I would suggest a couple of other colours, if they haven’t tried also different long wearing ones, if you want a liquid lipstick, which obviously last a lot longer, but it is very drying on the lips. So you just have to make sure you you can, you should wear them for a little while. And sometimes I even say go out and buy three types of lipsticks, wear them and see how you feel with them on all day. Because some people don’t like the liquid lipstick all day, it’s just very drawing. So I think a lipstick is always going to need to be touched up anyway. So I will ask them to purchase the lipstick themselves, whatever we decide to choose on. And then they can touch that up throughout the day.

Anthony  There is a myth that drinking lots of water before your wedding is really good to hydrate your skin is. Is this a myth? Can you can you tell us whether this is true or not?

Amelia  Well, I think it is very important. Like, I do think that drinking water is going to help your skin, anyone’s skin. So I think definitely I think do that before your wedding. If I ever get married, I’ll probably be doing that.

Anthony So preparing for your wedding. There’s a couple of things you should do. You should trial some lipstick and make sure that you’re comfortable with it first. You know, do your trial and make sure you’re all sort of in terms of the look and drink lots of water before your day so your skin is nice and hydrated and ready to go. Any other any other things that a bride should know?

Amelia I also suggest if you’re thinking about doing any facials or anything to your skin beforehand, definitely give it a go months before the wedding day, because I find some people would decide, oh, my gosh, I am going to go and get this this specific facial or this and they do it weeks out from the wedding. And then they might have a breakout or they might react to that specific facial that they’ve had done. So I always recommend if you were thinking about having anything done like this, definitely do it months beforehand. That trial that out, too. I always say trial out your facial, trial out any skin procedures that you’re going to have, trial out any tans that you’re going to have. And then obviously trial out your lipstick. So you know how it’s going to react on the day.

Anthony  Good advice. On the day after you’ve you’ve done your amazing work on not only the bride, but the bridesmaids. What should they keep on hand throughout the day? Just for touch ups and that sort of stuff.

Amelia So I would say that lipstick, if people get oily, I always say it is some blotting paper or a powder. That’s all that you should need if you’re getting a professional to do your makeup, especially if you’ve had the trial. Like if the brides had the trial done, then she knows that she shouldn’t have to touch up anything else.

Anthony And I’m just curious, before I ask you the last question, you know, we’re talking about brides and obviously, you know, most of your work would be brides. But are there any grooms now getting makeup on? What sort of makeup might they be getting?

Amelia Yeah, no, I’ve actually I’ve done grooms a couple of times on the wedding day. The bride always has said to me, hey, he’s got a couple of pimples that have popped up, which does happen because, you know, the bride and the groom, it can be stressful leading up to the wedding. So you might have a spot that pops up. I find that happens to the brides, too, so it can happen to the groom. So I’ve had to go and put a little bit of concealer on them or a little bit of powder if they’re comfortable with that and if they want to do that. But most grooms, a couple of grooms I’ve had, have actually asked if the makeup artist could come in and just cover up something for them. So it’s definitely something that I’ve done before and gets asked.

Anthony Yeah, there you go. It will in time be more of a stylized look. Talking about looks. I’m really curious. You know, what’s your favorite look at the moment? And tell us why.

Amelia My favourite, like I am more of, I just love a natural kind of makeup look. Like you, but better.

Anthony Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Amelia You don’t want to do a makeup look that’s just not yourself. And I find that sometimes brides will want to do this dramatic smoky eye and then they go home and they show their partner and their partner will be like, oh, never seen that before. So just something that’s just accentuating your own, like their own beauty and just keeping it just natural and radiant just within themselves. Like nothing too crazy glam for your wedding day.

Anthony  Sure and as videographers, we do love the natural look for sure. Absolutely. Amelia, it’s been ace talking to you. Thank you so much for all your valuable information. I’m sure many brides are going to find it really useful.

Amelia You’re welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Anthony No worries and have a great day, too.

Amelia Thank you. You too.