Facing the big day

OK, so how to achieve that natural, fresh, longer lasting make-up we all want for the perfect day.....

Before the day - Look after yourself! You may be still at work and planning the wedding all by yourself but there are some simple steps you should be taking to care for your looks well in advance.

Limit your intake of coffee and alcohol, and cut down on those aging, de-hydrating ciggies.

If you're going for the sun-kissed look, book a test run with a good beauty therapist and some quality fake tan rather than drying your skin out on a sun bed.

Any hair cut/colour have done two weeks prior to give the style time to settle and any mistakes time to be redone.

Look after your nails - Atrixo hand cream is as good as any of the designer brands.

The morning - After your shower, moisturise with a light-weight, non-greasy product that you've used before (it's not a good day to be trying out new brands).

Put some calming music on and give yourself ten minutes of peace to let your nails dry - it's the only chance you'll get!

If you have shorter hair, set your hair style with metallic velcro rollers while its still warm from the dryer and spray with a light dusting of hair spray.

If you are wearing your hair up, use heated rollers and spray as before, leave in as long as possible, don't remove until cold.

For your make-up, first and foremost choose water resistant products like the ones I've mentioned on the opposite page.

Use a light, non-greasy foundation and a natural silky powder.

Pale ivory or cream works best as eye shadow to lighten the eye area.

Avoid liquid eye liner as it can appear too harsh.

Estee Lauder does a fabulous Automatic eye pen in a walnut no.9 (green or warm brown eyes) or a soft grey/blue no.2 (blue or grey eyes), tried and tested by me on many wedding make-ups.

Curl lashes with a lash curler then use your own mascara and separate lashes with an old, washed mascara wand.

Coat lashes with a good waterproof gel.

Keep blush to a minimum - avoid oranges, natural blood colour is best.

To help keep lipstick on, moisturise lips with a touch of Vaseline 20 mins before painting.

Use a soft lip pencil similar to your natural lip tone and cover lip area lightly.

Using a lip brush choose a semi matte lipstick rather than a gloss.

(I find the lip pencil and lipsticks at Accessorise are good colours).

Good luck! Look beautiful and may all your dreams come true.