Wedding Makeup

The alternate title for this post was "Apparently, I've now deluded myself into thinking that you care about what I put on my face."  I expunged that heading because it was far too long and far too real.

You might be a product junkie if you get stressed out by the grocery store running out of your favorite brand of parchment paper. Sure, there are half a dozen alternative brands, but they are not your brand. You may also view every trip to Sephora as a quest to uncover the very best "whatever" so that you can fall in love with something else that you will now be eternally obligated to replace every three months.  

It takes me foreverrrrr to buy new products.  I often allow small bottles of dazzling illuminators with strangely suggestive names to sit in my Amazon cart for months - sometimes years - before finally giving in and hitting the purchase button.  That is because I know myself.  I know that if I love this product I will not only be committing to the $19.74 cost now, but to an ongoing commitment to this new thing that I will, after several uses, never be able to live without. This is when it is frightening to be me. 

For these reasons, most of the makeup in my makeup bag has always been drugstore brands. Until now... 

When I called the artist about doing my wedding day makeup, I felt a little ill at the estimate. That much?!  For my face?  For my face that will be washed less than twenty-four hours later?! 

That was when I decided to do my own makeup.  While the costs were about the same after a visit to Sephora, the idea of keeping all of the "splurge" products after the wedding convinced me.  

It turns out I really, really enjoy buying makeup, and I'd like to rope you into my newfound obsession.  Just in case you too enjoy having pretty bottles of shimmering things in your makeup bag. 

So, for my face.  I'm still using my Ulta primer and Maybelline "Fit" foundation as a base.  I've been using both for years now and I'm truly satisfied with the results.  I tried the fancy stuff and was less than impressed, and, at $50 per ounce, I wanted to be pretty darn impressed.  I did however, fall in love with two different blush options.  I tried this cheek stain by Tarte at first, and then tried this one.  Both were beyond dreamy.  I'll be wearing the Tarte blush on the wedding day because I loved the soft, peachy hue, but I'm hoping to grab another bottle of this stuff for every day use.  I love the shimmer.  

I also discovered this shimmering skin perfector which is basically like fairy dust for your face.  It adds the prettiest subtle glow that I really, really like.  I found that I was just not into the dewy look as much as I wanted to be.  I prefer a more matte finish, but this illuminator gives the glow that I have always admired in a dewy look, while still maintaining my matte base.  It's a splurge you just might need to make. 

For the eyes... I have always had trouble with my eyes.  I mean, I can see alright, I just do not know how to decorate them.  (I just gave myself a look of utter disapproval.  That sounds like such a ridiculous, non-problematic problem to have.)  For the wedding, I knew I did not want anything too bold, but at the same time, I wanted to incorporate something different.  So, I am beginning with this primer, which is basically a gentle glue to hold everything in its proper place, and then doing a very subtle pearly-white shadow that I found at Ulta, and accenting it with this dreamy Space Cowboy Moondust.  My sci-fi loving fiancé was beside himself with joy when I showed him the name.  

Typically, I only use eyeliner underneath my eyes, but I really wanted to pull off one of those subtle "wings" for the wedding day, so I got this pen.  It made it so much easier to get the eyeliner even.  I'm still going to get one of my lady friends to help me with it on the big day though.  I tend to overcorrect... and after the fourth coat it gets a little on the Disney villain side. 

Sephora is always giving me these samples and at first I thought, "How sweet! A gift for me!"  But now, I realize that there is nothing sweet about it - samples are dangerous.  You will soon find yourself falling in love with products that you had never even heard of, but all of the sudden you cannot live without them.  Oops.  So it went with this Dior mascara.  For YEARS I have insisted that my $9 drugstore mascara could not be beat.  I was wrong, I was so very wrong. 

Believe it or not, the hardest part of this makeup-choosing process was finding the right lipstick. I am not an everyday lipstick wearer.  I always have chapstick in my pocket, and I may apply a quick coat of lip gloss, but I only wear lipstick on special occasions.  My wedding is a fairly special occasion, and I really wanted to do a somewhat bold red lip, but I've found that most reds wash me out and make my already-ghostly skin look almost bluish.  Not cute.  After sharing my dilemma with the consultant, she explained that I was looking at the wrong set of reds.  After forty five minutes of scouring the store with my sister and our consultant, I was holding the perfect lipstick and matching lipliner (which incidentally took forever to find).  I had never used lipliner before, but now I'm hooked.  It really completes the look and keeps the lipstick from bleeding and making me look like the Joker. 

In hopes of keeping everything in place for a good fifteen hours, I have armed myself with this setting spray.  I really like how cool and refreshing it feels.

Here's the condensed list, sans all my obnoxious opinions.  

Ulta Primer

Favorite Foundation

Naked Weightless Concealer

Tarte Blush

Illuminator

BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector

Eye Primer Potion

Pearly White Eyeshadow

Space Cowboy Moondust

Bobbi Brown Eyeliner

Eyeliner Pen

Dior Mascara

24-Hour Setting Spray

The Perfect "Red" Lipstick

Lip Liner

I plan to record some of the wedding day chaos through Instagram & Instagram stories, so feel free to follow along!

Sincerely, 

Pedantic Foodie

This post was not sponsored in any way.  All the opinions are my own and I purchased all of the products myself.  You will find one or two affiliate links above.  Thank you for allowing me to share my life with you!

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1 Week ! ! !

AHHHHHHHH!!!  Give me all the screaming face emojis. 

 I am getting married.  I am getting married in one week.  

(Actually, the one week mark was yesterday, but I wanted to write this post on the one week mark, not before.)

I am sorry if all this wedding talk is getting old, but we are almost done, I promise.  In fact, this is the last planned installment.  Sniff, sniff. 

Back in the summer, when I first decided to record the progress of this wedding chaos, I did so out of a desire to preserve.  I want to be able to look back and read what was going through my mind and confirm that it was mostly just a bunch of screaming emojis, happy heart eyes, and a few slightly annoyed eye rolls.  I know there are at least seven of you that have been reading these posts with utter delight and giddy intrigue.  I know, because that's exactly how I would be. I love getting all up in your business, so please, feel free to get all up in mine.  Whether or not I have googled you is the measure of how much I like your blog.  It's a nosiness motivated by dreams of imaginary friendship...and it is so much less creepy than it sounds. 

So, this wedding.  I've been planning it for nearly a year.  My person (lately I cannot seem to call him his actual name, it's all coming out in weird, sometimes grossly fifth grade nicknames and I am like "woah, why did that leave my mouth?!") and I got engaged on October 29th of last year, and on October 21st we will marry.  So, for 351 days I have been planning, anticipating, and gushing over this great event. 

As a child, I would always feel slightly ill on the first day of vacation, Christmas morning, or any long-awaited event.  I live off of anticipation, so when the treasure is finally in reach, my only wish is to go back.  I do not want to begin, because I do not want to end.

It is a bad habit that I am trying to conquer with Pinterest quotes that tell me to live in the moment.  It's bad, in that it often snatches away some of the joy of the event itself because I am so afraid of it being over. 

I knew this about myself when I became engaged, which is why I planned my wedding just before Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and all of those lovely distractions.  Despite my preparations, my melancholy prophesies are already beginning to come true as the great day approaches.  All of the planning, tears, and delights that have been planted over this year are about to blossom into this glorious day and then...what?  Then I get to go on an incredible honeymoon with an incredible man that I love and begin an exciting new normal.  So much excitement still looms on the horizon, and yet I cannot help begging the days to slow down.  This year has been so much fun.  I have loved being engaged.  It has been the best time of my life.  All the anxiety and uncertainty that came with dating faded, and our time together was untouched by the harshness of shared bills, or health insurance.  It has been practically the best of both worlds and I have truly cherished it.  Though I have no doubt that marriage bring its own set of thrills, I believe that there is something about engagement that is truly special.  It gives much security, without the full responsibility.  

That said, I am immensely excited to get married.  In most ways, very ready and prepared.  In other ways, slightly terrified.  That's kind of a pattern with me and my life choices.  

Sunday my sweetheart and I went out on our last unmarried date.  Tomorrow will be our last Sunday at our lovely little church - the place of our meeting - before we become and Mr. & Mrs.. In the past two years there have been so many firsts, and now, as we broach this great event, there are so many lasts.  

Now for the details!

I find myself shrieking with joy every couple of hours because "Ahh!  I'm getting married!".    

I have my rehearsal outfit picked out and my going away outfit hanging in the closet.  My suitcase is mostly packed, aside from things like makeup, and toothbrushes, and my favorite pair of jeans that I'll probably wash the night before the wedding so I can keep wearing them every single day. 

I am cheating majorly and buying frozen croissants for our post-wedding breakfast.  Can you believe that?  Oddly enough, I didn't seem to have a spare eight hours to make my own puff pastry the week before my wedding.  I might feel worse about that if those Trader Joe's croissants weren't so ridiculously good.  

The mister has a new rain coat and he sent me these dreamy Hunter rain boots.  Can you guess where we are going?  No, not to the rainforest!  Geez... Why would I ever choose to be around spiders and snakes?!  Keep guessing. 

Flowers are ordered and I am so excited to hold my bouquet.  If you haven't gathered my enthusiasm for flowers from my instagram feed, I happen to really, really like flowers.  Like, my closet floor is covered in silk roses right now that will be suspended from the ceiling, and I have two massive orders of fresh flowers to pick up Thursday morning.  Give me all the flowers!

I have practiced my makeup at least half a dozen times and my confidence in doing it is now at a solid 70%.  I'm not even that confident in my ability to walk without tripping most days, so I think we are in a good place. 

Here we are.  Last night, I said goodbye to a whole bunch of very special people that I will not see again until the rehearsal and it felt so strange.  I know so much will stay the same, but at the same time, it never will be what it was.  It's a wonderful, blissful, dreamy kind of different...but different was always a frightening word to me. 

Here we go.  Six days.  A much more approachable to-do list.  A groom I adore.  It's beginning to look a lot like wedding time.

Sincerely, 

Pedantic Foodie

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Two Weeks...

Two weeks.  As I typed that my stomach did a backflip.

Excited.  Anxious.  Nervous.  Unsure.  Enchanted.  Dazed.  It’s all happening. 

I am striving to be present, but instead I find myself in a near-constant dazed and robotic state.  It still does not feel real.  Friends ask me what I have done, and what is left to be done, and I have no answers.  There is just so much that I have no time to list or explain, I simply do.  Wake, eat, work, and alternate between squeals of joy and tears of utter exhaustion.  

I’ve given up on the idea of keeping the massive amounts of “stuff” contained, and so my room slowly grows smaller and more overtaken with each day that passes.  The strange part is, I'm okay with that.  This is from the lady who used to iron her sheets before bed.  Yikes!  Hopefully these are steps to becoming more balanced.

In two weeks, I will be wearing the most beautiful dress I have ever seen, hugging so many dear and much-missed friends and relatives, and smiling more than I ever have before.  In just over two weeks I will be on a plane, darting through the air for my much-anticipated honeymoon. Those promises fill my heart to the brim.  

The marriage license has been obtained, the programs ordered, the dress altered, the thank you gifts bought and wrapped, and the suitcases (halfway) packed. The tasks are becoming fewer as the days slip away.  My pursuit to hold onto these moments is much like trying to grasp at a wet bar of soap.  The countdown blocks are moving so fast and my mind cannot seem to keep up with them.  

Today is my last day of work.  Well, of the work that requires me to leave my home each morning. I am looking forward to trying to get to bed at a more decent hour and beginning my tasks before the sun shows her face.  There’s lots to be done, and so much to be savored.  I do not want to miss a single, beautiful moment of the next fourteen days. 

For now, I get to go care for my now wisdom-toothless fiancé.  Mostly we are just eating a lot of this soup, which happens to be ahhhmazing!  

Thank you so very for joining me on this journey.  More wedding memories/mayhem coming soon.  Oh, and food too.  This is a food blog, after all. 

Sincerely, 

Pedantic Foodie