When Hannah booked me to do her wedding makeup and told me that she wanted a Burlesque style, I was very excited. While I love natural looking bridal makeup, it’s always nice when a bride wants something slightly ‘out of the box’ for her makeup and gives me a chance to get a little bit creative.

Hannah was having an intimate weekday wedding at a small country venue but wanted her dress, makeup and hair to have the real ‘wow’ factor. Hannah had her dress made abroad and was wearing a birdcage veil to go with her stylish side ponytail which was created by my friend Melanie Garney.

The Burlesque look is a classic style made famous by Dita Von Teese and looks fantastic on someone with dark hair and pale skin like Hannah.

I began by prepping Hannah’s slightly oily skin with Laura Mercier Oil Free primer. The skin for this look is quite porcelain and I used Chanel Matt Lumiere Foundation in shade 05 as a base. This is a great foundation for oily skin as it creates a smooth canvas for the rest of your makeup and will withstand any heat or tears. I disguised any blemishes with Mac Studio Sculpt concealer in NC15 and then set the whole face with Mac Blot Powder in Light.

The eyes are quite neutral with this look as the real focus is on the Hollywood red lip so the eyeshadow is kept very matte and clean. I prepped Hannah’s eyelids with Mac Paintpot in ‘Painterly’ as a base. I love the paintpots as they give an even finish to the eye area and stop any shadow from creasing. Next I used Mac Vanilla shadow all over the eye up to the browbone. To give definition to the socket area I used Mac eyeshadow in ‘Rich Flesh’ using a 226 brush and blending down to the outer lash line. I curled Hannah’s lashes with Shu Uemura lash curlers (the Mercedes of lash curlers and well worth the £19 they cost!) and applied one coat of Diorshow Waterproof Blackout mascara. I wanted the lashes to look 1950’s Hollywood so I went for false lashes style 7 from Mac. These were applied and then Bobbi Brown gel liner in Black Ink was applied along the top lash line only to give that sweeping cat eye effect. As a final touch to the eyes, I filled in Hannah’s brows using the darkest shade from my Chanel brow compact.

I didn’t want too much colour on the skin, so I opted for Bobbi Brown matt blush in ‘Desert Rose’ along the cheekbones just to give a little bit of colour, with a little bit of Nars Copacabana highlighter on the top of the cheekbones to add slight shimmer.

The main focus of this look is the red lip and after prepping Hannah’s lips with a little foundation, I outlined the whole lip area with Mac lipliner in Cherry. I then filled in the colour with Bobbi Brown red lip colour, blot with a tissue and repeated the colour application. A little dot of Mac clear lipglass was added to the centre of the lower lip to give the illusion of fullness and that completed the look. The red lips are quite high maintenance so I gave Hannah a little pot of her lipstick to touch up with later on in the day.

A real showstopping bride!

Rochelle O’Brien

www.Rochelleobrien.com