Top tips for brides - installment 2

I'll start with a full disclosure: My name is Leah Haydock, I am a wedding photographer and a Sephora junkie.

I can happily while away a couple of hours pootling around Sephora buying all sorts of magic serums, fiddly little tools, the p e r f e c t lip gloss that I've been searching for.....weirdly I don't actually wear that much make up but I sure like buying it.

Anyway, make up is a hot topic for brides. You want to look great on your wedding day but remember that you should still look like you! Maybe a little more glowy and polished of course, but still you. So let's get to it:

* Hire a professional make up artist - they can custom blend and apply foundation with an airbrush to give your skin that dewy fresh look favored by movie stars. It's a sound investment

* Do a trial run. Take a photo and see how it looks. Do you need to have a bit more color in your lips? Groom your eyebrows?

* If you decide to do your own makeup, visit one of the makeup stores at a large department store (go on a weekday morning when it's quiet and they have more time - try MAC, Bobbi Brown or Nars)

* Flash photography can emphasize any pink tones in your skin, even out any reddish areas (around your nose for example) with a yellow-based foundation.

* Blend, blend and blend some more. Take a mirror, head outside and look closely . If your face is still a completely different color to your neck you might want to change your foundation as this will look strange in your photographs.

* Ask one of your bridesmaids to carry some face powder - MAC blot powder gets my vote - to stop the shiny forehead look in the photos.

* Go easy on the glitter and sparkles. They'll show up as weird little white spots in your photos. It may appear that your eyelashes have dandruff - not the best look

*Neutral or pale lipstick/gloss can look a little 60s/washed out in photographs. Try going one or two shades deeper. Or try a stain - Benetint is just phenomenal for that sexy flushed cheek/lip color - and you don't have to worry about touching up every 5 minutes or having lipstick marks all over your new husband!

* And my FAVORITE recommendation is eyelash extensions! You might be thinking "ugh" - but bear with me - I was at my all time favorite spa a few months back (Interlocks Salon in Newburyport, MA - truly fantastic) and noticed one of the estheticians had THE most amazing lashes. Immediately I start quizzing her to find out which new mascara was working such miracles. I was wowed to find out that she had eyelash extensions. They make your eyes really standout in photographs, you don't need mascara, and last for weeks (imagine waking up on your honeymoon with cute long lashes and not faffing around with waterproof mascara in the sea). Novalash are the brand to go for - if you call Interlocks, ask for Leah (not me!), Laura or Robin.

And now feel free to head back up to the photo at the top of this post and check out my eyelashes. Not wearing ANY makeup in this picture I snapped this afternoon after getting my eyelashes re-extended by Leah at Interlocks salon. Cool right?