Bridal Makeup Trends of 2018

Bridal beauty is as much about feeling beautiful on your wedding day as it is expressing the best of who you are as a bride. Once a bride has chosen her gown, it's time to focus on the very important decision of how she'll wear her hair, and what to put on her face.

Whether soft and subtle, classic and sophisticated, or bold and inspiring, your bridal makeup should best reflect you while accentuating your natural beauty. The hottest bridal makeup trends of 2018 feature a variety of beautiful stand out looks that vary from the most subtle, to the most likely to make a statement.

Accentuating the Natural

Following Meghan Markle's freckle embracing lead, adorning your face in bridal makeup that best accentuates the natural gifts given to you is one of the popular bridal makeup trends this year. Instead of focusing on the makeup itself, family, friends, and groom can look upon the bride and just see the best version of herself on her big day, which is already beautiful.

Choose a foundation that even outs color while allowing natural beauty marks and freckles to shine through. Blushes and shadows should accentuate the natural features of the face instead of artificially creating them. While bold red lips can be stunning, lip color should accentuate the bride's natural beauty in this look, instead of taking the focus away.

Blushy Eye Beauty

The highlight of this year's wedding makeup at bridal fashion week was anything to do with the rosy colored eye. Any shade of pink eyeshadow seemed to take center stage, and makeup artists working weddings all over the country thereafter seemed to take the hint.

No wonder too—eyes adorned in a blush tone create a romantic appeal to the bride while accentuating the natural beauty of her eyes. When choosing a blush tone for your eye, make sure it coordinates well with the rest of your makeup color palette, and be sure it's a type that can hold up well through the course of the day.

Pay particular attention to your lipstick and eyeshadow shades to make sure they go perfectly together. Last thing you want to feel while looking in the mirror on your wedding day is disjointed. It's one of the top makeup trends of 2018 overall as well.

Eyebrow Drama

A huge trend in bridal hair and makeup this year involves a throwback to fifty years ago when simple hair and sculpted brows were all the rage. Going with a classic heavily sculpted brow is a great way to give yourself a sophisticated look, especially if your wedding is either evening, or formal, or both.

Try matching a well sculpted brow with a parallel look on the eyes that stays in line with the mood you're creating. Hair can also match in tone with a simple up do or large elegant curl.

Red Carpet Red

Bold lips are back, and they are beautiful, especially when accentuated by a soft eye. A popular bridal makeup trend this year is a red carpet look of bright red lips, (either matte or semi-gloss), a softly defined brow, and natural toned blush and eye shades.

The more subtle the rest of the face, the more dramatic the red lip will appear. Pair this look with a sophisticated wedding dress and a hair accessory as equally elegant as the bridal makeup. And it's one of the hottest makeup trends of the 2000s that's coming back!

Bold Berry

Another twist on the bold lip that's particularly popular for 2018 (as a returning hot makeup trend of the 1990s) is the dark red berry toned lip, most often found in matte form. But unlike the soft palette chosen for the rest of the face, makeup artists are choosing to go all out with the drama by giving brides both a heavily defined eye and bold lip.

Brides who aren't afraid of makeup should give this look a try. Those who don't wear makeup on a daily basis may feel uncomfortable in this transformational look. Evening weddings featuring brides wearing wedding dresses and hair designs that bring most of the focus to the face are good companions for this rich, sophisticated look.

Soft Subtlety

For a surefire way to feel comfortable in your own skin, and your own bridal makeup, choose for a soft color palette. Start with a solid foundation and cover-up that creates a baseline. Then add soft shades of blush and eyeshadow and natural bronzer in key spots. Avoid the overuse of glittery shadows, and stay within the light browns, ivories, pinks, and peaches section of your eyeshadow palette.

Finish off with either a simple matte lip with just a tiny hue of color, or a soft blush lip that has a low sheen. Opting for brown mascara and brow eye lining pencil will help soften your look, too.

Nude Lip

Equally as dramatic as a red or berry lip, but in a completely different direction, is the nude lip. A nude lip, just softened with a natural lip balm is particularly striking for bohemian brides getting married outside in a vineyard, barn, or backyard wedding.

Choosing a nude lip means you can go a little more intense with other features of your make up such as color on your eye or shadowing the contours of your face. Just make sure the overall look feels natural and in line with the nude lip.

Bronzed Eyed Beauty

Similar to the blush tones made so popular by this year's bridal fashion week, bronze tones have become an increasingly popular bridal makeup trend. Accentuating the eye all around with varying degrees of bronze shimmer pairs well with bronzer used to highlight cheekbones and other natural contours of the face.

Use a highlighter on the cheeks and a shimmery lip gloss to give this look a stunning, dewy effect.

The Smokey Eye

A favorite for evening weddings that's become popular this year is the smokey eye. A beautifully sculpted eyebrow with the right around of smoke around the eye can accentuate the bride's eyes perfectly while dressed for an elegant evening wedding.

Keep the rest of the makeup simple, accentuating the contours of the face with natural shadowing, and combine with a neutral lip.

Using a Makeup Artist

One of the big bridal makeup trends for 2018 is for brides to move away from DIY makeup solutions, and towards hiring a makeup artist to help her shine on her wedding day. While weddings can be costly, hiring a makeup artist may well be worth a little room in your budget.

If you do hire an artist, be sure to have pictures on hand of the looks you like, and ensure you're both on the same page regarding the final look.

If you're doing your makeup yourself, be sure to practice a few times so that on your wedding day you've got your routine down pat.