Make up, Make-up Tips

5 Useful makeup tips before your wedding

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Makeup is something amazing, you can for example transform, beautify, hide, conceal, cover and bring out whatever you want in your face. Makeup for your wedding is a very important part, its purpose is to make you look like a more beautiful version of yourself. Even if you never wear makeup I think every bride should use a little bit to enhance their beauty and to match the choice of the dress and hairstyle, also for the photos it does look a lot better, remember they’re photos you’ll be looking at for the rest of your life 🙂

Here are 5 great tips when  considering  your wedding makeup.

1, Hire a professional to do your makeup – You might be great at doing your own  makeup, but when your wedding day arrives, Its really nice to sit down and relax with perhaps a glass of champagne instead of being stressed and worrying your makeup is going to be perfect. Also a professional has the products to insure that your makeup lasts all day and night, she/he  also has the experience to know what will suit best with your hairstyle and dress for the big day. Make sure to book a consultation 1 month or closer to the wedding date to match the skin tone you will likely have at your wedding. If you have a certain makeup style in mind its great to bring along a picture for your makeup stylist.

2,Get your lashes tinted and brows tinted and shaped 1 week before your wedding – Doing this means you don’t need as much mascara on your wedding day, and especially important is to have nice eyebrows as they really frame your face. Its never a good idea to pluck your eyebrows on your wedding day as it might irritate the skin and make it red. If you find it hard to know what shape will suit you best, let a professional help you.

3, Try not to stress and keep hydrated – Lack of sleep and stress including not drinking enough water shows immediately on your skin. Its great if you can avoid this as much as you can before the wedding day.

4, Do a face peeling a couple of days before the wedding day – This will help the skin looking extra smooth and glowing. You can make your own peeling by mixing a nice olive or almond oil with sugar  and gently massage it over your face and neck.

5, Consider wearing fake lashes – I use false lashes on 99% of my brides and they have all been really happy with the result. It really makes your eyes “pop” and they’re great for photos, you can either go for the full strip ones or just a few individual ones. Definitely try it out at your makeup consultation.

I hope you find these tips useful, if you have any questions or would like to book a consultation, please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@absolutelygorgeousbcn.com.

Catrin Söderdahl, Hair and Makeup artist, Absolutely Gorgeous BCN/STHLM
bröllop och tips, Hair and Make up, Make up, Make-up Tips

Wedding lips

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I’ve already in previous blog posts written about wedding eyes and eyebrows, now lets focus on the lips!

Beautiful lips are essential for a bride, and it is a very important part of the bridal makeup. You can choose from a wide range of  lip products such as matte, sheer, shimmery, glossy and creamy lipsticks.

Firstly its really important to take care of your lips as, they are very sensitive and tend to dry out easily. I always tell my brides to moisturize their lips even more the week before the wedding as cracked lips are not very nice on your wedding day and the lipstick goes on unevenly.

Secondly, always remember to use sunscreen for the lips when you are out in the sun!

My favorite moisturizing lip product at the moment is Lip care mix from Makeup Store.

Try using a combination of three lip caring products – peeling, mask and lip balm. The green crème is a mild peeling. The white creme is a softening mask that can be used during both night and day. The white creme can also be used as a remover for lipstick. The pink creme is a lip balm that can be used everyday.

So which colour should you go for on your wedding day? Most brides prefer a neutral shade like pink, nude, beige pink or rosy brown. If you go for a soft eye makeup it looks pretty to have a stronger lip colour on most women. The best way is to try out different shades on the day of your trial and decide from there which one you like the most. One good thing to remember is that small lips look bigger in softer glossy colours where bigger lips tend to look better with a darker shade with a matte texture.

Here are 3 great ways make your lip colour last longer on your wedding day:

  • You can use a lip primer before applying the color (I like lip insurance by too faced)
  • Line your lip with a lip pencil before or after applying the lipstick.
  • Another great tip is to apply the lipstick 3 times and after each time you bite off the colour on a piece of tissue paper and after the last time divide the paper in 2 so you end up with a thin layer of paper, hold it over your lips and gently powder with a loose powder on the paper over your lips.


Photo : fashionsunrise.com



Hope you found this helpful, keep enjoying the summer and I ll see you in my next blog post!

Catrin Söderdahl, Hair and Makeup artist, Absolutely Gorgeous BCN/STHLM
bröllop och tips, Hair and Make up, Hår och makeup, Make up, Make-up Tips, makeup

Wedding eyes – inspiration wedding make up

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I think one of the most important things is to have beautiful eyes for your wedding. It will express your style even more romantic, exotic, sexy or classic. It’s really amazing what make up can do.  For example, with wedding make up you can make small eyes look bigger, change the shape of the eyes or make your eye colour stand out more.


What colour should I use?

Many women find it difficult to know what colours to choose for their wedding make up. The best way to make your eyes stand out, is to choose the contrast color of your eye colour. For blue eyes, different shades of brown, golden and silver colours and beige are very pretty. For green eyes I would recommend shades of pink, purple and rusty tones. Try it, it looks really nice. Then again, for brown eyes I must say almost every colour works. You can mix and match the colours as much as you want, personally I usually use at least 3 colours together.  One lighter colour, one mid tone and one darker tone for contrast and conturing the eye.

As you see, there are lots of colours that matches for you wedding and that’s another good reason to always do a trial before your wedding day to try what color scales will suit you best and moreover what you feel most comfortable in.

Glitter or matte for your wedding?

Often I get the question if one should use glitter or matte colours for the wedding make up. I would say for the photos, matte looks best but adding a little sparkle. Too much glitter can reflect too much from the flash. Something I use on almost every bride is false eylashes it makes the eyes stand out even more and goes so well with any wedding style and for the photos it looks amazing! You can either have full strip lashes (there are lots of different varieties) or you can use individual lashes that usually is just being applied on the outer corners of the eye. For example, if you have round eyes and want more of an almond shape, or if you are after a vintage look these lashes looks the best.

Do you want to know more about wedding make up or make up in general?  Want to do a trial to find out the colours that suit you the best? For a consultation please do not hesitate to contact us here.

Catrin Söderdahl, Hair & Make Up Artist Barcelona | Stockholm
Make up, Make-up Tips, makeup, Product Advice, Stockholm

Sommarsmink – 5 favoriter

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Midsommaren närmar sig med stormsteg och då är sommaren officiellt här! Därför tänkte jag dela med mig lite tips och råd om sommarsmink, så att du kan se naturligt snygg ut, vare sig det är midsommarfest, släktträff eller bröllop som står på din agenda.

I våras deltog jag i Youngbloods sminkkurs där jag fick lära mig mycket nytt och fick en rejäl dos av inspiration till sommarbröllopen.
Youngblood är mineralsmink och består till 100% av rena naturliga mineraler och passar alla hudtyper. Dessutom innehåller det UVA och UVB skydd med en solskyddsfaktor på 15. Mineralsminket täpper inte till porerna och det är därför det är så bra på sommaren. Youngbloods produkter är inte testade på djur vilket för oss på Absolutely Gorgeous BCN & Absolutely Gorgeous STHLM är oerhört viktigt.

För att göra det lätt för dig så har jag samlat ihop mina 5 favoritprodukter till sommarsminket:

– “Mineral rice setting powder” är perfekt för varma dagar då huden lätt blir blank. Det är ett 100% talkfritt puder som används som primer innan foundation vilket gör att fuktighetskrämen binds, fet hud oljeabsorberas och porer minimeras.

– “Ultimate concealer” piggar upp trötta ögon efter sommarfesten och används för att dölja mörka ringar och släta ut fina linjer även över finnar eller andra utslag typ myggbett.

– “Lunar dust” är ett ljusreflekterande mineralpuder som används till att ge lyster åt din solbränna tex i ansiktet, på skuldrorna eller på benen etc och det används med borste eller ett annat bra sätt är att blanda in lite Lunar Dust i din kroppslotion.

– “Incredible gel eyeliner” är en “must have” i handväskan pâ sommaren. Inget kladd och den håller hela dagen och kvällen så du kan lugnt dansa barfota långt in i sommarnatten.

– Mitt personliga favorit läppstift “Dragon Fruit” passar alla och är väldigt snyggt speciellt på sommaren. Dessutom håller det hela dagen och det både skyddar och fuktar dina läppar.

Är du intresserad av att testa Youngbloods produkter eller få mer råd så finns jag på salongen “Hairstars” på Repslagargatan 8 på Södermalm i Stockholm. Personligen så känns det både spännande att prova på något nytt som både ser bra ut och är väldigt bra och skonande för huden. Välkommen in! www.hairstars.se

Catrin Söderdahl, Frisör/Makeup stylist, Absolutely Gorgeous STHLM
hairstyles, Make up, makeup, skin types, wedding hair, wedding hairstyles

New year new start!

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A new year has begun and that means also a new start for me to return home to Sweden after having lived 13 years abroad.
My profession has taken me to Alicante, Australia and for the last 7 years to Barcelona. It has been a very rewarding time and I’ve worked with people from all around the world and with all types of hair styles, skin types and styles.
I started Absolutely Gorgeous BCN in 2006 after I choose to focus on wedding hairstyles and makeup. It has been an amazing time and to be a part of the brides big day, at the most beautiful places in and around Barcelona.
Absolutely Gorgeous BCN will continue with weddings in Barcelona and when i can’t be there personally someone from my great team will be there to do the job!
In Stockholm, in addition to working freelance, I will start a collaboration with Wedding In Sweden, a fantastic, professional wedding planner with lots of new ideas. I will also continue to cooperate with Brudepikene and to help Norwegian brides who want to marry in Stockholm. Even international couples are coming to Stockholm to get married and my first wedding for 2013 is an English bride who found me through the Internet.She’s getting married in Stockholm in February and I have the honor to do her wedding hair.
When I’m not working with weddings I will be at the salon Hair Stars, in Södermalm in Stockholm- it was there where I began my career in 1999.
It has become a new chapter in Absolutely Gorgeous BCN / STHLM’s history and for the time up until now, I really want to thank, Mikaela Ekholm from Each Step Matters, Claire from Barcelona weddings, Laura from Crystal Events and Brudepikene. I would also like to thank Photographers Edwin Vandevyver, Cathy Loughran and Jeremy Standley for the amazingly beautiful wedding photographs.

Wishing you all the best for 2013 and I’ll see you again soon in Stockholm or Barcelona!

Catrin Soderdahl hairdresser / make up artist
Absolutely Gorgeous BCN / STHLM