Bridal Beauty Routine: These Are The Specific Details of How I Prepped For My Wedding

It would be much cooler of me to pretend that I was pretty blasé about my wedding, but I must confess I’ve been day-dreaming about it since I was a little girl (with the nearly decade’s old Pinterest boards as additional evidence to this fact). And as someone who writes about beauty for a living, my pre-wedding beauty routine came front of mind almost immediately after getting engaged. So I thought I’d document a little of said routine for other like-minded, beauty obsessed brides. If I were to cover every aspect of my wedding plans it would rival a university thesis in length and arguably depth, so I’m restricting myself to three specific but highly important aspects of my wedding prep: skin, supplements, body, nails, and teeth.

Our wedding was actually in early February 2020, but I’ve held off chatting about my pre-nuptial beauty preparation until now because it didn’t feel right. We were so, so unbelievably lucky with our timing that I feel guilty thinking about it – had our wedding been even a couple of weeks later, we’d probably have had to reschedule like so many couples have had to, or if not, at least significantly alter our plans. We got married in my hometown of Perth, and my husband is French and many of our family and friends live interstate and overseas, so it was a true joy to be able to celebrate with all our loved ones who came from afar, and whom we probably won’t be able to see again for the foreseeable future.

SKIN

I’m pretty diligent with my skincare routine, but I complemented my at-home regime with a couple of skin-boosting treatments in preparation for the wedding. A few months out I tried the Hydrafacial at The Youth Lab in West Perth, which involves a thorough exfoliation followed by infusing the skin with seriously hydrating peptides and hyaluronic acid. My skin is quite sensitive, but it immediately looked glowing and plumped, so I was hooked. I rebooked for a week before the wedding itself because I was comfortable that it truly had zero downtime, but I could have probably afforded to schedule it even closer to the day for maximum luminosity.

Youth Lab

About a fortnight pre-wedding, I visited the ever-so-chic Blanc clinic in Cottesloe for their Signature Facial. It was a blissful couple of hours which benefited my skin (seriously hydrated) and frayed nerves endlessly. For Perth brides, I’d highly recommend you try either – or both – treatment for beautiful skin.

Blanc

SUPPLEMENTS

I got pretty excited pre-wedding and bought a bumper bounty of supplements to get my skin in perfect condition. Admittedly, I probably went overboard, so consequently whittled my collection down to a much tighter edit.

BODY

Fairly early on in my engagement, I committed to a regular body brushing routine; I’ve loved The Body Shop’s brush for years, which I use every morning on dry skin before moisturising. I deal with KP, a.k.a. chicken skin, so I also incorporated the Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion on the backs of my arms: it contains AHAs, which help minimise the appearance of those little red dots, especially when used in conjunction with body brushing.

I’d initially contemplated having the lightest of light spray tans, but ultimately opted to skip it, despite almost every bridal beauty guide stating it as a pre-nuptial non-negotiable. I’m naturally very pale and not a self tan user usually, so it felt inauthentic for me to do so; as is often and rightly said, your bridal self should be an elevated version of your everyday self, not someone unrecognisable. So I have no tanning advice to provide, but instead urge you to not feel obliged to opt for any beauty treatment that doesn’t feel completely you (yes, even the ones mentioned here).

NAILS

I had a very specific idea in mind when it came to how I wanted my nails on my wedding: very lowkey, very subtle, ‘no-nail-polish nail polish’, if you will. I’d always loved the timelessness of the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding mani (which was supposedly a combo of Bourjois’s Rose Lounge and Essie’s Allure shades) and asked the salon to aim for the closest they could get to that look, but in gels. Had I gotten married in Sydney, I would have opted for Jocelyn Petroni’s Custom Blend manicure, where the clever therapists mix together a bespoke combination of polishes to craft the most natural and flattering nude shade for your skin tone. I treated myself to one before my engagement party and adored it – my custom combo, by the way, was a blend of Chanel’s Organdi and Afterglow polishes.

First picture of our wedding bands as a newly married couple (feat. my wedding mani)

TEETH

Getting my teeth whitened was a must-do for me, and I opted for Sparkling White Smile as I had previously trialled their treatment in Sydney with our team and had loved the results. A small word of warning: if you weren’t aware, you need to steer clear of all foods and drinks that aren’t clear for 48 hours, so make sure you factor this into your social calendar: I’d suggest having the treatment no more than a week before the big day, and those pre-wedding days tend to be filled with celebratory meals with family and friends, so I suggest you keep this in mind. But you’ll be happy to know that champagne is on the ‘okay to consume’ list, thank goodness.