“It’s a roomful of people staring at you in a white dress, so I wanted to make sure my makeup and hair felt like me, my everyday look—but the most beautiful, radiant, three-hour version of it,” explains Jen Myles of the vision she had for herself on her wedding day.
Last month, on a crisp fall evening, the editorial makeup artist married hairstylist Neil Grupp at Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg. The intimate ceremony was followed by dinner, drinks, and dancing beneath twinkling fairy lights. And, of course, leave it to a pro to have all the secrets to a luminous complexion and soft, romantic makeup. Here, Myles takes Vogue through her wedding prep, from getting a “natural facelift” to the perfect sultry smoky eye.
One Month Prior:
“Before my wedding day, I spent the prior month preparing my skin with facials, [a healthy] diet, drinking a lot of water, and in-depth skin-care routine,” explains Myles. It all began with a visit to Tracie Martyn’s studio for her popular Red Carpet facial, which teams smoothing microdermabrasion and antiaging amber LED light for a natural facelift, says Myles. Then twice each week, she gave herself at-home micro-current treatments with a ZIIP device. Developed by cult facialist Melanie Simon, the handheld gadget uses low-level electric currents to boost cellular energy: restoring collagen, improving elasticity, and refining skin’s texture over time. Tending to her body below the neck as well, Myles went to Manhattan’s Higher Dose for infrared sauna sessions to detox, boost collagen, and activate the autonomic nervous system, as well as lymphatic drainage treatments to reduce swelling, fight water retention, and stimulate circulation to diffuse the appearance of cellulite.
One Week Prior
A few days before her wedding, Myles went for the “facial of all facials”: the Bio Lift at Rescue Spa, which takes electric micro-currents to the next level, sculpting and lifting the face while imparting a youthful glow. “You see the best results from micro-currents two to three days postfacial,” she explains of timing out the treatment. Then there was the full-body Detox Wrap, which consisted of a regenerative scrub, followed by a natural sea mud wrap to purify, tone, and firm the skin. “It was my only time to relax and focus on myself the week of the wedding!” says Myles.
The Day of the Wedding
“The week leading up to the wedding brings to so much stress and a lack of sleep, and then there’s the night-before party, so I needed to do final prep work on the night before and day of,” explains Myles. Before going to sleep after the welcome festivities, she cleansed, then applied Joanna Vargas Bright Eye Firming gel patches to soothe and prevent puffiness in the under-eye area. After removing them, she took melatonin to ensure a deep, relaxing eight hours of sleep. In the morning, she washed her face with a cleansing cloth and cold water before giving herself a minute-long ice facial to “wake up and depuff” her complexion. To further hydrate, tone, and give an “overall appearance of tightened skin,” she exfoliated with Biologique Recherche P50V 1970 and did a five-minute steam session with her at-home steamer before applying Masque PIGM 400 to brighten and boost radiance. “I recommend doing a sheet mask as part of skin prep, and this is one of the best because it’s not a silicone-based mask, which can leave a residue on the skin you have to wash off before applying makeup,” she explains. To supercharge the skin, she then layered on African Botanics Neroli Infused Marula Oil and Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream, before tapping Dr. Barbara Sturm Glow Drops onto the cheekbones.
For a “glowing, perfectly highlighted complexion,” Myles began by buffing Glossier Stretch Concealer into the skin, then layered on Laura Mercier Flawless Fusion Ultra Longwear Concealer for extra under-eye coverage. “Should someone decide to do their own makeup for their wedding, I highly recommend getting a new foundation or concealer to match your skin at the moment of the wedding,” says Myles. “It’s so important for pictures!” To highlight, she used Chanel Baume Essentiel Multi-Use Glow Stick on the high planes of her face to light-catching effect, then sculpted her cheeks with Jillian Dempsey Cheek Tint in soft baby pink Petal and Tom Ford Skin Illuminating Powder Duo palette.
Brows were filled in and brushed up with Surratt Expressioniste Brow Pencil and Glossier tinted Boy Brow, respectively, and waterlines were smudged with two different pencils: Tom Ford Eye Kohl Intense in black and MAC Costa Riche Eye Kohl. After sweeping taupe shadow over the lids, she swiped on a pair of kittenish flicks using UZ jet-black Eye Opening Liner, curled her lashes with a Shu Uemura curler, then applied Ardell individual single lashes and coated her fringe with Serge Lutens jet-black Cils Cellophane Mascara. A slick of Glossier Play Vinylic Lip in dark taupe Pony on the mouth finished the down-the-aisle equation.
For the reception, Myles smoked out her sooty liner with a brush and added a deluge of Glitter Injections flecks in holographic Pure Goddess all over. “I wanted to do a second makeup look—something to let everyone know it was time to party and dance,” explains Miles. “The best thing was to get all the texts from everyone the next day, saying they were still finding glitter everywhere.”
