The Essential Guide To Hair & Makeup For Destination Weddings

When it comes to planning your hair and makeup for destination weddings, there is a unique set of challenges. From finding the right beauty experts in your destination to ensuring your look stays flawless in hot and humid climates, there’s a lot to consider. But, that’s what we’re here for! In this essential guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about hair and makeup for your destination wedding. We’ll cover the importance of beauty trials, how to source local professionals, the must-have products to pack, and the latest trends in bridal hair and makeup. With these expert tips and tricks, you’ll be well on your way to looking and feeling your best on your big day, no matter where in the world you’re tying the knot.

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Everything you need to know about booking your hair and makeup for destination weddings 

Finding your hair and makeup artist/s

Depending on your venue, you may have the option to use the in-house staff or at least use their recommended supplier list to help. Choosing an in-house team is a great option because they are constantly exposed to weddings and will be used to working with suppliers and getting hair and makeup to stay put in the heat. If your venue doesn’t have this option, then doing your research is essential. Establish in advance what services are readily available at your venue and which to fly in. If you have a wedding planner, they can also help with this! If you’re looking for local recommendations, don’t be afraid to consult with the concierge at your venue. As long as you have the glam team prepared around three months before your big day, you’ll be fine! 

Bringing your vision to life

Once you have an idea of who you might like your hair and/or makeup artist to be, you can work on finding realistic inspo photos who have a similar hair texture and colour to your own, this way you can get a good idea of how that style will look on you. Then, when it comes to the trial you can actually get to try out what you like. Once you decide on a style, then the prep begins! It’s on you to grow your hair, get regular trims or get extensions (whether they’re permanent or clip-ins). It’s the same for makeup! You can prep your skin and face with regular facials and treatments from teeth whitening to microblading. 

How do trials work for destination weddings?

To arrange an in-person trial with your hair or makeup artist, ask for their travel schedule to see if they’re coming to your home country or if you can fly out to meet them. Set up a phone call to get to know each other before you do book this though to ensure you communicate well and they understand what you want, especially if you aren’t fluent in each other’s language. 

If you’re unable to arrange an in-person trial, there’s always the option of FaceTime or an online call. After sending pictures or videos of yourself to the beauty expert, they can then find a model that has the same skin tone and hair texture to recreate the look you want. It’s not a perfect science but it still gives you the option to see what the final look would be. 

Don’t forget, the point of a trial is to explore your wedding look and make it feel like the big day. To make this as accurate as possible, bring along your hair accessories, the eyelashes you want to use and if you’re getting a spray tan, make sure you do this beforehand.

SPF and Skin Prep

To make your makeup last all day you need to ensure that your base is prepped! Don’t underestimate the power of skin prep and the most important thing is SPF! There are so many incredible SPF products out there that aren’t oily and don’t leave a white cast that seems impossible to rub in. Take a look at some of our favourite SPF products… 

Keep it light

Opting for a skin tint or CC cream is a much better option for destination weddings rather than a thick full-coverage foundation. Of course, you still want your skin to look flawless on your wedding day, so choosing a buildable base is essential. Plus, this way, your skin will still feel like it can breathe in hot and humid climates. 

3,2,1...Bake!

The magic is all in the choice of powder. Opting for a loose powder over a pressed powder is the key to making your makeup last since you can use it to bake certain areas, especially over your T-zone. However, keeping a pressed powder with you for touch-ups throughout the day is a great idea. Here are a few of the powders recommended by us! 

Set your face in place

Set your base in place with a setting spray that is weather-resistant and sweatproof. Your face will not budge an inch with our handpicked selection of setting sprays that are verified by makeup artists to keep your makeup looking fresh even in severe heat and during those teary emotional moments. 

Waterproof, Sweatproof & Weather-Resistant Mascaras

Speaking of tears, waterproof mascara is another essential product we’d recommend for weddings. Not only just for destination weddings, waterproof mascara will save you from worrying about any black streaks from tears, rain or even sweat. Tubing mascaras may also be a really great option for you. In the same way, lash extensions might be more appropriate for destination weddings that are very hot compared to false eyelashes. The lash glue might melt or cause false eyelashes to become unstuck, so opting for lash extensions might be more helpful. 

Touch-Up With Your Wedding Makeup Kit

Our last and potentially most important tip to getting your makeup lasting all day long is keeping an emergency wedding makeup kit around you on the day. You can leave the kit with one of the bridesmaids or the maid of honour for touch-ups throughout the day. 

When it comes to destination weddings with lots of sun, less is more. Although you obviously still want your makeup to look great on camera, opting for a tinted moisturiser but a heavier concealer is key for achieving light layers that you can set with powder to ensure they don’t budge. Harsh outdoor sunlight can often be unforgiving and sometimes heavier makeup can highlight your imperfections rather than accentuate them. In the same way, heavier makeup is likely to make you sweat more and is more likely to melt off. These are just a few of our favourite summer wedding makeup looks right now. 

Just like you prep your skin before makeup, you should prep your hair before styling including heat protectants from not only styling tools but the sun too! As well as heat, you also need to protect your hair colour and hair texture. The healthier your hair is, the more likely the style will look exactly as you want it to. In terms of actually staying in place though, nothing works as well as a strong hairspray.

Heat Protectants

First things first, for any styling with tools and being out in the sun, you should use heat protectants because, yes, they do actually make a difference. We’re here to make things easy for you and have picked out some of the best.

Nourish with Curl Creams and Hair Oils

If you have curly hair and want to embrace those gorgeous curls, using a curl cream is essential! Plus keeping those curls nourished in humid or dry weather is important, so take a look at this selection of curl creams and hair oils. 

Improve Hair Texture with Hair Masks

In the same way, to improve your hair texture altogether, use a leave-in conditioner treatment or rich hair mask. The sun, swimming pools, and heat styling are all common factors in increasing hair dryness, so combat that with these incredible products. 

Protect Your Colour

The sun can also fade hair colour and change the tone of it and when you’ve just spent a chunk of money achieving your perfect hair colour, this can be frustrating. It’s worth protecting your hair with some colour correcting and protecting shampoos and conditioners to ensure this isn’t impacted. 

Cover Grey Hairs

The sun will also make any grey hairs glisten! Don’t forget root touch-ups for any grey hairs poking through that you don’t want showing (if you’re happy to embrace them, then more power to you), these are a few of our faves right now. 

Keep Your Style In Place With Hairspray

Finally, keeping your hair in place with a strong hairspray will ensure that your hair doesn’t budge. Of course, the main priority with this is finding a hairspray that isn’t crunchy and one that doesn’t become sticky in the sun. Pomades and gels might be a better option for curls and updos, so we also have a few recommendations of those. 

The best hairstyles for destination weddings are ones that just embrace the humidity and have fun styling with salt sprays or texture sprays. Embrace your curls, waves that will be more pronounced in hotter weather but use curling creams and hair oils to combat frizz. Unless you have naturally straight hair, avoid straight hairstyles. The obvious choice would also be to opt for an updo. Whether you go for something sleek or naturally messy, with an updo your hair is away from your forehead where you often sweat and off the back of your neck to keep you cool. Style this with gels or pomades for that extra smooth look. If you really want your hair down try out some half-up half-down hairstyles to still keep it away from your face.  

Make your wedding hair and makeup last all day with our top tips and recommended products 

After all this, you might decide that actually doing your own wedding makeup might suit you WAY better than trying to find beauty experts, but, hey, everyone wants to feel like a pampered prince or princess on their wedding day. Whatever makes you feel confident is the correct option. If you are doing your own wedding makeup, we have plenty of tips and tricks to make you feel like a total pro. Here are 48 wedding makeup ideas we love!