16 Beach Wedding Makeup Tips for a Glowing Bridal Look

It’s always important to prep your skin with supercharged skincare before applying makeup. I always say that a beautiful painting needs a beautiful canvas and using research-powered skincare like Charlotte’s Magic Cream will help your skin to look and feel its best before applying makeup on your wedding day. Since you’ve chosen to get married at the beach, you’ll be met with salty air and ocean breeze which can be drying on the skin. Before you step foot on the shoreline, be sure to indulge in deeply hydrating skincare rituals such as masking, facial massage and essential oils to begin your day with well-moisturised, fresh-faced, glowing skin.

Tilbury Tip: I curated my Wedding Day Immediate Skin Revival Set as the perfect wedding day skincare ritual. It features my Instant Magic Facial Dry Sheet Mask, Cryo-Recovery Eye Serum, Charlotte’s Magic Serum Crystal Elixir, Charlotte’s Magic Cream and Wonderglow face primer.

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Sunscreen is an unmissable step in every skincare and makeup routine, but it becomes even more important in a sun-soaked beach setting. Protect your skin from harmful UV rays by using a high-factor SPF beneath your beach wedding makeup to help shield your skin from sun damage. Apply your sunscreen after Charlotte’s Magic Cream, giving your moisturiser a few moments to absorb into the skin first. I recommend my Invisible UV Flawless Poreless Primer as the perfect sunscreen to reach for on your wedding day; it’s a pore-blurring primer that offers SPF50 sun protection and hydrates the complexion with hyaluronic acid. It looks beautiful and undetectable under makeup and works for every skin tone.

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Beach wedding makeup shouldn’t look or feel heavy. When deciding which foundation and concealer to wear to your beach wedding, choose lightweight formulas that have a ‘your skin’ feel. Keeping your base makeup light will look flattering and more natural in direct sunlight and will suit the effortless, beach makeup aesthetic. Lightweight options will also let your skin breathe during your ocean-front nuptials, helping you to feel comfortable and present without having to worry about your makeup smearing and separating.

Each of my foundation formulas feels lightweight on the skin and could be a beautiful choice for your beach wedding makeup from the glow-giving Hollywood Flawless Filter to hydrating, medium-coverage Charlotte's Beautiful Skin Foundation. Discover my guide to foundation finishes and find your perfect match.

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When applying your beach wedding makeup, be sure to apply your products in light layers – this will help to avoid over-applying and will give your look the most seamless blend. By applying a little bit of product at a time and building up to your desired coverage, colour and finish, you can customise your look while working products beautifully into the skin to minimise the risk of caking or clumping. You can always apply more product, darling, so choose buildable options that will look beautiful on the beach.

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Cream products go hand-in-hand with beach wedding makeup! Creams have a dewy-looking finish that looks beautiful on the beachfront and will give your wedding makeup flattering luminosity. Choose sparkling cream eyeshadows like my Eyes to Mesmerise eyeshadow pots that make your eyes sparkle in the sunlight; cream blushes like my sun-kissed Beach Sticks; and cream bronzers like Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer for effortlessly beach-bronzed skin.

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On your wedding day, it’s best to enhance the look of your natural features using flattering, barely there shades. Natural-looking makeup such as nude eyeshadows, rosy blush colours and your-lips-but-better lip products are timeless choices for beach wedding makeup. You simply can’t go wrong with illuminating the look of the eyes with a golden veil of eyeshadow from The Golden Goddess Luxury Palette, flushing the cheeks with a swipe of my Beach Sticks in Moon Beach, Las Salinas or Formentera, and lining the lips with my suits-everyone Pillow Talk Lip Cheat.

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Darlings, lighting is the number one secret to taking beautiful photographs, and at a magical beach wedding there is an abundance of beautifying natural light! To get the most out of your golden-hour glow, choose illuminating makeup products like Hollywood Flawless Filter, Wonderglow and Beauty Light Wands that will play with the light and give your complexion an ethereal glow. My glow secrets are formulated to look gorgeous in every type of light from natural light to disco spotlights to magical moonlight – wear them to give your beach wedding makeup a sensational bridal glow that flatters your complexion through every scene in your love story.

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You decided on a destination wedding so you can celebrate your love in a beautiful, sunlit location, but those high temperatures can cause sweating which can be a disaster for your beach makeup look. To combat humidity and sweat, I suggest reaching for humidity-resistant makeup products that are designed to perform magically in warm weather. Discover long-lasting makeup products including Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer for lasting bronzed skin and Brow Fix for groomed, set-in-place brows to sweatproof your beach makeup look.

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At your beach wedding, all eyes will be on you! Draw attention to your bewitching blue, gorgeous green, head-turning hazel or beautiful brown eyes by using mascara and eyeliner to make them pop. Adding a slick of eyeliner to your eye makeup helps to define the look of your eyes which is essential for wedding photography, and applying a lift-effect mascara helps your eyes to appear more open in spite of the sun’s glare and flash photography. To create a timeless wedding eye makeup look, curl your lashes with the Life-Changing Lashes eyelash curler, then glide along the lash line with The Classic powder eyeliner pencil and finish with lashings of Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes! mascara.

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Whether you love a moisturising satin lipstick such as my K.I.S.S.I.N.G formula, a long-wearing liquid lipstick like Airbrush Flawless Lip Blur or a high-shine lip gloss like Collagen Lip Bath, it’s important to keep your lips happily hydrated with lip oil. Lips can easily become dehydrated thanks to salty air and non-stop chatter with your guests, so having a high-performance lip oil on hand to instantly hydrate your lips is essential. I created Charlotte’s Magic Lip Oil Crystal Elixir to glide on your magical moisture boost; it’s infused with a magic matrix of lip-loving ingredients, behaving like a powerful serum to give your lips a rush of moisture as well as mesmerising shine. Swipe it on throughout the day for plush, kissable lips that glow.

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Lightweight foundations and cream products are beautiful choices for beach wedding makeup, but I recommend applying a small amount of powder and a mist of setting spray to help lock them into place for the day. The key to applying powder is focusing on the areas that need it – generally in the T-zone, under the eyes and around the mouth. With the Powder & Sculpt Brush, tap a light amount of my award-winning Airbrush Flawless Finish pressed powder onto the face to help set makeup into place and prevent creasing. Once you’ve powdered, apply a generous amount of Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray – it’s my high-performance formula that locks in makeup for up to 16 hours of celebration!

Tilbury Tip: To make your under-eyes look luminous and bright-eyed, choose Airbrush Brightening Flawless Finish to set, perfect and illuminate.

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Applying a hydrating face mist is the key to beating the heat on your wedding day! I created Charlotte’s Magic Hydrator Mist as a magical makeup refresher that douses the face with moisture; it feels instantly hydrating and gives your complexion a gorgeous, dewy-looking glow. Keep this face mist close to give yourself a burst of moisture whenever you begin to feel hot and bothered – it’s easy to mist, glow and go so you can continue mingling with guests while feeling immediately refreshed and revived.

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Having one of your bridesmaids carry around a helpful compact mirror will help you to keep tabs on your beach wedding makeup. If teary eyes have caused your mascara to smudge, the entrée has led your lipstick awry or your complexion has started to get oily in the heat, you can check up on your makeup look easily and efficiently using a compact or small hand mirror. 

Tilbury Tip: Some of my magical makeup products like my Airbrush Bronzer and Airbrush Flawless Finish have handy mirrors that are perfect for touching up your makeup!

It’s always a good idea to keep a makeup bag filled with touch-up treasures close by! I curated the Wedding Day Magic Makeup Touch-Up Kit specifically for newlyweds that want their makeup to look flawless for their entire wedding day. This beautifying makeup kit features miniature versions of Airbrush Flawless Finish pressed powder to remove unwanted shine, Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray to blur the look of your complexion and set makeup in place and Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes! to top up your mascara for eyes that enchant all of your guests.

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You’ll be meeting and greeting all of your favourite people on your wedding day, and while hugs and kisses are appreciated, they can risk disturbing your beach wedding makeup! Try greeting your guests with air kisses to avoid smudging your makeup look – they’ll understand that your makeup looks too beautiful to smear and it will also prevent any makeup transferring onto their wedding guest attire.

Tilbury Tip: Take your wedding photographs early in the day while your makeup looks its freshest.

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Whichever magical makeup products you choose to create your beach wedding makeup, it’s a good idea to do a wear test shortly before your wedding to get a feel for how comfortable you are with your look. Try wearing your beach wedding makeup in a similar climate over a length of time to observe how products last on your skin, how they look in photos and how they make you feel. If your foundation feels heavy or your blush starts to fade, you may decide to go with a different option on your wedding day.

Your wear test will boost your beauty confidence on your wedding day as you’ll know that your look is tried and tested. It will allow you to spend less time worrying and more time basking in the magic of your wedding day.

Glow like a timeless beach goddess with my Beachy Bronzed Wedding Makeup Kit. Curate your idyllic beach-bronzed makeup look with your choice of glowing, sun-kissed shades! This makeup kit features my Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer, Beauty Light Wand blush-highlighter, Luxury Palette eyeshadow quad and K.I.S.S.I.N.G lipstick in shades chosen by you. It’s the secret to enchanting eyes, incandescent cheeks and a sun-kissed complexion, as well as giving the lips a moisturising kiss of rosy colour.

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Become a bohemian beauty on your wedding day with my Bohemian Glow Wedding Makeup Kit. This free-spirited makeup look features makeup magic for the eyes, lips and cheeks. First, illuminate and define the look of your eyes with your chosen shades of Eyes to Mesmerise and The Classic eyeliner. Then, blush and glow with your favourite Beauty Light Wand and Pillow Talk Lip and Cheek Glow. Finally, reshape and resize the look of your lips with your dream pink shade of Lip Cheat.

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To create a rosy beach wedding makeup look, discover my Dreamy Beauty Wedding Makeup Kit. With this beautifying kit, you can unlock glowing, rose-gold eyes, the sweetest blushing cheeks and the dreamiest Pillow Talk pout. Choose your perfect Pillow Talk Lip Cheat and Lipstick combination, then flush your cheeks with your favourite Matte Beauty Blush Wand and use the Bigger, Brighter Eyes Palette to exaggerate the look of your eyes.

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