‘I hated it so much I decided to wash it off’: Bride washes off makeup 20 minutes before the wedding. Then the makeup artist responded
A bride unhappy with her professional wedding day makeup recorded a video of herself washing it off and redoing it 20 minutes before her ‘first look’ meeting with her fiancé. She posted the video to TikTok where it went viral, gathering over 1.7 million views and hundreds of comments — eventually gaining the attention of the makeup artist.
Kandra Jones, a professional hair and makeup artist based in San Diego, joined TikTok to address bride Lauren Avery's (@laurenaveryh) video, which has since been set to private.
In her response video, Kandra (@twirlyshears) shared a snippet of the original video, in which Lauren is wearing a makeup headband and leans into the camera, saying, “Washing off my bridal makeup.” Text overlay on the original video reads, “Core memory: getting my makeup done for my wedding & I hated it so much I decided to wash it off and redo it myself.”
Lauren then shared finished makeup photo, and the text, “Smile says it all!” is visible in the upper right corner of the video.
Kandra made a TikTok account after one of her artists shared the viral video with her. “Hi there. So 21 million of you have seen that viral video of the bride washing off her makeup 20 minutes before her first look on her wedding day. Well, it’s me. I’m that makeup artist."
"I honestly was shocked to see this. There were no indicators that she was unhappy, honestly. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I’ve learned to communicate very well with my brides, and I’ve also learned to read body language, so even if a bride says she loves it, often I can tell if she doesn’t just by the way her body is sitting or just different tells that we have as women when we’re trying to, you know, say we like something and we don’t.”
She checked her messages with the bride to see if there were any indications that she had been unhappy, and Kandra couldn't find any. Lauren even had a test makeup appointment with Twirly Shears to ensure everything was to her liking.
"I made the changes that she asked for and it seemed to me that she was happy. She gave me the biggest smile I’ve ever seen of a bride. And yeah, I had no idea. Also, her wedding was in August, so I mean it’s been several months now. I had no idea she was unhappy."
"The thing that hurts is who the bride was. I’m not even on TikTok so I had no idea this was happening. One of my artists saw this and saw that it was going viral and reached out to me. And when she told me what was going on, I was trying to think of which bride it could possibly be, and when I saw that it was this specific bride, that’s what hurt. ‘Cuz this bride, she was so sweet.
She was so easy to work with, so kind. So that’s what hurts, is that the character of the bride that I thought is not what was there. And that’s just what hurt the most. But it is what it is, you can’t change it now. All we can do is move forward and learn from this."
The makeup artist shared advice for brides planning their weddings
"So brides, if you’re getting married, you don’t have to hire a makeup artist. There’s nowhere that says that you do. If you love the way that you do your own makeup, then do it on your wedding day. Also if you do hire us makeup artists, you are not going to offend us. You are paying for our service, and it’s our job to make sure you’re comfortable. And so just communicate, let us know what’s going on.
I’m also just glad that this happened to me and not any of the stylists or artists on my team, because this has been very challenging to navigate. I appreciate all the support from the makeup artists. The makeup artist community has overwhelmingly reached out in support. I’ve received hundreds of messages in the last couple of days, just showing love and support and that means the world to me. So thank you for that."
Folks shared their support for Kandra and her business in the comments of her first TikTok video.
One viewer wrote, "I can hear the hurt in your voice. I'm so sorry, people can be so cruel."
"Her makeup looked AMAZING," another said.
@laurenaveryh and @twirlyshears did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok direct message.
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