Madeeha's is one of the leading salons in Lahore with a line of bridal makeups to suit every pocket. When my Mamu's (uncle) wedding was decided, I was given the task to decide and book a makeup artist for the valima function (ofcourse :p) Even though I am very much capable of doing my own makeup, I thought that this is a good opportunity to try out one of the leading salons for party makeup and see what they do differently. And hence I found myself sitting on the seat and getting my makeup done.
Before I start, let me warn you that this will be a long review with no pictures because of privacy purposes.I hope you all will respect that and thankyou for bearing with me. I love you all <3
Before I start, let me warn you that this will be a long review with no pictures because of privacy purposes.I hope you all will respect that and thankyou for bearing with me. I love you all <3
My day started with me rushing with the bride to the parlour. Upon reaching the parlour, we did the complete payments and were then given our tags and told to go to the 1st floor where the makeup takes place. After settling the bride in her seat, I was told to wash my face with a face wash. The face wash was supposedly a Neutrogena one but the smell was a little weird. Anyways, after washing my face, I went and sat in one of the countless makeup stations. The lady, who I will not be naming, started by putting some eye drops in my eyes to prevent redness and stop them from watering. After this she started doing my foundation. They had multiple sponges in front of them which were supposedly sanitized and cleaned but I still insisted that they use a fresh and sealed sponge on my face. The lady was very hesitant and did not want to open a new one but I was persistent so she had no choice. She started my foundation application by applying Kryolan TV Sticks all over my face and blending them in. I had taken my NARS All Day Luminous Foundation because I wanted to use that instead of the TV Sticks and the lady applied the Nars Foundation on top of the TV Paint sticks which gave me a mini heart attack. Plus she used the foundation in great quantity although the foundation is super pigmented and you only need 2 pumps for the whole face. Anyways, after applying the foundation, she used face powder all over my face. Unfortunately, she over-used the face powder and my face started to look as if I had dipped my face in a sack full of flour. With that done, she started doing my eyes. She first did my eyebrows and fortunately, they did not look so harsh. Moving onto the eye makeup, I asked her to give me a bronze gold to match the work on my clothes. Instead she applied a yellow gold all over my eyelids with deep brown in the crease. There was no outer corner. She then applied the liner using the Krylon Cake Eyeliner with water. I was a little taken aback because applying eyeliner with water means that it will run. When I raised this issue, she said that "Hum toh yehi use kartay hain, koi complain nai karta" (We always use this and no one complains). After doing my eye makup, she applied Christine's baked blush on my cheeks and then applied a pearly white eye shadow as a highlight. I had asked her to give me a deeper color on my cheeks, but she used a baby pink color. For contour, a dark brown color was used, which looked more muddy and did nothing to add dimension to my face. I had taken along my Wet n Wild's Lipstick in Cinnamon Spice because I had wanted to use that, but she refused to apply it saying that it was too dark. So I told her to leave the lipstick as I will apply it later. With this I was done with my makeup, and when I asked her to spray my face with a setting spray, she told me that they don't use setting sprays which appeared to be a little strange to me. When I looked at my final self in the mirror, I looked like a fake version of Snow White. My eyes looked as if they were floating in the white sea of my face. For a distance, it looked extremely funny. After my makeup was done, I was sent downstairs to get my hair done. I had wanted to wear a matha patti and the lady who did my hair set it well. My hair were done to my liking after a great deal of arguing with the hair lady as she wanted to add ringlets to my hair and I wanted simple waves.
Apart from my hair styling, matha patti application and false eyelash application, I was overall disappointed with my experience at Madeeha's. I was expecting a lot more given the amount that I had paid. I was hoping for a more luxurious treatment compared to the quick action that took place. Madeeha's was overbooked that day with 30 brides and countless party makeups and even though I arrived in good time, before the madness took over, I was still done with quickly. It felt as it we were part of some factory. My Mami, who was getting her bridal makeup done there was treated the same way, and no pampering was done. Other than that, the products also disappointed me. There were only local products, with no proper makeup for highlighting and contouring. Highlighting and contouring is the rage these days but they are not of prime focus here. The only highlight that they had was a pearly white one which appeared silverish and is not even suitable for desi undertones. There was no concept of correcting or undereye highlighting. Furthermore, they did not even bother with priming and prepping the skin and no primer or moisturizer was applied. After I came home, I cleaned the lower part of my face and then redid it by first applying foundation, then doing the under eye concealing, followed by contouring, highlighting and then blush. I also changed my eye makeup using my Urban Decay's Naked 2 Palette.
For PKR 7000 I was expecting a much better makeover, given the popularity of this parlour in Lahore. I would really urge and request Madeeha's to upgrade their services and products, give their girls more training and take a lesser number of bookings per day so that the madness can be controlled. Moreover, I would also like them to keep up with the makeup trends and products, such as using primers before makeup application and using setting sprays to seal the makeup.
Which is your favourite place to get party makeup done from?
Love.
Disclaimer: This review is not to discourage my readers from going to Madeeha's for party or bridal makeup because like products, something that might not work for me might work for someone else. This is my personal experience and I owe the truth to my readers. No hard feelings :)
For PKR 7000 I was expecting a much better makeover, given the popularity of this parlour in Lahore. I would really urge and request Madeeha's to upgrade their services and products, give their girls more training and take a lesser number of bookings per day so that the madness can be controlled. Moreover, I would also like them to keep up with the makeup trends and products, such as using primers before makeup application and using setting sprays to seal the makeup.
Which is your favourite place to get party makeup done from?
Love.
Disclaimer: This review is not to discourage my readers from going to Madeeha's for party or bridal makeup because like products, something that might not work for me might work for someone else. This is my personal experience and I owe the truth to my readers. No hard feelings :)