A few years ago, I did makeup for a wedding, hair and makeup just for the bride. After prepping the bride for pre-wedding gown pictorial, the mother of the bride brought in the flower girl and asked me if I could put on makeup on the flower girl. I smiled and asked the little girl to sit down while I santized my brushes and let it dry. I took out my flower girl makeup essentials, which consist of pink mineral blush, strawberry-flavored lipgloss, and a few shimmer eyeshadows.
The flower girl happened to be a beautiful little girl, with flawless skin and rosy cheeks, She clearly was a miniature version of the bride, who happens to be her mother. Her yaya already fixed her hair, all they had to do was put on her headdress. She looked a bit impatient though being told to sit still on a chair when she just wanted to play around. I brushed some blush on her cheeks, enhancing their rosiness and applied lipgloss on her lips. I got a fluffy eyeshadow brush, dipped it in a light shimmery powder and brushed some on her lids and told her she was done. The kid went back to her toys and continued playing.
A few minutes later, the bride was back on my chair and I did minor retouches and attached her veil. The MOB (mother of the bride) brought the kid back to me and asked me to put more makeup on the little girl. I was taken by surprise because why would a kid need more makeup. "She's a bit too pale". the MOB said. So I added a bit more blush, just enough to give more pink (the little girl didn't really need more color IMHO, as her cheeks were already rosy as it is, but I didn't want to argue at that point). While I thought I was done and started packing up, I turned around and saw the flower girl sporting pink eyeshadow, pencilled brows, orange blush, and fuchsia lipstick. Her makeup clearly being edited by the entourage artist, and the MOB finally having her standard of "not pale" fulfilled,
Normally in my bridal packages, I would include free makeup for the flower girl since it would sometimes be requested, and I really do not mind since it takes less than 10 minutes, Children have naturally beautiful skin and have no discolorations, enlarged pores, undereye circles, or oiliness. All I need to do is to make them have a bit of color, kind of like they ran around without the sweat. When I put makeup on the flower girl, I use mineral blush because it's gentle and hypoallergenic and gives a nice shimmer. For gloss, instead of lipstick, which might smear when they eat causing stains and smears on the face and the gown, I would go for tinted lipgloss with a nice flavor (usually strawberry or watermelon). The eye shimmer (really just a few loose sparkly mineral shadows in a light color like ecru or bone) is just a bit extra, like a "big girl" treat for the little girl, I explain this to the parents and the couple that my flower girl makeup that used to be free in my package cannot be exchanged for adult makeup because children use less product, just a little color enhancement and not full-on foundation, contour, color, and lashes.
Personally, I'm really not into children wearing makeup for weddings or for everyday and even cringe at the fashionista lookbooks moms post in their social media accounts, or wearing high heels (they have high heels for kids now, can you believe that?), I'm one tita who would not give makeup set to my little girl inaanak as a gift (I considered it before though, but upon proper education, I took it back). Makeup contains chemicals and components that might be too strong for such young skin. There is a reason why bath products made for children are much milder than the ones for adults.
Besides, children really do not need makeup, and some don't want it either. I remember one flower girl crying when she was told that it was time to put on makeup. The cry wasn't the quivering mouth and eyes welling up. It was an ugly cry with tears streaming on her face like I was torturing her or something.
I believe in just letting children be just children, let them have fun, let them play. let them run around the reception and laugh when spaghetti sauce gets on their dress or take off the headpiece after the church ceremony and pictorials and not worry about getting lipstick smeared. Weddings are already an adult affair and having a little child stay up way past their bedtime and wear something uncomfortable is already a bit too much for them, what more makeup, which can be too hot or uncomfortable. Worry about concealer, foundation, and OOTDs when their much older. Now I get why my classmates hated being forced to wear makeup during weddings or presentations when I was much younger.
As for flower girl makeup, I've taken out the free flower girl makeup for my bridal package. I wouldn't want to be put in the situation where I have to take out a hot pink lipstick for the flower girl to wear. What I do say is they can have the hairstylist fix the flower girl's hair for a fee. I do have to charge for the flower girl's hair though because it also takes the same effort to do hair for a little girl as it does for the adult, sometimes even more, because children's hair being smoother and silkier would be more difficult to deal with than adult hair. There is however, an option in my package for children's hair and makeup, but I explain to the couple that's it's really more just hairstyling and a little blush and lipstick for the little girl, and it's for flower girls that are older, about 7 years old and up. For younger flower girls, I would suggest to have the little girl's relative or yaya, who is someone she's more comfortable with rather than a complete stranger, to just fix her hair and make it neat.
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