Before Mirna Conway meets a bride, she asks for two things: a photograph of her face without make-up, and a few pictures of looks she loves. Both arrive by email, and Mirna says they tell her what the bride expects. She works from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, across the county and London, and travels for destination weddings, but her method is settled earlier than any wedding morning, at a 90 minute trial where the look is chosen and tested.
A bare face and a handful of pictures
Mirna sets out the sequence in her FAQs. She suggests booking the trial three to six months before the wedding, which also holds her availability for the date, and she offers a short complimentary phone consultation first. She prefers to hold trials at her home studio in Stevenage because her full range of products and colours is there, and she travels to the location on the day. Her blog describes trials as sneak peeks of the wedding look, and says she will try to fit one in even a few weeks beforehand if she is not working away that day. For the trial itself she says nothing needs preparing, because skin preparation is her job. She calls it a luxury mini facial, and in a guide for brides on her blog she writes that foundation sits well on skin that has been prepared properly and looks patchy on skin that has not.
The make-up free photograph lets her study a bride’s features before she chooses colours, and the reference pictures set the brief. She matches foundation by mixing it, because, as she puts it, “none of us are just one colour straight out of the bottle”. Her blog lists what she carries for this: Tom Ford, Nars, Charlotte Tilbury, Pat McGrath, Natasha Denona, Chanel, Dior and Lancome among others, which she chooses, she says, because professional ranges are made to hold up in different temperatures and lighting.
The skin in the months before
Her blog guide to skin sets the preparation out by type. For dry or dehydrated skin she suggests exfoliating once or twice a week and choosing creams over lotions; for oily or combination skin, gel moisturisers and a toner without alcohol. She recommends hydrating facials tailored to the skin, and daily care as much as monthly treatments, because make-up, she says, is only as good as the skin underneath it. These are her professional opinions rather than medical advice, and a bride with a skin condition should ask her own doctor or dermatologist before changing a routine.
Testing the look in real light
Mirna carries a professional natural light so that colour is judged properly, and she says make-up that looks good in white light will look good in any light. Flash is another matter. Michelle Wong, the chemist who writes the Lab Muffin Beauty Science blog, photographed a range of powders with and without flash in 2016. The severe white patches in her own tests came mainly from silica, an ingredient in many translucent “HD” powders. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide sometimes gave a whitish glow, and two sunscreen creams she tried showed little flashback once dusted with a powder that did not cause it. Her advice for any important event is to take a flash photograph beforehand. Her other advice is to apply a silica powder sparingly with a fluffy brush, and under liquid make-up rather than over it. A trial is the natural place to do it, so ask whether Mirna will take one with flash before you leave.
Lashes deserve the same rehearsal. Mirna recommends them on the wedding day because they lift the look, and she says all lashes are included in her wedding packages. Lashes also bring a general caution. A factsheet from University Hospital Southampton describes allergic contact dermatitis as a delayed reaction to a substance that touches the skin, and lists make-up among the cosmetics involved. A trial is not a patch test, and a bride who has ever reacted to a cosmetic should say so at the trial and ask her GP or a dermatologist about testing.
The wedding morning as arithmetic
Mirna allows roughly 60 minutes for each person she makes up, bride and bridal party alike. A bride with four bridesmaids is five hours of work, and a mother of the bride makes it six, if one artist takes everyone in turn. Ask whether she brings assistants, because the sum assumes one artist working alone, and the first question is how many pairs of hands the schedule needs. Then count back from the hour the photographer is due to start, and the start time follows. Whether the bride goes first or last is worth agreeing with the photographer as well.
Mirna says she also teaches brides how to recreate parts of the look, and that she is happy to advise on products after the appointment.
Beyond the bridal morning
Weddings are one strand of her work, which she describes as 15 years in the industry. Her commercial credits include London Fashion Week, advertising campaigns for Deloitte, the bridalwear brand Ronald Joyce, the designer Veni Infantino, Miss UK and Berry Productions, and names the photographer Christopher Cornwall. A blog post dated June 2018 is her own account of being named Creative Makeup Artist of the Year for the South East at the Official Makeup Awards, in Manchester on 27 May. She displays a Wedding Industry Awards 2021 winner badge from The Wedding Emporium. Her homepage also mentions a feature in Best magazine and a place in Inspirational Women 2026, without further detail. Her commercial credits are likewise her own list, undated and without the nature of the work.
Makeup As Therapy
Mirna’s separate service, Makeup As Therapy, comes from her own history: she writes that she grew up in Croatia, that war made her family refugees, and that her studies in psychology preceded her turn to make-up. She says it is neither a makeover nor a lesson, and it is aimed at women in the aftermath of divorce, loss or illness. It is not a wedding service.
Planning with Mirna
Her rates are sent on request through a form on her website, and the directory lists bridal make-up as on request. A 20% deposit secures the date. It is returned if you cancel at least 48 hours before the appointment and is not returned after that. Travel within a set radius carries no charge and mileage is charged beyond it, so ask for the figure for your venue. Destination weddings are by bespoke arrangement. Her home ground is Hertfordshire and London.
Reviews that Mirna publishes describe the trial and the preparation. Annika Bassi writes on Mirna’s site: “She took her time and prepped our skin so well.” These are testimonials Mirna publishes, not independently checked ones.
Mirna suits a bride who wants the look settled early and tried against a camera, with her own natural light in the room. Settle the morning’s arithmetic first: how many people, how many artists, and when the photographer arrives. Then see the Makeup By Mirna profile, browse wedding hair and make-up artists or weddings in the United Kingdom. Ready to plan? Check your date with Mirna.
