Sophie was recommended to me by my wedding planner. Initially I was quite hopeful that this would be an overall positive experience. There were no red flags in her online reviews a...nd her Instagram posts would suggest that she's quite skilled. Unfortunately, I first began to run into issues with Sophie starting at the trial.
Trial: When we first spoke, Sophie emphasized that she had worked with many East Asian clients in the past. I was personally looking for a make up style that would appear more delicate and accentuate my Asian features. However, during the trial run my makeup was applied very heavily and was clearly meant for a more European face structure. It wasn't as refined or elegant as I had hoped (and this was after I had asked Sophie to tone things down halfway through the trial). Falsies, lipliner, blush, contouring, etc. were all heavily applied, which personally just didn’t suit me well. I attributed this to not discussing my desires with Sophie in enough detail prior to the trial. After my trial run, I forwarded her several more photos of examples of the makeup that I wanted and she assured me that this would not be an issue on the day of. I was happy with how my hair looked at the trial.
Day of: Sophie was on time for the day of my wedding. My makeup was significantly improved from my trial but there were several areas where I felt I needed to provide instruction. For example, I had to ask her to use smaller individual false lashes that I purchased myself. It didn't seem like Sophie had much experience placing these on and so there was a lot of visible eyelash glue. When I asked Sophie to cover this up with eyeliner, she said “I can’t do that” and since I didn’t want to cause any tension, I later had my maid of honor do it for me in a different room. Surprisingly, hair is when things started to fall apart. Sophie did my updo with a middle part and lots of volume on the sides. This was not how it was done during the trial and it gave my head a heart-like appearance. This wouldn't have been a big issue if she had been gracious enough to redo it when this was pointed out, or if she had checked in with me during the process to confirm these details. Sophie did not respond to the criticism well and proceeded to blame me for this appearance because “this is how you dried your hair the night before.” She tugged on my hair to try and change my part, leaving my hair looking very lumpy and frizzy. I expressed that I was not happy with this and she said “this is the best I can do because you’re changing too many things on the day of” even though I requested the same hair from the trial. She only agreed to redo this after several requests from myself and my bridal party. From this point on, she appeared increasingly frustrated despite the fact that we were well ahead of schedule. I felt more and more uncomfortable as she yanked out bobby-pins and said “you should have paid for another trial if you were going to be this picky.” The morning of your wedding day is stressful for any bride, and I was no exception. Sophie's poor mood and tone made this a particularly unpleasant experience for me. After she was done with my hair, I quickly had to excuse myself to another room where I cried off most of my make-up. Thankfully, my sister and bridesmaids were able to redo my makeup before we left for the venue. I unfortunately cannot recommend her to other brides moving forward, especially for those who have Asian or non-White features.