For over a decade, it’s long been reported that Kate Middleton did her own makeup on her fairy tale wedding day to Prince William on April 29, 2011. But makeup artist Bobbi Brown just debunked that royal rumor and shared the real scoop on who really gave Catherine, the Princess of Wales, her picture perfect smoky eye and natural-looking lip on the day she said, “I do,” in front of an estimated two billion people.
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In her new memoir, Still Bobbi: A Master Class in Leading an Authentic Life, which published earlier this month, Brown confirms that Catherine in fact “wore Bobbi Brown Cosmetics on her wedding day,” but also that “one of my makeup artists in England did her makeup.”
She writes: “I was obsessed with the royal family, so this was a huge honor, as well as evidence that my concept of beauty had impacted the world. It was hard to believe how far makeup had taken me.”
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But who was the artist tagged in for the royal job? Brown shared this and more on the September 29 episode of the Breaking Beauty podcast: “I did not do [Catherine’s] makeup,” she shares. “I wish I did. It was one of my artists, Hannah Martin, who’s become quite a sensation in the U.K.” (When pressed to clarify the royal rumor that the then-newly crowned Duchess of Cambridge did her makeup herself, Brown was clear: “No, Hannah did her makeup.”)
That said, at the time, everything was so hush-hush about the royal nuptials that even Brown was in the dark about Martin’s role: “Hannah did give me some information that I should set my alarm and watch. We were texting back and forth and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’” Brown also revealed that she chose not to shout it from the rooftops that Princess Catherine wore her products because “no one did that back then.”
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As for any memento to commemorate her brand’s role in the historic day, Brown did confirm that she received a small (official) acknowledgment from the palace: “I did get a note, though, that I guess I have hanging in my office,” she shared. “Not from Kate, but from her person who wrote her letters saying how much she appreciated the makeup.”
Royal beauty mystery, solved.
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