What you need to know
Selena Marchand has been honing her craft as a makeup artist for over 20 years, and has amassed quite a wild story along the way.
The 39-year-old content creator and makeup artist writes skits based on real-life interactions with brides and other clients, which she shares with her 1.5 million followers across her social channels.
However, she tells PEOPLE that she had a particularly “traumatic” experience with one particular bride.
“She had been to the trial a few times, and at the first trial she brought up my Instagram and said, ‘I don’t like anything you do,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, why are you here?'” Marchand recalled.
“Then the second time I brought my mom in, she basically hated all of them, and I think by the wedding day I had settled on a look that she really liked,” she added.
But when the bride looked in the mirror on her big day, she “absolutely hated it,” she told Marchand.
“That’s exactly what we made and she loved it. Then she ran around the house and cried very dramatically,” Marchand recalls. “It’s embarrassing because there are so many other people.”
“Makeup is very personal,” she added. “I don’t care when someone says they don’t like it, but when you make a fuss about it, it makes you feel so small that you want to crawl into a corner and cower,” Marchand says.
Still, she tried to remain as calm as possible and remind the bride that nothing is forever.
“It’s a cosmetic, so you can change it. It’s not the end of the world. I kept changing it, and eventually, after maybe an hour and a half, she was happy,” she says. “But it’s just like adjusting, like, ‘Okay, let’s adjust.’ I also try to calm them down and say, ‘It’s makeup.’ You can change that. You can also start over if necessary. ” ”
Provided by: Vicky Bartel
“It’s no big deal. I leave time for situations like that,” she added, noting that everything worked out in the end.
Alarmingly, Marchand said the woman had tried to book her several times since then, but the request was denied.
Ironically, a few years ago, another bride booked a makeup trial with Ms. Marchand, and she also showed up for the trial.
“This girl was a bridesmaid, and when I saw her walk toward the door, I wanted to die because I had to redo her makeup,” she said, noting that the wedding was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t have to redo my makeup,” she says.
The incident is just one of many experiences Marchand has recreated online, including brides showing up badly tanned, refusing to pay, and arriving half asleep.
She says that “99%” of her videos are based on “my own experiences,” but she also gives free rein to her creativity.
“If something related to makeup artists becomes a big hit in the wedding industry, I’ll recreate it. I’ve only done it once,” she tells PEOPLE. “But I don’t need inspiration because everything else actually happened to me. I think to myself, ‘What’s the weirdest thing that happened to me?'” And I’ve had content for years. ”
She says the reason her videos “seem so emotional” is because she knows exactly how the situation made her feel in real life.
“I really remember the moment and how I felt, and that’s what I try to express,” she says.
With so many fans online, brides often come to her and say, “Don’t worry, we’re not crazy like some people online.”
“But then they end up freaking out. They’re like, ‘I’m going to be very respectful, oh my gosh.'” And I’m like, ‘Sure, yeah,'” she says. “Most of my clients treat me with respect, but some of them do. Then I show up on their wedding day and they’re still asleep or acting like they’re crazy. I’m like, ‘I couldn’t do that.'”
But she points out that wedding days are filled with big emotions and can cause behavior that’s not typical of normally calm people.
“Wedding days are very special and stressful days, so things tend to happen. So some people think, ‘I can’t believe this happened,’ but anyone who actually works in the wedding industry knows that it’s hard to believe what happens on a wedding day,” Marchand said.
