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Kelli Thomsen Beauty

Portland, Oregon l Makeup & Hair Team specializing in clean beauty.

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the conscious blog

Beauty Checklist for a Care-Free Wedding Day: The Art of Clean, Intentional Preparation

Wedding Prep

Your wedding day is a profound celebration of love, and your beauty experience should reflect the depth and intention of that moment. At Kelli Thomsen Beauty, we believe true beauty begins long before the wedding day – it’s a journey from birth to care, preparation, and mindful choices.

Clean beauty isn’t just a trend – it’s a commitment to your skin’s health and the world around you. In the weeks leading up to your wedding, your skin tells a story of preparation, hydration, and intentional care. It’s not about masking or transforming, but about revealing your most radiant, authentic self.

Nurturing Your Skin from Within

Hydration is the cornerstone of luminous skin. But we’re not talking about just drinking water – we’re talking about a holistic approach that nourishes your body and skin. Each glass of water is an investment in your glow, helping to create a natural radiance that no makeup can replicate.

Weekly skincare rituals become your secret weapon. A gentle exfoliation removes dead skin cells, allowing your natural texture to shine. Hydrating masks aren’t just a luxury – they’re a moment of self-care that prepares your skin for the most photographed day of your life. A lightweight beauty oil can be transformative, evening out skin tone and providing a subtle, natural luminescence.

The Final Week: Preparing Your Canvas

As your wedding day approaches, your skin needs calm and consistency. Three days before the wedding, it’s time to press pause on active skincare treatments. This means setting aside exfoliants, retinol, Vitamin C and any intense skin interventions. Our goal is a calm, clear complexion that’s ready to glow naturally.

What We Bring to Your Wedding Day

We don’t just bring makeup – we bring an entire experience. Professional makeup chairs, The Makeup Light for perfect illumination, and a carefully curated selection of clean, consciously sourced products. Our approach is about creating a moment of peace and preparation, ensuring you feel completely comfortable and confident.

Beyond the Physical: The Emotional Preparation

Your wedding day beauty is about more than just looking good. It’s about feeling confident, present, and absolutely yourself. We understand that every person’s skin is unique, every texture different, every personal style distinct. Our job is to enhance, not to change – to support, not to transform.

Practical Wisdom for Your Day

Bring your favorite lip color. Share your skin sensitivities. Communicate your preferences. Your comfort is our highest priority. We want to create a beauty experience that feels as good as it looks – stress-free, intentional, and entirely yours.

Preparing for Your Beauty Experience

To make the most of your wedding day beauty preparation, we recommend coming to our chairs with clear, intentional goals. This means bringing:

  • Photos of looks you’ve loved on yourself in the past
  • Inspiration images that truly resonate with your style

Pro tip: When selecting inspiration photos, choose images of people with similar characteristics to you – matching skin tone, face shape, eye color, and hair type. This helps us create a look that’s authentically you.

Our scheduling process is designed for your convenience:

  • We’ll send out the detailed schedule two weeks before your wedding day
  • You’ll share this schedule with your wedding party
  • If anyone in your party might arrive later, let us know in advance
  • We can strategically place later arrivals at the end of our schedule

We understand that timing is crucial. While we ask you to be prepared at the start of your scheduled service, our goal is to create a smooth, stress-free experience that allows you to fully enjoy your preparation.

Commitment to You

With decades of experience and a deep commitment to clean, conscious beauty, we’ve helped countless couples look and feel their absolute best. We’re not just makeup and hair artists – we’re your beauty partners, dedicated to bringing out your most authentic, radiant self.

Ready to begin a beauty journey that’s as unique as your love story?

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4751 SW Seymour Ct. Portland, OR 97221
kellithomsen.com/ | 503-890-5355

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There’s something about a Hood River wedding that There’s something about a Hood River wedding that asks you to trust the elements, and Kathleen did just that.

Golden hour light spilling across The Gorge. Soft winds that honored her delicate veil instead of fighting it. A bridal party that moved through the day with the kind of ease that only comes when everyone feels genuinely cared for.

For Kathleen’s makeup, we let her natural freckles show through because why would we cover what makes her uniquely beautiful? Warm taupes and neutral tones that enhanced rather than masked. Soft and natural individual lashes. A rosewood lip chosen specifically to complement her natural skin tone, not fight against it.

This is what happens when you choose a beauty approach that works with your skin, your features, your natural coloring. Kathleen’s makeup held beautifully through riverside portraits, emotional vows, and dancing under the twilight because it was designed for her skin, this climate, these conditions.

This is the Pacific Northwest wedding beauty we’ve spent 25+ years perfecting. Weather-tested, botanically-driven, designed to let you be fully present instead of worried about how you look.

Thank you to this exceptional vendor team who understands that true luxury is in the details, the care, and the experience!

Venue: @thegriffinhouse
Planning/Design: @amandajeanpdxevents
Photography: @megangallagherphoto
Florals: @trellis_flowers
Hair: @styledbymattie
Skin & Makeup: @kellithomsen
Catering: @bellyfulcatering
Band/DJ: @bluewaveband
Rentals: @riverhoodrentals
At 50, I’m not winding down, I’m finally warmed up At 50, I’m not winding down, I’m finally warmed up! What I’m tending now? 

It’s been growing all along. After years of trial & error, I finally learned how to be still enough to enjoy it bloom - the garden, the work, the space and balance of energy. Everything around me is finally aligned. There’s this flow now where nothing is forced and everything feels organic, exactly how I approach the work I do, exactly how life is meant to feel. 

RECAP of the most important things I’ve learned: 

-you don’t need a master plan, just keep showing up for what feels true.

-build your life like a garden, one intentional choice at a time.

-some people are seasonal, others are perennial, the storms show you which is which.

-your body’s wisdom is smarter than your mind’s logic, listen to it.

-you can’t show up for others unless you’re showing up for yourself first.

-boundaries aren’t walls, they’re how you protect the energy for what truly matters.

-healing changes your taste… in people, in habits, in dreams.

-trust what lights you up, because your excitement is real data.

-you don’t have to choose between the wild & intentional, be both!

#Turning50 #CultivatingBeauty #ComeSitInMyGarden #CleanBeauty #SlowingDown #TendingToMySanctuary #Enhancement #IntentionaLliving
If you’re the couple who: •Cringes at ‘bridal gla If you’re the couple who:
	•Cringes at ‘bridal glam’
	•Wants to look elevated, not transformed
	•Likes your face & doesn’t want to cover it
	•Cares what ingredients are going on your skin
	•Wants makeup that breathes
	•Needs someone who calms you
…we should connect soon.

Because the most beautiful version of you isn’t a trend or a technique. It’s you, on a day you’re fully present for - glowing because you’re hydrated, rested, and genuinely full of excited energy.

Imagine makeup that enhances everything already extraordinary about your face. Hair polished or framing your radiant complexion. That’s what we do. That’s what we created for Annika for her backyard wedding in McMinnville, Oregon above. 

We align with couples who want this too. Reach out to connect for your 2026/2027 elopement or wedding day date so we can help you start planning your dream look!

Photo: @valphotoco
Floral: @atozflowerfarm
Rental: @ardeneventcollective
Catering : @biscuitandpickles
DJ: @litproductions503
Dessert: @valleyflour
Coordination & Planning: @nkcoordination  Beauty: @kellithomsen / Hair Artist Taylor
Your skin is the canvas and that’s exactly why we Your skin is the canvas and that’s exactly why we created this luminous, no-foundation look for Teal. 

When your complexion is this healthy, why cover it?

The truth about wedding day radiance? It doesn’t start in the makeup chair. It starts three months before your date—with daily hydration that plumps from within, gentle exfoliation that creates glass-smooth texture, and nervous system care that keeps stress from stealing your glow.

Because here’s what prepared skin does: Makeup melts in seamlessly. You photograph like light itself. Your look lasts through every tear, kiss, and dance floor moment without touch-up panic.

This is the difference between makeup that masks and beauty that magnifies what’s already yours.

That’s why our consultation doesn’t start with Pinterest boards—it starts with your current skincare routine. We need to know what your skin is drinking in every morning and night, because that 90-day investment is what makes the difference between makeup sitting on top of your face and a glow that comes from within.

Your wedding day radiance isn’t painted on. It’s earned through intentional care, then elevated by expert hands who know how to let your natural beauty lead. #oregonwedding #weddingbeauty

planning + design: @hostedby.co
florals: @novella_floral
photo: @elissadeline
venue: @rockyhillevents
rentals: @ardeneventcollective
beauty: @kellithomsen
bar: @bliss_bar
catering: @thehivecateringco
dessert: @milkglassmrkt / @laurettajeans
draping: @runestoneevents
photobooth: @stumptownbooth
dj: @rockyvertone
transportation: @columbiawinetours
I can give you a beautiful makeup application, but I can give you a beautiful makeup application, but I can’t give you healthy skin. That partnership starts before your wedding - with hydration, consistency, and a routine that supports your nervous system as much as your microbiome. Because the most elevated beauty? It starts beneath the surface. 

The couples who photograph best aren’t the ones who wear the most makeup - they’re the ones whose skin was ready to receive it. Prepped. Hydrated. Cared for. This is where flawless begins. 

These are some of my favorite products that give incredible results, but they’re just tools - and they’re not right for everyone. What transforms skin is finding YOUR unique habits and showing up for them every single day. 

That’s what we do together in consultation - I read your skin, we talk about your life, and we create a customized routine you feel good maintaining. Consistency is everything, but it has to be built on the right foundation. 

This is how we unlock lasting radiance and find your perfect routine together. My consultations allow you to start your skincare journey with clarity, confidence, and a customized plan.

I can’t wait to share our NEW skin care, makeup & hair styling packages for our 2026 & 2027 couples soon. Imagine intentional & elemental beauty as we help you feel your best and unlock your most radiant and flawless complexion! #weddingbeauty #cleanbeauty #oregonwedding #healthyskinprep #oregonweddingmakeup #oregonmakeupartist #skinprep #skintips #weddinggoals #beauty Florals & Design: @bloomculture_co
Photography: @hvfitzphotos
Coordinators: @haveandholdeventco
Venue: @gorgecrest
Beauty: @kellithomsen
Cake: @venus.cakery
Rentals: @greatjonesnw
Stationary: @covenantcalligraphy
The best part of wedding days? For me it’s not jus The best part of wedding days? For me it’s not just the beauty that surrounds me - it’s the connection. When Gina asked me for a hug today, it was everything. We had so much fun and she’s the epitome of natural beauty. She didn’t want to feel overdone or made up, so we created a look that enhanced her radiance while keeping everything soft & luminous. 

The Skin Prep:
@gloskinbeauty PRO 5 Liquid Exfoliant
@soniarosellibeauty Water Elixir
@belif Aquabomb Moisturizer
@ombeautyoil | Om Beauty Oil pressed on top

The Face:
We bounced in @faceatelier | Face Atelier foundation with a sponge for that seamless, skin-like finish. @fitglowbeauty | Fit Glow Beauty Peach Corrector brightened her under and inner eye darkness, then we added @kosas | Kosas Baked Blush in Dreamland and Heartbeat for a natural flush. My favorite Glo Skin Beauty Cream Bronzer Stick in Warm Glow brought warmth and dimension to complete her glowing complexion.

The Eyes:
Glo Skin Beauty Cream Shadow in Beam created soft definition, with @diorbeauty | Dior highlighter placed in the outer corners and upper cheeks for a lifted, luminous effect. I tightlined with brown liner by @onesize | One Size, then used @danessa_myricks | Danessa Myricks Color Fix to set her individual @eyemimosanfrancisco | Eyemimo lashes (after curling with the @rephr.to | Rephr lash curler first). Prepped the curled lashes with @judydoll_official | Judydoll mascara in black for that perfect lifted, pre-flutter.

The Lips:
Fit Glow Beauty Lip Serum as the base, topped with Glo Skin Beauty lipgloss in Whisper - the perfect understated elegance.

Setting It All:
Danessa Myricks Evolution Powder and One Size Waterproof Setting Spray to ensure everything stayed flawless from ceremony through the entire celebration.

#oregonweddingbeauty #naturalbride #naturalbeauty #oregonmakeupartist #weddingskinprep #cleanbeautybride #naturalweddingbeauty #weddinglook #wedding Vendors: Photography @georgy.shishkin / Makeup @kellithomsen & Hair @hairandmakeupbyshana / Getting ready @woodlark_hotel / Wedding Venue @coopershallpdx

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    4751 SW Seymour Ct.
    PORTLAND, OREGON 97221
    503.890.5355
    KELLI@KELLITHOMSEN.COM


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