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Kelli Thomsen 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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This is for the person who’s been scrolling weddin This is for the person who’s been scrolling wedding beauty with a quiet knot in your stomach.

The one who doesn’t wear much day to day and can’t picture themselves in a full face of heavy makeup. 

The one whose partner says “you’re beautiful without makeup” and means it. 

The one who wants to feel something special on that day without losing themselves in the process.

I see you. 
You’re not being difficult. 
You know what matters to you.

I’ve done over 500+ weddings and the most powerful moment is never the dramatic transformation, it’s the person who looks in the mirror and their eyes fill because they look like themselves, elevated. 

More luminous. 
More present. 
The version of themselves they feel on their best days, made visible.

That’s what intentional, botanical beauty means in practice. I read your skin before I touch it. I use formulas that work with your biology, not over it. I enhance instead of transform.

I’ve spent 28 years, from clinical esthetic training to eastern practices at Shiseido to evaluating 20+ professional product lines, learning how to do exactly that.

You don’t need to arrive knowing what you want. You need someone who knows how to see you. This is what we do - each artist on the team is here to help bring out your innate radiance. 

✨ Now Booking 2027 | Link in Bio ✨

#naturalbeauty #pnwwedding #botanicalbeauty #cleanbeauty #weddingmakeup
This is your reminder to be yourself in a world th This is your reminder to be yourself in a world that demands we distract ourselves with what "we should be"!

throw away the matching dresses
throw away the getting ready robes that match
throw away the presentation 
throw away others advice
throw away any noise around others traditions

It's the year of the fire horse - BE YOURSELF!

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 

#firehorse #ChineseNewYear #OregonWedding #WeddingBeauty #PortlandMakeupArtist
The Year of the Fire Horse happens every 60 years! The Year of the Fire Horse happens every 60 years! Liz and Ashton's wedding at @theorchard.hr was fire meeting intention, capturing the energy of this exact spirit.

Bold beauty, rooted tradition, a dance led by the team at (@whitelotusliondance) that brought the entire room to life. The kind of celebration that reminds you what it looks like when culture, love, and beauty are honored with real care.

This is what I have been speaking to over the past few weeks - fire doesn't have to scatter. It can be directed. It can be precise. It can hold tradition and power in the same breath.

25 years of doing this work and being able to share in moments like these still stop me in my tracks. Not because they're perfect. Because they're intentional. Because every detail was chosen, not defaulted to.

That's the energy I want for all of us this year. Not more. Not louder. Not faster. Directed. Regulated. Rooted. On fire in the way that lights a room instead of burning it down.

Happy Lunar New Year 🔥 #ChineseNewYear #FireHorse #RegulatedandRadiant #WeddingBeauty #OregonWedding

Bride & Groom: @lizkmoss + @ashtonmoss13
Venue: @theorchard.hr
Planning + Design: @gatherevents @ambervotel
Photography: @emilywoodruffphoto
Floral: @colibripdx
Beauty: @kellithomsen
Catering: @celilocatering
DJ: @djcaseykay
Dessert: @edeske_patisserie
Entertainment: @whitelotusliondance
Rentals: @ardeneventcollective
Gown: @saintbridal
2025 was full of flashy 12 step skin care routines 2025 was full of flashy 12 step skin care routines! Here’s what no one tells you about these rituals: not only can they wreak havoc on your microbiome, but they have to flex with your life or you’ll abandon them completely.

After 25+ years of working with real people through real life - weddings, grief, moves, breakups, illnesses - I know that rigid doesn’t work. What does work? Learning what your skin is actually telling you. Dryness isn’t always about hydration. Breakouts aren’t always about oil. Redness isn’t always about sensitivity. Your skin speaks a very specific language, and once you understand it, everything changes.

That’s where modalities like LED light become powerful - not as a daily must-do, but as a strategic tool that serves your skin’s current needs. Different wavelengths address different concerns, and together we can customize your treatments to work with your life, not against it.

Consistency at home + strategic in-studio support = your healthiest skin. Let’s make 2026 about intentional, true to YOU steps with #cleanbeauty ingredients that support your optimal health.
To our future couples: We don’t transform. We elev To our future couples: We don’t transform. We elevate. We reveal. We honor what’s already beautiful in you. The moment I live for is when a bride looks in the mirror during her design session and says ‘I look like me - elevated’ - with relief in her voice.

Somewhere along the way, we were conditioned to think that wedding beauty means looking different. More done. More trend-forward. More… something.

But the people I work with? They’re the ones who want to look at their wedding photos in 30 years and recognize themselves naturally beautiful.

Radiant. Vibrant. Timeless.

Not 2025. Not Instagram. Not anyone else.

They want to see all their natural beauty brought forward, enhanced, celebrated. That’s the kind of beauty that doesn’t need updating. It’s never about covering or fixing. It’s always about being fully honored, magnified and cared for. 

photography @hollyhursleyphoto
planning @hostedby.co
floral @wildflower_portland 
ceremony venue @csrgpdx
reception venue catering: huntandgathercatering
DJ @dillonbartellmusic
beauty @kellithomsen 
rentals @powerofloverentals
paper goods & signage @kellielynnthayer transportation @shanghaipartybus
ceremony entertainment correabrandonpaul @salemstringquartet 
ceremony bartending @bliss_bar 
rings @malkadiamonds

#cleanbeauty #oregonwedding #weddingbeauty #portlandmakeupartist #weddingmakeup
I got this email from a colleague that completely I got this email from a colleague that completely stopped me in my tracks. It’s exactly what I’ve been feeling as we head into 2026. She asked: “What’s the dream you keep pushing to the side because it feels too big?” I felt that in my whole body.

Here’s what I know after 25+ years in this industry: I see it all the time - you want glowing skin, so you panic and buy seven new products at once, get overwhelmed, and then do nothing. Or you want to finally learn makeup that actually works for your face, but the idea of figuring it all out feels impossible, so you don’t start.

But that’s not how your healthiest skin gets revealed. Real change starts small. Not with the perfect 10-step routine. Not with buying out Sephora. It starts with switching ONE product to something clean. Learning ONE technique that actually flatters your features. Booking ONE skincare session. Creating ONE morning ritual that actually feels good.

One block. Then another. Then another.
And suddenly six months later you look up and realize - holy shit, my skin actually glows now. I know how to do my makeup. This actually works. I can breathe. That’s how I built my small business. That’s how I created my lifestyle and sanctuary. That’s how nervous systems regulate and your healthiest skin reveals itself. 

What’s your one small action for the next 7 days? Maybe it’s:
-Tossing one toxic product and replacing it with something botanical
-Booking that makeup lesson you’ve been putting off
-Actually using that face oil sitting on your shelf
-Spending 60 seconds on a face massage instead of doom-scrolling
-Finally trying that technique I showed you in your last session
Just one thing. That’s your first block.
And if you’re thinking “I don’t even know where to start,” I’ve got something coming that’ll help.

2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, known for unstoppable momentum, fierce independence, and breaking convention. I’m absolutely channeling that energy into what’s coming and I have a surprise coming the week leading up to Chinese New Year (February 12-17)! STAY TUNED. Happy New Year 🎆

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


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