Weddings and ceremonies
Bridal makeup, the nath and ceremonial marks. 16 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
Weddings bring out the most elaborate face traditions: the nath, bindi and sindoor of Hindu brides, the chandan dots painted on a Bengali bride's brow, the marriage marks of old Japan, and bridal makeup everywhere. Many of these marks begin at the wedding itself and are worn afterwards as signs of marriage, by tradition.
South Asian brides
In many Hindu weddings the groom applies sindoor to the bride's hair parting in the sindoor daan, and she may wear it daily afterwards. Brides wear a large nath, often an heirloom, a bindi and forehead ornaments such as the maang tikka or borla. A Bengali bride has patterns of white and red dots painted in arcs over her brows. Regional styles differ greatly.
Marks of marriage elsewhere
In Edo Japan, married women blackened their teeth with ohaguro and shaved their brows. Ainu girls completed their lip tattoos around the time of marriage. Mursi women in Ethiopia link the lip plate with marriage. Today bridal makeup artists in cities around the world blend these traditions with modern looks.
Famous weddings and ceremonies face guides
Still to be written: Sindur Khela.
Further reading
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bindi: Vinay Sahay, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nose jewellery: Etan Doronne @ www.myindiaexperience.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ohaguro: Utagawa Kunisada, Public domain, source
- Sindoor: Masum-al-hasan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kumkum: Thamizhpparithi Maari, CC BY-SA 3.0, source