The makeup was done, paid for and tipped. Then the artist saw the client’s wedding photos on Instagram, and the bride tax arrived by text: “you owe me $650.”
The client, a bride, had booked a $120 soft glam. Her sister, Olivia (@oliviainthekitchen), posted the texts on TikTok on 23 October, and part one passed two million views, We Got This Covered reported.
Olivia’s caption set the terms of the fight: “I mean i see both sides but the texts are still wild.”
It is a row with two sides, and both have a case, though only one has been posted. The artist is unnamed, and at least one viewer doubts the exchange happened at all.
After an expletive, the first message reads: “I just saw this photo of you on Instagram….. the makeup you got done here yesterday was for YOUR WEDDING??”
“Hahaha yes,” the bride replied.
Then came the maths. “You booked a $120 soft glam,” the artist wrote, adding that bridal makeup is “WAY more expensive.” The posts never say which country’s dollars.
The bride said she “didn’t want bridal makeup” and “wanted soft glam.” The reply came in capitals: “ITS THE SAME THING.”
And the number: “you owe me $650.”
Olivia posted part two under the caption “is tagging the makeup artist even a given???”
The artist had a new grievance: “you didn’t even tag me in your wedding photos. You didn’t want me to see them because you LIED.”
She had paid $120 and tipped $30, the bride replied, so “how do I owe you $650?”
Then the line that reframes the row: “Girl you asked what I wanted and I told you I didn’t need bridal makeup.”
The artist was unmoved: “That’s not a thing. You were a bride so it’s automatically in that category.”
In the US, sometimes. In 2016, Consumer Reports secret shoppers asked 40 vendors in 12 states for prices. Where quotes could be compared, vendors priced the wedding above an anniversary party in more than a quarter of cases.
Photographers, limousine companies and caterers were among those it caught, with a $7 per person cake-cutting fee in some caterers’ fine print. Makeup artists were not.
So from the makeup chair, the evidence is told rather than measured.
Comedian Elena Cirillo told her version on TikTok, as reported by In The Know in 2023: “You want your makeup done? Oh, 150. Oh, wait, you’re a bride? 800!”
That video drew 1.9 million views. It is a joke, not a price list.
Now the artist’s side, at its strongest. A wedding morning is a different job, and it is priced as one.
The gap is plain in pounds. Refinery29’s UK edition noted in 2022 that party makeup “often costs under £100”, while one bride it interviewed paid £1,100 for her bridal makeup.
Time explains much of it. One artist in the piece gives a bride three to four hours, against an hour and a half for other clients.
On her figures, that is two to nearly three times the chair time, before any trial or travel.
The piece also describes alarms “set for 3am most days” and travel to a venue that “can sometimes take up to eight hours”.
Then there is the work you never see. Artists recalled sending 30 to 40 messages and pictures to a bride before the wedding, and some brides need several trials before the look is right.
A viewer who identified as a makeup artist put it in two sentences: “the reason I charge more for bridal makeup is because of the months of preparation & trials. If it was one and done who cares where she wears it.”
That is the honest case for a bridal rate, and the reason a bridal makeup trial is worth its fee. It buys certainty: the date held, the trial done, makeup that lasts through the speeches and, ideally, a named backup if your artist falls ill.
Look at what the texts describe. The makeup was done “here” and “yesterday”, in the artist’s own words. The messages shown mention no trial, no travel and no 3am call.
By the bride’s account, she was asked what she wanted and answered soft glam. She paid the $120 and added a $30 tip.
The screenshots don’t show the original booking, so whether the wedding came up then is unknown.
Not every artist watching sided with this one. “I would not even text a client about that,” wrote a viewer who said she does makeup.
A bridal rate is arguable. A bill after the brushes are washed is not.
On the texts as posted, the artist is right that a bridal booking costs more, and wrong that this was one.
The higher rate stands when it is quoted before the appointment and pays for real work: the trial, the held date, the hours and the backup.
It turns into a tax when the word alone moves the number, or when the bill arrives after the work is done.
She was not obliged to say “wedding”, and answering “soft glam” to “what do you want?” was the truth. Saying it is still the better practice, because it lets the artist offer a trial and a backup. None of that adds up to $650 after the fact.
Say “wedding” at the first enquiry and ask for an itemised quote, so the price is settled before the work begins. Browse artists in the Wedded Marketplace, read how to approach wedding vendors, or let Wedded Concierge negotiate it for you.
For another wedding row that split the internet, see Kylie Jenner’s dress at Jordyn Woods’ wedding.
As for “ITS THE SAME THING”? The look was. The booking wasn’t.
Written by
Content and Creative Manager | Wonder Group
Joseph Joshua is the SEO & Content Manager at Wedded Wonderland, bringing an editorial and search strategy perspective to the publication’s coverage of luxury weddings, destination celebrations and bridal lifestyle. His approach to content centres on helping readers move from inspiration to informed decisions, with attention to the design, craftsmanship and personal details that give a celebration its character.
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