Make Me Fabulous: Creating fabulous brides with a natural and elegant style

There is no better reason to look fabulous than on your wedding day. 

While the dress, shoes and accessories go a long way down the road to bridal perfection, the hair and makeup are what adds the final touch. And with Make Me Fabulous (MMF) at your side, looking your best will be easy.

Headquartered in Ballston Spa, Make Me Fabulous is one of the most in-demand hair and makeup artists of the Capital District. With a cosmetic line from Bare Escentuals, the MMF makeup line is made from all natural ingredients. 

"People know us as the makeup artists that make you look natural," said Alayne Curtiss, the owner of MMF. "I trained with two makeup artists, who have several commercial clients in the area, for three years. They were sticklers about keeping things natural. Then I brought in my own touch of elegance for brides and it works beautifully in person and on camera."

What began as a teenage girls night of dressing up friend's hair and makeup at slumber parties has turned into a profession Curtiss has put her heart and soul into. She proves that hard work really does pay off.

Curtiss has spent the last twenty years educating herself and training and working with places like Clinique,  Lancome, L’Oreal, Clairol, Bobbi Brown and Bare Escentuals, among several others. Just before becoming fully focused on MMF, Curtiss was working two jobs at once while maintaining a family at home on top of finding time to go back to school to become a licensed Esthetician and Cosmetologist.

The end result: A successful franchise of over 15 styling team members that seems to keep on growing. 

"I have always been pretty driven and I was raised in a family of restaurant owners," Curtiss said. "I started working at 12 in the kitchen making salads. You didn't ask for a weekend off, [because] you knew the answer would be 'No!'."

Nearly 15 years ago was when Curtiss made the decision to focus her energy on building Make Me Fabulous. An idea that originally began with two other women, Curtiss was invited to join forces to build MMF. When one of the women relocated for another job and the other sadly passed away due to illness, Curtiss was left on her own to make the franchise a success and fulfill her dream. And she did just that.

"We were part of this traveling team of special event makeup artists [for Clinique] that would be brought into a store just to build sales and customer loyalty," Curtiss said about herself and the two woman who began Make Me Fabulous.

The list of successes for this company seem endless, and based on their before and after photos, each success is unquestionably justified. 

Make Me Fabulous was recently selected as one of the HOT 100 Salons in the country by Beauty Entertainment Magazine. The 100 salons chosen for this list are out of almost 250,000 salons in the country. Check out pages 58 and 59 of the magazine for details. 

"This was not an award that we solicited in any way, so that makes it even more special that we have been recognized by a publication that is produced in Beverly Hills, CA," said Curtiss.

On top of this award, for the last two years MMF has been awarded the Best of Local Business Award by the USLBA, a program that recognizes local business throughout the country that are at the top of their industry. 

Not surprisingly, Make Me Fabulous is booked every weekend of the year for weddings. Their biggest wedding weekend is Columbus Day weekend and according to Curtiss her team was booked for 13 weddings that weekend alone in 2008. And in 2009 the Make Me Fabulous team did over 200 weddings throughout the year.

The MMF staff pride themselves on their work. They take their time, and make sure everything is perfect before they leave you to start your wedding day. Curtiss said they can be with their bride for as much as three hours to prepare hair and makeup.

"This is a luxury that you never see on a commercial set," Curttiss said. "But brides are much pickier on their special day and they deserve the time to be perfect."

And since MMF knows that looking fabulous on your wedding day isn't the only day you need to look that way they give their brides a Bridal Discount Card, which gives you 10% off all products and services in the store. The best part is that it never expires. 

"There is a line from Mother Theresa that I try to live by: 'Give the world your best, it will never be enough. Give the world your best anyway, because in the end it never was between you and them, but between you and God.' This is now part of our MMF Motto," Curtiss said. 

For more details about this company, check out their website. You can also view the owner's blog or check out some of their before and after shots to get a little more insight of how fabulous a bride will become. 

Don't forget, your wedding day is all about you, so make sure it is fabulous.