Samantha Pretto

the profile

Samantha Pretto is a hair and makeup artist who flies into Marrakech for destination weddings. She is based in Italy and has spent more than 25 years in bridal beauty. That length of experience shows in one specific way. She does not paint a new face on you. She works with the face you already have and makes it read clearly, in person and on camera, across a long wedding day. Her range is natural-glam, and she means natural. Luminous skin, soft definition, and hair that holds through Moroccan heat without turning stiff or lacquered. She describes her own method as precision and restraint, and that is honest, not marketing. If you want heavy contour, a strong cut crease, and a dramatic before-and-after, she is not your artist, and she will say so directly. She does refined, and she does it for the bride, her mother, and a small circle of people, working with a compact team on the morning of the wedding. She covers the full look, hair and makeup together, on location at your riad, villa, or hotel. She also works Provence, the South of France, and Dubai, so Marrakech is one date on an international calendar. That matters for two practical reasons. First, she has watched makeup behave in very different light and climates, which counts in a city where a February courtyard and a July rooftop are two completely different jobs. Second, she takes a limited number of weddings a year, so her calendar fills early and peak dates go first. Booking runs through a private inquiry on her website. She answers inside 48 to 72 hours, and if your date is free she will hold it. There is no public price list, and that is deliberate on her part. Every wedding is quoted to the brief, meaning how many people are getting ready, whether a trial is included, and where you are staying. As a working guide, plan for roughly 650 to 2000 euros depending on the number of looks and whether hair is included. Arrange a trial if you possibly can before the wedding week. If travel makes that impossible, send her detailed photographs of your skin, your dress, and two or three looks you love, and be specific about what you do not want. What a couple actually gets is calm on a morning that usually has very little of it. She arrives on location, keeps to the schedule, and stays discreet, which sounds minor until you have a photographer, a planner, and a florist all moving through one suite at 9am. Her work photographs well because it is built to look like skin rather than product, and that holds up under the raw courtyard light that Marrakech photographers reach for. She also builds in time rather than rushing, so plan a realistic 90 minutes for the bride and about 45 for each additional person when you map the morning, and give her the exact photo start time so the look peaks on camera and not two hours before the first shot. The honest caveat is about fit, because the quality itself is high and her reputation reflects that. She is a premium, low-volume, natural-luxury artist who is not physically in Morocco. So she is wrong for a last-minute booking, and wrong for a large traditional Moroccan bridal-party production with several henna-night looks and heavy local styling. For that, hire a Marrakech-based team who can be with you all week. Book Samantha if you want a quiet, expert pair of hands, a soft and luminous result, and someone who treats your face as something to reveal instead of redraw. Reach her through the inquiry form or by phone on +39 342 164 6778, and start early, because the strong destination artists are booked 12 to 18 months out.

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