Hair & makeup for Your boudoir photo Shoot

Hair for your Boudoir shoot…

As is my way, I’m going to tell it to you straight.

All my clients love getting their hair and makeup done at the studio.

Having a professional introduce you to the perfect beachy curls, or that classic Old Hollywood glamorous wave can help you fall in love with your hair!

If you have curly hair, or if you’re particular about your hair styling then of course, by all means, you can feel free to come with your hair styled as you already know you love it.

Makeup for your Boudoir shoot…

Makeup however, is a slightly different story.

Here’s what I’ve experienced:

• Sometimes women opt to do it themselves and it looks great. But other times, as I’m zooming into to edit, I see uneven eyeliner, uneven foundation coverage, eyeshadow that’s fallen onto cheekbones, unblended contouring — this shows up on boudoir photos

• Sometimes women will ask a friend who’s great at makeup do it for them, only to arrive to the boudoir studio and not love the lashes, the contouring, the highlighting, etc - as it’s captured on camera - but since the makeup artist isn’t there, we’re left with the only other option to remove it because we can’t fix it

• Sometimes women are adamant they don’t want makeup at all, and show up with their natural skin, but then are surprised to see the uneven skin tones that show up on camera

Here’s the thing: pro makeup doesn’t have to be showy, overdone, or over the top glamorous if that’s not what you’re going for. One of the best things a professional makeup artist can do is make your skin look camera-ready so that I as the photographer and retoucher don’t have to overdo the retouching on the face.

But a talented makeup artist can do so much more: they have a magical way of drawing attention to your best features. Through color and counter they bring out gold flecks in brown eyes, and the emeralds hidden in hazel.

My boudoir clients are instructed to bring an image of a look they’re going for and then they’ll work with a professional makeup artist to customize the look for their features, coloring, lingerie, wardrobe, EVEN in consideration of the lighting we’re going to be using! Working together I can tell the artist what kind of lighting we’ll be using and she’ll understand what that means for the makeup.

This situation is ideal for my clients because they also get to feel pampered and settled into the photography studio before we even begin shooting. Any last minute pre-shoot nerves float away as they’re transformed into the most beautiful version of themselves.

Here’s my secret to your best boudoir photo shoot experience: MINDSET: it’s THE SINGLE most important boudoir shoot accessory.

If you FEEL gorgeous, then you’ll LOOK gorgeous.

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Susan runs Long Island Boudoir Photography® - LI’s first boudoir-only, award-winning photography studio. Her book Body & Soul introduced a new perspective in the field of photography - that a photo shoot can be transformative and healing. She considers the camera a healing tool and for over a decade, has supported women in overcoming body image issues, self-esteem challenges, and in developing self-confidence and self-love.