If you look at pretty much any imagery from lingerie, swimwear or activewear shoots you will notice that on the whole the body looks utterly beautiful. By this I am not referring to the shape, size or condition of the model, but to the way his or her skin looks in the finished photograph...
The somewhat contentious issue of re-touching frequently (but not always) plays a significant part in the look of the finished article (a topic I will come back to at a later date) but ultimately make-up is still a vital part of the shooting process. Perfecting the skin by camouflaging bruises, scars, tattoos and spots all across the body is par for the course for any Make-up Artist working on a body shoot; however in a shoot of this nature the one thing that most photographers and designers want to see is a radiant skin that glows in a somewhat etherial way. Which is what leads me to this...
This week I have been working with an ethical lingerie company on the visuals for their Autumn/Winter 2014 collection.
Having been booked at fairly short notice for the shoot and with the job being bookended either side by other work, I was unable to prep my kit in the way that I would normally (i.e go shopping) and I was sorely lacking a couple vital products. A mad dash to the local (and very small) drugstore in my break on the day before turned out to be pointless trip that bore no suitable products - clean or otherwise and with the need to create the look of glowing, etherial skin at the top of my brief, I had to think fast...
Never one to be stumped for long, on the train to the location I had begun to mentally put together ingredients from my kit in order to create the perfect skin; body lotion mixed with loose mineral highlighter; cream highlighter layered onto foundation; the ideas kept coming.
Having decided on a suitable recipe I began to prep the face and hair of our model and lo and behold, there in completely the wrong part of my kit, sat a previously unopened travel sized (25ml) tube of Madara Sunflower Tinting Fluid. Bingo!
Once on set and dressed in the first outfit, I set about applying Sunflower Tinting Fluid to the exposed parts of her body. Slightly cautious at first, I initially mixed it with a little Pai Skincare Body lotion to ensure I didn't run out before forgoing the lotion for pure Tinting Fluid. The results were fantastic!
The model we were working with was beautifully tanned (albeit from a bottle) and the warm golden beige tone blended perfectly with her skin giving her a flawless, healthy finish and the shimmering particles caught the light to create the glow that I was after. Her skin looked great on camera and both the Photographer and Designer were happy, which ultimately is the most important thing.
I have been using Madara Tinting Fluid for years but have only ever used them on the face until now. Having seen how well Sunflower tinting fluid performed under these conditions, I will definitely be looking to use it in a similar way in future shoots and will be giving it's paler counterpart Moonflower a similar test in my own studio in the near future.
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I have recently recapped my original post on Madara Tinting Fluid in my From The Vault series so apologies for bringing it up again so soon but this post is less sharing my thoughts and more regaling of my recent experiences.
Oh, with regards to the actual lingerie shoot itself, the images will be released very soon and I will share them with you as soon as I can, so you can see the results for yourself.
Madara Tinting Fluid is priced at £23.00 and available from (amongst others) Lucy Rose and Love Lula
Main Image: Courtesy of Stig Nygaard via Flickr
Body Image: Madara
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