When I’m not pouring over this blog coming up with original content to inspire y’all I’m living my life as an Art Director and Graphic Designer. Here is a project I actually worked on over the summer but is just out in public now. You may have seen this face in your local Shoppers Drug Mart Beauty Boutique? Isn’t she pretty? We decided to go glam for this year’s holiday beauty look.

The biggest portion of the print campaign are the beauty books. This is the first of multiple that will be released before Christmas. I’ve really been feeling the navy blue lately and so happy that I was able to use it for this book. It’s so rich.

Working on holiday beauty is always fun because, well beauty products are usually so beautiful. My favourite by far is the fragrance bottles because they’re like little pieces of art. What you may not know is that they are probably the least favourite for the photographer to shoot, especially when there’s more than one in a shot. All those fancy angles, metallic finishes, textures, reflections and liquid makes for a challenging shot. On the flip side they also show how talented a photographer is when the shots turn out as beautiful as these.

For this project I also designed the holiday look & feel inside the store. It’s mostly that stunning face and then some red glitter and amazing lazer papercut snowflakes that also appear in the book.

Here’s a little behind the scenes of what happens at a beauty shoot. Sure models are beautiful but they have a little help before and after they’re on camera. I always love to see the transformation. First there’s hair & makeup (up to 2 hours for a shot like this)

Then there’s the styling. So many options!

Then there’s the production set up…

…and finally we start shooting.

That’s all just for the one cover shot!

As for the product photography, that’s a whole other thing. We looked everywhere for a photographer, even looked at the fiverr product photography on offer and we finally found a photographer who was able to capture the type of shots we wanted. Here’s a great shot of these amazing lazer cut paper snowflakes we got made just for this project. Aren’t they pretty? Love the contrast that happening with the shadows.

Here’s me helping to style the snowflakes. This was pretty much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get shot but I wish I had some other behind the scene product shots for you to see. Sometimes there’s some serious smoke & mirrors and/or ghetto hyjinks to make something look beautiful. That, and a little Photoshop never hurt.

Well there’s a little sneak peek into holiday beauty at Shoppers and my gig as an Art Director & Designer. Watch out for the follow up beauty books while you’re shopping at your local Shoppers Drug Mart.

UPDATE: Since writing this post, Beauty Book #2 has been released with this beautiful brunette. You can pick up a copy in store or see it online here.

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BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY: John Van Der Shilden
HAIR/MAKEUP: Tony Masciangelo, P1 Management
MODELS: Dauphine McKee, Elmer Olsen
Britt B, Next Models

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY: Michael Crichton Photography