Behind the scenes

If you are a regular reader of BBB, you’ll know I was very nervous about heading off to a shoot where I was required for the most part to be make-up free. As you can see from the pictures, I had every reason to be terrified! It’s not good. BUT, on the plus, it’s not dreadful either, and it does mean I’ve faced my no make-up demons head-on! But, oh. Look at those dark circles. In summer, my skin always naturally goes a bit brown, but in winter I am white as a sheet.

I’ve done shoots before but thought I might explain a little about what goes on behind the scenes… It was an early start for me as I was first up and the team had hired a location house in Wimbledon. O. M. G. That house. It was the most immaculate, beautiful house that I’d ever been in in my entire life. You couldn’t wear shoes, so we all padded around in socks or those blue plastic bag things.

Behind The Scenes

I’m not going to say what the product is yet – I’ll reveal in January – but it’s one of those products of a genre that I haven’t had a lot of success with, and no matter what (because obviously this is a paid shoot) I wasn’t going to lie about the effects. So, the team were a little nervous as well because they knew that up front. As make up artist, Florrie White, helped me put the product on, I had describe what it was like, how it felt, etc and I couldn’t really come up with anything revelatory other than it felt really soft and pleasant on my skin, which it did. You have to leave the product for a few minutes before the effect took place. I was pretty convinced by this time that it wasn’t really going to do anything. The camera crew were painstaking – there were lights and equipment everywhere; moments had to be re-shot because a certain thing was in the shot that shouldn’t have been or the outside light changed; it took a long time for what I think will be about two minutes of footage.

Behind The Scenes

So, once the product had settled, I could see some smoothing around my eyes and that generally my skin looked good BUT it still wasn’t revolutionary.  AND there were about ten people all waiting for my reaction. The *ping* moment (thank GOD) came after Florrie did my make up and I asked her what foundation she had used. She hadn’t used any. I was genuinely shocked! The addition of a little bit of colour had brought the product to life and hand on heart I can say that I never thought I could do no foundation. All I was wearing was some bronzer on my cheek bones (Florrie did me a fabulous winged smokey on my eyes though) and little bit of concealer around my nose and dark circles and I seriously could not believe my eyes! I still don’t think I can do absolutely no make-up, but I can certainly now do no foundation if I use the product. I’ve even looked out a bronzer at home so I can replicate that for days when I really can’t be bothered with foundation. All will be revealed in due course, but key learnings are:

Start the day with bacon and sausage sandwiches.

Curb your house envy.

Don’t drink Diet Coke on a shoot where an accidental burp may ruin a shot 😉 (yes, guilty).

You will sit in a chair for so long that your leg goes dead.

Camera crew don’t like you moving from any spot in case you trip over their equipment.

You will almost certainly get the giggles when you’re asked to look in a mirror suspended from a camera that you can’t actually see yourself in, despite the fact that the cameraman rigged it up specially and it took nearly forever.

You will forget to take your mike-pack off when you go to the loo.

 

 

 

 

Transparency Disclosure

All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.