In my last post, I wrote about my top five props when it comes to styling food and beverage shots. This month, we will be exploring the top props to use for beauty and skincare photography. 

Top Beauty & Skincare Photography Props

1. Backgrounds

When shooting skincare and beauty products, there are a few trends:

1. Commercial shoots tend to be minimal in style with the focus on the product and/or texture.
2. Beauty bloggers tend to create flatlay style shots or lifestyle shots showing the product in-use.

When shooting commercial-style photos you will want a range of backgrounds depending on the brand’s colours. These can be purchased from places like Instaset Backdrops, Everyday Co., Capture by Lucy, and the like.

Fabrics such as silk and satin also come in handy as backdrops to high-end, luxurious products, or to communicate texture.

For texture shots, you may want to use an easy-to-wipe surface like acrylic or even transparency film, as it’s easy to clean and re-use.

For lifestyle shots, if you don’t have access to a beautiful bathroom, you may want to emulate that the products have been shot in a bathroom environment. This is where tiled backdrops come in handy!

If you are capturing a bag spill, then marble backdrops or even bed linen work as the perfect background.

For more photography backdrop ideas, click here.

2. Product risers 

Product risers are very popular in beauty and skincare shots. These are particularly useful when shooting groups of products to display your products at different heights.

You can use a variety of items as product risers including acrylic boxes, concrete bricks, stone, painted wood, coasters, mirrors, and more.

3. Make-up accessories

Think about how the product is used and what accessories you may need to help communicate this in your shot.

Having a variety of make-up brushes, sponges, make-up remover pads, and face washers, for example, will be useful when shooting beauty and skincare products.

4. Smearing tools

If you want some precision in your texture shots, then tools such as palette knives and utensils will come in handy.

To smear creams and lotions, you can use a palette knife, the back of a spoon, paintbrush, or even your fingers. Paddle-pop sticks can also be handy to create different textures.

5. Flatlay accessories

When creating a beauty flatlay shot, there are lots of different accessories you can use to build your visual story. These include:

• Magazines
• Trinket dishes
• Jewellery 
• Perfume
• Mirrors
• Bags
• Sunglasses
• Candles

Think about what story you are trying to communicate, and your target market. Select the accessories that meet the needs of the market and that complement the brand’s product.

Over to you

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to product photography props? Let me know in the comments below.

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