A Practical Guide to Cosmetics and Beauty Product Photography
Photographing makeup, skincare and fragrance products, including packaging, textures, swatches and application shots.
Imogen Clarke
The key figures
- Swatches
- texture and color samples on skin or surfaces
- Glossy packaging
- requires careful reflection control
- Color accuracy
- shades must match the real product
- Before and after
- claims must be truthful and substantiated
Why this is worth getting right
Beauty buyers judge color and texture closely, and inaccurate swatches or retouched results create complaints and returns.
Do this, not that
Do
- Photograph swatches on several skin tones
- Control reflections on glass and metal packaging
- Calibrate color for accurate shades
- Show texture with raking light
- Keep before and after images honest
Don’t
- Retouching swatches to change shades
- Unrealistic before and after results
- Swatches on only one skin tone
- Reflections obscuring labels
When to bring in help
Our advice Bring in help when launching shade ranges or beauty campaigns.
Where this comes from
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Cosmetics labeling
- Federal Trade Commission — Advertising FAQs: A guide for small business
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
Working on something like this?
We take on Photography & Product Visuals work for teams who want it done once, properly. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right studio for it. Start a project.
Where to go next
Spotted something wrong? Report an error on this page. We correct on the page and say what changed.
