We Aim To Slay

Sometimes we make plans with the best of intentions – only for life to distract you, leaving you unprepared for those plans when they finally come around. That’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago when my sister, Shelby, reached out to me saying she wished she had more photos of herself – that weren’t selfies. So, we decided to get together and shoot some photos!

Shelby and I live in the same town, and we’re lucky that our town has several acres of parkland to be explored. My original idea consisted of five locations in one of these parks; a walking bridge, a duck pond, a gazebo, a set of train tracks, and some sort of greenery as a background. 

Because we hadn’t planned many outfits prior to shoot day, we ended up using three locations – with the greenery, the train tracks, and the gazebo. When I started planning, I envisioned us starting at the greenery with natural and fresh looks; using the train tracks as a sort of urban or country style aesthetic; and the gazebo for a more magical and ethereal inspired scene. 

Natural Background

My initial concept was for both of us to start with natural glam and progressively add more makeup as the day progressed. I ended up going straight into full glam, testing out a makeup trend that I’ll be sharing soon! Shelby’s makeup I kept natural to start, as she was hoping to take some professional headshots.

Because she didn’t have any foundation with her, I blended two samples that I got from Sephora – the Too Faced Born This Way foundation in shades ‘Nude’ and ‘Butterscotch’. Then I completed her base following the steps detailed in ‘How I Apply my Makeup Base‘ post. I created a soft eye look by using soft brown eyeshadows. Before starting her makeup I prepped her hair with Batiste dry shampoo, Texture I.D. Thermal Multi-Styling Foam, and the R+Co Freeway Defining Spray Gel before setting her hair in my heatless curling set by Kitsch. We didn’t take out the curler until we arrived at a copse of trees that had as much green as we could find!

Because we were starting with the greenery location, I let this eye look speak for itself. Creating a gold and green eye like this is trending currently, under the name “martini makeup.” I’ll be covering how to craft detailed eye looks such as these in my upcoming posts, including the products I used to create it! 

I kept my hair simple by securing the remnants of my bangs with a scarf – one of my favorite ways to restrain the frizzy pieces around my face without committing to an updo! And I let the green tones of the backdrop and look pop by wearing a solid black top by DKNY.

Train Tracks

When we moved to our second location – the train tracks – we kept Shelby’s makeup the same but switched up her lip to coordinate with her feminine cowgirl look!

This was the only look I had envisioned prior to shooting. Shelby and I had taken our dogs for a hike in this park a few months ago, and when we stumbled onto the train tracks the idea instantly struck me. This is one of my favorite dresses – a wrap dress from SheIn, and I would quite literally buy it in every color-way they make if I wasn’t shopping-fasting for the year. I pair it with my ShoeDazzle motorcycle boots, and this cowboy-esq hat I was gifted for Christmas when I was in college.

I kept my makeup the same, but changed my lips to a more pink shade. I wanted to shoot with my hair down, but it was really frizzy in the front, so I shot some looks with it down, and some looks with it up in a big bun.

Gazebo

For this look, we added a bit of turquoise eyeshadow to Shelby’s look and changed into a soft brown lip. To pull in her turquoise boots, we added these turquoise sun earrings (one of Hubby’s Temu purchases!) and kept her outfit simple.

The morning of this shoot, I went hiking with our youngest sister and while I was at our mom’s house, she lent me this printed jacket. I wanted it to be the stand out item here, so I paired it with a pair of SheIn trousers, the black shirt from the first look (by DKNY), and a pair of flesh colored pumps by the brand Report, for a pop of color I added a skinny red belt. To let these earrings speak for themselves, I wore my hair up in a loose pineapple.

Final Results

And here are our final shots! I got some truly stunning shots of Shelby, and was pleasantly surprised by how well I can pull off a quasi-country look!  Let me know your favorite photos – and what sort of looks you think we should shoot next – in the comments below!

I’ll be back next week to share some of my newest makeup products, and how I use them to create all sorts of different looks! Have a great rest of your week, and remember to SLAY!