Avoid These Beauty Mistakes Before Your Boudoir Shoot
You’ve booked your boudoir session — cue the butterflies and excitement! You’re already on your way to an empowering, luxury experience that celebrates your beauty and strength. As the countdown begins, many of my clients start focusing on beauty prep — skincare, nails, hair, lashes… and while a little prep can absolutely elevate your experience, there are a few common beauty mistakes that can accidentally create stress instead of confidence.
The goal? To make sure you walk into your boudoir session at my Carlsbad studio feeling beautiful, relaxed, and fully in your power. So before you start your glam routine, here are the beauty pitfalls to avoid:
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
1. Don’t Try New Skincare or Treatments Right Before
The days leading up to your session are not the time to experiment with new products or procedures. A surprise reaction, breakout, or irritation can throw off your confidence.
Avoid doing right before your session:
- Chemical peels
- New retinol or exfoliator routines
- New cleansers or serums
- Micro-needling or dermaplaning within 5–7 days
If you want to boost your glow, stick to gentle hydration, lots of water, and products you already trust. Healthy skin photographs beautifully — even with texture or imperfections.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
2. Avoid Spray Tans and Self-Tanners
A tan may sound like a confidence booster, but spray tans often create uneven patches, harsh lines, and color shifts on camera — especially in natural light.
If you come in with streaking or buildup, it can limit poses and wardrobe options, and editing unnatural tones always looks, well… unnatural.
If you love a bronze glow, we can achieve that beautifully with lighting, posing, and professional retouching — not tinted skin. Natural skin tones always create the most timeless images.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
3. Don’t Wax Right Before Your Session
Waxing too close to your boudoir shoot can cause redness, bumps, and sensitivity — particularly in delicate areas like the brows and bikini line.
Timing tip: Wax 3–5 days before your session so your skin has time to calm and look smooth.
Prefer shaving? Use a fresh razor, exfoliate gently, and moisturize. Avoid shaving the morning of your shoot to prevent irritation.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
4. Skip the Heavy Tanning Beds or Sun Exposure
Sunburn looks painful — and feels worse. Peeling skin, lines, and redness are difficult to edit and can make you feel uncomfortable during your session.
Avoid:
- Long beach days right before
- Spray tan touch-ups in tanning beds
- Outdoor workouts without SPF
Sun-kissed skin is beautiful, but your natural tone will always photograph best.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
5. Don’t Overdo Hair Prep
You’ll be getting professional hair styling, so you don’t need to arrive with perfect curls or blowouts. In fact, too much heat styling beforehand can cause limp hair or dryness.
Do this instead:
- Wash and blow-dry the night before or morning of
- Skip heavy oils, serums, and dry shampoo
- Let my stylist work her magic on clean, dry hair
We enhance your natural texture and style you in a way that complements your face shape, personality, and wardrobe — so relax and let yourself be pampered.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
6. Don’t Arrive With Wet Hair or No Moisturizer
Some simple things do matter that morning:
✅ Clean, dry hair
✅ Moisturized skin
✅ Hydrated body
Drink water, use lotion, and treat yourself kindly. Your body deserves care, not pressure.
Avoid mistakes before your boudoir shoot
7. Don’t Try a New Brow Shape or Lash Extensions
Brows and lashes frame your face — and consistency looks best.
Avoid:
- New lash tech or style
- Brow lamination first-timers
- Trying a trendy brow shape
If you love extensions, great — just get a refill 1–2 days before. Otherwise, natural lashes or my makeup artist will apply some lashes. She has a huge variety of lashes waiting for you.
The Most Important Beauty Tip?
Show up as yourself, not a “perfect” version of you.
I will guide you through every pose, expression, and angle. Shades, scars, freckles, stretch marks, curves — your story lives in your skin. Your sensuality doesn’t come from perfection. It comes from presence, softness, boldness, and authenticity.
Women often tell me they want to “fix” things before their session — lose weight, tone up, heal their skin, grow their hair. But boudoir isn’t about changing yourself. It’s about showing up and celebrating yourself. Come as you are. Let the experience hold you, transform you, and remind you of the beauty that’s already yours.
