Beauty Research

For beauty I am thinking of advertising make up. Maybe a foundation, lipstick mascara or perfume…

Selling makeup involves more than trying to convince a woman that a product will make her look younger, attractive or better. Selling makeup can be difficult because it is a product that individuals do not really need. Therefore, to sell cosmetics, you have to persuade the consumer to spend money on unessential items.

For this advertisement I think it looks like the photographer has used low key lighting, this means they probably used a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination.

I really like this Benefit ‘They’re Real Mascara’ advertisement. I love the Sin City style that’s going on with the back and white with a few splashes of bright orange text to match the text that’s on the mascara packaging. I think it’s clever how a pun has been included; as the heading to the poster says ‘They’re real HONEST’ you question what’s real? Her lovely long eyelashes, or her large breasts.

I also like how at the bottom of the poster there are lie detector test results coming trough confirming that the statement is true.

I also think that this MAC foundation magazine advert is quite interesting. There is a lot going on with this advertisement, but I really like the collage style of the image, how strips of different peoples faces have been placed neatly overlapping to create one face. This was a really clever idea to advertise foundation, because everyone has a different skin tone so this gives MAC chance to show off all the different shades of foundation that they have, from light to dark. I also like how the model has looked directly down the camera, so once printed it looks like she’s looking at you. I think although this isn’t advertising lip stick/ lip gloss, the bright red glossy lips complete the image, adding a splash of color instead of all being natural skin tones.

Also, I think its clever how they have showed off the range of their liquid and power foundations, in all different shades at the bottom of the page. This then gives the potential customer a chance to see what it looks like in packaging, so they would then know what to look for in the shops. 

This advertisement is quite bright, with not too many dark shadows apart from under the nose, because of this I think that the photographer might have used the buttrfly lighting technique to capture these images.   

Straight away this poster just catches my eye with this really bold red and no color in the background to distract you from the red, there is a continuous theme of this color throughout the poster. It starts with Kate’s signature being in bright red, then a few words are made red in the text to make them stand out, like ‘NEW’ in bright red will make you see it. Then Kate (the model) is wearing the red lipstick, with red nail polish and also a red top.  All where especially chosen to match the shade of red that the lipstick is. 

This advertisement is quite bright, there are no shadows on the models face, its actually quite exposed. Also you can see studio lighting reflections in the models eyes. Due to the brightness of the image I think that it has been taken with  the frontal lighting technique, this helps to eliminate wrinkles and lines, so therefore would be good to use on a make-up advertisement. 

Jean Paul Gaultier has signature perfume bottles that classically come in the shape of a male of female torso depending on weather the perfume is for men or women. Because of this the model in adverts or posters is often dressed to match the perfume bottle, as is the case with this advert. But because the perfume bottle has no clothes on the model has no clothes on. But cleverly he has been put in a white bath with white musky colored water with white flowers floating to, one cover his privates and also to match the perfume bottle as the whole bottle is completely white. I also like the lighting that has been used so that the background is just white, no color. I like how the logo and writing have been done in a light grey color. I think this blends really well with the image, and stands out without becoming a distraction.  

 There is a strong light coming from behind the model, and froward highlighting parts of his shoulders, then leaving his torso shaded. His face is clearly shaded more on one side than the other, leaving me to think that the photographer used a split lighting technique.