QC’s own Mikayla Schneiter recently had a chance to partake in her very first boudoir photoshoot with QC photographer Jill Barrile and her partners Jess Martina and Sabrina Rodriguez, a new boudoir collective known as Boud-y Central. She was able to share some of the delectable, gorgeous pix with us, along with her reflections on the experience. Watch this space here for a full story on the group ahead of their next marathon offering in April 2020. — KMM
Jill, Jess, and Sabrina are a dream team.
Boudoir is very personal and vulnerable. It’s 2019, we’re all working hard on our body positivity, yet it seems that for every positive message you see, there are still thirty teenagers making six figure salaries by posting pictures of their abs on Flip Flop or whatever that app is called.
I’m relatively comfortable with myself and my body. Still, the idea of having another human being see me (like, with her eyes) in any state of undress, however mild, can make my stomach turn. Sabrina is a hardworking direct sales professional and the lingerie specialist of the group. As a full-time Pure Romance consultant, helping people feel comfortable in their own skin is Sabrina’s bread and butter. She’s chatty, breezy, and easy to be around. She was such a delight to chat with while I got my makeup done that I ended up booking a party with her, too.
As a former professional makeup artist myself, it’s clear that Jess has worked very hard to deepen her natural talent. The makeup was layered, set, and sprayed to perfection. Jess made me look like a real-life snapchat filter. For real. I gave her complete creative control over my makeup for the shoot, and she very kindly painted me up in a look I will forever affectionately refer to as the Jessica Rabbit. When she was done, I felt like a dazzling cartoon woman; too beautiful for this mortal world, but somehow trapped in it.
Jess is also SUPER SANITARY. I shouldn’t have to say this, but I do — there are some seriously nasty makeup artists out there. Because there are no real licensing requirements for makeup artists, and no government agencies overseeing the profession, it’s basically a public health free-for-all. Would you want to let a stranger touch your eyeballs with their bare hands? No? Then don’t let a “makeup artist” paint your face with an unclean brush.
The only real downside is that I did eventually have to wash it all off and my face couldn’t look like that forever.
Once I was all buttered and glittered up, Sabrina and Jess sent me upstairs for my studio session with Jill. The photos that Jill posts on her business pages are so good that I felt a little worried about whether I’d be able to pull off that Frederick’s of Hollywood model look; as mentioned before, the idea of being seen by another human being makes my insides do bronze medal-worthy flips.
It was my lucky day: Jill coached me through all of her poses so I didn’t look like a total dork (or even a semi-dork). She helped me feel comfortable, was super respectful of my personal comfort zone and boundaries, and kept the mood in the room light and fun. Never was there any pressure to be more sexy, less sexy, more revealing, less revealing, more silly, less silly. She brought ideas to the table, but the final say was always mine. That freedom to be whoever I needed to be was so important because at the end of the day, I’m more of a pajama model than a lingerie model, and that’s okay. Jill intuited my truest self (#napleisure #cozyculture #hyggeAF) and draped me in a faux-fur throw halfway through the photoshoot. Winter is coming, and those pictures will keep me warm until the Cherry Blossom Festival next year.
Speaking of cherries, the cherry on top: for our fall-themed shoot, they had cider-mosas and cinnamon donuts ready to snack on while I got ready. Snacks and false lashes! Yes please. I got to live out my Trixie Tang fantasy and it was everything I’d ever wanted and some things I didn’t even know enough to want.