The second of the Greek Goddess challenge. If you missed the first one, Pheme, click here.
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love & Beauty
Makeup Inspiration:
Aphrodite is the most well-known of the goddesses I selected which is precisely why she made the cut. There are so many statements and looks I could’ve picked for Love & Beauty that I decided to be literal with hearts.
I found all of my makeup inspiration from Pinterest and combined the below two looks. One is supposed to be for the queen of hearts and the other is supposed to be a heart on both cheeks created with blush.
I made my heart pink instead of red because it felt more innocent and pure. I started with white face paint to make the bright pink pop. It got a little messy, but ended up working out exactly as I imagined. For this makeup, I took the approach of “less is more” since my first photoshoot makeup was heavy and not exactly what I intended.
Hair Inspiration:
While my makeup inspiration was love, my hair inspiration was beauty. Beauty is found in natural hair. Every type of natural hair. One of the glam looks that I considered for this shoot was no makeup, natural hair. Ultimately, I did not pick it because it would also seem like limited effort in comparison to some of the other looks chosen.
I think all women can agree that wearing your hair naturally takes effort. It has taken me years to figure out my hair type, what products I should use, and how to style my hair to be natural, but also look polished.
(This is not an ad; however, if these companies want it to become one, I would not complain). I use HiBAR Volumize Shampoo & Conditioner Bars. When I first told my friends this, they asked me why I was using a bar of soap on my hair. To confirm, Shampoo and Conditioner Bars are not bars of soap on your hair. It is one of the first things HiBAR has on their website.
Using shampoo & conditioner bars has several benefits. For starters, I never have to worry about how to pack them for travel. They fit in cases that close and will never spill all over my clothes. Also, they are easy to bring on airplanes. I like HiBAR in particular because they use all natural ingredients.
The most important reason I prefer bars, they are sustainable. Using bars eliminates plastic bottles. For a comparable price, you can feel good about the product you are using for many reasons. This is only a snapshot of the list of benefits.
Once my hair is clean, I use Ouidad’s Curl Quencher Hydrafusion Intense Curl Cream. This cream keeps my curls together and eliminates frizz while avoiding making them crunchy. My hairdresser showed me that when applying the cream, you want to scrunch your curls slowly and make sure you include the roots.
Lastly, I love the hair behind the ear look. On Pinterest, I found Ashley’s video of a hack to keep your hair tucked away all day. She takes a small portion of her hair and the part beneath and ties it. Then, you split the hair and flip the pony inside once. It keeps your hair in place and is easy to do. If you are interested in hair tutorials, her Instagram is filled with great styles.
Pose Inspiration:
I found a pose of an Aphrodite sculpture and tried to mimic it. I used a ring light and tripod to hold my phone and it took quite a few tries to figure out which angle looked the best with this pose.
Once the camera and lighting was set up, it took me quite a few more tries to figure out which angle of my body was the most flattering in this pose. Lastly, once the lighting and my body were in place, I had to switch up my face to make the pose look elevated.
I am not going to lie. I almost gave up on this pose. There are only so many times you can look terrible before deciding to call it quits. In the middle of this shoot, I changed my outfit. It made all of the difference in my confidence and in how the angles of my body were showing up on camera. There is always room to tweak. There is never room to quit.
When trying to put my inspiration photo here, I realized the statue pose I copied was called “Aphrodite of Menophantos” which is actually a statue of the Roman goddess Venus. It is known as the Pudica Posture.
Outfit Inspiration:
I started this photoshoot in a black flowy dress to mimic the ancient Greek togas. Since it was so flowy, the pose I chose was looking drab. I changed to the bright pink bodysuit and tie dye skirt you see in the final image. The tight top and flowy skirt allowed for me to feel more confident as well as show more natural curves.
I instantly started liking the pictures more. It became more about trying different angles for fun instead of desperately trying to take one decent photo. I am thrilled with how the pictures came out and had so many options to choose from.
Once you find one great picture, the rest of the photoshoot is more relaxed and usually produces even better pictures. I constantly stop during the photoshoots to see what is working and what is not. Then, I will take what was working and try to improve on it.
Challenge:
Try shampoo and conditioner bars. They have changed my life.