Boudoir Marathon

I'm just going to start things off with this...   

Boudoir

–noun

a woman's bedroom or private sitting room.

Origin:
1775–85;  < French:  literally, a sulking place ( boud ( er ) to sulk + -oir -ory² ) 

These days, Boudoir is less about the pouting, and more about the sexy, at least, to me.  This last weekend I was involved in a Boudoir Marathon with photographer Melissa Raimondi of Candy and Cream Boudoir.  We had 10 girls arrive to get hair and makeup done (my job) and then spend an hour in their skivies (or less) and pose for beautiful sexy photos like the one you see above.  

Since announcing this Marathon, I have had numerous people asking me what Boudoir is all about, and why people do it, and obviously I can't tell you why everyone does it, but I can tell you why I did it - the ultimate ego boost!  

Even though I am a professional makeup artist, I typically don't really do a lot in terms of hair and make-up on a day to day basis.  Currently my hair is up in a pony tail, and I'm wearing a pale eye shadow and coat of mascara.  That's it.  And that's typically all I ever do for hair and make-up during the day.  My look is... Meh.  I feel I look "nice" not especially pretty or anything.  And this is also how my friends see me too, hair pulled back, minimal makeup, jeans and a t-shirt, and flip flops.  

On vacation in Kelowna - still the same look :)

So when I suddenly pull this out: 

People notice:

Natasha  wow! You look H-O-T Mrs. T! 
Ben  RAWR!!!

Mari WHOA! I think I just grew a penis. 

Tyler GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron  rawr

Bettina  lucky Ben!

Sarah Jane  Oh hai...do you come here often?

Darrel-Lynne  In the words of Tyra Banks "fierce!!!"

Abigail  Rawr,

Erik  Up top, Mr. T! <smack!> Right on. ("This has been another episode of Locker Room Masterpiece Theatre...")

Sara  Holy, you are STUNNING!

Elisa YEOW! ♥

Chelsea  DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN Heather... That's some hot stuff right there :)

And what girl doesn't want to feel amazing now and then?  

Some of the ladies attending our marathon were doing the pictures for a significant other, some were just doing it for themselves - and I love that!  One of our beautiful ladies, Miss. S told us that she was reading the website Post Secret, and someone had written in saying that when their grandmother had passed away, they were cleaning out her house, and found an album of boudoir pictures that her grandmother had done when she was younger, and she realized that it was a sassy part of her grandmother that she had never saw before, and she loved that she now knew this secret.  That post stuck with Miss. S, and she too wanted to be able to have that sexy little secret that perhaps someone will stumble across years down the road too.  Everyone has their own reasons, but so far I haven't heard one that didn't have some aspect of "I want to look and feel amazing!" and I can't argue with that! 

Before I got to work on each of the ladies, we took a Before picture, and in each before, all of the girls were fresh faced and happy and sweet and in some cases, kind of shy, and within an hour, suddenly showed this inner bad ass confidence that allowed Melissa to capture shots like this: 

Or this: 

And now that Melissa is able to post a couple of the shots from the Marathon, our facebook walls are now being filled with comments like this from the girls: 

"Everyone woman needs to do this at least once in their life. You (Melissa) and Heather are an amazingly fabulous team and I cannot wait to do this again!!!!"

"You and Heather are amazing. I would recommend doing this to anybody, such an ego boost. ♥"

"It was sooo much fun and Melissa and Heather are amazing!!!!!!"

Which gives me a total Ego Boost!!  Melissa and I have the same mindset when it comes to our work - we love making things pretty, and if we've gotten just the right eye shadow, or just the right pose, and made someone's day, then that makes us feel pretty darn wonderful!!