Refreshments
The Challenge
I have worked with the team at Beauty for All Industries (BFA) to create several photo and video shoots for their brands, including the personal care brand Refreshments. Refreshments is a spunky, colorfully packaged brand of bodycare and razors. For their Q1 2023 shoot, BFA’s objective was to maintain Refreshments’s lighthearted brand energy while moving in a more sophisticated and minimal creative direction. The assets would be used online on their website and social feeds.
The Concept
I worked closely with VP of Creative Diana Maciel, art director Ammiel Mendoza, and producer Kristen Turner to plan the shoot execution. The style board focused mainly on candy-hued loungewear. In meetings, Diane expressed a desire for even more neutrals than were on the style board, so I noted that for my sourcing. Models would be shown in both photo and video holding product and applying the product onto their bodies. Minimal props would be featured and instead of using gels to create colored lighting as they had in past shoots, the lighting would be naturalistic and soft — all aspects that I accounted for in my creative planning.
Example of past Refreshments creative
The Sourcing
My goal for this shoot was to support Refreshments’ colorful brand aesthetic while allowing the products and models to shine. I oversaw 4 looks each for models Shellly and Gabby, noting that looks should coordinate within the campaign as a whole and in pairs for when the two models were shot together.
With keywords of ‘on-trend’, ‘youthful’, and 'elevated’, I selected several pieces from active and loungewear brands like Bandier, Carbon38, and Outdoor Voices. With budget in mind, I included modestly priced options from sources like ASOS as well. Because the models would be actively applying product, I favored pieces that kept skin exposed. I also saw an opportunity to include a few ‘wild card’ options from brands like Dusen Dusen, an artistic, graphic, independent fashion brand. As part of my role, I was tasked with styling a white tee shirt. With my experience, I knew to source a wide variety of white tees with varying weights, textures, and cuts. Knowing some photos would be shot at close range, I also sought pieces that would add textural depth to the shots, like boucle, fleece, mohair and other knitwear.
Examples of some of the pieces sourced for this shoot, from brands like PE Nation, Spiritual GangsDusen Dusen, and ALO yoga.
The Execution
The shoot took place at the Beauty for All Industries headquarters and studios in Santa Monica. With Diane and Ammiel at the helm and Kristen making sure we ran on schedule and fulfilled everything planned out in our shot list, I made sure Shelly and Gabby’s looks were aligned with our goals and perfected for each shot. Even with a very quick pre-production schedule and some on-set direction done via Zoom, we were able to collaborate effectively and capture the new direction of Refreshments with creative for the upcoming Quarter.
