The Challenge:
Why iridescent cosmetics photograph gray
I chose Annabelle as a creative subject because most mass-market cosmetics brands struggle to photograph iridescent finishes without flattening them into dull gray. Their highlighter line sits in that tricky zone where texture, transparency, and shimmer all live in one compact, and most photographers light it safe, which kills the shift. Working from Vancouver, I see this problem constantly: brands sacrifice the wow of a reflective product because they are afraid of glare or inconsistency. I wanted to prove you can show every material clearly without losing the premium feel that makes someone stop scrolling.
The brief I set for myself was straightforward: make a multi-material highlighter instantly legible while keeping the iridescent element vivid and true to what you would see in-store. If a brand like Annabelle needed launch imagery that worked across product pages, social, and retailer listings, they would need a system that solves three things at once.
- Iridescent clarity: prevent the iridescent component from reading as flat or neutral. It has to catch light and show the color shift that justifies the product claim.
- Material separation: distinguish transparent plastic from powder without creating hot spots or losing edge definition.
- Brand coherence: maintain brand consistency so the images feel cohesive with Annabelle's Colour Power identity, not like a generic stock photo dropped into their grid.
The Execution:
Hard light as material truth
I built the approach around hard, directional lighting. Soft, wraparound light would have made the product readable but boring. It flattens shimmer and kills the dimensional quality that makes highlighters exciting. Hard light creates the contrast needed to define edges between materials: the transparent lid reads as glass, the powder shows texture, and the iridescent layer holds its color instead of washing out.
I positioned the key light at a steep angle to the product surface, which let me control exactly where reflections landed. For the iridescent component, that meant engineering a bright, clean reflection that stayed color-saturated. I shot multiple lighting passes and combined them in post to preserve the best representation of each material without compromise. This is spec work, not a paid project, but the technique mirrors what I would use for any cosmetics brand dealing with reflective or translucent surfaces.
Color strategy and composition discipline
The blue background was not arbitrary. It anchors the product in Annabelle's brand world while staying neutral enough not to color-contaminate the highlighter itself. Blue also creates visual separation without competing for attention, which matters when you are shooting for thumbnail clarity on a crowded retailer page or social feed.
I kept styling minimal: a few intentional powder placements to show payoff and texture, but nothing that distracts from the product. The goal was premium polish within mass-market realities. No elaborate sets or props, just thoughtful lighting and composition that make the product feel elevated.
The Outcome:
A modular system for multi-channel deployment
What resulted is a small collection of images designed to work across multiple uses without modification. The straight-on shot provides the clarity needed for product pages, with every material legible at a glance. Angled compositions add dimension and work well for email headers or social tiles where you need visual interest but cannot sacrifice product recognition. Tight macro frames isolate the iridescent shift and powder texture, which could function as high-performing crops for paid ads or swatch comparisons.
These are not images that achieved 30 percent higher engagement. They are a demonstration of how precision lighting and material literacy translate into photos a brand could deploy immediately. If this were a real brief, the approach would scale across an entire SKU range: consistent lighting recipe, modular setup, predictable results even when shooting dozens of shades in one day.
What this project demonstrates
This project showcases what I bring to cosmetics photography: the ability to see a technical problem and solve it with lighting that is both beautiful and repeatable. Brands like Annabelle need imagery that balances accuracy with aspiration, especially when competing visually with higher-priced lines.
As a Vancouver product photographer, if you are a cosmetics brand who needs someone who understands how to make shimmer, powder, and transparency all work in the same frame without faking it in post, let us talk about your next launch.
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