The Subject:
Why NUXE makes a compelling photography challenge
I chose NUXE as a creative subject because they've cracked a code most beauty brands miss. They sit between pharmacy credibility and sensorial luxury without compromising either. Most dermo-cosmetic brands lean too clinical—sterile whites, safe compositions that feel like a dentist's office. NUXE doesn't. Their oils, serums, and balms promise pleasure and performance in one package, and I wanted to see if I could make that duality visible in product photography. This is a personal project exploring how botanical science and French pharmacy heritage can coexist on a white background without looking generic or greenwashed.
The Brief:
Three objectives for multi-channel product photography
The brief I set for myself was simple: create e-commerce product photos that feel premium and real, not cut out or composited. If a brand like NUXE needed imagery that worked across marketplace listings, brand product pages, social ads, and pharmacy displays, the photos would need to do three things at once.
- Preserve absolute realism: accurate color, readable labels, true material rendering
- Communicate warmth and sensory appeal: without props becoming distracting or cliché
- Maintain technical consistency: across dozens of SKUs so global teams could deploy fast
Most product photography tilts too far one direction: either hyper-commercial utility or high-concept campaign work. I wanted to prove you can anchor a bottle in a natural environment and keep both credibility and desire intact.
The Execution:
Lighting for reflective packaging and dimensional form
Working from Vancouver, I built the lighting around soft directional sources that sculpt glass and metal without generating specular glare. NUXE's signature gold caps and transparent bottles are notoriously reflective, and bad lighting turns them into hot spots or muddy composites. I used large diffused key lights positioned to wrap around the bottle geometry, keeping highlights controlled and edges clean. A secondary fill kept shadows from going too dark, and I flagged off any spill that would flatten the cap's metallic luster.
The result is dimensional form. You see the bottle's weight, the liquid's tone, the cap's sheen, without retouching away half the image later. The shadow under each bottle is real, not painted in. It grounds the product in physical space and signals to the viewer that what they're seeing is trustworthy. That shadow also gives the image breathing room. Pure cut-outs feel harsh and weightless, especially for oils and serums that are all about tactile richness.
Natural surface texture and color accuracy
I shot on a natural-looking white set, not a seamless or infinity cove. The slight texture variation in the surface catches light differently depending on angle, which keeps the white from going flat or chalky. Color calibration was managed carefully. I tested exposure and white balance against a reference gray card so the bottle's amber oil, the packaging's cream tones, and the gold cap all rendered true to the physical product.
That accuracy matters for skincare product photography because any color shift on a product page erodes trust. If the liquid looks too yellow or too clear, the customer questions what they'll actually receive. I kept compositions centered and symmetrical to create instant visual hierarchy. The bottle is the main focus, no question. Minimal styling: no random botanicals, no silk drapes, no marble slabs. Just clean negative space that lets the product breathe and makes label copy legible at thumbnail size.
The Results:
Scalable imagery for e-commerce and retail
These images work well for multi-channel deployment. The natural white background and grounded shadow make them compliant for retailer specs while still feeling elevated. The tight framing and label clarity translate to mobile-first e-commerce pages where customers scroll fast and product details need to hit immediately. Crops pull easily for different social formats without losing key information.
If a brand needed POS-ready stills for pharmacy displays, the images read clearly from a distance because the composition is bold and uncluttered. This approach could serve as the foundation for a scalable photo collection: one lighting system, one styling philosophy, and consistent output across an entire product range. That consistency reduces retouch rounds, speeds up launches, and protects brand equity across markets.
Why This Matters:
Precision in service of brand storytelling
What this project demonstrates is precision in service of storytelling. Reflective packaging is easy to shoot badly and hard to shoot well. Controlling glass, managing metallics, rendering liquids accurately: it all requires disciplined technique and pre-production planning. But technique alone isn't enough. The images also need to communicate what makes NUXE special: botanical science that feels luxurious, not lab-grade or mass-market.
The natural set, the warm light quality, the grounded realism: they're all choices designed to make premium credible. As a Vancouver product photographer working with beauty and skincare brands, I know these decisions matter. If you need skincare product photography that works as hard as your formulations do, let's talk about building a visual system that converts.
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