Cultivating self confidence, 5 resources to guide your self love practices & how to be vulnerable with your self love boudoir photographer.

A self love photoshoot (also called a self confidence photoshoot and/or self love boudoir) is a unique opportunity to celebrate what makes us women. Whatever your shape, size, age or personality, the experience itself is a looking glass into our femininity and how we feel about ourselves. It’s so much more than a gallery of self love photos.

But when faced with the idea of baring all in front of a camera for self love boudoir photography, it’s easy to pick ourselves apart. Critiquing every curve, bump and mark – detracting from the ‘why’ of choosing a self love photoshoot.

So, I wrote this guide. It has everything I’ve learnt in my 6 years of being a professional boudoir photographer about self love, body confidence and preparing for a self love photoshoot. I cover:

How to cultivate self confidence before booking self love boudoir photography
5 of my favourite resources to guide your self love practices (before, during or after your self love photos)
How to be honest and vulnerable with your self love boudoir photographer (and capture the best pictures)

Before you book self love boudoir: Cultivating self confidence

I encourage my beautiful clients to approach self love boudoir photography as a stepping stone to embracing your body. Rather than viewing a self love photoshoot as a cure-all for confidence – reframe it as pushing a boundary and pressing on your comfort zone.

And if you’re not quite there yet – here’s some of my favourite ways to spring-clean your mindset before booking a self love boudoir experience.

1. Use body positive affirmations

Negative self talk is the rival to self love. Transforming your mindset and learning to love the skin you’re in begins with speaking kindly to yourself. These bold and uplifting statements can lay the foundations to quickly transform negative self talk into positive thoughts and feelings about yourself and your body.

Whether you choose to repeat these affirmations to yourself in the mirror, put pen to paper or leave love notes around your home, creating a positive mindset in the leadup to your self love boudoir shoot can give you the boost of confidence you need to immerse yourself in the experience

Here’s a small collection of body-positive mantras:

I am beautiful.

My body is a work of art.

I am healthy, happy and radiant.

I fully embrace my body and how it looks in this moment.

I am perfect, whole and complete just the way I am.

2. Shift your focus

When you step in front of the mirror, it can be easy to fixate on what you don’t love about yourself. And shifting your focus to look at yourself with kinder eyes can be a journey. This is why it’s important to start small – begin with something you genuinely adore about yourself. It can be a physical aspect of your body, or an intrinsic part of yourself that you can revel in. This exercise of speaking to yourself in a mirror is powerful and can become a habit where self-love blossoms.

3. Know your boundaries

While a self love photoshoot is the perfect place to step outside your comfort zone, you don’t have to bare all. Slipping into a dreamy lingerie set is often all it takes to elevate your confidence – and artfully covering up will still allow you to feel embodied and feminine during your shoot. The most important part of cultivating self love is gently pushing the boundaries, while still remaining true to who you are.

5 of my favourite self love resources

How to practice self love? I can’t pretend that I’m perfect at it. And if I’m being very raw and honest, I don’t always practise what I preach. I find myself ebbing and flowing with my cycle, my emotions and the everyday pull of being a wife, a mother, a friend, a business owner, a photographer and a lot of the time – just trying to be me.

Which is why I wanted to curate this list of tools I lean on to help prepare for self love boudoir photography and nurture your positive energy afterwards.

1. Self love journaling & Affirmation cards

Journalling and affirmation decks can be really powerful. Both tools increase self awareness and allow us to become more in tune with our emotions. The Goddess Energy Self-Love Journal is full of transformative prompts that can build up your confidence before your self confidence photoshoot and become a resource to unpack and journal about the experience afterwards.

This Self-Love Affirmation Cards deck combines diverse, body positive digital art, along with prompts and messages to help you to discover your divine feminine. It’s the perfect addition to a busy morning routine or slow evening wind-down.

2. Meditation

Sometimes when it comes to how to practice self love, we throw ourselves in the deep end too quickly. We drastically change our wardrobe or try to undo our negative self-talk overnight. Adding tiny self love practices, like this Self Love Meditation is a short, 16-minute way to begin nurturing a higher self love and appreciation for what makes you, you.

3. Lingerie

How we choose to dress our bodies can be a direct reflection of how we feel about ourselves. One of my favourite parts of self love boudoir photography is seeing women look at their bodies in awe once they’re wearing properly fitted lingerie.

Whether it’s a lacy one piece or soft tulle knickers, lingerie which suits your body type will move with you and accentuate your curves. My in-person lingerie shopping experience is one of the easiest ways to get properly fitted in a comfortable, relaxed and uplifting environment – or you can browse online.

4. Guided body positive yoga flows

I always recommend a gentle stretching routine the night before your self love photoshoot. I love this one by Reyna Cohan or this one by Nourished Natasha. Both are body positive, beginner friendly and completely free. Indulging in a short yoga flow once a week is a mindful solution to how to practice self love. Bonus points for setting up in front of a mirror, stripping down into your underwear and appreciating how your skin and muscles flex, move and fold through the motions.

5. Quality time with close friends

Female friendships are some of the most treasured relationships we’ll have in our lifetime – and they have an amazing capacity to help us self reflect. Through my private Nudes & Sip events, I’ve brought together countless women for an afternoon or evening of laughter, healing and creativity.

How to be honest with your boudoir photographer (and get the best self love photos)

My final piece of advice is choosing a boudoir photographer who specialises in self love boudoir photography. Your photographer needs to be someone you can openly share your emotions with in the moment. Whether you are feeling self-conscious, embarrassed, camera shy, awkward or elated – there has to be a degree of feeling empowered BY your photographer.

An uplifting self love photoshoot becomes an experience when you can be vulnerable and honest as you move through the steps of planning your shoot, getting ready, unrobing and actually posing in front of the lens.

ENQUIRE ABOUT SELF LOVE BOUDOIR

Preparing for a self love photoshoot: Everything you need to know

Cultivating self confidence, 5 resources to guide your self love practices & how to be vulnerable with your self love boudoir photographer.