Dior Beauty, Valentino Beauty, La Mer, and Chanel: Craft, Glass, and Light
Dior's Baccarat crystal jar, Valentino's red Vendetta Donna campaign, La Mer's glass architecture, and Chanel's gold-lit SUBLIMAGE. Four shoots where the craft is the point.
Four shoots where the craft is the whole point. A crystal jar cut by hand, a perfume campaign soaked in red, a serum inside a glass world, and gold light on amber glass. This is the product photography I slow down for.
Dior Beauty L'Or de Vie La Crème: crystal jar cut like a jewel
This is what happens when the jar is the story. Dior Beauty (@diorbeauty) had Baccarat cut this L'Or de Vie La Crème jar from crystal, then brushed 20-carat gold leaf onto the cannage lattice by hand. Nearly 200 hours of work, nine pieces total. The first photo shows the finished piece. The second one is my favorite. A macro so close you can see the facets, the gold lines, and the Baccarat marking on the base. Crystal is one of the hardest things to light, and here it has real volume. You can see straight through it. I understand why.
https://www.dior.com/en_ch/beauty/products/lor-de-vie-la-creme-by-baccarat-Y0000464.html
Valentino Beauty Vendetta Donna: red bottles, road film, and flames
Red is the whole story here, and it never lets go. Valentino Beauty (@valentino.beauty) runs the same deep red through every frame. The bottle on the car with the hills behind it. The pair mirrored on the red surface. Dakota in the red dress, and she looks great. Real skin, shot by Inez and Vinoodh. Then the makeup touch-up through real flames. Everything looks cohesive, like one world. Product, people, and fire, and it all reads as one shoot. I would buy it.
https://www.valentino.com/en-us/product-vendetta-for-women-90ml-8LG291800_000
La Mer The Concentrate: glass architecture and glowing green bottles
La Mer (@lamer) built a whole world out of glass for this one. I am obsessing with their images all the time. How they keep their light and color so complex and so on brand for every shoot is amazing. Teal blocks stacked like frozen water, a beam of light coming down the middle, the products sitting on glass shelves inside it. The Concentrate bottle is the star. That twisted green stopper, the deep green glass glowing. And the overhead grid of bottles floating on pale teal is such a clean pattern. This is the new formula too, with their Bio-Regenerative Skin Intelligence. Every label reads. It feels expensive without shouting. This is how you shoot a luxury serum.
https://www.sephora.com/product/P461949
Chanel Beauty SUBLIMAGE: the orchid glows gold
The orchid glows gold. Chanel Beauty (@chanel.beauty) put the vanilla flower inside a glass sphere behind the two SUBLIMAGE Extraits, and it reads as the ingredient and the idea in one image. The Nuit bottle against the gold texture in the second photo is my favorite. You can read every label, the amber glass has real depth, and the black background lets the gold do the work. This is Chanel doing what it does best. Nothing extra, everything precise. The last shot is the classic one, this light and composition. But I guess sometimes you have to use a classier approach. Even if it feels a bit outdated.
Elina is a Ukrainian-Canadian commercial photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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