I thought about captioning this photo ‘when you don’t get the memo it’s a pool party’ on Instagram because well, why else would one wear a long red dress in a pool? Perhaps I will caption it that, but the reason I wore a fancy red dress in the pool is because my dear friend, Rachael who is a photographer for a lot of the YouTubers I used to work with, happened to rent an underwater case for her camera for just two days for a different project and she invited me to her pool and said, “let’s make some cool art while we have this!” Obviously, I was in. I love swimming (it’s the Pisces in me) almost as much as I love getting dressed up, so it was a bit of a no-brainer.
Being a bit of an underwater photo newb, I found it a little awkward to have my photos taken while fully submerged. If you blow out one bubble, it looks like you have huge boogers coming out of your nose and don’t even get me started on the crazy hair situation. I kept doing backflips for her because they make your body look stretched out somewhat gracefully if you time it right and gave the dress a good flow. Them I tried a front flip and my neck wrinkles were like a Shar Pei, but waaaay less cute. I mostly stuck to trying not to blow bubbles or laugh (and then sucking in a bunch of water) hence the serious face in most of these.
She got some with the kids and they are my ALL TIME favorite photos with them. I love my little swimmer fish so much! In case you are wondering how the heck makeup stayed on underwater, I’ve got to tell you I am surprised it lasted so long, but it DID. We were in and out of the pool for 5 hours shooting different looks and eating Thai food. Miraculously, the makeup stayed on the whole time. I did a lot of research on waterproof makeup before beating my face for this and what I found that really lasts are products with fats, oils, or waxes, as all three of those are hydrophobic and also using LOTS of primer and setting spray.
Products used:
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in black
Urban Decay Makeup Setting Spray
Anastasia Lipstick in American Doll
Eyeko Mascara (this is the best mascara for the gym if you’re into that)
I steered clear of blush, highlighter and bronzer because I figured it would appear washed out in the photos no matter what because of all the reflection in the water, but I am sure there are plenty of waterproof options. If you’re okay using wax, anything with wax in it will help in last in these conditions. So there you have it, if you need waterproof makeup for a pool party, workout session or a humid day, these all work like a dream!
Go check out more of Rachael’s work in and out of the pool. Side note: If you watch YouTube at all, you’ll die over some of the shots she has gotten of some of the biggest YouTubers in the beauty space.
