All Posts by Anna Smart

I know, I know, I can hear the snorts of derision as everyone says "Hmph! Not my body!".

Well, I've got news for you!  For years we've been helping women to build their body confidence by working with them to create beautiful boudoir portraits, wearing lingerie.

Now, we'd like to show you that your body is a work of art, in its own right. No clothing required.

Hidden amongst the curves of your body (and you may even think it has no curves - it does!) are beautiful shapes. The right photographer can find them, light them to perfection and show your body to you in a way you've never thought possible.

If ever you've wanted to kick start your body confidence, this is the way to go from none at all, to through the roof.

We'll create artwork for you, OF you.

There's no size/age/shape that this won't work for, in fact, enjoy your curves working for you, creating beauty.
Meanwhile, if you think you don't have a 'womanly' shape (something I hear often!), we can show you that your shape is perfect, for you.

We're right at the pre-launch stage of this new service. If you'd like to take advantage of this, it means there is no session fee right now. Plus we'll include 20% off anything on our pricelist.

We have availability throughout April - if there's a specific date you're looking for, just let me know.

You must be over 18, and, as with all of our sessions, we will ask for a £50 booking deposit to secure your date (refunded when you return to view your photos).

If you're ready to seriously send your body confidence soaring, fill out the form below and I'll call you to chat it all through with you.

Much love,
Anna
xx
(ps - your images will NOT be shared by us without your express permission xx)

If this sounds like you:
Over 30
Lacking body or inner confidence
Would love to see yourself differently...
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Then we'd love your help!

Could you share your story of how you lost your confidence, and let us help you to find it, together?

We're specifically looking for women who feel a bit daunted by the whole idea of boudoir portraits, but would really love to give it a go.

We'll ask you to share your journey (with or without images) to help us to help other women!

This is the ideal way to 'dip your toe' into boudoir portraiture, if you're feeling under-confident.
Of course, we're going to look after you throughout!

You'll come along to our Witney studio for a complimentary makeover & boudoir portrait session (usually £99).
There is no obligation to order any images - what we will ask for is to be able to share your body confidence journey (with or without images, that's up to you!).

Just fill in the form below, and I'll be in touch.

Anna
xx
(As with all of our sessions, we ask for a fully refundable booking deposit of £50 to secure your date - refunded when you come back and see your photos).

(Please be assured your data will NOT be shared with any 3rd parties)

The boudoir poses that will work for you

Here are some of the poses that are going to work well for you, whoever you are.

This has a couple of variations, and you're going to look amazing, whichever you prefer (my recommendation, go for both).

There's no body shape this won't work for, and your legs are going to be looking amazing.

Classic and casual, this is an easy boudoir pose to adapt to however it's going to work the best for you.

This boudoir pose will work especially well if you have long hair, but it's by no means essential.
Definitely try your bra on and make sure it's going to hold you nicely in place for this one.

Don't panic! This will look so much more amazing than you're expecting (obviously, or I wouldn't have included it), and makes for the perfect anonymous image to have on your wall and keep people guessing...

With so many different ways to crop this, it's going to flatter you more than you ever thought possible.

All you need is a killer pair of heels and a very stretchy g-string. 

Such a beautiful image.
If you're looking for just one photo to grace your wall, then a reflections image should be the one, for sheer elegance and beauty.

This is a very small selection of the boudoir poses that are all going to work really well for you. 

The only thing you need to get right is your lingerie (and I can help to point you in the direction of where to look for that too).

The common things women worry about - cellulite, stretch marks, mummy tummy, tops of arms, thighs, bums (and I could go on forever with this list). They're all irrelevant in this building. There is nothing about you that means you can't have stunning images you can't wait to put on your wall.

Think you might be ready to take the first step of having a chat with me? Fill in the form below and I'll get in touch.

Much love,
Anna 
xx

What makes a bra good for a boudoir portrait session? Support! Everything weighs down to does it give you good support. 

Ladies... lets talk about bras

So in today's video I want to talk about how to choose the best bra to wear for a boudoir portrait session, and firstly I just want to say the size of your chest is irrelevant to looking good in your photos. There is nothing about coming along to do this that depends on having big boobs or small boobs or no boobs or two boobs, so don't feel like there's some kind of ideal body shape that you want to have because there definitely isn't that at all.

However if there is just one thing that you need to have to wear, it's a well-fitting bra and knickers set. I know that when I say this to women a lot of the time their hearts sink a little bit as they think "oh my God, but that's the most exposed I could possibly be! Why are you doing this to me?" and it is absolutely not because we want to show off bits of you that you want to keep covered, it's because we're after a bra doing the job that only a bra can do.

If you are in the happy position of having a chest that when you're lying down stays in place, with everything still pointing upwards, then you really don't have to think all that much about the kind of bra that you want to bring along, beyond choosing a style and colour that you really like and making sure that whatever you bring along is well fitting.

Things to look for in a bra:

The most important thing is that the cups aren't too small and digging in in places, or too big and leaving gaps anywhere. Some people can get away with bandeau styles and strapless styles and these can look absolutely amazing but if you need support, don't be tempted by a style that doesn't really offer any support.

If something looks completely gorgeous, but isn't doing its job well it's not going to work so leave it behind and bring along something that works better.

Colour wise go for something that's got really good contrast against your skin, so strong colours tend to look amazing, so you want to go for something strong. Teal can be really lovely and emerald green can work beautifully, really bright strong reds can work really well. Basically, if it looks like it could have been a Quality Street wrapper, those colours are going to work well. Black tends to be a good one as well and looks good against most skin colours. So, colour wise just steer clear of nudes and that kind of colour.

Now, I don't know about you, but my chest collapses at the top when I lie down. Lace, though not giving support will not leave a gaping area showing in my bra and will move with my chest. If you have similar issues then you're going to need to put a little bit more thought into the kind of bra that you bring along to wear. And you might find there are bras that work excellently when you're standing, but when you lie down they're not doing the job and then it's it makes perfect sense to have different bras for different poses. So bring along a couple of different ones.

Lace bras, or bras with lace at the top, will follow the shape of you chest and will do better to move with you instead of just holding its own shape.

If something looks good in the mirror generally when you when you're trying it on - your chest is up where you want it to be, there's no gaping, there's no double boobage going on, then it's going to work okay for upright poses, so then you need to try it on and lie down and see whether everything is still pointing upwards. I would actually lie on a bed and then put your head back over the end of the bed or the side of the bed and see where your chest goes - is it following your head over the edge of the bed? Does it need keeping in place?

So, generally speaking, the bigger your chest or the more support you need, and those two things don't necessarily go hand in hand, then the more likely it is that a full cup bra is going to be your best friend for lying down images.

Bras to avoid:

Not all types of bras are going to do the job well.  Balconette and push-up bras, though look great for standing, will not hold your chest in place when you lie down and you chest will move upward as there is no fabric stopping it. Moulded cup bras and bras that have got a thicker fabric, will often keep their own shape really really well - but their shape isn't necessarily your shape. So they might not follow your form when you lie down, when your chest moves with the position the bra may not follow.

So they can tend to not work quite as well as something that's got a thinner fabric. So, something that's thinner, with lace to it is much more likely to mould itself to your shape better. 

Some moulded cup bras have three parts to the cup so, it'll have two pieces at the bottom and one at the top and like I say - the thicker fabric just means it'll hold its own shape well, but it won't follow my shape - so it won't look good when I'm lying down.  Some bras can have an extra piece that gives it more support at the side which will stop your breasts spreading out.

If something looks good in the mirror generally when you when you're trying it on - your chest is up where you want it to be, there's no gaping, there's no double boobage going on, then it's going to work okay for upright poses, so then you need to try it on and lie down and see whether everything is still pointing upwards. I would actually lie on a bed and then put your head back over the end of the bed or the side of the bed and see where your chest goes - is it following your head over the edge of the bed? Does it need keeping in place?

So, generally speaking, the bigger your chest or the more support you need, and those two things don't necessarily go hand in hand, then the more likely it is that a full cup bra is going to be your best friend for lying down images.

Bras, who knew they were so important?

Have a good try on, don't assume that just because something looks good when you're standing up it's gonna work when you're lying down - try both and just see what's working well and go for whichever is doing the job the best - not necessarily the prettiest.

If you have any questions at all about the best kind of bra to wear for a boudoir session, absolutely ask them in the comments and I'll try to answer them.

Before we can fall IN love with ourselves, we need to look at how we fall out of love in the first place - where does our confidence go and why?

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First off, I have a question - do you remember the TV adverts from the 90s that reassured you that you were going to be feeling so amazing during your period that you would be going roller skating with dogs pulling you along?

Now whilst we may not have actually believed quite those dizzying heights of unreality there is such a gap between the fantasy and the reality it is no wonder that we end up feeling vaguely disappointed with ourselves. Not because we believed that the neighbour's golden retrievers were going to be towing us along on our roller-blades, but because there weren't actually any images showing the reality of what actually happens with our bodies, and really things haven't improved very much over time.

So, before I start talking about how to fall in love with yourself, I need to acknowledge why we fall out of it in the first place.

Firstly our bodies do change A LOT, not even over long periods of time just within any  given month, from one day to the next we can be  unsure of what our body is going to be doing, so when we look in the mirror we're almost surprised and often disappointed in what we see. Add in things like childbirth, weight loss, weight gain, things that can happen like breast cancer. Our bodies are constantly changing in ways that we have no control over whatsoever, and we can really easily get a disconnect between how our bodies actually look and how we think they should look. These can be two completely different things, and also a lot of the time we tend to think that it's just us that has this scar or this stomach pouch or sagging skin, because these things aren't talked about very much - people don't share them - so we end up feeling like we're hiding some kind of shameful secret underneath our clothes. 

So firstly I need to tell you, your body is completely normal. There's nothing going on that is so uncommon that it's just you.

The thing that you're conscious of? Everybody else has got their own thing that they are conscious of. So you have absolutely no reason to be ashamed of your body.

Secondly, when we're younger in our teens, through our twenties, we get to be quite self-centred. Not necessarily in an obnoxious way, but we don't have other priorities. We can prioritise ourselves and at that point in our lives we tend to know really well our likes and dislikes, how we want to spend our time, because we only have to consider our own thoughts, our own feelings, and then we get older and our priorities shift massively.

I'm sure that everybody with children will agree that you don't prioritise yourself, but also what we are really good at putting our partners and jobs our extended family first a lot of the time, and we go to the bottom of the pile.

The movie that is our life

In the movie of our life, where we used to be the central character, we've now become supporting actors in the movies of other people's lives.

We don't think of ourselves, we get lost as individuals in all of the different roles that we play, and we tend to forget who we are as women, as individuals, and often in particular we forget who we are as sexual women, because that becomes so at odds with the roles that we're playing the rest of the time - being a mum, in our jobs, all of that kind of stuff. So we lose track of who we are and what we want. So the keys to starting to fall in love with yourself are, firstly, being a lot more accepting of the changes that your body goes through and, loving it despite its faults and then also we need to reconnect with ourselves as individuals, and listen to what we want to do, how we want to do it, and not just be thinking of ourselves in terms of supporting other people all the time.

We need to start listening to ourselves a hell of a lot more and prioritise ourselves. Which having said it, I know it's not that easy to do, but if we can start to understand what the problems are in the first place, we're putting ourselves in a really good position to solve the problems going forward, and to actually start to feel a whole lot better about ourselves.