Cosmetic Product Photography: Guide & Best Practices | Omi.so

12 nov 2024

Cosmetic product photography: guide & best practices

Look at your favorite beauty brand's Instagram feed. Their moisturizer seems to catch the light just right. And their latest serum somehow glows from within. That's neither an accident nor a magic product formula — it's masterful product photography at work.

Whether you're launching your first skincare line or refreshing your brand's visuals, understanding the art and science of cosmetic photography can transform your online presence.

Why cosmetic product photography demands different thinking

Remember the last time you tried to photograph a shiny new lip gloss, only to catch your own reflection in the packaging? It’s a tale as old as time.

Capturing cosmetics is challenging…

Cosmetic products are basically a photographer's obstacle course. You've got:

Glass bottles that reflect everything
Metallic components that create hot spots
Creamy products that need to look touchably smooth
Powders that need to show their finish without looking dry and dusty

Each material interacts with light differently. A matte lipstick bullet photographed like a glass serum bottle will look flat and lifeless. A cream shot with harsh lighting will look artificial. Getting these elements right isn't just about aesthetics — it's about accurate representation that drives sales and reduces returns.

…but getting it right is vital

The stakes are higher than ever in beauty eCommerce.

According to Salesforce's 2023 Shopping Index, products with multiple high-quality images have a 40% higher conversion rate. Salsify's 2023 research reveals that 69% of consumers need to see at least three product images before making a purchase — and 40% have returned products because they "looked different" from the photos.

For beauty brands, this creates a complex challenge: how do you produce consistent, high-quality images at scale without slowing down your go-to-market strategy?

Cosmetic photography essentials

Let's peek behind the curtain at how professional cosmetic photographers make products look irresistible. That way, you can steal these secrets yourself — or get on the same page with your photography agency.

The magic of lighting

Different products need different lighting approaches. Whether you're working with physical lights or a virtual studio like Omi (where you can adjust lighting with simple sliders), here's what works best for different cosmetic products:

Glass bottles and serums

Goal: Show clarity and premium quality
What works: Strategic lighting that creates subtle reflections
Marketing impact: Suggests purity and luxury positioning
Common mistake: Flat lighting that fails to capture the product's sophistication

Creams and lotions

Goal: Convey texture and richness
What works: Soft, diffused lighting that reveals product consistency
Marketing impact: Helps customers visualize the application experience
Common mistake: Harsh lighting that makes products look artificial or plastic

Powders and palettes

Goal: Demonstrate color accuracy and texture
What works: Balanced lighting that reveals product detail
Marketing impact: Builds purchase confidence by showing true colors
Common mistake: Overhead lighting that flattens the product's dimension

"Apart from investing in a professional studio, we couldn't do better!" says Mathilde Gauthier from Clarins after they switched to Omi's Virtual Photo Studio for their content production. Their team creates 500+ product visuals monthly while maintaining consistent premium quality across all markets. Impressive, right?

The art of composition

Remember the rule of thirds? For cosmetics, sometimes breaking it works better. According to professional beauty photographer Sarah Mitchell, "Centered composition often works best for single product shots—it suggests authority and premium positioning."

Some tried-and-tested approaches:

Hero product slightly larger than life-size
Supporting products at 70% scale
Leave space for text (especially for social media)
Use odd numbers for group shots
Create depth with intentional blur

Want these compositions to stay consistent across markets? Omi lets you create templates where everything — from lighting to camera angles — stays fixed. Your teams can swap products in and out, but your carefully crafted compositions remain untouched. Just ask Moët Hennessy, whose nine wine houses create their own content using preset scenes, no approvals needed.

Cosmetic photography in different channels

One size definitely doesn't fit all when it comes to cosmetic photography. According to McKinsey's State of Fashion: Beauty 2023, 71% of beauty brands now operate in "real time," with TikTok-driven trends capable of spiking demand by 300% in just 24 hours. Each platform demands its own approach for maximum impact.

Traditionally, this meant ordering different crops and sizes from your photographer for each channel — a process that could take days or weeks.

Virtual studios like Omi flip this workflow: once you've created your shot, you can instantly export it in any format you need, from website banners to Instagram Stories to marketplace packshots. As Clémence Bessieres from Moët Hennessy notes, "We now work around three times faster, saving us a lot in annual shooting costs every time we release new bottles to the market."

E-commerce: the convert-or-die zone

According to Shopify's Future of Commerce 2024 Report, 78% of beauty shoppers say high-quality product imagery influences their purchase decisions, and 65% expect to see products from multiple angles before buying. Here's what works where:

Marketplace requirements

Main image: Product only, white background (Omi's Virtual Photo Studio makes this a one-click process)
Secondary images: Show scale, texture, usage
Must-have angles: Front, back, open/closed, size reference
Resolution requirements vary (Amazon wants 2000px minimum—Omi automatically exports at the right resolution)

This aligns with one of our favorite customers', Endro Cosmétiques, experience: "Thanks to quality packshots, we ensure that our brand image is maintained on our site as well as on the marketplaces that sell our cosmetics."

Your website

Hero shots: Context that tells your brand story
Gallery images: Mix of lifestyle and detail shots
Product features: Close-ups of textures and dispensers
Bundle options: Combinations that drive higher cart value

Social media: the scroll-stopping zone

With Smartly.io reporting that 42% of brands say the inability to produce content quickly enough is their main obstacle, social media demands both quality and speed. Gartner's research shows that 56% of digital marketers cite content production bottlenecks as their biggest challenge. Here's what works on different platforms:

Instagram feed

Square-friendly compositions (leave room for cropping)
High contrast for thumb-stopping power
Text-ready negative space
Cohesive color stories that work in grid view

Instagram stories/TikTok

Vertical compositions (9:16)
Dynamic elements (moving products, pouring liquids)
Space for text overlays
Action-oriented shots (application, swatches)

"We are very active on Instagram, an important channel for us," Aude from Endro shares. "We mix human/lifestyle content with Omi visuals to present a product or illustrate a tip. The Omi renders blend perfectly with other photos and allow us to have a harmonious feed that aligns 100% with our brand image."
—Endro Cosmétiques

A modern solution for better product photography

The beauty industry moves fast. Really fast. Your limited edition holiday collection? It needs photos yesterday. That TikTok trend blowing up this morning? You need fresh content before lunch. Here's how the industry is evolving to keep up.

Introducing: virtual photography studios

Remember the last time you needed a simple bundle shot for a flash sale? The whole routine probably went something like this:

Book a photographer (if they're available this quarter)
Ship all the products (and pray nothing breaks)
Wait for the shoot (and the edits... and the revisions...)
Finally get your assets (just in time for the trend to be over)

Now imagine doing all of that across 20 markets. For every season. For every campaign. Feel that headache coming on?

Why brands are going virtual

Different content calls for different approaches. Virtual studios make the most sense when you need to:

Create consistent product shots at scale with full brand control
Launch seasonal campaigns efficiently
Produce content before physical samples arrive
Test multiple creative directions quickly
Adapt content for different markets
Create bundle shots without physical inventory

This is exactly why brands are switching gears. "We now work around three times faster," says Clémence Bessieres from Moët Hennessy. Their team creates everything from seasonal campaigns to social content without ever touching a camera.

Take seasonal campaigns, for example. "For Christmas, we adapted many visuals specifically for the holiday season: product pages, hero banner, ads… Adapting the entire site for Christmas took us 2 days, which is quite short given that we have many products, routines, and gift sets!" shares Aude from Endro Cosmétiques.

What you can do with virtual product photography

Ready to reimagine your beauty content creation? Here's what becomes possible when you go virtual:

Build your product catalog, your way

Start with your hero products or digitize your entire range — it's up to you. Once your products have their ‘digital twins’ in the Virtual Studio, you can:

Create consistent packshots for every SKU
Capture multiple angles instantly
Get up-close texture shots that show what your product really feels like
Create size comparison shots with zero coordination
Update your entire product range in a single session

Make seasonal magic happen

No more planning holiday shoots in July. With your products in the virtual studio, you can:

Create gift sets before the physical bundles exist
Switch backgrounds from summer to winter in seconds
Design holiday-themed product arrangements
Adapt successful campaigns for different seasons
Launch limited edition collections faster

Test, learn, and optimize

Why guess what will work when you can know for sure? Try:

Different backgrounds for the same product
Various lighting setups to highlight textures
Multiple product arrangements for bundle shots
New creative approaches for your ads
Fresh ways to showcase your bestsellers

Real results from brands

For many brands, the transformation was clear after they switched from traditional photoshoots to Omi:

Speed that makes sense for modern marketing

Remember those old timelines?

1 day for a single packshot
Weeks of planning for seasonal campaigns
Months of lead time for new product launches

Now we're talking about:

Perfect packshots in 5 minutes (yes, really — just ask Endro Cosmétiques
Full Christmas campaigns adapted across 20 markets in 48 hours (Clarins did it)
Over 100 premium visuals created in weeks (that's Moët Hennessy's new normal)

Quality that stays consistent

"It saves us time every day when it comes to creating content that's of higher quality, that's more premium and also feels on-brand across our international markets," says Mathilde Gauthier from Clarins. They're now producing 500+ visuals monthly without compromising their premium standards.

Freedom to experiment

"The partnership has truly changed our ways of working in terms of content creation," shares Clémentine Chaix from Moët Hennessy. "Now, we can have a much more sustainable and strategic vision to cover different times of the year."

Gone are the days of playing it safe because reshoots are too expensive. Want to test five different backgrounds for that campaign? Do it. Need to try various product arrangements for that bundle offer? No problem. That's the kind of creative freedom that changes how brands compete.

The beauty industry isn't slowing down. Neither should your content creation. When TikTok trends can spike demand by 300% overnight, and 71% of beauty brands say speed-to-market is critical to success, the old way of doing product photography just doesn't cut it anymore.

Improve your product photography with Omi

Want to see how it works? You've got two ways to dive in:

Try it out first

Heads up: a free account includes everything in our Virtual Studio, minus the 3D model of your product. Create a free account to start exploring. You'll get access to: