📌save this! be careful of the questionable makeup

Here’s what you NEED to know and prepare before your hanfu photoshoot 👇🏻 so many things, but let’s start from the top.

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a. pre-shoot care

after you pay a deposit, they'll send you a list of things to take note of. one of which, is to sleep earlier, drink less water at night, and put on a mask. PUT ON A MASK! Because of how thick the make up is, your skin really needs to be hydrated enough. Otherwise, the make up might not be as long-lasting or may even start to cake/crack. I'm not kidding when I say the make up is THICK. I felt like I could barely move my face from all the layers and powder. So make sure to stay hydrated and mask up!

Also, when they say drink less water, they don't mean to not drink water at all. It's just to prevent any bloating the next day so that you'll look good for your photos! Although tbh they can edit you to make you look slimmer anyway, so no issues drinking (water).

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b. make up

Chinese make up has an issue with having the appropriate foundation shade. When you walk on the streets, all of these girls in their hanfus have white faces with their obviously-not-white necks. For me, I'm considered rather fair – I use Estee Lauder DW foundation shade 1N0, or MUFE HG foundation shade 1N00. And yet the foundation they applied on me was still significantly lighter than my natural skintone! Check out the actual irl look at p8. I really wonder where they be getting these foundation shades from, because my Estee and MUFE foundation shades are literally some of the lightest shades in the range. If you're any tanner than me, do expect to look kinda like... a panda. One method, would be for you to bring your own foundation. Check with them beforehand, but most of them usually do allow. If they don't, just say you have extremely sensitive skin. They usually will, just that they may warn you that the final look may not look so ideal. But hey, that's what the editing is for!

An alternative would be to get them to edit your neck to be the same colour as your face. But that wouldn't really be your natural skintone anymore...

Another thing to note is that you can choose your make up style. If you're not fond of douyin make up, come prepared with a picture and let them know you don’t want such a douyin/网红 look. Like… look at p8. It’s SO douyin, who steps out of the house looking like that?!? It’s only fine for the shoot where the colours became so muted because of the camera settings/filter. But gurl… if you want something more traditional then make sure to tell them you want a more traditional look.

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c. take as many photos as you want!

The particular studio that I went to has this policy where I can keep taking photos until I'm happy (but still keep within the time limit). Basically if you're unhappy with any pics, get the photographer to retake it. In my one hour shoot, the photographer took me to about 5 spots for photos. Once we're done at each spot, he reviews the photos with me so that I get the chance to retake any particular poses that I like. So don't be shy and make sure to voice out if you want to retake! Gotta make it worth our money and milk them dryyyyy

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d. edit as much as you want!

aimilarly with editing, I could make as many changes as I want with the edits. 2 weeks after the shoot, I received my edited photos. There were changes that I wanted, so I just told them to re-edit the parts as per my comments. And this can keep happening until you receive photos that you're 101% happy with! Like I said girlie, milk them DRY! Don't be shy and feel bad for them. We paid for the service!

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e. receiving your photos

set up your Baidu Drive 百度网盘 before heading over. All of the photoshoots I did sent me my pictures and edits via Baidu, so it's important to get that set up! My studio actually airdropped it to me, but I wanted the raw images as well so they sent it via Baidu. All edits were sent via Baidu as well.

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f. money and alipay

Alipay is king! I had to pay a 100 RMB deposit when making my appointment, then pay the remaining after my make up was done + before leaving the studio for my shoot. The remaining could possibly be paid with cash, but the 100 RMB deposit will definitely have to be paid via Alipay/WeChat. It's a bit troublesome so I get a proxy source that I pay a commission to. They'll then transfer RMB into my Alipay balance! You can try transferring them via Alipay if you have a foreign card stored inside your app. But there are certain stores/transactions that don't allow foreign cards to be used. Usually it's fine if it's an established store, but it's safest to have some RMB balance in your Alipay!

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g. cost

The photo studio I selected definitely is not one of the affordable ones. There are tons more on the streets where you can just walk in without any appointment and are wayyyy more affordable. Some of them only do make up + clothes without any photography service - those are the most affordable ones usually costing S$75 and less. But this one is one of the more reputable and professional ones – judging by how the group of girls knew of this store, as mentioned in my previous post. Plus their service is really top-notch! Especially with the unlimited photos and edits. As a foreign tourist, I can't afford for the pics to be screwed up since I can't just come and retake whenever I want 😭 so quality > quantity for me!

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h. how to make an appointment

I DM-ed the studio on RED 小红书, and they added me on WeChat. From there, they sent me their catalogue to see what type of outfit/photoshoot style I wanted, and the prices were listed there. After confirming the time, I paid a deposit and they added me into a group chat. This group chat is where to go if you need any help – e.g. findng the store, cancelling your appointment, or if there are any post-shoot issues like your edited pictures etc.

Photo studio: 星光兔西扶海棠 苏州店

Price: 899 RMB (~S$169) for hair + make up + 1 hour photoshoot + 9 edited photos

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If anyone has any other recommended photo studios, please please help a girlie out and lmk! 🌸

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