Pearls & Peonies

BODYSUIT | JEANS (similar) | SANDALS | BAG (similar) | HAIR CLIP

After about a weeklong hiatus from Instagram and blogging, I’m ready to be back. Sometimes it’s good to take a break, just because!

I was really excited to get out in the warm weather and shoot some spring/summer content. I experimented with the pearl barrette/hair clip trend, but I’m not sure it’s for me. I also had just picked up some fresh peonies at Trader Joe’s, so I brought them along (I don’t think they let you be a blogger without at least some peony content).

I call this bodysuit the “Facetune bodysuit” since it smooths everything out so evenly (and to be frank, sucks everything in a little too). I did not have to do any editing for the final look and am so impressed with how the photos turned out. I highly recommend! (I still did edit my skin and the filter.)

That all being said, I had a post a couple weeks ago highlighting the editing apps I use on my photos. I’ve been surfing the InstagramReality subreddit and it’s opened my eyes to how much every influencer & model’s photo is edited, sometimes somewhat heavily, and you can’t even tell. I want to be more transparent about what I’m doing to edit my photos moving forward. I don’t do anything too crazy – just Facetune for skin & blemish smoothing and VSCO for filtering – but it’s still important to note that my photos ARE edited.

Let’s be clear: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with editing photos. Instagram is a form of art to me, and art tends to be an elevated version of reality, so I want to be more upfront about the editing I am doing because I don’t want my followers to think that my Instagram accurately portrays reality. Instagram can be a great place where art and socialization come together, and I want to keep it that way!