We made it on national TV!

Let us tell you a powerful story. A story full of dreams, love, and connections, that started 8 years ago when we opened Scandaleuse. Opening our business in a new country and in a new language was already a success for us, but we always knew we wanted more.

Since the beginning, we've dreamed of being interviewed at the radio, a newspaper, and even one day make an appearance on national tv to have the chance to spread the word about all the great benefits of sensuality and how powerful doing a boudoir shoot is.

And guess what? It happened.

From a photoshoot behind-the-scene to a live interview on set.

For the first part of this experience, the Social team followed us on one of our photoshoots. We are extremely lucky that Sarah-Jane agreed to have her first photoshoot ever filmed.

Sarah-Jane is an incredibly brave woman: after many years in an abusive relationship, she fought hard to re-build herself and learn to reclaim and love her body. Watch her experience below:

We were also very pleased to have Cai and Hallae with us during the shoot so they could have the opportunity to talk about their experience and how boudoir photography impacted their life!

A few weeks later, we were invited The Social set downtown Toronto for an official interview along with Michelle Osbourne, body positivity activist and a past client, to discuss sensuality and its power.

It was a wonderful conversation you can watch below.

If you only knew how nervous we were! Luckily for us, the hosts and audience were absolutely lovely and we were put us at ease immediately. Hopefully, we will get to try this once more at least in our lives!

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The Magic of Motion: Why You Should Add a Boudoir Video to Your Shoot

Boudoir photography is and always will be a powerful way to celebrate yourself. Creating art around you and your body is one of the most beautiful gifts you can give yourself. Now, imagine if you could see it in motion. Imagine stepping into your own movie and be the main character and having this reminder of how truly powerful you are.

We gave it a shot and fell in love once again with our field. It is with a lot of excitement that we are announcing that we are now officially leading the way as the firsts to offer boudoir videography in Toronto!

You may wonder why on Earth you would even benefit from such service, so allow us to to explain why adding a video to your boudoir shoot is a decision you won’t regret, whether you are doing it solo or with your loved one.

1. The power of sensuality in motion

While photos capture stunning still moments, video captures the fluidity of your movements, your expressions, and your energy. The gentle sway of your body, a playful glance, or the confidence in your stride—a boudoir video brings your session to life, letting you see and feel your beauty from a new perspective. It is a whole new dimension to your experience.

2. An even stronger story-telling approach.

We always craft our sessions around you and your story with props and atmospheres tailored to you. Having the option to have those stories actually move takes it up a notch, it is like a mini-movie starring you. With thoughtful editing and music, and even maybe a recording of your voice talking to yourself makes this version of you becomes a timeless, artistic keepsake you’ll cherish for years to come.

3. A less "posey” experience.

While we do our best to make sure you don't hold the poses too long during our photoshoots, you do have to hold them nonetheless. They could then feel a bit less “natural” and some people may appreciate the fluidity of doing an action (even though you will likely have to repeat it a couple of times for the shot!). It could also feel easier to get into a “character” and have that lovely playfulness that could feel hard to act out and therefor convey in photos.

4. For couples: a beautiful way to capture and spice up your intimacy.

Let's be honest: having this kind of product for couples is definitely the ultimate experience! While photos capture beautiful still moments, video brings your chemistry to life—the way you look at each other, the subtle touches, the unspoken energy between you.

It’s also about the experience itself: stepping out of the ordinary and into something thrillingly intimate together. As you move through the session, guided and supported, you’ll find yourselves connecting in new ways—sharing laughter, excitement, and tenderness. It's a chance to celebrate your relationship from a new perspective while creating something daring and beautiful.

The final film becomes a sensual love letter you’ll cherish forever, one that reminds you of your bond and allows you to relive your connection time and time again. Whether soft and romantic or bold and fiery, it’s a story of you—your love, your passion, your way

If you are itching to be the main character of your story, then you will definitely enjoy the video aspect of your boudoir experience.

We created a couple of ways to do so, by either adding a 60-90 second "Sultry Snippet" to your photoshoot or indulge in a full storyline experience with our longer boudoir video offering. Click below to get more information!

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Boudoir Photography - what are you paying for?

Boudoir Photography can be a bit of an investment for many of us. It is a very specific niche and when you have never purchased any type of photography services, you may wonder why can explain the kind of pricing you can see in our field.

Besides the obvious of the photoshoot time and final images, there are a multitude of other aspects that are taken into account when building such an experience, and we are going to walk you through it all as well as what we do to make it as easy on you as possible.

The essentials you see from the get-go:

Of course, what we are about to share is based solely on our way of doing things, however, in a basic boudoir photoshoot offer, you have a few musts that all of us photographers tend to include.

1) The photoshoot time.
In our case, we only offer 2-hour photoshoots. We feel like this is the amount of time we need to be fully attentive to your needs while being creative and making your vision come to life. We also offer unlimited outfits which is a bit unusual in our field. On top of that, it also gives you the time to get comfortable and familiar with your surroundings and our directions.

2) The make-up and hair services.
While it is optional in our case, we do recommend keeping it in your experience. Having a professional getting you camera ready and pampering you before stepping in front of the lens contributes greatly to your level of confidence. And a good professional has their own costs, which we have to build in.

3) The location.
In order to give the high quality of work we offer, we only shoot in high-end studios. In 2024, we started our own and put a lot of love and work to make it unique and find the sweet spot between making it homey and photographer-friendly. Needless to say, this comes with a location fee.

4) The amount of photographers.
We are the only studio to shoot boudoir with 2 photographers. For us, it's a non-negotiable aspect of your business. Together, we bring more energy, and mostly, more creativity, which gives you pretty much 2 photoshoots into 1.

5) The editing of the final images
Of course, since you are getting photos at the end, you can imagine that they require a minimum of work before landing in your inbox.

Those are the pretty straight-forward points you can see the minute you discover our session fee. But there are so many more you may not be aware of.

What you don't see from the beginning but enjoy nonetheless:

Something that is easy to forget, but is very important: the level of expertise.

In our case, we have over 15 years of experience as photographers. We have trained ourselves meticulously and have developed very sharp skills in our boudoir abilities. Not only do we have to master all technical aspects - such as knowing what lighting highlights which part of the body for example, but we also have to be posing ninjas and adapt ourselves to every body type and level of mobility. Not everybody can pose the same, and every body requires different tips. At no points should you feel like we don't know what we are doing, even for a split second.

The rest of those hidden gems can be cut into 2 parts: before and after the photoshoot.

Before the photoshoot, the customer support:

First off: we offer an online consultation and take all the time you need to answer any questions you may have and walk you through the process. From then, we also maintain communication before we see you in front of the lens to share with you some tips & tricks to get ready as well as go over wardrobe advice. It is not uncommon for our clients to email us with some extra ideas or questions, which is absolutely normal and which we encourage! We want you to feel taken care of from beginning to end.

Post-photoshoot work:

Most of the work does happen from your photoshoot day, until you get your final images delivered. After everything we do during your photoshoot, it is time to sort through your images. With 2 photographers, we let you imagine the amount of photos we have to go through to provide a decent selection with variety, without it being overwhelming.

Not only do we pre-select your photos, but we also do a light editing on all of them. Raw images are hard to project yourself with and we prefer showing you something that will be closer to the final images you will purchase. This is about 4 hours total.

We then host your reveal session, and it is extremely important for us to make it into an experience with tea, coffee, pastries, a big TV, and all the time you need. Once again, we don't want anybody to feel rushed while discovering the stunning photographs. In average, our reveal sessions take 2 hour.

The final editing:

Ha, this is the most underrated step! Once your final selection is made, it is time to dive in into the final editing. And boudoir is one of the photography fields that requires the most attention for a simple reason: the bodies are almost bare.

While we don't edit the bodies like plastic surgeons, we do adjust everything else such as, evening out the skin tones all over the body, removing any blemishes, editing baby hairs, adjusting the lingerie (yes, we do fix twisted straps and so on!), cleaning up the backgrounds by removing anything distracting. We also made the choice not to use AI for any of our editing, so everything is done by hand. We honestly don't even count the hours for this.

Additional products:

If getting a print or album make your heart sing, this is also something we do ourselves. Photos to be printed go through multiple checks to make sure they are flawless and album designs are made by us before being sent to our printer and then to you!

Overall, that is around 15 hours spent on your experience.

What we offer to make it accessible

The minimum investment for boudoir is about $1500 but it is never in one shot.

The retainer system:

Our retainer cuts your photoshoot cost in half. We use your retainer to secure your time with us and whatever is left is due the day of your photoshoot. If you are a planner, you can schedule your session weeks or months in advance to make this expense even easier on you.

Payment plans at no extra cost.

During your reveal session, if you want to treat yourself to all of the photos you fell in love with, we have set up payment plans without interest. You can choose to divide your final amount into 3 instalments and even pick between making a payment every 2 weeks or once a month.

We hope this blog post helped you understand how personalized and complete your boudoir experience is. We didn't even go over the actual benefits of a boudoir session in order to keep this post concise, but we've touched based on them many times in our blog.

Transparency is important for us, so don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. You can also find our different experience below:

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We created our Parisian photo studio in Toronto

Earlier this year, we took one of the biggest steps for our little business: we got our first official studio space. It had been a dream for many years and if you are curious to know why we even went in this direction, you can read our first post about it here.

What we haven't explained about this project is the actual vision for our space and how we brought it to life. So allow us to walk you through our gorgeous space…

The criteria and non-negotiables

When we started thinking about a space, we created a little list of our priorities for it. We just found it after digging around, so let's see what we have checked off the list.

Here is what we initially wanted:

- Close to line 2 in the West end
This one is a ✅, as we found a space located in the West of the Junction, area we barely knew and now cherish

- 800 - 1000 square feet
✅, our space is actually right in the middle, with 900 square-feet

- Natural light
Score, as we have a corner unit with unobstructed view ✅

- Love a good industrial but not dilapidated-looking and not only bricks
❌ but it was actually a blessing, which we will elaborate below.

- Avoid first floor for privacy and safety
✅ We are on the second-floor

- Easy street parking & accessible via public transit
✅ That was one of the nicest surprise in this area. Bus stop is right across the street and there is free street parking all around. The sweet spot between city and residential vibes.

The following were not must but appreciated:

• accessible (elevators): ❌ We only have one flight of stairs, but stairs nonetheless

• outdoor space: that's a HUGE ✅✅✅ as we scored a gigantic terrace that you will see below.

• A/C: ❌, sadly.

Overall, we managed to get many of the tings we wanted, and this list truly helped us when we had to decide between 2 particular candidates.

The visits and first vision change.

We started the visits in September 2023, and honestly, nothing stood out until the end of November, when we ended up with not 1 but 2 pretty sweet spots, same rents, just very different styles.

The first one was indeed an open space with an industrial look, which we initially wanted. It is a pretty common type of space in the industry and it didn't even cross our minds to have an apartment layout. But when we stepped in our current unit, we both had butterflies.

There was this charm to it as it was renovated but the building is from the 20's, and some features just took us back home to France for a minute. Then we saw the huge patio which is truly a gem to find in this city.

After spending a couple of days sitting on it, we realized quickly that we were already projecting ourselves in it, with ideas that were very proper to this space, so it was a no-brainer…

2 photographers, 2 minds and 3 rooms.

A huge asset to having an appartment layout that we didn't think about is that it gave us the opportunity to both express ourselves in the decor.

While Fanny and I are obviously very similar and had the same idea for the foundation of the space, aka our Parisian-inspired look, we do differ on some aesthetic choices.

I was in love with a romantic, lighter tones bedroom vibe and Fanny was dreaming about a darker, moodier room, so we decided to take one room each, and have the common ideas for the 3rd room. Lucky for us, the space was very bare, which made it easier to fully customize it.

This is how our Séjour (living-room), Salon de Jour (Day Lounge) and Salon de Nuit (Night Lounge) were born. Here is a little presentation of them all, with random anecdotes we don't want to forget!

Le Salon de Jour aka Day Lounge

This room was imagined as a "getting ready room”, where you just wake up with the sun, look beautiful, relax with a latte made by your lover while reading your favourite novel.

This room humbled us hard on the moulding creation. We had absolutely no knowledge on how to build anything like this and thank the Irish gods because one of their leaders came to our rescue to bring us back to earth and get to work. (This is also when we found out that using a nail-gun makes you feel pretty powerful).

Le Salon de Nuit aka Night Lounge

This one was thought to be when you lounge before hitting the town or when you are coming back from it. Make yourself a Martini, put on your favourite vinyl and enjoy the sultry vibe around you.

Fanny has a mini panic attack after painting 3/4 of the room in this green. I remember hearing “I think I hate it” from the other room. It was thankfully short-lived, because everyone stepping in this room is raving over the rich green she chose!

Le Séjour, aka the living-room

We wanted some warm, rich tons for this room, with a distinct Art Déco twist, golden touches and a terracotta wall. It also had to be functional, as we use this room for our meetings and reveal sessions.

We found this fire mantle for $15 on Facebook Marketplace, from a vendor who just wanted to help us out with a piece he loved, and we are forever grateful for him.

La Terrasse aka the patio

This was the last section we created, firstly because we moved in in winter, but also because we weren't too sure what to do with it, until our recent trip to France. We saw the wisteria trees that are so familiar to us in the summer and decided to turn our outdoor space into a provencal oasis.

We went to the massive park to find branches to use to build our tree and between making sure they were bug-free and the weird looks we got from people, it was an adventure!

And now, altogether!

We just had a little virtual tour video done, with some more recent updates, and you can now pay us a little visit!

It has been such an accomplishment for us to pour our hearts and souls into this space. It's constantly evolving, we have a million more ideas and we can't wait to keep sharing its evolution with you.

If you are interested in shooting with us in our beautiful home, you can get more information by clicking here.

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Why I posed for a boudoir shoot instead of shooting it.

Hello fellow reader, Juliette here, co-founder of Scandaleuse Photography. I have now been a photographer for over 15 years, and my work has always been around making every-day women feel beautiful. I am indeed a fervent believer that everybody should feel great about themselves. But I can't pretend this mission was totally self-less: looking back, I can say with confidence that I put myself on this journey because I just didn't feel good in my own skin so helping others do it was a way to help myself.

And it's worked. A lot. But the past few months, I felt like I needed a reminder so for the first time in 7 years, I ask Fanny, my co-founder, to give me what we give to our wonderful client: a boudoir shoot.

Now, if you have been around Scandaleuse, you could say “dude, we see you all the time in a boudoir setting” and you would be right. However, when we opened, Fanny and I took the decision to model for our work to have the freedom to use the photos the way we want. Those shoots are "work-related", productive, with a specific goal and… I am not posing alone.

Posing with somebody is easier in my opinion. The focus is on you as a group, not solo. It takes off the pressure. Doing a photoshoot for yourself is a whole different feeling that I hadn't experienced in years. And I needed it.

The need to reconnect as a woman.

I haven't been shy to share about my experience with body-dysmorphia since a very young age, to the point where I was heavily editing my photos the minute I dabbled with Photoshop.

Body-dysmorphia will always be a part of my life, but I am proud to say that, at 32 years old, I have done enough work on myself to shut it down fairly easily.

This need for a photoshoot wasn't because something felt off with my body. It was because I needed to reconnect with myself as a feminine being.

The "go-go-go mode”

It's safe to assume that I am leaning towards a "type A” personality. I respond a lot to achievements, I'm impatient, always rushing and executing something. While it comes with wonderful perks like creativity and ambition, it also comes with a lot of burn-out, frustration and masculine energy.

To sum it up easily, masculine energy is all about doing while feminine energy is all about being, itself tied with sensuality.

And what's the link with my request to do a boudoir shoot? Well, if there is one experience in which you can just exist, let go and let your sensuality shine, it's a boudoir shoot.

So, how did it feel to step in front of the camera?

Don't let the fact that I am a professional boudoir photographer fool you: it was challenging for me too! Maybe even more so, because I am deeply familiar with posing and what looks good and what doesn't. Pressure on!

But part of my reasoning going into this as also to let myself be guided. (And that's a scary feeling for me!). The whole point of doing this was to stop controlling everything, I would have felt like garbage about myself if I put on my professional hat and took over! So I let go, trusted my partner and focused on feeling good.

I had also forgotten how exhilarating boudoir is! We always talk about it but feeling it again was such a strong reminder of why we do what we do.

And Just like anybody else, I felt like a sexy & badass freaking goddess. Exactly what I was looking for, and I am craving for more!

It is easy to forget how good and necessary this feeling is, even when you literally work in this field.

Even though, for many, it is perceived as completely superficial and narcissistic, we all need to feel strong and beautiful. It makes you a better human towards others but you also are in a much better state of mind to take care of yourself properly. Re-doing this experience fired me up on many levels, just as I was expecting, and now I also get a bunch of cool visuals to go with it!

What about you, would you do (or re-do) a boudoir shoot? Make sure to consider us if you do ;)

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We opened our first studio

Back in 2017, two little French women decided to leave their full-time jobs in Toronto to start what had been a dream for many years: open their own boudoir photography business. Filled with ambition and willpower, they've given it everything and have built the small empire brick by brick, hoping to, one day, reach their next dream: having their own studio.

Now in 2024, we are very proud to say that we have finally started this adventure and now have our home away from home.

What were we doing before?

You are not without knowing that the renting market in Toronto is getting worse every day. Back in 2017, it was already the case and definitely out of reach for a sprouting business. Since we couldn’t afford our space, we were just renting multiple ones on a shoot by shoot basis.

We are not going to lie, it was pretty neat and we are keeping this option available to us even now. It's been a great way for us to keep our creativity up high, to adapt to our clients’ vision and just enjoy somebody else's place.

But after 7 years of business and 11 in Canada, we grew tired of not finding our own vibe.

Combining missing home and our new adventure

It took us a good 6 months to gather the courage to venture in the commercial rental world. Having the same business model for so long made us feel comfortable and safe but also… bored. During the summer of 2023, it was pretty clear both of us had lost our spark and we needed to find it again.

Funny enough, we had some rough ideas of the layout of the studio we initially wanted: open concept, bricks and beams, industrial… But when we actually visited the one we are in now, a completely different vision just manifested itself. Scrap it all, we are going to create multiple rooms with a strong, authentic, Parisian aesthetic. And we made it happen.

If you don't know it already, we are both originally from France. While we love the life we’ve built in Canada for the past decade, we were getting to a point where our homesick episodes were sneakily showing up more often than not. We'd been missing our roots and its aesthetics for a while and having this space to remind us of home has been a blast so far.

Creating your own space VS renting different ones

Yes, we have only had our space for only a few months, but already, the perks we have noticed are pretty amazing.

1) The freedom to transform the space the way we want to.

We have created 3 different rooms and 3 different vibes, and we didn't have to depend on somebody else's vision.

2) Nobody is living in it, so it is fully adapted for creators.

The majority spaces we used to rent were real people's lofts, so naturally, they have their lives in it and plenty of not-so-pretty things, like every living space has.

3) No more worrying about finding the right place at the right time.

It was always quite a stressful aspect of our job: our clients have a limited schedule and lofts get booked often. As if this wasn't challenging enough, we've also had a couple of nightmare situations when the landlords “forgot” we were coming and ghosted us when we were at the door with our clients.

4) We can make a mess!

We didn't expect this to be such a perk, but before, we obviously had to put the place back exactly the way we found it, so we were juggling between shooting and cleaning up as we went. On our space, we have all the time in the world to put it back together afterwards, which allowed us to extend our time with our beloved clients.

5) We can rent it out to other creators

This is a freshly new endeavour we’ve taken: our beautiful apartment is available to rent by the hour for any type of creators! It's so cool to be able to give what we were given for so long.

What about the downsides?

With every new adventure comes some uncomfortable feelings and not-so-fun aspects. Fortunately, we only see a few downsides compared to our previous ways.

1) The rent.

Of course, we now have an official extra rent on top of our personal ones and let me tell you, that's a good pressure on our shoulders. It's not just about sustaining ourselves anymore and it's the first time we've had to deal with this. To make a business grow, you have to take some risks, but it doesn't stop the fear it brings.

2) The possibility of getting bored…?

Being used to shoot in different spaces, we considered before taking on this project that, maybe, we would get tired of our space. Now, of course it is too soon to tell, but even so, we feel it will be very easy to counter, as we have the freedom to do whatever the hell we want.

Hopefully it stays this way (and hopefully we can pay rent ha!). We are very excited to share more with you about this beautiful space and how our vision came to be. Stay tuned…

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We made it on CTV!

Let us tell you a powerful story. A story full of dreams, love, and connections, that started 8 years ago when we opened Scandaleuse. Opening our business in a new country and in a new language was already a success for us, but we always knew we wanted more.

Since the beginning, we've dreamed of being interviewed at the radio, a newspaper, and even one day make an appearance on national tv to have the chance to spread the word about all the great benefits of sensuality and how powerful doing a boudoir shoot is.

And guess what? It happened.

You can guess that those dreams don’t happened magically over night! We pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone so many times! Between going to tons of events and start conversations with strangers (if you are wondering how to network with someone without sounding too salesy, always start with an honest compliment on something they wear. This works every time 😉), making videos even though we felt so frustrated and uncomfortable talking in front of a camera, or all the new things we had to learn… We worked hard to meet people, create useful content, and build our brand! Not that we are done achieving everything on our list, but so far all of this hard worked payed off: we build a beautiful community and great reputation, we can pay ourselves a good salary, and we have the freedom to create.

We don’t just believe in ourselves

There is also something important to know about Juliette and I, we both are spiritual. We believe that everything happens for a reason and always try to manifest the things we want. Why are we mentioning that? Well, do you remember those interviews we mentioned previously? Every time we wrote down in our journals that we wanted to be interviewed, it happened!

The only one that was hard to manifest was the national TV appearance 😬. We were dreaming of it for a long time but it is possible that, deep down, we thought it was just a dream. Until it happens… We finally made it on TV 🎉

And you know, it is probably for the best it took 6 years to happen because even if it was a fabulous experience it was also nerve-wracking! The idea of speaking in another language live on national TV, made us feel really nervous. If there is something we learnt in our spiritual journey is that things don’t happen if you are not ready for them.

It was meant to be

During Covid we did a bunch of shoots in order to raise money to save one of our loft. This is when we met Aakriti (she did one of the shoots) who is a segment producer for the live show called The Social on CTV. She also posed for us last year for an exhibit we did against domestic abuse. She really loved those two boudoir experience that she decided to pitch the topic to the channel and they accepted! We are so grateful for her ❤️

On our side we were able to talk to her about Michelle Osbourne who is a body activist and a past client, as they wanted to have another speaker during the show. What a pleasure it was to share another amazing conversation with Michelle!

We were also very pleased to have Cai and Hallae with us during the shoot so they could have the opportunity to talk about their experience and how boudoir photography impacted their life!

Cherry on top of the cake, we did not know that one of our friend, Marny (that we met during a mastermind) would be the audience coordinator that day, and Jam Gamble (another past client) will be there as well.

Everything came in full circle!

What was it all about?

The concept was for the channel to follow us on a shoot to see the all process of a boudoir shoot, from the prepping of the client to the selection of the final photographs, with the shoot in between. And have some interviews from two past clients as well as Sarah who was our client for the day:

Then a few weeks later we were invited for one of The Social show’s segment to talk more about sensuality and empowerment for women:

You cannot see it in the video but we were all nervous when we sat down. Then we started to talk with the hosts and everything became so natural. The energy in the room was so positive, and the public was really receptive. It really helped us to feel at ease! We hope to be able to do it again in the future.

Doing some public speaking to give our opinion about sensuality and body empowerment is part of our mission. The more we can talk about how boudoir photography is an amazing way to reconnect with your body and how therapeutic it can be for a lot of people, the happiest we feel!

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Censorship, Shadow banning: how social media sabotages our small business

Picture this: it is 2017, in the Toronto Reference Library. Two younger and eager Juliette & Fanny are nervously giggling at the "PUBLISH” button on their website. Finally, Scandaleuse was about to be shared with the world after so many hours being built in their heads. One click later, the business was officially born, and the word needed to be spread out.

What do you do then? Well, you start building an online presence. That's what business people say to do. We had a beautiful portfolio, tons of ideas and were ready to rock the social media madness.

Until, not even a week in, our posts got deleted and our accounts got threatened to be removed from Instagram and Facebook. Try to spread the word about your small business when you can't even post what you do.

You may wonder: "wow, what did the share for this to happen? Porn? Someone eating a kitten?" AHA. Just barely revealing boudoir photos than the platforms decided were for "adult sexual solicitation” (!!!). And it has been like that ever since.

Example of said “adult sexual solicitation”….

Why do we care to begin with?

We are going to be very honest: our clients don't come from social media, or very rarely. We could probably get away with not having a social media presence at all. The reasons why we are working so hard on our Instagram is for 4 main goals:

• Build a kind and respectful community;

• Educate around sensuality, body love and removing its negative stigma and pressure;

• Inspire and empower people (especially women) to be who they want to be;

• Show real bodies in an ocean of heavily edited, unachievable BS.

When our posts aren't taken down, we do succeed. We have met wonderful people and created beautiful projects thanks to social media, the most recent being our Unstoppable Exhibit, which also became the last straw in our thought process of getting the hell out of social media, once and for all.

As you can imagine, we have gone through multiple phases with our online presence, some comical, some a lot less.

The social media phases yours truly went through:

1) The "F*** you, we will do what we want" phase

That's when the little rebels that we are decided to try to stick it to the Man! You don't want us to post nipples? We will talk about it even more. We became officially black listed and to this day, we can't even do paid ads anywhere even if we posted the photo of a baby alpaca. That lasted a couple of years, until we realized we were pretty powerless and the removal of our accounts was imminent.

2) The "Fine, we will play by the rules" phase.

We became good girls and adjusted our entire vision to make sure the censorship monster wasn't gonna smack us. Nipples were blurred out and all. But then, IG changed once again their policy and it wasn't just the photos themselves that needed to be super PG, but also the wording.

Writing things like “nudity” “boudoir” “sexy” and so on became automatically flagged. The posts weren't deleted, but they weren't shown to anybody. 👌 That's shadow banning, and as you can imagine, completely useless for anybody trying to build a social media presence.

3) The "pack your bags and go" phase.

We were dealing with our shadowban frustration, battling with the "what is even the point of busting our butts with well thought and genuine content if nobody can see it?!", but we were still kicking.

Until we started talking about our Unstoppable Exhibit.

See, this project was solely created to spread awareness about domestic violence and collect donations for 2 charities offering help and shelters to the victims. But guess what. The words "domestic violence" or "abuse" are flagged. The series of photos contains partial nudity. So the posts were barely shown and it 👏 pissed 👏 us 👏 off.

Having to censor ourselves about our artistic work is already annoying enough, but seeing it happen when we are sharing content that could literally save lives was the last straw.

Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there

It has been 6 years now that we launched our social media platforms and this censorship is still happening and unfortunately getting worse. Recently we noticed that now even Google is removing some of our business posts (once again for inappropriate content 😡) and there is nothing we can do beside changing the main picture over and over again until we find the “proper” one.

It might not seems like it but this BS is time consuming and a big factor of stress. 90% of our clients find us through Google so the idea of being censored there is very scary as it could impact our business negatively.

We constantly feel this Damocles sword above our heads.

So… what now?

We love what we do and work really hard to build our business and educate people on the over-sexualization of the female body. So we had to find an alternative:

We are spending less and less time and energy on those stupid social media platforms, and devoting much more to our newsletter. This is our own land, we can share whatever we want to without fearing to be removed. Not having to worry about this is giving us a new love for writing and sharing.

Every Saturday, we combine a mixture of the following in our "Scandaleuse Letter":

- educational resources;
- empowering tips & tricks;
- gorgeous photography;
- new projects; and,
- behind the scenes.

Our only hope? That you will join the 500 people that are already there.

All you have to do is fill out the form below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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We can't wait to see you on the other side,

With love 💖,

- The slightly older but still eager Juliette & Fanny

Throwback to: the Unstoppable Exhibit

Back in March earlier this year, we hosted our first ever opening night for an art project close to our hearts: the Unstoppable Exhibit.

This idea turned into so much more thanks to the many people we met along the way. Before we knew it, what was supposed to be a simple group photoshoot filled with “badassery” became a fundraiser against domestic violence, supporting 2 beautiful charities.

Now, a few months later, it is finally time for us to look back at this wonderful night and tell you everything.

Before the big day
(also known as how we were blown away by people's support.)

We already shared with you how we even came to build this project here. Now, we were a few days away from our big opening night and it was time to roll up our sleeves to prep an event we had never planned before.

It was really important for us to offer an art show à la Française. Not only did the show need to look clean and professional, but we wanted people to dress up, be able to have wine (in real wine glasses!), food and mingle.

The first step that made our hearts sing was getting the prints. When we picked up all the prints from Fotobox, we finally felt like everything we were doing was for real.

The second step was getting an official sticker, like in museum. You can't imagine the feeling of accomplishment a simple sticker on the wall can do. Saman Design took care of this for us, purely out of kindness.

Of course, the set up wasn't without any troubles. Some of the walls were concrete and the only way to hang anything from them was to drill. We can do many things, but drilling concrete is not one of them! Another kind soul named Cormack drove out of his way to make this happen for us.

After a solid 10 hours, a lot of nails and swearing, everything was set up and ready to go for the next day.

The big night
(also knows as : when reality exceeds expectations)

We were both pretty relaxed having set up the day before. Paradise Grapevine and Downtown Winery had generously donated wine, the food had been ordered, glasses were delivered. We expected to just set up the last minute things, relax and partake in the festivities with everybody else.

We told ourselves : if we have 30 people and manage to raise a $1000, we will consider it a big win. We're such a tiny business, absolute beginners in planning art shows, this is already quite the accomplishment.

We sold out at 55 tickets and raised over $3000.

Now, you may think 55 people isn't a big deal. For this space, it is. We were absolutely packed. People showed up right when the doors opened and ended up lining up at the door trying to get last minute tickets.

Meanwhile: we were in way over our heads

We are not going to lie to you, this entire evening is a blur and taught us many lessons such as: we should have thought more about the actual evening. We worked so hard on the before that we kind of forgot to see what work will need to be done during the opening night.

For example: we should have had staff. We ended up having to wash wines glasses, serve said wine, take care of print sales, and walk people through the exhibit. Luckily, a few friends saw our struggles and jumped in, but we wish we had spent more time talking to everybody the way we wanted to.

To our surprise, we also sold most of the prints for the evening. It was absolutely incredible for us as it was a testament that we went from an entrepreneur position back to artists.

This experience is our proudest achievement in our careers so far. We have many ideas brewing at the moment, and we know for a fact that we will be doing it again.

Since videos speak louder than words, you can see below a short clip of the entire evening.

You will also see that we had wonderful performers who donated their talent during the evening. Avah Coco is an amazing singer and Petra Queen of the Nile is a kick-ass burlesque dancer. Thank you both for honouring us with your talents.

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How we ended up creating an exhibit for women

Ever since we began our careers as photographers, we put "hosting an exhibit” on our "dream big” bucket list. You know, the list of things you don't really dare thinking they could actually happen because they seem so huge to you? Yes, that list.

And it stayed there for 4 years. The idea resurfaced in conversations here and there, before getting buried by other projects deemed more accessible.

Until the day it actually turned out to be in our reach.

Here is a tiiiiiny glimpse of what we're cooking

It is safe to say that, so far, we've never had a project aligning so smoothly. Every single projects we have created required an insane amount of hustling and hope, and many of them failed. This one was brought to us and is just clicking its way forward. And it all started with…

Meeting the right people.

Our job allows us to meet wonderful people. The kind of people who are looking to make a difference within themselves. And those people are also the ones who are ready to lend a hand to others.

Back in July 2021, we had no idea that one of our clients worked at gallery right downtown Toronto (in a building we have been in many times, dreaming of the day we will get to do something there may we add) until she casually said:

"If you guys ever need a gallery space, just let me know and I will see what I can do!”

Dyana planted the seed and we didn't think much of it, until we started working on renewing a past project: Unstoppable.

Our freshly done logo

Wanting to do something bigger.

Unstoppable was a big group photoshoot we initially launched in 2019, in order to raise awareness around the fact that just because you choose to take intimate photos of yourself does not justify you losing credibility, on top of adding a good layer of body positivity.

We had been dying to do a second edition and we were in the middle of brainstorming it when Dyana made that comment.

Then it clicked in our brains: what if we could turn this project into an exhibit?

Except it wasn't enough. A project like this becomes even more meaningful when it relates to a cause.

This was pretty much right between lockdowns in Toronto. And somehow, we kept coming across organizations and articles sharing about how much those lockdowns have made the number of women victim of domestic violence skyrocket.

Many of our clients are survivors of abusive and violent relationships. They come to us as a way to celebrate their getting out of it and reclaiming their own image.

Scandaleuse was created to give women a way to express and liberate themselves. As you can imagine, we have always been extremely touched by those stories.

And just like that, we had a chance to help differently.

This entire exhibit and photoshoot would be created to raise funds and awareness for organizations helping women victim of domestic violence.

Ok, great, but who to help?

Before we could even finish that though, the universe aligned once again: another one of our clients randomly told us about her volunteering for a women shelter in the city. She gave us some contact we could talk to and we ended up connection with both Sistering and Canadian Women's Foundation.

Getting support.

Now, we are at the stage where things are getting real. The support we have received so far has been so organic. We created a whole concept around the photographs and did the shoot with 10 amazing women. The gallery is secured thanks to Dyana. The charity is on board thanks to Apharnna. We even got a grant from the Ontario Arts Council (thank you Victoria!).

We are currently looking for sponsors and an ad agency to help us spread awareness. If you or someone you know can help, please contact us here.

We are learning many things along the way and we can't wait to show you more. In the meantime, mark your calendars for March 8th, for our big opening night!

If you want to keep an eye on this project and get all of the info when the time comes, make sure to join our weekly newsletter below! ⬇️

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Supported by the Ontario Arts Council

From indoor jungle to trendy loft: you pick

Have you ever wonder how it would feel like to walk around a new-york style loft like it is your own? Or to have an indoor jungle with 85 plants? Can you picture yourself enjoying a cup of coffee in a sun-bathed midcentury loft?

Relaxing, right? Well, it can become a reality for you, even if it is just for a couple of hours. See, we don't have a photography studio. We have different lofts instead.

Many moons ago, when we opened Scandaleuse, we decided to rent designer's lofts all over the city, rather than commit to one location. And here is why…

1) So you can thrive in a environment you feel good in.

Maybe you would feel more at home in a warm loft, surrounded by plants. Maybe, on the opposite, you'd feel better in a more modern environment. Or even, standing on a rooftop overlooking the city, or right in the middle of the woods with the sun kissing your skin makes your heart sing.

Being in an environment you admire is extremely helpful to let go and embrace your boudoir experience. It makes you feel like a total badass, and this is the energy you want to channel.

The point is: you should be in a place that makes you feel good and that means very different things for everyone.

2) To fuel your and our creativity.

Standing right in a middle of a loft that belongs on Pinterest is a huge boost creativity and inspiration wise. For us as artist, it makes sense but you get to enjoy it too. You will find it a lot easier to pose like a boss in the right place. It is like you are Beyoncé for a second, and only great things can come out of this, right?!

On our end, it gives us the chance to renew ourselves constantly. If we were shooting in the same room for every single shoot and by the 5th one, we will be crawling on the floor, completely out of creative juice. Having multiple options keeps us passionate and creative. And if we stay passionate and creative, you get an awesome shoot. Two birds one stone.

4) To get photos that actually look like you and not others.

Traditional boudoir photos all look the same. They usally take place on a bed, have similar angles and backgrounds. Add the same studio in the recipe and everybody ends up with similar photos.

Picking a loft based on your vision and what makes you feel good allow us to highlight your personality and taste, rather than make you fit in the same mold as everyone else.

Boudoir is an intimate experience and if you decide to take this step, you deserve to have a fully tailored experience so you can express yourself, your way. If you’d like to get more information, you can see all of the details below!

If you’d like to find out what else you can expect from your boudoir shoot before jumping in, get our FREE pdf guide by signing up below!

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Fixing our project that never took off.

If you have been following us this month you probably saw we are working on a new concept: our first video mini-series called “Behind Limitless".

The goal of those videos are to share with you our ideas, struggles and achievements, around our Limitless program we have been working on for this past 1.5 year.

We are bringing you on this journey with us, showing you the positive but also the negative sides every business owners have to deal with.

If you are new or have no idea of what we are talking about, here is a summary:

Limitless is a mindset coaching program for women, combined with our boudoir photography work. We have been working with Eden, the best mindset coach we have ever met. All together, we created this unique program to help womxn remove their limiting beliefs, rebuild their self-confidence, and embrace their body so they can kick some asses and live the life they truly want.

Today's article is the second part of this "Behind Limitless” series (you can read the first part here or watch the first episode video) and it is all about:

• The struggle of making this second video (we told you we will get real);

• Finding the right people to hire in order to make this program work (it wasn't that easy!);

• The main reason why Limitless did not take off;

• All the work that had to be done (and redone 😬);

• And the new direction we are going to.

Having a business is definitively a long journey but we love it so much that it is worth the struggles.

Helping womxn to achieve their dreams and feel better in their life is our calling, so we will always make sure we do everything we can to provide the best experience.

Here is the second episode for you!

We are so happy to finally announced our brand new Instagram, come being part of our community!

We are building Limitless around you, because you deserve a freaking great program and a safe place to help you rise. But we need your help: we would be so grateful if you could take two minutes to fill out this short survey.

The more empowered womxn we see, the better this world will be.

With love, 💋💋

- Fanny & Juliette

Join us online!

Fitness shoot or the other version of men boudoir

You may have heard that boudoir is essentially for women. It's girly, it's always the same pitch, and no men can relate to that. To be honest, everytime we mention we are boudoir photographers to a man, we are likely to get two reactions: either the "can I come to your shoot to see naked woman ha-ha-ha" or they just tune off. Well my friend, sit back down, because boudoir can definitely be for men, in a way you did not expect!

When we have an idea, it sticks until we do something with it.

A few months ago, we decided to see how we can also target our gentlemen. We had the tattoo project that was very helpful for that but we also wanted to explore another angle: the fitness industry.

Now don't get us wrong, we know fitness is not only for men! Sending love to all of our fellow fitgirls out there! But it is true that you are likely to pick a man's interest with boudoir, by using the fitness way.

So there was the idea. Then we needed a model.

Interesting fact, we had our model in front of our eyes all along. He actually taught us a crash course of kickboxing last year (that we would love to do again by the way!). All it took was:

"Hi Kevin, can we take pictures of you boxing? "
"Yeah, do you want me sweaty?"

Needless to say, you had us at "sweaty" Kevin.

Here we were, roadtriping to... Whitby, Ontario.

At the Muay Thai Whitby gym. We took our beloved lighting studio kit and started building the softboxes while Kevin was destroying the hell of that punch bag. We built a dark atmosphere based on the gym and used a lot of chalk powder for a more dramatic effect. We. Had. So. Much Fun. 

If you have been around for a little while, you probably know right now that we have a constant need to renew ourselves and try different things. It was a challenge for us to deal not only with a man, but also in a different vibe and lighting. We mostly shoot in natural light, and using our lights reminded me how much I miss being able to spend time working on specific lighting. This is a different set of skills that we don;t use enough.

Last words: Gentlemen...

Keep an open mind. There are millions of ways to highlight you as well, especially with us. it's not just because boudoir sounds like it is female-oriented only that it actually is.

Feeling badass should be for everyone.

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