2018, what a year!

It is time for…. a year overview! Just like last year, we decided to reflect on what 2018 has brought us… and it brought us a lot! We busted our butts and have accomplished more than we could have ever expected, and that is thanks to YOU!

We got published on multiple platforms

Our press page has grown with 5 publications this year! Madmoizelle.com, Be The Next Her, Radio Canada, Choq FM, and Viva Media, we are slowly making it in the media to show our support towards women and changing mentalities. And we are not planning on stopping there.

We did our first business trip and it was in Paris

One of the biggest highlight of 2018 was definitely the 17 Scandals we photographed in the span of 5 days, between Paris & Lyon. Thanks to one publication above, we managed to build an entire trip, and we have met so many lovely people. We can’t wait to try again in 2019!

We pushed boudoir for older women

If you have been following us for a while, you must know that we fight every single day to encourage women to stop giving a crap about other people’s judgement. One of the battles is to break the “I am too old for this” that we hear way to often from women after 50 years old. So we put a fellow Scandals half naked in a sunflower field, because, why the hell not. And it was one of our most popular series and blog post!

We took a naked vacation

Such a freaking good feeling. We took a 3-day vacation in Tiny, Ontario to recharge and we found ourselves enjoying sunbathing in the nude. The only down side is that when we have to wear a bathing suit, it feels very uncomfortable.

We started #TheUnstoppableProject

After months and months of throwing ideas around, we finally did the shoot for the Unstoppable project, which will be release early January. We are over the moon for this to be our first project of 2019!

We have been through quite a bit this year and looking back at it, it is crazy how much has been done! It is such a motivation to create content, spread positive messages and we can’t wait to grow bigger & bigger in 2019. Happy New Year Scandals, thank you for being here.

Hello, World!

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Camera Roll - Fall Edition

Here we are, so close to winter and its festivities. Where did fall go? No clue, once again, it flew by for us. Ready for a flashback sequence?

We did our (very likely) last outdoor shoot

As you may know, we love doing outdoor sessions for the most adventurous Scandals and we manage to get a decent amount of these per year. By we do depend on the weather and we were happy to conclude the 2018 outdoor boudoir journey with a lovely woman, who wanted to celebrate her femininity in the middle of our beloved river. Unless we get a super adventurous Scandal willing to hop in the upcoming snow (contact us!), it looks like it is it for 2018!

We did our first business trip to France

This was definitely the biggest fall project: we organized a whole boudoir marathon in Paris & Lyon. Was it a lot of work? Absolutely. But oh so worth it. We met so many lovely people, have great portfolio pieces and we can’t wait to plan the next trip!

Our top secret project took a big step

We have been nurturing an idea for over… 4 months and we finally put it together. We gathered a bunch of our lovely Scandals and the outcome is pretty sweet. All we need now are the final pieces and The Unstoppable Project will see the light of day early 2019!

We started working with companions

Yep, that’s right, Scandaleuse is happy to work with providers! If you are looking to upgrade your branding, give us a shout!

It was such a busy busy fall, just the way we like it! Looking forward to get in our cocoons and work our butts off on the upcoming projects. Saty tuned and hold on to your panties, you’re in for a ride!

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What changed since we opened Scandaleuse?

Five months ago, Fanny and I took the decision of changing our lives and get on the entrepreneurship boat towards new adventures. We have had a great start so far. Thank you for following us on our instagram and our facebook page, we are building a nice new community of butt cheeks we are very proud of.

While we’ve always wanted to create our own company, we never actually took the plunge. My life was more about reading books and testimonials from people who actually did it and then tell myself the ”I will do it too someday”. Then I turned 25. Then Fanny got her working visa, which allowed us to legally get into a partnership. And it clicked. I quit my job and 4 days after, our shaky fingers finally showed Scandaleuse to the rest of the world from the Toronto Reference Library.

Quitting your full-time job to follow what you really believe in and give yourself a chance wasn’t easy. But oh boy is it worth the risk.

Being photographers, we were already quite far from the 9-5 office job, we were used to long, odd hours and last minute requests. Maybe it helped with the full time business women transition. We have always been organized, hustlers and not scared of hard work. More importantly, we have each other. It's a no-brainer that jumping into something like with someone is easier.

Here are our 5 best perks of running Scandaleuse and many many other projects. Don’t worry, we are not giving you the usual  I-work-from-home-so-that’s-awesome that you can find online. Here we go:

1)    We are not paid less because we are women.

This had to be my first point. I am blown away that in 2017, women are still earning less than a man for the same exact job. A lot of companies take advantage of it. So yes, one of the biggest perks of running your own business is that you price yourself the way you want to. So, no less dollars because we have vaginas. BOOM.

2)    We don’t have to deal with creative frustration.

You want to work on a brand new project? Well then do it. No approvals to get, no time wasted. Of course, all the work is on you, but since we are kind of organization ninjas, it’s definitely not an issue. Now, on top of shooting, we are about to start giving workshops and being keynotes speakers at events and that’s pretty sweet. (The amount of terrible jokes people will hear is unreal. Sorry.)

3)    We are very good company.

I was a little scared of getting lonely and getting bored working from home. Hell no. Fanny and I work together face to face multiple times a week and from our places the rest of the time. I am seeing my apartment a little more (only a little, because seriously, we are always out somewhere) and I am loving it.

4)    The constant learning position

We are the kind of people that need to learn constantly. We are naturally curious. After working at the same job for a couple of years, I started being unhappy because I felt like I wasn’t learning anything anymore. This was when I realized I needed to go. Building your own thing teaches you something new all the time.

"Once you stop learning, you start dying.", right?

5)    The Brownie Points

Everyday is a new little victory. It could be from booking a shoot, working on a new idea, fixing the website or finalizing a project. That sweet feeling of "Damn, we did it” is so good!

This could sound like we live in a world full of unicorns and glitter, and trust me, we don’t. Consider us just well-prepared and determined to make things work. We have our tough days, a crap ton of stress and disappointments. Would I go back to working full-time for someone else? Not anytime soon.

For the road

• If you expect to start business without knowing a minimum what you are doing, think twice. Read, go to seminars, get as much information as possible
• While having a business bestie is awesome, pick the good one. Fanny and I have known each other for 8 years and have worked together on multiple occasions before officially doing it on paper. Trust your gut.
• Have savings. Business don’t pick up right away. We are lucky to have projects on the side and savings to save us from sleepless nights. Don’t start your business being broke.

Now, go YOU!

The day we spoke in public

Last week, Fanny and I did our first workshop. And since we never do things half-way, we chose to do it at the easiest place on the planet for regular people: the Oasis Aqualounge.

If you were to remember only ONE thing about us, it's that we believe that you should be able to do whatever the hell you want with your body, as long as you are not putting yourself or others in danger. We pride ourselves to be respectful of people's choices even though they might be different from ours. In case you are not familiar with the Oasis, it is the only high end sex club downtown Toronto. Meaning that you go there with or without a partner and you do or don't do things. No it's not dodgy, and yes it's safe (and clean).

Now that we cleared the air, you must wonder why we ended up here at the first place.

We actually contacted them. It's that simple. They were pleased with our body positivity approach and the diversity of our models, and offered to give us a timeslot during their monthly event. We saw an opportunity to talk to people directly and took it. However, here is the difference between this specific adventure and a regular workshop: people pay the entrance ticket to the place, not to your speech. It is available to them if they feel like it. Meaning that people came or left half way through.

We had NEVER spoken in public before, especially in English. We had no idea what to expect. I seriously had notes with me that just said "SPEAK" so I remembered.

How do you practice for an event that you know no one is coming for specifically? You can't introduce yourself multiple times if new people show up. What happens if it's boring and people leave in the middle of it? To be honest, all of these thoughts kept me up at night.

If you don't follow us on Instagram, you should. We love stories!

So here we were, a few days before the workshop, rehearsing in my living room, and timing our speech to keep it short and sweet. We got frustrated by our accents we think are too thick. We changed our speech 20 thousand times. We rehearsed for 6 hours non-stop one day. Again, again and again. 

The day of, we grabbed two glasses of wine, generously offered by the Oasis, took a deep breath and stepped on the stage, in front of strangers. "Picture people naked" they say. Well they already were. Surprisingly, after 3 minutes and a second glass of wine, we didn't even notice it. We did our speech - with technical difficulties and our awkward English - and we started asking for volunteers to take pictures of.

Then something pretty cool happened.

Instead of having one couple and one woman volunteering like we planned initially, we had 6 couples. We managed to make people trust us even though the first thing they said before listening to the workshop was "I don't want my picture taken". Our short intro did work. We even had to turn people down because we were out of time (and releases).

We met amazing people. All shapes, age and gender. The connection they share with their partners is unbelievable. We only had a few minutes per person and yet, we got amazing images. We saw the trust, the love and the complicity between two people and we were so honoured to be given a chance to capture it.

A lot of things didn't go as planned. We messed up quite a bit, we stuttered, we made jokes no one laughed at, saw people leaving when we were speaking, and had tough lighting conditions to shoot in. But we did it. We. Freaking. Did it. Because at the end, all that matters is that:

Some people stayed
Some people laughed
Some people were excited to have their pictures taken
Some people sent us nice emails
Some people believe in what we do.

Mission accomplished. To the next workshop!

How I Met My Business Partner

Episode 1 : From Paris to London.

Hello Little Scandals,

Juliette here! As you know, there are two Scandals-en-chef behind Scandaleuse. Fanny and I are lucky to have a rare relationship. A very strong bond that was built over the years. Not to say that we agree on everything, we are not Barbie dolls surrounded by unicorns, but we have been pretty lucky to find each other.

So that's the story for today: how we met.

(Fanny doesn't know I am writing this at the moment. Surprise!)

2012, and already taking lingerie photos....

Paris, September 2009. I am 17, Fanny is 19. I am from the middle of nowhere in the North of France and Fanny grew up in Paris' suburbs. We officially met for the first time when both of us sign up for Photography school in Northern Paris. Two young women trying to chase their dreams and learn the craft that Photography is.

The first things I remember about Fanny are:
• She was ALWAYS wearing heels
• She had to have her coffee from that crappy machine we had in the hall multiple times a day.
• Her nails were different color every week. Like seriously, that was the fun fact of every other Monday.

I felt like she was such a grown-up compared to me & my black nails, because y'know I am rock'n'roll.

We spent the first year of school becoming friends but nothing crazy. We both had other girls we bonded with. Turns out both of these lovely girls ended up leaving after the first year and Fanny and I kept going for the second part of the program.

I guess this is when we started becoming close. I was slowly struggling with this school that I didn't like, seeing Fanny was pretty much the only thing that made me go. We modelled for each other's assignments. We did random shoots when no one was taking care of us.

She was always game to follow my crazy ideas of creating dresses out of curtains and go shoot in a public park in Paris.

Yep, this was one of first sessions!

#artplease

I wanted more than the school. I wanted to travel. I didn't go through the program and didn't do the last year. Fanny kept going and I found another school than led me to London to work as an assistant for a photographer there.

Surprisingly, my leaving made us stronger than ever. Over the span of 8 months, I did my internship and went back home. Fanny had that tickle to travel then and I desperately wanted to go back to London. "You should come with me" I told her one day on October 2012.

Later that month, I got a phone call:

"I am coming with you, let's do it" she said.

Tickets were bought the same day, we packed our bags and left two weeks after.

The day we left for London with 3000 bags.

To this day, the moment when both Fanny and I were in the Eurostar, on the way to London-St-Pancras, is one of the most powerful moments of my life. We were both very serene. We were doing something kind of crazy, leaving our friends and family behind, to go to a city Fanny didn't know and I was barely familiar with. City where people speak another language we didn't really know. No jobs, no apartments, just our thirst for adventure. Yet everything felt like it was meant to be.

After writing this, I realize than we are going to need at least another post to tell you guys how we ended up in Toronto.

Stay tuned Little Scandals.

I had to end this blog post with some vintage pictures of us. Here we go, yours truly!

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