Spotlight: Kimberly Davis and The Natural Beauty Solution

BY Wonderful Machine 31 July 2015

From food and drink to interior design and architecture, Austin-based photographer Kimberly Davis can make anything look good. Last fall, Kimberly photographed “The Natural Beauty Solution,” a book from Mary Helen Leonard about breaking free from commercial products by using natural ingredients. After looking through the spreads from Kimberly, I’d say that most of these beauty tricks look good enough to eat!

This project came to me at the perfect time when I was craving a project that felt good to my soul, something that was pretty and creative. This was very much a creative process since styling was a big part of it as well. I have a new friend with the author and I feel honored that they trusted me to carry the visual aspect because it turned out to be a big part of the book. There are lots of beautiful full page pictures and the lighting feels natural and clean as well, which really mimics the overall feel and message of the book and the beauty recipes.

Cover of a book with the title The Natural Beauty Solution

The project was a perfect fit for Kimberly, who knew from the first client phone call that they had the same vision for the look and feel of the book. The author is also from Austin—she got Kimberly’s name from someone in the Austin Food Blogger Alliance (who knew such a thing existed?).

Everything went smoothly … I also did the prop styling along with the author so being able to envision how everything can work together and look cohesive was a major plus.

Tabletop image of ingredient such as apples, an egg yolk, creams, and brushes

Water with limes inside it and a lotion inside a bottle

Ice cream in a bowl and berries in a different bowl. Image by Kimberly Davis

So far, Kimberly has heard from several people, including the author and publisher, that everyone has found the book to be very beautiful:

That makes me feel wonderful! I love it too! It just came out last month and there are already excellent 5 star reviews on Amazon, and they even mention the photography so I’m very proud of how this all turned out. It’s a lovely book and the recipes are great as well. I went to the first book signing and recipe demo a few weeks ago and it was really neat to see strangers hold the book, flip through it, and comment on how pretty it was. We don’t usually get to see a reaction like that to our work in person.