Beauty Blogging Background Ideas

Any beauty bloggers out there, you would know the need for interesting backgrounds. I think most of us have done the "background hunt" around the house for any textured, patterned, printed or coloured surface to use for product photography. A white surface is all well and good, but if you want to up the interest of your blog and the products you're featuring, backgrounds are a big plus!

I definitely have my go-tos and I wanted to share them with you as they're items that are typically affordable and easy to find. Once you have a selection of backgrounds to work with, it's as simple as grabbing a product, grabbing a background, taking a photo and you're good to go.

Like a lot of people over the past few years, I have become a marble addict. There's something so luxurious and expensive about laying products on a marble background. To be honest, back in the day I couldn't find a cheap piece of marble anywhere so I simply printed an image of marble onto two pieces of paper, put them together and that became my backgound for Instagram flat lays. Talk about blogging on a budget!

Right now I have two marble pieces - a $29 marble look table from Kmart and a marble tile that my boyfriend luckily snapped up from the supplies cupboard at his work (he knew I used to use the paper haha). The Kmart table is probably one of the best things I've ever bought. The background it creates is incredible and looks even better after editing. If you can find it, buy it!

Magazines are a no-brainer. In just one magazine you'll find so many pages whether coloured, printed or with editorial photography that can be used in the background of a flatlay. Even some magazine covers are too beautiful not to use. I seem to use Vogue the most, and I recently discovered The Collective which features artists (including handwritten artworks) and then old favourites are Russh, Elle and Yen.

Books are another great idea, with more and more blogger/youtube/it-girl books coming out with insta-worthy covers and interesting imagery inside. Laying a book within a shot or standing a few products on the cover can add interest to an image, especially if the cover has a splash of bold writing.

I love adding a glittery element to some of my makeup pictures. Everyone loves a bit of sparkle, so a textured piece of glittered cardboard in the background can add that pizzaz and extra layer of dimension to a photo. I bought these pieces of cardboard from one of those cheap variety stores that sell everything (like The Reject Shop, Hot Dollar, etc). I started off with rose gold and white, and I've been back a couple of times since to purchase other colours.

Flowers are one of my favourite things to use in a makeup photo. I have a bunch of artificial flowers in different sizes and colours that I place to the side of flatlays. Even holding a product above a vase of flowers can create a really nice image.

If you like to create softer imagery for the products you're talking about, a great way to achieve that is by using a white rug and place the products on top. My white one is from Kmart and I recently purchased the pink as well.

Do you use any backgrounds that I haven't mentioned? I'd love to know!