This week’s submissions were such a pleasure to read! With your words, you each took me to an uplifting place, so before I announce who I’ve chosen this week, let me first share some comments submitted by the contestants that made it such a ‘feel-good’ week.
Wow, this has been the most difficult challenge for me to judge so far in the competition. Every one is putting in some great effort, giving great shots, and beautiful hairstyles and clothing. My favorite this week is Roshonda. She choose the “I Am Natural” theme and in each of her picture, she gave very natural poses and facial expressions. She genuinely looked like she was in her natural element and truly enjoying herself. As a result, the photos came out beautifully!
I have to say that every week the models get better and better. I am very impressed with the ladies and how they each have stepped up their game and continue to bring their own individuality and creativity to the challenges. Each of you is a MUSE to me! My first choice for this challenge is Chassity followed closely by ReShonda.
WOW…..Is all I have to say! You ladies really kicked it up this week, as I was truly impressed with everyone of you. It’s really going to be hard to pick a winner and someone to go home because the photos, the stories, and the hair were all awesome.
Desyray- I loved your story; I could totally relate. Your photos are nice. You hair is beautiful! I can definitely see “FREE” in your 1st and 4th images, your smiles look natural and you look relaxed. Overall, nice job.
My favorites in this challenge were Carlita, Chassity, Kala and ReShonda. For my winner, I would have to pick ReShonda.
ReShonda
Your pictures blew me away. What better style to represent “natural” than a magnificent puff! Loving the flower in your hair paired with the subtle colors and gorgeous makeup. I think your expressions and poses were on point as well.
Desyray: You embodied “free” really well and from that aspect your pictures were nice, but if i didn’t know this was to promote a haircare product, i would not have figured out that this was about hair…. Try to always bring it back to what it is you are trying to sell…
The challenge turned out beautifully! I loved reading the judges feedback as well.
We did a company vote and here is our feedback.
1) Desyray-i am Free-Desyray really spoke from a place of true freedom. Her hairstyle was beautiful and the emotion captured in her photo shoot portrayed the fact that she felt free. Not only did she talk about being free, but she captured the essence of freedom in the expression on her face.
2) Carlie-i am Natural-We really appreciated the thought that went into Carlie’s shots. The way she approached this challenge and thought about everything from the use of color, positioning on the ground, wardrobe, background etc was outstanding and reflected in the shots that she was able to obtain. Her makeup application was flawless and really drew out her eyes. She also very thoroughly followed directions and gave the details on how to achieve her look. Her attention to detail is commendable.
3) Nefertiti-i am Natural, i am Strong, i am Fierce, i am Free, i am Unique-What we loved about Nefertiti’s shoot was the fact that she stepped outside of the expected and chose to do a non-traditional representation. We loved the workout attire and it truly portrayed her physical strength. What we would have liked to see more of is variance in the types of shots taken-poses, background etc. The last 3-4 poses were very similar to each other.
4) Chassity-i am Fierce-We loved the confidence that exuded from Chastitiy’s photos. She looked as though she were truly having fun during her photo shoot and we love that! We would have liked to see a stronger correlation between the word Fierce and the color/backgrounds used. The shots were a bit neutral in color scheme and while Chastitiy looked Fierce, we didn’t feel that throughout the images.
5) ReShonda-i am Natural-Reshonda had a nice approach to representing the muse Natural. We loved that she varied her shots, some on a bike (loved!), some in a field, in front of the phone booth-they all seemed real-life and easy, carefree. The afro puff was adorable and a nice change from the more commonly seen natural styles.
6) Kala-i am Unique-We liked the way that Kala created so many different looks within her shoot. Through the use of clothing and poses she was able to capture many unique looks. We felt that her hair should have been highlighted a bit more as this is a hair product challenge. We would have like to see more of it. She has a very natural way of posing that looks like she’s not “trying too hard.”
7) Jalitia-i am Fierce-It sounds as though Jalitia did have some struggles which made her photo shoot more difficult for her. Life will throw you curve balls and how well you fare depends on how well you can roll with things and be flexible. While she did manage to pull together her images, (we especially liked the second photo where she is turned to the side with her arms across her head as it sends off a really relaxed, natural vibe), we ended up feeling as though she didn’t quite capture the quality shots that we were looking for. Because of this, Jalitia is who we would select as not continuing on.
Chassity was a very deserving winner.