After the photo session, customers viewed their pictures on a video screen - immediately, thanks to proprietary technology - and selected their favorite looks. They used camera filters that smoothed out wrinkles and blemishes. The photographers shot only from the waist up. They’d even paint on a mole.įor the photos, women picked four outfits from an assortment of jackets, wraps, furs, bustiers and dresses. Staff at a Cincinnati Glamour Shots once boasted they could turn any customer into Cindy Crawford. The makeovers were about big hair, doused in spray, and heavy amounts of foundation, powder and blush intended to make the customers, almost always women, feel like they were preparing for the runway. But he’s still optimistic about Glamour Shots - Eng is already evaluating options for a new Glamour Shots at malls in Paramus and Cherry Hill.īut at nearly the same time, a Glamour Shots in Ellicott City, Maryland, also closed and was disappeared from the Glamour Shots website.Ī glamour shot was not subtle. Eng said the mall ownership was not being flexible on rent. “We got malls everywhere.” Another Glamour Shots store owned by Eng in Rockaway, New Jersey, closed just last week. The secret to their endurance? “We’re in New Jersey,” said Cliff Eng, the owner of both. Two stores remain at malls in Bridgewater and Freehold, New Jersey. And Staten Island, New York, has one, owned by Cara Lovello, who uses her popular Instagram account where she showcases her makeup artist skills, to direct followers to the Staten Island Glamour Shots handle. What they have in common is that each is steered by devoted, longtime owners who have embraced a more natural look and whose business and photography skills were enough to persuade families, professionals and high school kids that a glamour shot could be taken for work, special occasions and graduations - not merely for entertainment. Most of these scant survivors have adapted with the times. Now, in 2019, just five stores remain - although there were seven stores last month. Boomer mothers and Gen-X teens and 20-somethings paid $29.95 for makeovers and photography sessions defined by big hair, white satin gloves, heavy eye shadow and contemplative poses, in an era when pictures were taken for special occasions and not just to commemorate every brunch.Īt its mid-’90s peak, Glamour Shots had more than 350 stores, with licensees in Venezuela, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Glamour Shots was once the coolest store in every mall.

Pushpal glamour shot