Cate Breining and Meera Gossamer are the owners of Fleur du Mal salon in the Queen Village neighborhood of South Philadelphia. The shop’s aesthetic combines the ultra-cute with an immediately noticeable edginess—punk meets ballet in a way that delights my Avril Lavigne-loving soul. The name of the salon which translates to “flower of evil” is a reference to the work of french poet Charles Baudelaire, which dwells on themes of and decadence and eroticism.

For this project, I wanted to highlight the whimsical and eccentric nature of the shop. I called on classic horror elements as references to emulate the underlying eeriness that always seems to follow closely behind the hyper-sweet.

It’s a deadly nightshade with a candy coating.