^^ There is no reason to believe the pictures are not legit, but you make a good point about Erin looking better in Twitter pictures
like these, which are presumably unedited - although I am on the fence about the first one. Anyhoo, I think that it is a combination of the following:
1) If you look at the "finished" photos of Erin wearing the same outfits, those are below average vis a vis Erin's usual VS work IMO.
2) Even though the models are wearing some make up / bronzer, the look for this shoot seemed to be more natural and not as much make up was used. Even if a model is going to an event, she is glammed up.
3) Twitter images are "edited" in the sense that they were likely selected to be tweeted, and presumably there were worse pictures that never got tweeted. Also, I am not 100% sure but most Russell James' behind-the-scenes images that I recall are black and white, and for some reason that serves as a camouflage.
Still I kind of share some of your angst (I think?), and I am probably going to post a comment about it in the catalog thread, for me it is not so much about thinking that there is something off between these unedited photographs and what is seen in the catalog, rather it is why do the behind-the-scenes images tend to have more ooomph and personality than the finished product.
ETA:
I was in draft mode when PinkCouture posted the links.
Cause theres no way those pics are ugly!
