On the west side of the downtown square in Jacksonville, Illinois, behind a window that reads Clean, Conscious, Curated, the shop opens into a long room wrapped in Magnolia’s 1905 Green, with glass dispensers, a perfume oil bar, and a workshop table at the back. This is Cheryl Kelly & Co., a clean beauty company that started with one woman trying to solve her own dry skin and now occupies one of the best-looking storefronts on the square. We flew a drone through the whole thing in a single unbroken shot. Here is the story first, and the flight right below it.
It Started with the Beauty Oil
In 2020, Cheryl Kelly was 50 years old and unhappy with her skin. It had gone dry, it was starting to show its age, and the moisturizer aisle was not helping. She would pick up a bottle, read the label, and find that she could not pronounce half of what was in it. The ingredient-checking apps she tried only made her more frustrated.
So she decided to make her own. What followed was 18 months of research, formulation, and testing, and in February of 2022 she landed on a 3-in-1 cleanser, moisturizer and face serum that is now known simply as Beauty Oil. Her focus was on non-comedogenic, organic, vegan ingredients sourced at the highest quality she could find, which she credits for the results she saw almost immediately.
She shared it with friends and family. They wanted their own. Cheryl Kelly & Co. launched in July of 2022, and in 2024 her daughters joined the business, turning a one-woman formulation project into a family-led company. Everything is still made in small batches, and the standard has not moved: if a product does not clear the bar, it does not go on the shelf.
Embrace your age at every stage.
What Is Actually Inside the Shop
The storefront is not just a place to buy the products. It is built as a room you spend time in, and it is organized as a sequence. Here is what you walk past, in order:
- The Custom HYDR8 Blend area. A row of glass gravity dispensers filled with botanical hydrosols, right inside the door, where guests can choose up to three and create their own custom facial mist. It is one of the most photogenic features in the shop and a great example of what makes the LAB different: customers are invited to experience, customize and discover the products rather than simply shop from a shelf.
- The display cases. Lit glass cases running down the right-hand side, holding the Triple Tint shade range, Lavish Lip, and the skincare line.
- The luxury perfume oil bar. Brass atomizers and the three signature oils: Amber No. 1, Jasmine No. 2, and Driftwood No. 3.
- The skincare and hand-wash bar. Vessel sinks with brass fixtures set against a large mirror, which is where the actual testing and shade matching happen.
- The Lifestyle & Beauty LAB. The long butcher-block table at the back, where the bookable experiences run: Botanical Moss Art workshops, the Signature Diffuser Bar, and the Beauty Reset Hour.
That last part is worth underlining. The LAB means the shop functions as something to do on the square, not only somewhere to buy face oil, and it is a big part of why an uncut walk-through video suits this business so well.
Why We Flew It in One Take
A normal store video is a collection of clips. Someone shoots the sign, then a shelf, then a close-up of a product, then a wide of the room, and an editor stitches it together with music over the top. It works, but it never quite answers the question a first-time customer is actually asking: what is it like in there?
An FPV flight answers that question because it never cuts. The camera enters the way you would enter, off the sidewalk and through the door that a real person is holding open, and then it keeps moving at walking pace and eye level through the entire room. You see how deep the space is. You see that the 1905 Green runs the full length of the building. You see that the hydrosol dispensers are on your left and the display cases are on your right and the LAB is at the back, in the order you would meet them. By the time the drone turns around and heads back out the front door, you have a map of the place in your head.
Watch the twelve-second mark. The front door opens, Cheryl waves, and the drone keeps going straight through the doorway without a single cut. That moment is the whole reason to shoot it this way.
A cut is a place where a viewer can stop believing you. A one-take flight has nowhere to hide. The room is exactly as big, as bright, and as full as it looks.
Why This Works So Well for a Retail Shop
Small retail has a specific problem online. Photos of individual products look good on a website, but they do not tell anyone whether a place is worth the drive. A shop like this one lives on people deciding to come downtown, and that decision gets made on a phone, in about four seconds, usually on Instagram or Google.
Four blocks west of the square we flew the same kind of one-take tour through a very different shop: the antique mall, salvage room, and reclaimed-wood furniture showroom at Jacksonville Transfer Company @ The Gillham House.
An uncut interior flight solves that better than almost anything else you can shoot, for three reasons:
- It stops the scroll. Motion through a doorway is unusual enough that people watch it twice. Retention is the whole game on social video, and this format earns it without a gimmick.
- It sells the space, not just the products. Cheryl Kelly & Co. has put real money and real taste into a beautiful room. A product photo cannot show that. A flight through it can.
- It works everywhere at once. The same file becomes a YouTube video, a website hero, a Google Business Profile video, a Reel, a TikTok, and an ad. One flight, a dozen placements.
The same logic applies anywhere the physical room is part of what you are selling: restaurants, gyms, venues, dealerships, salons, and event spaces. If you want the full menu of what we shoot, that lives on our drone photography and video page.
How We Shot It
For anyone curious about the technical side, this was flown on a small ducted cinewhoop, a compact FPV quad with the propellers fully shrouded, which is what makes it safe to fly indoors and near people. The pilot flies in goggles on a live video feed, so the aircraft can be threaded through a doorway with real precision.
The flight was captured in 1440p at 60 frames per second, and the exposure was locked before takeoff so the camera would not hunt when it crossed from bright sidewalk into interior lighting. That transition through the doorway is the hardest technical moment in the run, and it is the one that ruins most attempts. We walked the route first, agreed with Cheryl on the line and the timing of the door, then flew it repeatedly until one take was clean from the sidewalk to the back wall and out again. Everything you see is that single take, color graded and scored afterward.
The trickiest part was never the flying. It was the choreography. The door has to open at exactly the right moment, and the person opening it has to look natural doing it. That took a few tries, and it is our favorite part of the finished video.
Inside the Shop
Stills from the same space the drone flies through. Click any photo to view it full-screen.
Plan a Visit
Cheryl Kelly & Co. is at 45 S Central Park Plaza, Jacksonville, IL 62650, on the downtown square. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM, closed Sunday and Monday. It is worth confirming on the shop’s website or Google listing around holidays and event weekends. Phone: (217) 370-2485.
If you want more than a shopping trip, the Lifestyle & Beauty LAB takes bookings for Botanical Moss Art workshops, the Signature Diffuser Bar, and the Beauty Reset Hour, which makes it one of the more genuinely interesting things to do on the square. Products, experience bookings, and shipping are all handled at cherylkelly.co.
If you are making a downtown afternoon of it, the square has been having a moment, and we have pointed the drone at a fair amount of it, from the Big Eli Ferris Wheel to properties and events all over Jacksonville.
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Cheryl Kelly & Co. and FPV Drone Tours FAQ
What is Cheryl Kelly & Co.?
Cheryl Kelly & Co. is a woman-owned, family-led clean beauty company and retail shop at 45 S Central Park Plaza on the downtown square in Jacksonville, Illinois. The line is built on plant-based, small-batch, refillable skincare: Beauty Oil, Botanical Body Oil, HYDR8 hydrosol facial mists, Lavish Lip, Triple Tint clean makeup, and luxury perfume oils. The storefront also houses the Lifestyle & Beauty LAB, which runs bookable in-store experiences.
Who is Cheryl Kelly and how did the company start?
Cheryl Kelly started the company out of her own frustration. In 2020, at 50, she was unhappy with how dry her skin had become and could not pronounce half the ingredients on the moisturizers she was reading in store aisles. She spent 18 months researching, formulating, and testing before landing on the product that became The Beauty Oil in February 2022. Friends and family who tried it wanted their own, and Cheryl Kelly & Co. launched that July. Her daughters joined the business in 2024, making it a family-led company.
Where is Cheryl Kelly & Co. located and when is it open?
The shop sits on the west side of the historic downtown square at 45 S Central Park Plaza, Jacksonville, IL 62650, a few doors down from BrickHouse Bourbon. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM, closed Sunday and Monday. Check the shop’s website or Google listing for holiday and event hours. You can reach the shop at (217) 370-2485.
What is the Custom HYDR8 Blend area?
It is the wall of glass gravity dispensers just inside the front door, each filled with a different botanical hydrosol. Rather than picking a finished bottle off a shelf, you choose up to three and they are blended into your own custom facial mist. It is the clearest example of how the Lifestyle & Beauty LAB works: guests are invited to experience, customize and discover the products rather than simply shop from a shelf. It is also the first thing the drone flies past once it gets through the front door.
What is an FPV drone tour?
FPV stands for first-person view. Instead of a camera drone hovering at a distance, the pilot flies through the space wearing goggles fed by a live view from the aircraft, which lets the drone move the way a person would: down the sidewalk, through an open doorway, past a display, around a corner. The result is one continuous, uncut shot that shows viewers how a place is actually laid out and what it feels like to walk in.
Is it safe to fly a drone inside a store?
Yes, when it is done properly. We fly a small ducted cinewhoop with the propellers fully shrouded, we walk the route and plan the line before the aircraft is ever armed, and we shoot indoor flights outside of business hours or with the space cleared so no customer is near the drone. The exterior portion of a flight like this one is flown under FAA Part 107 rules.
Can Elevated Ideas shoot an FPV tour of my business?
Absolutely. We produce FPV tours and aerial video for retail shops, restaurants, venues, gyms, dealerships, real estate, and events across Jacksonville, Springfield, and Central Illinois, all licensed, insured, and edited in-house. Visit our drone photography and video page or call (217) 724-8153 for a quick quote.