7 Beauty Brands That Have Bid Adieu to Retouching
If you use FaceTune to blur out a blemish or whiten your teeth before posting an Instagram thirst trap, you're definitely not alone. Once strictly a photographer's tool reserved for glossy, star-studded advertisements, retouching has trickled down to everyday people who just want clear skin or a thinner arm at the swipe of a finger. But, as countless "Photoshop fails" have taught us, sometimes editing can go too far.
Perhaps as a response to the impossible beauty standards frequently demonstrated in picture-perfect advertisements, beauty brands have begun to break up with the process. In what is shaping up to be 2018's most empowering trend, both large organizations like CVS Beauty and indie start-ups such as SPKTRM are showcasing models in all their natural glory. Read on to see every stunning campaign.
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Let's get one thing straight: you will never see any retouching from new brand on the block SPKTRM Beauty. The company, which launches in late August, was founded by three women who wanted to create makeup that represented their varied backgrounds and ethnicities. Case in point? SPKTRM has pledged to create a foundation range made up of 50 shades. On top of that, the brand will donate 10 percent of its profits to organizations that support disadvantaged women and LGBTQ+ causes.
CVS Pharmacy kicked off 2018 by pledging to not only stop retouching its own campaign images, but encourage partner brands to follow suit as well. Along with that, the company launched a "Beauty Mark" banner to grace images that have not been digitally altered. Helena Foulkes, president of CVS Pharmacy and executive vice president of CVS Health told POPSUGAR, "We hope this move will encourage brands to work together to ensure that the beauty aisle is a place that represents and celebrates the authenticity and diversity of the communities we serve."
According to Heidi Dorosin, Madison Reed's chief marketing officer, the hair color brand's new commitment to using only "raw photography" in its advertising was a happy accident. "Recently, we had a photo shoot with six amazing women, some of whom are over the age of 50," Dorosin said in a press release. "When we received the digital files, we thought, 'Why alter these photos?' Yes, these women have wrinkles. Yes, they have smile lines. But these are all qualities that made the women even more beautiful to us."
Overtone was founded by two rainbow enthusiasts who were tired of frying their hair, but didn't want to stop coloring. Now, this cooler-than-cool brand has more than 10 hues, from pastel purple to the ever-popular rose gold. One way you know the products really work? Absolutely none of the brand's campaign imagery is Photoshopped, so what you see is what you get.
You might have heard of this little indie skincare brand named Dove — just kidding, the international company sells 60 bars of soap a second. In June, Dove reps announced that its ads will now feature a "No Digital Distortion Mark," so shoppers can see models who don't perpetuate a stressful beauty standard. Amy Stepanian, marketing director of Dove, told POPSUGAR she hopes the seal "will help identify reality and relieve some of the pressure women and girls can feel to look a certain way."
While SK-II hasn't sworn off Photoshop for good, the beauty brand's latest (stunning) campaign features a slew of unretouched models showing off their bare skin. One of them is Chloë Grace Moretz, who told POPSUGAR, "I hope that a 13-year-old girl on Instagram sees it and will know that I'm not retouched. She'll realize that you can go out with bare skin and be who you are and not hide behind these false ideals of what beauty is."
Luxury skincare brand Babor enlisted the nonprofit All Women Project to help with its unretouched January campaign that featured models of varying sizes, skin tones, and ages.
