The beauty landscape in 2018 is championing authenticity and individuality over perfection; and brands are beginning to move away from retouching in order to align with these ideals.
In January, CVS – the US equivalent of Priceline – announced that it would be marking all images that hadn’t been retouched with a symbol indicating as such; and this change promises to require transparency on all images that have been materially altered by 2020. On a post to Instagram the pharmacy giant said: "The CVS Beauty Mark supports a more positive self image in women and girls by promoting more realistic beauty imagery."
To appeal to modern consumers, the likes of Almay and Covergirl are joining brands like Dove and Aerie to eliminate retouching in order to appear more authentic.
Speaking on the changes with Glossy, C. Black Content – a company that works with brands on brand voice – founder, Cristina Black, said: “Women do want to see more of themselves in the images their favourite brands are circulating,”
However, Black has expressed concern that some brands may be using the body-positivity message for attention, or start embellishing the truth: “We will definitely see some fake authenticity around anti-ageism… Brands will create images to appear as though they are un-retouched, leaving only some ‘flaws’ in the frame, but still presenting a somewhat unrealistic standard of beauty.”
Black’s statements were echoed by The Future Laboratory beauty and fashion strategic researcher Victoria Buchanan: “I think it can only be positive to see brands owning up to how their advertising affects culture and taking responsibility for the images they perpetuate… [but] brands need to be careful not to overstep the empowerment line.
“I’d always ask the question: Is this campaign reducing ‘realness’ to a gimmick, or is the company really working to embed female empowerment into their overall business?”
