A French make-up company has published the world’s first unretouched beauty ad.
The campaign for Make Up For Ever’s new foundation appeared in US magazines this week, and marks a refreshing change from the usual flawlessly airbrushed images.
In pictures: Beauties who have banned airbrushing
The ad features a natural-looking model holding up a camera to take a photo of herself. While the model’s complexion is unblemished and shine-free, there is a distinctly natural feel to the image, which has been certified as 100 percent unaltered by a French notary.
The cosmetics firm decided to release an unretouched image to prove its new HD Invisible Cover range was effective, but industry experts believe it is part of a wider move to more natural images.
The Weekly made headlines in 2009 when we published an unedited image of Sarah Murdoch on the cover of our November issue.
In the magazine, Sarah spoke out against photoshopping and said she wished women could just grow old gracefully.
“I think when I’m retouched in photographs it’s worse, because when people see me in real life they go, ‘Oh God, isn’t she old?’,” Sarah said last year.
“It makes me mad that we can’t embrace the beauty of ageing, because we’re all going to do it.”
Sarah agreed to allow the unretouched image to be published after the Weekly‘s editor Helen McCabe suggested it would ease the former model’s fears about looking unnatural.
While it marked a coup for the magazine industry in Australia, Helen said she couldn’t promise future covers wouldn’t be airbrushed.
“I can’t possibly commit to that, I’m a realist,” she said at the time. “There are real business imperatives why magazines have gone this way. It’s a very competitive industry and I’m — at this stage — just taking a little baby step and seeing how this goes for now.”
In pictures: Airbrushed stars before and after
After Sarah’s shoot, several other celebrities followed suit, permitting untouched images to be published. Claudia Schiffer, Jennifer Hawkins, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Marion Cotillard and Sadie Frost have all proudly displayed their beauty au natural in magazines all over the world.
Your say: Do you think more beauty companies should publish unedited images?
Video: Photoshopping in magazines
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