Far from making us feel better about ourselves, our selfie-obsession has caused angst and self-loathing. One beauty brand has decided to do something about it.
The beauty industry should be about adding confidence, not stripping it away. But often, perhaps inadvertently, the images we use can cause women to feel less than beautiful. In fact research* shows that as little as two per cent of women across the globe describe themselves as beautiful. Most of them prefer terms like “average” or “natural”.
In an effort to bring some sense of reality back to their branding, hair removal and skincare business, Brazilian Beauty, has called on Australians to show their unique beauty and be in the running to become the brand’s new brand ambassador.
“Over the years we have fallen into the trap of projecting unrealistic images of woman that do not represent who we are, who are clients are, or what we provide as a brand,” says Founder and CEO of Brazilian Beauty, Francesca Webster. “Our brand has always been centered on empowering our team and our clients to be the best that they can be and to promote women having the confidence to own their own style of beautiful.”
With hundreds of entrants sending in their selfies via social media in the first two weeks alone, it shows just how responsive the Australian public is when it comes to injecting a bit of realness into the beautyscape.
“We find the [research] startling as a big part of what we do at Brazilian Beauty is about installing confidence in women,” says Founder and CEO of Brazilian Beauty, Francesca Webster. “Women in particular are so critical of themselves, so we need to ask the question – why can’t we just let ourselves be enough? Finding and harnessing women who have the confidence to love themselves is essential.”
So what is real beauty? “Real beauty is about your own kind of beauty – everyone is different and often what makes a person attractive isn’t their appearance,” says Webster.
Brazilian Beauty aims to find six “real faces” to be the face of the re-brand, which is set to roll out this year.
“We’ve had hundreds of images and videos sent to us, many have bought us to tears,” says Webster. “The process has been quite overwhelming as all submissions are raw, no makeup and there’s a sense of the ‘real true beauty’ that we all know lies from within.”
The selected brand ambassadors will represent the brand, which delivers skin, beauty and hair removal treatments to 180,000 clients each year across 21 locations around the country.
“Our real faces of Brazilian Beauty will [be] real women, the type of women who hold and project inner confidence, women just like you or I, or our mother, sister, best friend or daughter,” says Webster.
After fourteen years in business, Francesca felt that her business needed to reflect what her business had grown into. “The business offering has grown from waxing and tanning services to a full service skin, beauty, health and therapy customer experience,” says Webster. “The brand refresh is about projecting these values via all customer touch points. It is also about the fact that we have grown so much in our service offering over the years. We offer so much more than waxing or tanning and we want our customers to be able to clearly see the wide range of skin technology services we offer.”
Here’s to real.
*The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report