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Olay Will No Longer Retouch Models' Complexions in Its Skin Care Ads

Photoshop in advertising is no secret—as is the result it’s had on the way we see ourselves. It’s something the beauty industry has reckoned with over the past few years as women demand to see more realistic imagery in the world around us. And now Olay is delivering: The brand just announced it’s officially committed to “zero skin retouching” in all of its advertising materials, including content created by Olay’s influencer partners.

Olay admits in a statement that women face outrageous, and often conflicting, expectations about their appearance from the beauty industry and society as a whole. “In the U.S., 40% of women surveyed by Mintel said they felt beauty advertisements impart an unrealistic expectation, making it unclear what was actually achievable,” the statement reads.

So Olay is making a big change. Starting with a campaign led by actress Busy Philipps, model Denise Bidot, and comedian Lilly Singh, the company’s advertisements will be paired with an “Olay Skin Promise” logo, assuring buyers that the ad was completely untouched. Beyond the initial launch, you can expect to see the logo on all the brand’s imagery across print, digital, and TV by 2021. If this all sounds familiar, Olay is partnering with CVS, who launched its own campaign against excessive Photoshop in beauty ads in 2018.

Courtesy of Olay

Philipps, for one, is thrilled to be a part of this particular body-positive movement. “For Olay to take this stand and say, ‘We’re about skin care, we’re about having you feel your best and having you feel like your most confident self’, it’s a really big deal,” she said in a statement. “The more huge companies like Olay that can stand up, the better everyone’s going to be. You want to see yourself reflected. You don’t want to see something that’s completely unattainable because that’s not real.”

Philipps went on to tell Allure about her own experiences being altered in photoshoots. “My moles are such defining characteristics of my skin—it’s who I am,” she said. “So to have that message sent to me in the beginning of my career caused a lot of self-doubt.”

Busy Philipps and Olay skincare — Courtesy of Olay

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. Olay is far from the only beauty and lifestyle brand taking the leap into unretouched advertisements. Aerie just announced its latest group of #AerieREAL Role Models with an unretouched photoshoot, for example. But the world of Instagram influencers is still a mostly unregulated land of perceived perfection and Facetune. Hopefully, this is just one of many steps in changing toxic messaging online.

“I think people are so conditioned to see a ‘perfect’ face staring back at them on Instagram,” Philipps said. “And the more those [types of retouched] images get out there, the more it reinforces a normal that is not normal.”

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SPKTRM Beauty Is Vowing to Never Retouch Any of Its Ads

Jasmine Glass used to spend eight hours a day staring at photos of Photoshopped people. It sounds like an episode of Black Mirror, but for Glass, that was a requirement for her job in the publishing industry: day in and out she’d look at the faces of models tweaked to be larger-than-life “perfect” in a way that isn’t humanly possible. She’d go on Instagram, and even the images from brands that had pledged to ease up on re-touching didn’t look all that different. So rather than continue to live in a warped reality, she decided to change things herself by co-founding SPKTRM Beauty. Its mission: to never digitally alter the appearance of its models.

As much as we all know that the photos we’re inundated with are rarely raw footage, the negative effects that result from constant exposure to doctored images are well-documented. Selfie filters and apps are contributing to a rise in body dysmorphia. After internalizing those messages for years, Glass says she wanted to try to do something about the damage. “I started seeing signs of aging [on myself] a few years ago—I’m turning 33 this year,” she says. “I was noticing a lot of psychological detriments. Anytime I’d see a fine line showing or if I’d get a pimple, my self esteem would plummet. I started to make the connection that [those feelings were] because I wasn’t seeing those things elsewhere. And I realized if that’s going on for me, it must be happening for other women. It’s unfair.”

So along with her co-founders, professional makeup artist Ehlie Luna and designer AnnaLiisa Benston, the trio is teaming up to develop a makeup line that feels both inspirational and aspirational, starting with foundation. The line is currently in development and raising funds through IndieGogo.

But because developing new foundation shades is expensive—one of the oft-cited excuses brands give for not offering large shade ranges—and Glass wants the line to be fully inclusive, SPKTRM is asking people to send in photos of themselves and information about their skin. From there, Glass says they’ll work to create the line, with plans to send shades to initial backers by late December. Forty has been the magic number of foundations, thanks to Fenty Beauty, but Glass says they’re aiming to create 50 or more. To add incentive, Glass says that every person who donates will be sent a color-matched bottle of $40 foundation, discounted to $25 for the campaign. In classic crowdfunding style, there are tiers of rewards ranging from having your shade named after you, to flying someone out to appear in the brand’s next campaign.

SPKTRM’s eventual plan is to branch out into other makeup categories, including highlighter, but for now, they’re kicking off with a social media campaign, #MeInMind, intended to “create space for honest depictions of ourselves on platforms that promote unrealistic image expectations.” There’s always the fear that sandwiched in between your friend’s new baby and Chrissy Teigen, your unfiltered face might not bring in the likes. Glass says she gets it, which is why she’ll also be posting her first-ever makeup-free selfie as part of the campaign. “It’s talking the talk and walking the walk,” she says. “If we want other people to be comfortable, we have to be able to step up to the plate and say, ‘Here I am in my natural form, and it’s OK.'”

“We really do hope that other [brands] will follow suit when they look at the images,” adds Glass. “I think sometimes people think about an un-retouched image and assume ‘that must look awful!’ because we’re so used to seeing such heavy retouching. But when you look at our [photos], they look totally normal and beautiful, and I think maybe people will start realizing that [Photoshop] isn’t necessary.” Find the campaign’s initial images below.

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