When was the last time you saw someone on TV, in a film, a sitcom, in a magazine or an advert for skin care products who actually had even the tiniest blemish? Representation of ‘real skin’ in our media needs to be addressed as a priority. I’m not saying all products must show really serious skin conditions but we rarely see anyone like us represented anywhere.
Here are the beautiful models on the day I joined the photoshoot. From left to right: Katie, Me, Jen and Bianca.
The skincare and cosmetic industry is messed up
I hate the skincare industry because most of it is unnecessary and expensive.
A billion dollar industry based purely on telling men and women they need to strive for better, perfection, clear and blemish free skin. And that the only way to achieve this is to invest in a tonne of different skincare products. You need to follow a daily regime of cleansing, toning, serums, moisturising and all to achieve everlasting youthfulness.
Most of it isn’t doing anything really that beneficial to your skin, but it is lining the pockets of companies who want you to buy into the trap.
There are some good skin care products
There are of course lots of really great cosmetic and skin care brands meeting the needs of the sensitive and allergy prone public. Products like Collagen and Hyaluronic acid and serums have been proven to help skin health, but often less is more. Be careful what marketing tactics you fall for; look for affordable and ethical brands and take a deep dive into what you’re putting on your skin.
If you follow my blogs and social media you’ll know that I have some favourite skin care brands, Balmonds being in my top three go to safe, natural and soothing balms.
What is real skin?
Real skin is many things, and yes sometimes it is clear as porcelain and blemish free, but real skin is also:
- Wrinkled skin
- Scarred skin
- Lined skin
- Tired skin
- Dry skin
- Red Skin
- Pigmented skin
- Damaged skin
It can be any colour and any condition and it means so very little about the person behind the face you see. What we look like is the least important thing about a person and yet we place so much value on perfection. Or what the skincare industry shows us is perfection.
Skincare brands need to do better
Most skincare products aimed at people with sensitive and allergy prone skin use models who have never had a bad skin day in their lives
- Seeing a product advertised on models doesn’t make anyone want to buy it
- Seeing endless perfect skin is actually really triggering for those with problem skin
- It makes us feel unworthy, like our skin should not be seen, celebrated and loved
- We’ve all tried a hundred products that didn’t work; using people with clear skin in advertising campaigns will only further alienate the audience you wish to appeal to.
- Let’s normalise different skin types and embrace not striving always for perfection
- Showing perfect skin with a photoshopped red circle isn’t good enough
If you want to sell your products to people with sensitive skin you better understand them and how they feel.
Balmonds photoshoot with real skin models
I would like to thank the team at Balmonds for inviting me and other skincare patient experts to join them for a day’s photoshoot for their website rebrand. It was an incredible day for me and I got to meet some truly amazing women. Check out the Balmonds website to see the new photographs live on their website.
- Real skin models with different skin conditions
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
- Keloid scars
- Tattooed skin
- Children
- Different skin colours
- Real people and not models
- Mothers and their children
- People with sensitive and allergy prone skin
- Customers who regularly used Balmonds products
It was such a joy to see this diverse bunch of beautiful people with real skin and also to meet some of them on the morning I was at the photoshoot. If you’d asked me if I’d be a skin care model I’d have told you, “Are you were crazy?” so it was doubly moving to feel so included and ‘normal’. Click on the image below to find out about all the models used on the new revamped Balmonds website:
Can we all strive for more honesty and authenticity in skin presentation? I’m talking to you skin care brands! You can all do much better, but Balmonds get – 10/10 🙂
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