Major Drugstore Beauty Brands Are Helping CVS Reach Its Goal of Eliminating Photoshopped Imagery

Last January, CVS Pharmacy revealed an admirable plan to make all of the imagery in its beauty aisles Photoshop-free by 2020, announcing that shoppers would start seeing a 'Beauty Unaltered" watermark — dubbed the CVS Beauty Mark — on any promo photos in which the models haven't been digitally retouched. By April, they had launched the first phase of the initiative with the "Beauty in Real Life" campaign, in which their own unedited in-house images started popping up in stores. And now, one year later, the drugstore is getting some of its biggest brands — and those brands' most familiar faces — onboard.

CVS has announced that nearly 70 percent of the beauty imagery in its stores is compliant with CVS Beauty Mark standards, and it has been able to make such big strides towards its goal thanks to brands like Neutrogena, CoverGirl, Olay, and Revlon. According to a press release, these brands, "have joined in the effort over the past year, with leadership embracing unaltered beauty for new 2019 campaigns."

And with that, many celebrity ambassadors have become not just the face of those brands, but the unaltered face of those brands.

"It’s just something I had to dive into and hope I liked the outcome," CoverGirl spokesperson Ayesha Curry told Glamour, who recently gave birth to her third child with NBA star Stephen Curry. And despite her celebrity status and having a full glam squad, shooting photos that she knew wouldn't get digitally tweaked was understandably — and relatably — a bit nerve-wracking. "Having the pregnancy weight on, and my nursing schedule…getting through that was honestly a moment of strength for me."

Ultimately, Curry and other brand ambassadors like Revlon's Ashley Graham and Neutrogena's Kerry Washington enthusiastically participating because of the impact beauty marketing can have on shoppers' confidence. "We applaud the brand partners that truly embraced this initiative and helped us in taking significant steps forward in our effort to change an industry standard that has an impact on the health and self-esteem of our mutual customers," CVS president Kevin Hourican said in a statement.

As CVS continues to work toward its 2020 goal, brands like Almay, Aveeno, Rimmel, Joah, L’Oréal, Maybelline, Unilever, Burt’s Bees, and Physicians Formula have also made the commitment to reach the goal of "full beauty imagery transparency." And in addition to in-store imagery, photos seen in all marketing — including on social media and in external advertising — will reflect CVS Beauty Mark standards. CVS has even "instituted a contractual requirement for all of its beauty influencer partners to create and share only imagery that has not been digitally altered and does not use social filters," according to the brand statement.

Considering the progress CVS has already made in just 12 months, we have a feeling the goal could be reached well before next year.

More on retouching:

• Kim Kardashian Shut Down Photoshop Accusations Without Saying a Word

• Target's New Swimwear Campaign Is Totally Unretouched and Utterly Gorgeous

• The Internet Thinks Calvin Klein Photoshopped Paris Jackson's Tattoos Out of Its Recent Campaign

Now watch Bryce Dallas Howard try nine things she hasn't done before:

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