The beauty industry is a cut-throat and brutal place where only the prettiest, thinnest and tallest survive, but every now and then it will restore our faith in the world by using its financial leverage to go beyond the skin into deeper issues concerning their customers.

Young consumers have an appetite for a more real and natural ideal - one that they can realistically strive for and brands have heard them. Check out these five most recent instances of beauty brands and celebrities speaking out for good.  

Your birthday suits you

Boosting good body image was the aim of beauty brand, Dove with its campaign for Real Beauty through a recent Facebook application developed by Ogilvy UK.

Through the Dove Ad Makeover app, Australian women can displace degrading adverts on Facebook with one of eight positive affirmations which are visible to all their friends.

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No more false images

Seventeen magazine has publically declared that it will feature only real, unaltered images of girls in its pages. The teen mag's pledge comes after a 84 000-name petition from eight-grader Julia Bluhm requesting that the Seventeen commit to at least one unaltered photo-spread in its pages each month.

Seventeen also promised to be transparent about what goes into its photo shoots by running before-and-after shots on its Tumblr blog.

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Barely legal

Following the same train of thought, Condé Nast International banned any model under the age of 16 or any model with an apparent eating disorder from Vogue’s pages in any of their 19 editions world wide.

This new stance took effect in June.

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Speak out against abuse

Teaming up with self-made makeup artist, Lauren Luke, domestic violence support group Refuge created a Youtube makeup tutorial on how to "cover up" bruises after being abused by your partner.  

Entitled How To Look Your Best The Morning After, Luke "guides" viewers in how to hide the purple bruises and fresh cuts from the brutal beating she got the night before. The hard-hitting video was developed to create awareness around the shocking fact that 65 percent of women who suffer from domestic violence, keep it hidden.

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It's not all roses though...

While it's great to see the beauty industry taking steps to influence consumers positively, there is still some way to go for the industry to do away with animal testing.

In April of this year, performance artist Jacqueline Traide allowed herself to be subjected to the cruel treatments that animals are typically forced to endure during standard procedures in a 10-hour protest to raise awareness about the brutal reality of animal testing.

Traide (24) was force-fed, injected, electrocuted, had her body and mouth restrained, some of her hair shaved and her skin chafed and irritated in a Lush window display in London to show onlookers what really happens when makeup and beauty products are tested on animals.

Lush is a beauty brand that prides itself on being cruelty-free and hopes their video will help the Humane Society International’s campaign to end cosmetic testing on animals.

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