Beauty Unedited

Hi Beauties,

You know the old saying “time flies when you’re having fun”? Well, I’ve been having a terrific Spring and can’t believe it’s already late April! Are you feeling it too?

I want to catch you up on what I’ve been up to and the latest with Beauty For Real.

The past 4 months have been jam-packed with my favorite passions- beauty and horses!

Since I’m the founder of Beauty For Real and a pro makeup artist for 30+ years you know I’m engaged in beauty in a BIG way, but did you know that I’m also an equestrian? When I can combine those 2, it’s the ultimate high.

I live in Wellington, Florida and for 4 months (Jan. - April) it is the epicenter of equestrian sport with the Winter Equestrian Festival. All of the world’s highest ranked riders in show jumping, dressage (both Olympic Sports) and polo (super hot Argentines) are here with shows and events going on daily. Of course, I incorporate as much beauty into the equestrian lifestyle with pop-ups, photoshoots and presentations. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible people who are at the top of their game throughout the years and I want to share one of my favorites with you. She is such an inspiration.

Laura Kraut is an Olympic Champion who’s gone to the Olympics several times between 1992 and 2020, along with numerous World Equestrian Games and Nation’ Cups. She’s been ranked the #1 female show jumper in the world numerous times over the years, is competing at the highest levels and going strong. Equestrian sport is the only Olympic Sport where men and women compete at the same level and at 57 she’s killing it against 25 year old men! If you’ve not seen live show jumping, it’s incredibly exciting to watch the horses going at break-neck speeds over 6 foot jumps and Laura goes balls to the wall and wins- now that’s inspiring!

I first met Laura a few years ago while collaborating with Brooke USA, a wonderful equestrian charity that we support. I created a collection of tinted lip balms with 9 of their equestrian ambassadors. You may remember a color called Laura- well this is that Laura! After that initial meeting I did her makeup for several photo shoots. She’s become a big fan of Beauty For Real and I’ve become a BIG fan of hers. Always friendly, gracious, humble and willing to share her talents as a trainer, Laura is the epitome of Beauty For Real.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is because Beauty For Real has started a campaign we are calling Beauty Unedited. We are focusing our imagery on people who are not always models or beauty professionals and are from all ethnicities, sexes and ages. We show them completely unfiltered with no photoshop or airbrushing- completely unedited. This is very unusual in the beauty industry where in most cases, women, usually teenagers with nearly perfect features and nearly perfect skin are shot and then edited to perfection. This is something that is completely unattainable in real life and is reinforcing the idea that if you don’t look this perfect and this young, you aren’t enough. Instead, we want to present visuals to you that really show you what the products look like on the skin, on people that you can relate to. Real women shown honestly and openly.

Now, I love amazing photography and can appreciate the work that goes into post production to create gorgeous images, but we think it’s time to get real when promoting beauty products, so that what you see is what you get. We hope you’ll agree. You are enough. That’s Beauty For Real.

Thanks for all of your support, Leslie