DAVID PAXTON
DSM Nutritional Products,
Wurmisweg 576, CH-4303 Kaiseraugst, Switzerland

Abstract

Beauty is defined through the use of fashion, through culture, climate and a country’s heritage, but, if we are brave enough, we can shape the evolution of beauty for the future rather than just react. Challenging social norms and perceptions takes courage on the part of the individual. As an industry we also have to be brave and challenge the industry standards. DSM speaks to consumers around the world to find forward solutions that make it possible for people everywhere to reveal their unique beauty in their own personal way.

PERCEPTIONS OF BEAUTY HAVE CHANGED THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Beauty is not tangible. It is a concept, and as with all concepts, it changes, evolves and reflects moments in time.
From Ancient Egypt where wall paintings depicted slender women with heavy kohl around their eyes giving them a mysterious, regal look, to Ancient Greece, whose sculpture indicates that more unadorned, fuller-figures were in vogue, and the pale ladies of the Roman Empire, whose pallor was achieved using lead-based paint – a practice that would certainly not pass today's regulatory hurdles! So influential were these ancient civilisations that the concept of the "classical beauty" has stayed with us to this day.
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus epitomises notions of beauty in the European Renaissance, with its taste for voluptuous hips and refined features. While the picture gives the impression that Venus rose from the waves in all her natural perfection, in reality such beauty is almost always the result of hours of preparation. Thus the women of the Renaissance plucked the hairline, sometimes very far back, to give themselves the high forehead that was considered parti ...