That means the brand promise of celebrating diversity has even changed the design of beauty products. More angles, more corners – or fluidly distorted like the logo of We Are Fluide from Brooklyn. The beauty brand not only has its queer target group in its name, it also visualizes it graphically through its morphing logo. Of course, it goes without saying that the inclusive products for all genders and skin types are also vegan and free from animal testing and paraben. But even conformist brands like Gillette are jumping on the bandwagon. For example, Gillette's women's shaving ads no longer feature only interchangeably boring Next Top Model candidates, but real women with supposed flaws. Scarred skin and extra pounds are suddenly becoming highly coveted unique selling points for today's models – a conversation starter that can be spun into interesting stories and exciting content. So that even self-perfectionist influencers like Caro Daur appear time and again without makeup, with their hair standing on end. Body positivity at the highest level. Because nowadays, fewer and fewer people want to be simply beautiful-equals-perfect-equals-boring.

Or wait a minute. Maybe you just shouldn't be too glossy anymore – at least not if you're a brand that adorns itself with models. Otherwise, a shitstorm might blow up on you, triggering a body-shaming tsunami, and the cancel culture will punish your brand. Today more than ever, brands are well advised to take a stand by communicating clearly and demonstrating empathy.

The Douglas brand recognized this trend early on and responded to it by fundamentally redesigning its identity – based on the principle that nothing is more beautiful than uniqueness. And each of us is unique, after all, so that's basically the greatest common denominator. Consequently, Douglas encourages consumers to be self-confident, boosting their boldness and inner strength, and empowers customers to believe in their own ability to shape their look according to their individual imagination. To that end, Douglas even revamped its own appearance. The design team at Peter Schmidt Group changed the logo so radically that the first two intertwined letters can be read as the English word "Do." The ball is now in the consumer's court. The power over beauty is no longer in the hands of the beauty industry, it is up to each and every one of us. Relinquishing this power requires courage on the part of beauty brands.

They now find themselves faced with a compelling question: How much power can I put into empowerment? Won't beauty products eventually become obsolete if customers feel good about their own bodies?

The current trend toward self-optimization shows that this fear is unfounded. A few fillers for sculpted contours, some Botox to look younger, a vampire lift for that perfect glow – when it comes to feeling beautiful and projecting one's individual idea of beauty to the world, anything is possible and everything is allowed. Today, true beauty is not only the freedom to accept yourself as you are, but also the freedom to shape yourself according to your own ideas. There's more than one way to be beautiful. Beauty is multi-faceted – in a word, diverse.