Woman explores global standards of beauty through Photoshop

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SALT LAKE CITY — The ongoing discussion of Photoshop altering already beautiful women, going too far and creating unrealistic beauty expectations is not a new one. But one woman has taken a new approach — comparing beauty around the world.

In a project she calls "Before and After," journalist Ester Honig sent a photo of herself to Photoshop experts in more than 25 countries, telling them simply: "make me beautiful."

"Photoshop allows us to achieve our unobtainable standards of beauty, but when we compare those standards on a global scale, achieving the ideal remains all the more illusive," Honig, 24, wrote on her website.

The project resulted in a wide range of "beautiful" features being enhanced — some countries, like the U.S., emphasized eyes. India gave Honig bolder brows. The Philippines added a flowing mane of dark hair.

"The way the concept of 'make me beautiful' was interpreted in this instance left me breathless," Honig told MailOnline of the image of herself from Morocco. "In turn, the image I received from the U.S. made me shriek. It's been manipulated so radically that it was like looking in the mirror to see a warped image of my own face."

Honig told MailOnline that she was surprised the images did not match up by country, even after receiving multiple retouched photos from one region.

"Photoshop allows us to achieve our unobtainable standards of beauty, but when we compare those standards on a global scale, achieving the ideal remains all the more illusive," Honing told MailOnline.

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Amanda Taylor

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