The true cost of beauty

Olivia Seed, Miss Lancashire 2016, has set up The Cost Of Beauty campaign to highlight the issues and teamed up with photographer and stylist Sophie Colquhoun, make-up artist Hannah Gallagher and Junior Miss Lancashire Ammie Shipton.

Olivia, 19, said: “The aim is to demonstrate the harsh reality of the cost of an animal’s life in our materialistic world.

“The campaign features images which capture the distress and unfair procedures vulnerable animals endure. Much research has been carried out in creation of this campaign.

“We have come up with a bag range, to promote the message – reusable tote bags, showcasing four designs.”

The women collaborated to produce striking campaign images, including the picture above, which feature Olivia partly bound with string, covered in fake blood.

Olivia said: “The string represents the ties animals are physically and mentally bound to. Their encaged lives see nothing more than a test tube and tortuous apparatus, which pins them to a world of pain and suffering.

“The material around the neck shows the use of animal skin, and how its visual materialistic value is suffocating the voice of humans to say no to real animal skins.

“We used fake blood to represent the bloody hands we humans have – for the large numbers of deaths of animals, for their skin, meat or testing properties. Red and black were used to reinforce the dark and evil nature of animal testing.

“The barcode represents a constant cycle of scanning items – animals – which we consume, then restock. They’re no longer seen as living beings, just recognised as a product.

“They are tested for food, materials, cosmetics and household products such as cleaning fluids.”

Bags are on sale for £3 each, with a percentage donated to the PETA charity. Email [email protected]