Esther Honig, a journalist, blogger and freelance reporter decided to prove once and for all that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

She conducted an experiment to “examine how the standards of unobtainable beauty vary across cultures on a global level.”

Honig contacted various freelances across the globe with her photograph and a message:

“Hi my name is Esther Honig and I would like you to enhance this image using Photoshop. I trust you to take whatever steps you see necessary. Make me look beautiful.”

When Honig got the photoshopped images back, she was surprised at the amount of variation:

“Each photo editor draws from a palate of both their cultural influence and their personal aesthetic preferences. This is why two images from the same country may be nothing alike.

“Overall what I’ve learned from this project is this; 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.”

Take a look at some of the photos below.

UK

 

USA

Germany

Morocco

Italy