In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, Sofia explains that ‘beauty’ is, or can and should be, empowering:

Despite sometimes negative views of the beauty industry and women who have “a lot of beauty treatments”, I believe the importance of beauty in women’s lives should not be undervalued or even stigmatised.

Many people think that women’s obsession with their appearance today is something new, something generated by social media and the like, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Beauty has always been an important part of women’s lives in all cultures across the world and probably always will be.

The only real difference today is that women have access to more tools like anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers and lasers which can significantly improve their appearance – and many choose to take advantage of such tools.

I think it is wonderful that women can now enhance their appearance, or even radically change it if they desire, with such tools as not everyone is happy with the looks they were born with, or the way they are changing.

I therefore believe the pursuit of beauty should be viewed as a form of self-care, or in many cases even empowerment, rather than dismissed or mocked as mere vanity.

Every day at Amirova I have the privilege of seeing the power of beauty improve women’s lives as treatments give them the extra confidence they need to live their best lives – whether that means re-entering the workforce, applying for a better job, joining a gym, registering for online dating or even just attending a school reunion or other major social event.

There has always been power in beauty but until now only a fortunate few have been able to enjoy its privilege.

I am grateful that thanks to advances in science, Amirova has products and treatments that can give the power of beauty to all our clients, rather than just the genetic lottery winners.

I am proud of the beauty industry and the women who have the courage to pursue beauty on their terms.

The simple truth is that the vast majority of women want to look beautiful, and there is nothing wrong with that want.

I call on all women to support each other’s ‘beauty’ choices this International Women’s Day.