“Amorepacific Makeup Your Life,” hosted by Amorepacific Co. Ltd (President Suh Kyung-bae) and volunteered by sales representatives of Amorepacific (“Amore Counselors”), will be kicked off on October 12, starting with Korea University Guro Hospital. The campaign will last for two months until November.
With the help of Amore Counselors, Makeup Your Life campaign is designed to offer beauty solutions and know-hows to female cancer patients who have suffered unwanted changes in appearance, such as aging of the skin or hair loss in the course of cancer treatment. It helps alleviate the psychological distress and depression, and encourages patients to move on with a more positive attitude towards life.
A research published in March by a team led by Professor Cho Ju-hee of Cancer Education Center in Samsung Medical Center Seoul reported that 69.5% of 128 breast cancer patients under cancer treatment suffered severe hair loss, 55.5% had changes in the appearance of their breasts, and 50.8% faced adverse changes in their skin, which was profoundly higher than that of healthy women. Moreover, they scored 20 points lower than healthy women in “body image,” i.e. how they view their physical body, which indicated the extreme stress they had due to adverse effects of medical treatments. (*[Note 1] Refer to details of the research)
Makeup Your Life Campaign was launched in 2008 to help women cancer patients who have suffered from changes in their looks during cancer treatment to brighten up and move on with their lives, and celebrates its 10th year in 2017. Up until 2016, 10,994 female cancer patients were assisted by 4,033 Amore counselors in Korea alone. The campaign broadened its reach to Mainland China in 2011, Vietnam in 2015, and Singapore, Hong Kong (China) and Taiwan in 2017, delivering a hopeful message to an estimated 14,065 female cancer patients in 6 countries and areas for 10 years by the end of this year.
In Korea, the campaign will help approximately 700 patients in 16 major hospitals nationwide for two months from October to November, in which beauty experts and Amore counselors will share their makeup and skincare tips. Female cancer patients currently under therapy, who have undergone a surgery in less than two years, can sign up for the program, and all of the participants will be provided with “Makeup Your Life Kit,” a gift bag of Amorepacific skincare and makeup supplies to take home and pamper themselves in their everyday life.
Senior managing director Lee Wu-dong of Luxury BU of Amorepacific said, “Amorepacific and Amore Counselors started Makeup Your Life in 2008 to share their “beauty” assets that they have built up for a long period of time with the society. The campaign will be expanded further to assist female cancer patients to counter the disfiguring effects of medical treatments, overcome the disease and enjoy a more beautiful and healthier life with an optimistic mindset.”
Meanwhile, Amorepacific provides “door-to-door service,” by which Amore Counselors personally visit the home or the hospital bed of patients who are selected among those that have submitted their stories of fighting cancer, to give them a special makeover. They will be able to learn makeup and skincare techniques, get a special makeover and photographed by a professional photographer.
For more details about Amorepacific Makeup Your Life Campaign, please contact the office of the 2017 Amorepacific Makeup Your Life at 02-515-6759 or makeupyourlife@naver.com.
Meanwhile, Amorepacific announced “20 by 20,” a socially responsible commitment to beautify 200,000 women by contributing to their health, wellbeing and economic empowerment from 2017 to 2020. The cosmetic giant was selected as a participant of “Every Woman Every Child (UN’s global movement for women, children and teenagers) for UN sustainable development goals in August 2017. Going forward, Amorepacific plans to empower 50,000 women and invest at least W7 billion in philanthropic activities through Makeup Your Life, Pink Ribbon Campaign, Hope Store and Beautiful Life.
[Note 1] A research team led by professor Cho Ju-hee in Cancer Education Center in Samsung Medical Center Seoul releases a thesis entitled, “Distress and body image due to altered appearance in post-treatment and active treatment of breast cancer patients and in general population controls.”
A research team led by Cho Ju-hee in Cancer Education Center in Samsung Medical Center Seoul published a thesis entitled, “Distress and body image due to altered appearance in post-treatment and active treatment of breast cancer patients and in general population controls.”
The impact of appearance changes by cancer treatment on the quality of life has been widely reported by local and international researchers alike. This research goes one step further from conventional findings as to identify what type of impact the appearance-related stress has on cancer survivors, and the severity of distress suffered by cancer survivors from physical changes vs. that of general women.
To this end, the research team recruited 266 breast cancer patients and 315 ordinary women with a similar place of residence and age from May to December 2010. The 266 breast cancer patients were categorized into an active treatment group (138 people) and a post-treatment group (128 people) who have finished treatment at least six months ago. The team explored and compared the magnitude of appearance-related changes, the stress resulting therefrom, and the body image of the active treatment group, post-treatment group and general women.
The study found that breast cancer patients remained distressed over their physical changes even after they were done with the treatment. Moreover, the stress was much higher than that of general women, having an adverse impact on the mental health and body image of the patients.
Out of 138 breast cancer patients under active treatment, 69.5% responded that they were experiencing hair loss, 55.5% changes in the shape of breasts, and 50.8% changes in their skin. Such appearance-altering conditions were found in similar ratios in the post-treatment group. Combined together, they suffered hair loss breast deformation and skin changes, 7.9, 12.6 and 5.4 times more than general women respectively.
Even when the women suffered an identical level of appearance change, breast cancer patients were 2 times more dismayed by appearance changes than general women. Moreover, the active treatment group scored 47.5 points and post-treatment group 53.4 on average in body image, which is far below 70.2, the average score of general women.
In particular, breast cancer patients disconcerted by appearance changes scored over 20 points less than those who were not, validating the depressing impact of cancer treatment on appearance and psychological health of patients.
Professor Cho Ju-hee of Cancer Education Center, Samsung Medical Center Seoul, said “The outcome demonstrates that breast cancer patients are extremely upset over their physical changes during and even a long time after cancer treatment, and are much more vulnerable to stress even with the same severity of appearance changes. Thus, the pampering session which will continue after the treatment will help them look and feel better with positive mindset, overcome the disease and get back to their normal life.”