When we see models in magazines we are gushing and saying how we want to wear the clothes they wear, have our faces prepped like they have, and be looked at and admired just like they are.

They grace magazine covers, but are they really beautiful or are they there to sell the beauty?

Often we see their almost euphoric expressions wearing the most luxurious dresses and fashionable jewellery - but what do these girls feel in reality? Do they actually feel beautiful?

A lot of my friends criticised my love for high fashion magazines, saying those should come in a standard of cigarette commercials - a photograph with an almost half-page warning: Smoking causes death or cancer... and so forth.

In their opinion, the luxurious fashion editorials should also say: These girls are not perfect, they are made perfect and then additionally photoshopped...

Indeed, most of what we see in magazines are images of unattainable beauty and perfection - but isn’t that why we buy them anyway?

We want to picture ourselves as heroines of a parallel reality, the glamorous world of non-stop fashion and desirable looks that the publications portray.

Which leads me back to the initial question, do we see beauty in these magazines or do we see people just like us but trained to sell beauty?

While there can be numerous answers, there isn’t a definite one. In fashion, perfection is standard and it too can or even should be improved.

A model’s natural beauty is not enough, it has to be enhanced even if it doesn’t need to be.

These aren’t the days when artists such as Leonardo da Vinci paint a masterpiece of beauty otherwise known as the Giaconda.

These are the days when fashion publications feed us beautified versions of women, and such as with the Giaconda, we WANT to believe that she is or was real simply because it helps us to escape to a paradise filled with perfection.

By Edita Lozovska - Fashion Writer for A-SHU.CO.UK.