Skin-loving beauty brand IT Cosmetics conducted the world’s largest study on women’s confidence and is taking measurable action to support women based on this research. Efforts include partnering with community loan-sourcing nonprofit Kiva to lend $2 million to underserved women businesses by 2030 and joining forces with LeanIn.Org to host workshops that support women on their confidence journeys.
From day one, IT Cosmetics’ mission has been to empower everyone to feel their most confident—and now the brand is committing to doing more, expanding its reach beyond the skin-loving beauty products it creates to help women live their daily lives with confidence. No matter how big or small a goal is, IT Cosmetics is taking measurable action to help women across the globe GO FOR IT!
Over the last three years, IT Cosmetics conducted the world’s largest study on women’s confidence with strategic consulting firm Eranos. Through this work, IT Cosmetics found that confidence, contrary to popular belief, isn’t an individual possession. Rather, it is something we all receive, give and share with others 1.
IT Cosmetics Founder, Jamie Kern Lima, is no stranger to summoning inner confidence. While working as a news anchor, she struggled with rosacea, a skin condition that causes redness and visible texture. Undeterred, Jamie turned her insecurities into action. She partnered with plastic surgeons and dermatologists to develop the beauty products she had been searching for. Jamie named her brand IT Cosmetics—“IT” stands for Innovative Technology—and after years of rejection, she was given a chance to appear on QVC. She sold out of her Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer in less than 10 minutes!
Jamie believed in herself and took a huge risk to do things differently, even when many advised her not to. She was vulnerable and fearless as she removed her makeup on live TV, revealing her skin condition. This courageous act resonated with women across the country, inspiring them to embrace their own beauty with confidence.
Today, Jamie is continuing to lend her voice to inspire women to Go For IT and build each other up through her new book, Believe IT: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable.
“I poured my heart and soul into founding IT Cosmetics because I wanted people, like me, who didn’t feel seen or heard in the beauty industry, to know they are beautiful, confident and loved,” Jamie said. “It is my dream for all of us to lift each other up, celebrate our differences and support one another on our individual confidence journeys. That’s what IT’s all about!”
Understanding Women’s Confidence
By conducting the world’s largest study on women’s confidence in partnership with strategic consulting firm Eranos, IT Cosmetics discovered that women’s confidence is not a personal matter—rather, it is a relational and collective issue. To underscore this finding, IT Cosmetics commissioned supplemental research to identify the women’s confidence gap—how women see themselves versus how they view confident women. While the traits women link to confidence differ by country, the study found that the struggle with self-confidence is universal. It is a continual work in progress as women try new things and take steps forward in their personal and professional lives. For example:
● American women see confident women as being self-assured (76%) and courageous (67%), but only 29% and 23% associate themselves with those qualities2
● British women see confident women as being self-assured (50%) and courageous (56%), but only 14% and 18% associate themselves with those qualities3
● Chinese women see confident women as being brave (53%) and outspoken (52%), but only 26% and 42% associate themselves with those qualities4
● French women see confident women as being self-assured (47%) and goal-oriented (51%), but only 8% and 38% associate themselves with those qualities5
● German women see confident women as being purposeful (80%) and self-assured (62%), but only 34% and 25% associate themselves with those qualities6
● Mexican women see confident women as being purposeful (86%) and brave (64%), but only 53% and 47% associate themselves with those qualities7
Measurable Action to Support Women’s Confidence Around the World
IT Cosmetics is partnering with Kiva, a nonprofit that helps women close the economic opportunity gap through community-sourced loans, leading to increased job security and self-assuredness. This International Women’s Day (March 8, 2021), IT Cosmetics is encouraging the IT Community to loan $25 to female entrepreneurs that IT Cosmetics will match (up to $100,000 U.S. dollars) on www.kiva.org/itcosmetics. IT Community members are also invited to apply for a loan to fuel their own passion project or career. By 2030, IT Cosmetics commits to lending $2 million to support women businesses through Kiva on www.kiva.org/itcosmetics.
Additionally, IT Cosmetics will use its platform to spotlight inspiring stories from members of the IT Community as they explore their own relationships with confidence.
Driving Change From Within
Beyond its Kiva partnership, IT Cosmetics will empower its community and employees to build and strengthen their own confidence by implementing Lean In Circles, workshops that foster connections between small groups of women to share experiences, build each other up, and celebrate successes.
“IT Cosmetics believes that confidence comes from the inside and is cultivated when women have the self-assuredness and community networks to lift them up,” Kristen Comings, Senior Vice President, Consumer Engagement at IT Cosmetics said.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Kiva and LeanIn.Org to empower the IT Community to begin or take the next step on their confidence journeys and to give them the support networks to help them thrive.”
To learn more about IT Cosmetics, please visit ITCosmetics.ca
Research Methodology
IT Cosmetics partnered with strategic consulting firm Eranos to conduct live interviews with 176 women and gathered the results of 11,000 online surveys completed by American, French, German, Mexican, British, Chinese, Hong Kong regional, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Australian women. We defined one Women’s Confidence (WOCO) score per country, to draw a comparison between women’s confidence experiences in countries with vastly different cultures.
IT Cosmetics partnered with Ipsos to conduct a U.S. poll between June 18 – June 21, 2019. For this survey, a sample of roughly 1,510 women were interviewed online in English. Additionally, IT Cosmetics conducted another survey with Toluna to conduct a poll among 3,247 women in the U.K., France, Germany, Mexico and China between September 1 – September 6, 2019.
About IT Cosmetics
Innovative Technology is IT. Our mission is to make the world more beautiful through our products, through our actions and through our belief that everyone is beautiful and deserves to feel their most beautiful. Developed with plastic surgeons’ insights and dermatologists’ ingredients and skincare expertise, IT Cosmetics creates problem-solving, skin-loving makeup and skincare products that give you real results. IT exists to empower you to feel your most confident! Currently available in over 20 countries, IT Cosmetics is continuing to grow its global footprint.
For more information on IT Cosmetics, visit: www.itcosmetics.ca
Problem Solving. Skin Loving. Confidence Building.
About Kiva
Kiva is an international 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. Kiva was founded in San Francisco in 2005 and is comprised of three primary impact-first business lines: Kiva.org, Kiva Protocol and Kiva Capital Management. Kiva’s crowdfunding platform, Kiva.org, allows individuals to lend as little as $25 to make a difference in someone’s life. Kiva Protocol aims to establish financial identity and credit history for unbanked populations using distributed ledger technology (DLT), with its inaugural project currently being implemented in Sierra Leone. Kiva Capital Management is a forthcoming subsidiary of Kiva that will operate as an impact-first asset manager connecting Kiva’s network of Field Partners with institutional capital, scaling Kiva’s ability to lend to underserved populations around the world.
About LeanIn.Org
An initiative of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, LeanIn.Org aims to drive systemic change by helping women achieve their ambitions and working to create a more equal world. LeanIn.Org runs programs to combat bias, conducts original research, provides free education materials, advocates for better public policies, and offers support through Lean In Circles, small groups of peers who meet regularly to learn and grow together. The Lean In community includes more than two million women and men and 50,000 Lean In Circles in 184 countries. The Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, which also runs OptionB.Org, is a private operating nonprofit organization under IRS section 501(c)(3).
1IT Cosmetics x Eranos Women’s Confidence Briefing Paper 2020
2IT Cosmetics x Ipsos Public Affairs Omnibus U.S. Survey June 2019
3IT Cosmetics x Toluna International Survey September 2019
4IT Cosmetics x Toluna International Survey September 2019
5IT Cosmetics x Toluna International Survey September 2019
6IT Cosmetics x Toluna International Survey September 2019
7IT Cosmetics x Toluna International Survey September 2019
Media release, image and video link provided by Emily Sleep, Talk Shop Media.
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