A patch that can improve a woman’s perception of her own beauty? It may seem far-fetched, but that’s exactly what Dove set out to prove with the creation of its RB-X Beauty Patch. Women participating in a research group were asked to wear the Dove Patch for two weeks while maintaining a video diary summarizing their self-perception each day. The results of the test and the patch’s ingredients may surprise you.

On Day 1, all of the women involved in the study reported no change in their self-confidence. For the most part, it was a normal day. Come Day 4, some started to question the patch's effectiveness, while others noticed a difference in how the people around them acted. By Day 5, more of the women were starting to notice a difference in their appearance. For example, one participant who admitted to being self-critical about her arms said she purposely wore clothes that flaunted them.

At Day 10 of the study, an obvious change was starting to occur. Women who displayed close to no self-confidence 10 days earlier were starting to view themselves as beautiful. One even described feeling attractive through sickness, fatigue, and a pimple on her nose. In one woman’s words, on Day 12, they felt “comfortable in their own skin.” The results only got better as the days went on. Women were smiling at strangers by Day 12 and going dress shopping by Day 15.

At the end of the two week experiment, it was time for the participants to give a thorough review of what one woman called “a life-altering experience.” Another woman reported being more social with the patch on and some were comfortable wearing clothes that sat in the back of their closets before the experiment. Finally it came time to reveal the patch’s ingredients: nothing. After finding out their boost in self-esteem came by their own volition, the women were shocked and teary-eyed. The realization that their beauty was there the whole time slowly sunk in.

According to Dove Research: The Truth About Beauty: Revisited, only four percent of women are able to use the word beautiful in describing themselves. Seventy-two percent feel pressure to appear beautiful, while 80 percent agree that every woman has something beautiful about her but are unable to see their own beauty. Over half of the women responding to the beauty assessment admitted they were their own worst critic when it came to their looks.