This Beauty Tutorial Has a Surprisingly Powerful Message

Beauty Tips by Reshma starts off like any typical beauty tutorial—a woman facing a camera shows a viewing audience how to apply the perfect red lip.

Reshma walks viewers through the simple-steps to perfecting one’s pout: exfoliate, moisturize, line lips with a coordinating color, and then apply lipstick. But the video ends with a twist. Reshma’s face, scarred by an acid attack, straightens as she says that in too many places buying acid is as easy as buying a tube of lipstick.

“You’ll find a red lipstick easily in the market, just like concentrated acid,” she says. “This is the reason why, every day a girl becomes a victim of an acid attack.”

Reshma’s video is a public service announcement for Make Love Not Scars, a movement led by acid-attack survivors who are hope to ban the sale of acid, which can go for as little as 100 rupees according to the group. Reshma’s video, which was featured as AdWeek’s Ad of the Day on Friday, links to a petition urging the Prime Minister of India to ban the sale of acid to the “common man.” The petition has a little over 77,000 signatures as of this posting.

Watch the entire ad below.