This is true, the ability to raise beauty is quite lacking. There are 3 ways to do it, one being temporary.
1) as you said, lab. +20 is a decent boost.
2) the beauty mixture you can buy, it's temporary though.
3) you can use tattoos to increase it by another 15. Using a nature tattoo increases beauty by 5, and, upon a quick test, can only be stacked 3 times for a total boost of 15.
So, 35 is the highest permanent boost we can do at the moment.
It is possible for a perfect beauty score, but only if you find a 65+ base. Possible, but rare. Try the deep areas.
Edit: I believe certain equipment also boosts beauty, but I'm not 100% sure. Can't remember off the top of my head.