Critics argue that the effect can have a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem and body image.
The new “bold glamour” TikTok filter, which seamlessly applies makeup and sculpting effects to users’ faces, is impressive — but many viewers feel unsettled by how “terrifyingly realistic” the subtle facial enhancements look.
The filter, which has been used millions of times in recent days, has been compared to other editing apps associated with creating an unrealistic beauty standard among young women. Critics argue that the effect can have a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem and body image.
In addition to adding light makeup to a person’s face, the filter tweaks their bone structure, smooths their skin and enlarges their lips.
“When I first saw it, it was shocking how incredibly real it looked, compared to other filters,” said Lindsay Borow, 28, who tried the filter in a TikTok video.
In her video, Borow said she looked like a “catfish” and that she “never felt uglier” after she removed the filter’s effect from her natural face.
One of the other problems with the filter, some users said, is that it’s close enough to a person’s natural appearance that it seems like an attainable look. However, re-creating it proves to be difficult.
Borow said after creating a makeup look similar to what the filter uses, she demonstrated that she could not totally re-create the filter’s effect on her own.
“I realized that whatever I did to my makeup to try and look like that, once I had the makeup on and put the filter back on, it still elevated whatever I currently had on,” she said. “So it’s like you’re never going to reach that goal.”
The filter’s “physical changes to our bone structures and our natural features are drastically different than what can be achieved by makeup,” Mustafa echoed.
She said she believes the filter promotes Eurocentric beauty standards.
“A lot of people of color, their skin is being lightened, their eyes are being lightened,” she said. “I mean we’re really catering to a very specific standard of beauty.”
Borow said the filter appears to be more technologically advanced compared to previous filters introduced by platforms like TikTok or Snapchat. The bold glamour filter stays on even if a user tries to obstruct it, making it more convincing because you can’t see where the effect ends.
“If you put your hand over a normal filter, you can see where the filter lies, whereas this one, it doesn’t do that,” she said. “I remember when Snapchat first came out with filters and everyone was obsessed with the dog filter. And now this is what we’re working with and the technology is insane.”
Borow found comfort in the fact that TikTok denotes whether a filter was used on a video and believes that disclosure is helpful in distinguishing what’s real from what’s an aspirational filter.
But Mustafa said she thinks it would be helpful for creators to avoid using and promoting the use of these filters altogether.
“If you fill your feed with people who look natural and are not using these things, you can kind of safeguard yourself a little bit to see normal humans on your feed day to day versus the opposite,” she said.
Already, the impact of filters is beginning to bleed into reality, according to Mustafa. She said she has noticed more of her peers reaching toward the look of these enhancing filters using cosmetic surgeries.
“There’s so many women that have been getting under-eye filler and Botox and all these things at a much younger age than I think was typical when we were younger,” she said. “And so seeing that, I feel like these filters are then coming to life in some way that we are then seeing people face-to-face who are looking more and more like these filters and we’re like, ‘Oh, is it the filter? Or is it that people just look like this naturally?’”