Beauty filters have become incredibly popular on the social media platform TikTok. These filters use advanced facial mapping technology to apply real-time alterations and enhancements to a user’s face, such as smoothing skin, enhancing eyes and lips, and modifying facial structure. With millions of users on TikTok, beauty filters have become a ubiquitous part of content creation on the platform. Many popular TikTok creators use beauty filters in their videos, helping to normalize and promote these manipulated beauty standards. This has sparked discussions around the impacts, ethics, and regulation of beauty filters.
History of Beauty Filters
The origin of beauty filters on social media can be traced back to the early 2010s when apps like Instagram and Snapchat first introduced filters. According to Wikipedia, the American photographer Cole Rise was involved in creating some of the original filters for Instagram around 2010, including some of the beauty filters.[1] These early filters allowed users to enhance their photos with effects like smoothing skin or enhancing color. Snapchat also released its own set of filters in 2011, many of which modified facial features.[2]
While these initial filters were more playful in nature, over time social media apps began offering more advanced beauty filters specifically designed to “beautify” users’ appearances. As reported by Technology Review, beauty filters really took off around 2016 with apps like Facetune that could easily edit photos and videos to do things like whiten teeth, smooth skin, enhance eyes, slim face shapes, and more.[3] The rise of these realistic beauty filters coincided with the growing popularity of social media and selfie culture, allowing people to present an idealized version of themselves online.
Most Popular TikTok Beauty Filters
Beauty filters are some of the most commonly used effects on TikTok, with popular options smoothing skin, enhancing eyes and eyelashes, and giving an overall glow-up. According to TikTok’s own roundup, some of the top beauty filters used by creators include:
- Beauty Mode – Designed to give skin a smooth, flawless look while enhancing facial features.
- Fantasy Filter (v11) – Adds sparkling anime-style eyes with long fluttering lashes.
- G6 Filter – Subtly evens out skin texture and complexion.
- Bling Filter – Applies a radiant, glittery shine to the face.
- Bold Glamour – Created by TikToker Beebo, this filter slims the face, smooths skin, brightens eyes, and defines bone structure.
Many users especially love the Bold Glamour filter for its dramatic yet flattering effects. Some research indicates it became the most popular beauty filter on TikTok in 2022. However, tastes continue shifting as new effects emerge daily.
How Beauty Filters Work
Beauty filters on TikTok use advanced facial recognition technology to map and analyze the user’s facial features. The filter detects things like the shape of your face, eyes, nose, and lips by identifying differences in contrast across your facial features.
The facial mapping process allows the filter to apply enhancements in a realistic way that moves with your face. For example, the filter can automatically smooth skin, change the eye shape, modify facial structure to be more symmetrical, whiten teeth, plump lips, and more.
According to research from BBC, the facial mapping and modification process happens in real-time, allowing beauty filters to augment your appearance in a customized way as you move on camera.
Impact on Beauty Standards
The widespread use of beauty filters on social media platforms like TikTok has raised concerns over promoting unrealistic and unachievable beauty standards, especially among young and impressionable audiences. With a simple swipe or click, beauty filters can smooth skin, enhance facial features, change face shapes, and alter appearances quite dramatically.
While some changes may seem minor or playful, the aggregated effect of seeing such filtered and enhanced images constantly can skew perceptions of what is normal, attainable or beautiful. When bombarded with artificially perfected images, people may develop anxieties about their own appearance not measuring up. This is particularly worrisome given TikTok’s enormous popularity among teenagers.
The effortless perfection portrayed through beauty filters presents an unrealistic ideal that simply does not exist in the real world. Pores, wrinkles, blemishes and other imperfections are normal, yet they are erased by filters. There are concerns these filtered versions promote body dysmorphia and negative self-image, especially among impressionable young people striving for an unattainable standard of beauty.
Impact on Mental Health
Beauty filters on social media can potentially have negative effects on users’ mental health and self-image. Studies have shown that filters promoting unrealistic beauty standards can lower self-esteem and body satisfaction, especially among teenage girls and young women. According to research from Oui We Girl, nearly 80% of girls edit their photos before posting them online, and the prevalence of beauty filters promotes an unattainable level of perfection. Filters that alter facial features create an unrealistic benchmark that some users then feel pressured to live up to in real life.
As reported in Kuwait Times, constantly staring at an altered version of oneself through filters can negatively impact self-image over time. The desire to recreate an idealized filtered version of oneself can potentially contribute to body dysmorphia. While beauty filters may seem fun and harmless initially, their cumulative impact of presenting flawless yet artificial representations of beauty can be damaging, especially for the mental health of young people. There are valid concerns about the potential of beauty filters to harm self-esteem, body satisfaction, and overall well-being.
Regulation of Beauty Filters
There have been increasing calls for the regulation of beauty filters on social media platforms like TikTok. Some countries have already taken steps to mandate disclaimers or restrict certain types of altering filters.
In May 2022, Norway updated its Marketing Control Act to require social media influencers and advertisers to disclose when commercial images have been retouched. Companies face fines if images are manipulated in a way that gives a “distorted picture” without proper disclaimers (BBC).
Similarly, France passed a law in 2022 requiring a “retouched photograph” label on digitally altered images of models used in advertisements. The law aims to combat unrealistic beauty ideals and eating disorders (DW).
Some advocates argue that social media platforms like TikTok should be required to indicate when a video or photo has used an appearance-altering filter. They believe excessive use of these filters promotes inauthentic self-presentation and unrealistic beauty standards, especially for younger users (EM360).
Ethical Considerations
There are important ethical debates surrounding the use of beauty filters, especially regarding minors. Many argue that these filters encourage unrealistic beauty standards without users’ informed consent. There are concerns that teens and children do not fully understand the impacts of altering their appearance. Filters are so normalized on apps like TikTok that minors may start believing the edited image is their real face. This could negatively impact self-esteem and body image during critical developmental years.
Some believe stricter regulations should be placed around digital alteration of minors’ appearances without consent. There are calls for TikTok and other apps to make it clearer when a video uses beauty filters, especially for younger audiences. Others argue minors should not have access to these filters at all given the potential psychological harms. More research is still needed on the long-term effects of prolonged beauty filter use on teens and children.
Promoting Authenticity
Many creators and influencers are choosing to reject beauty filters and promote natural beauty and authenticity instead. Apps like BeReal encourage users to share unedited photos taken simultaneously from the front and back camera. The goal is to capture authentic moments without posing or editing.
Posing without filters allows people to embrace their natural features and imperfections. There’s a growing movement to normalize things like acne, cellulite, and wrinkles that filters often remove. Celebrities like Lizzo, Ashley Graham, and Jameela Jamil post filter-free selfies to set an example. Some influencers even call out the unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by filters.
Projects like #NoFilter aims to help people see their natural beauty. Psychologists recommend looking in the mirror and finding things you like about your unfiltered face. Reframing beauty as confidence, personality and kindness can be empowering.
While beauty filters can be fun, many are promoting self-acceptance, flaws and all. Filter-free content allows fans to connect with the real person behind the public image.
Conclusion
TikTok’s beauty filters utilize advanced technology to alter users’ appearances, often promoting unrealistic and narrowly-defined beauty standards. However, these filters can have concerning impacts on mental health and self-image if relied on too heavily. While fun and creative at times, users should seek balance in filter use and aim to promote authenticity and self-acceptance. The ideal is to embrace one’s natural features instead of hiding behind a filtered version of oneself. Moderation and perspective are key – the filters do not define worth or beauty. At the end of the day, confidence comes from within.
