Will Instagram and Snapchat filters ever replace make-up?

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10th Oct 2019

You could argue that all of beauty is about filtering reality. That’s definitely what Max Factor was thinking with his Pan Stik foundation all those years ago. Blurring, veiling, diffusing — they’re still words that are the mainstay of the beauty world. The phrase ‘complexion enhancing’ has become a category of its own, ushering in a new era of products to prime and perfect the skin. 

But imagine how Mr Max Factor’s mind would have blown had he come across Snapchat. Forget the shade of lipstick you use, or your signature scent. Chances are, your new beauty calling card is your choice of selfie filter. Are you the bunny ears? The love hearts? The freckles? Or maybe you’re one of those furtive kinds who uses a filter without any cartoon embellishments, so people can’t be 100 per cent sure it’s not just your own astonishingly flawless skin. 

Filters are the new digital currency. Who didn’t take part in the recent FaceApp trend designed to show you how your face will age? Part entertainment, part vanity project — sharing a picture of your future wrinkled self has been one of 2019’s biggest crazes, with everyone from Lady Gaga to Courteney Cox posting pictures of their ‘older’ selves (predictably, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift still looked incredible). 

And for beauty addicts, filters are taking everything up a notch: a plain old selfie is no longer enough. Self-expression now goes beyond your hair and makeup — it’s revealed in your digital choices, too. 

Blurring the boundaries 

Instagram and Snapchat update their filters each season, in the same way as designers who present a new runway collection. Some app users mourn the loss of previous filters — such as the makeup fans’ favourite ‘contouring’ one on Snapchat — while others rush to adopt new filters with the same fervour reserved for a new-season Gucci bag or Balenciaga boot. Snapchat filters come and go every few days, and you never know when they’ll be gone for good — a bit like your favourite lipstick being discontinued. 

We’re fast becoming our own social media avatars, crossing the boundaries of reality to create extreme, experimental and obviously doctored versions of ourselves — but why? “Social media is about more than just appearance,” writes journalist Will Storr in . “It’s also a deeply neoliberal product that has gamified the self, turning our identity into a pawn that plays competitively on digital platforms for likes, feedback and friends.” Suddenly, your identity is just the beginning of the story: it’s the catalyst to a whole raft of real-time experiments about how people react to how you look. 

Beauty first, fun second 

On a more positive note, the rise of the ‘crazy selfie’ almost feels like a welcome evolution. These cute, kitsch effects mean no more sultry pouts; no more surreptitiously airbrushed skin. After years of serious, smouldering poses, what could be more refreshing than a digital version of yourself with a halo of pizza slices around your head, or two love hearts instead of eyes? It tells the world you don’t take yourself too seriously; you can laugh at yourself, you’re in on the joke. 

On the other hand, it doesn’t take much of a stretch to see that the features these filters generally create — the huge Manga-style eyes, the fluttery doll-like lashes, the tiny rosebud mouth and the pointy sweetheart chin — are extreme cartoonish versions of the features we traditionally hold to be the hallmarks of femininity. Like Disney princesses and ballerina Barbies before them, they are exaggerated versions of perfection. By using them, aren’t we just playing into old beauty stereotypes? Don’t they prove that we’re still slaves to antiquated doctrines of beauty, just in a more ironic and digitally savvy way?

This ‘beauty first, fun second’ approach explains why these filters are so popular. You can play around with your image — a sprinkle of stardust here, a panda eye there — but the filter will still deliver a clear, flawless complexion, and sparkling white teeth and eyes. You get the filtered look you want, but without looking as though you care too much. Will there be a time where we no longer send unfiltered photos? 

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The future of e-make-up 

For the beauty world, this irreverent approach is shaking things up. Of course, complexion-blurring, candlelight-bathing, soft-focus products have been promising ‘Insta-perfect’ complexions for years, from Revlon’s PhotoReady InstaFilter Foundation to Hourglass’s Cult Ambient Lighting Palette and Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter. Unsurprisingly, the industry now wants in on the filter phenomenon, too. When Kylie Jenner (favourite filter: puppy dog) launched her Kylie Lip Kits recently, Instagram created a special filter that allowed you to try on different shades — and Charlotte Tilbury has roadtested a similar technology, too. 

And recently, rather than products inspiring beauty trends on social media, we’re seeing the launch of products being inspired by filters, too: the ‘freckle’ filter has spawned the sprinkling of new freckle pens such as those by Freck and Lime Crime; and the Milk Makeup’s tattoo stamps in hearts and stars give a filtered effect, too. 

New brands such as Starface — with its spot-treating stick-on ‘star’ patches — are also playing with the idea of cartoon-like embellishments. Why hide what you’re doing? Why not make it fun? There is also an online beauty subculture that creates real-life Snapchat-inspired make-up looks — essentially making an ‘offline’ face look ‘online’. 

Less kitsch, more cool  

In an age of individuality and highly personalised approaches to beauty, the hyper-distinctive effects offered by filters have started to make everyone look the same — but not for long. Influencers are beginning to follow Rihanna and Ariana Grande’s lead and create their own filters — using Instagram’s augmented reality filters — to ensure they stand out. Follow the influencer to unlock their filter. Hashtags that often throw up interesting options are #instafilter #instamask and #ar. 

And brands aren’t far behind: Bimba y Lola just created its first campaign using ‘e-make-up’ created by digital 3D artist Ines Alpha. It’s fantasy, futurism and filter all in one, and everything points to the fact that the next evolution of filters will be less about kitsch and more about cool — think shapeshifting, mercurial effects and molten masks. The contents, in other words, of your new digital make-up bag. And not a pizza slice anywhere in sight.