Hello everybody, welcome back to my channel, where skin cares all about
progression over perfection. Because, perfection doesn't exist.
Speaking of which, welcome back to Instagram vs reality, a series where
I use my editorial and advertising photography degree
to take a look at what is real, and what isn't on the internet.
One comment I always get in the comments section is, oh so-and-so
influencer, this YouTuber uses filters all the time. So what I thought I'd do
today, was actually take a look at those videos,
those influencers, those famous YouTubers, and really try and see, are they using
filters or is it something else. Have you falsely accused them of, using filters,
because we just don't know nowadays, it's like everyone's using them, you know.
Let's talk about some beauty filter news first of all. Listen, I love
filters for fun, do whatever you want to your pictures but not when it comes to
paid sponsorships or paid partnerships, and
influencers using filters to show fake before, and afters. This includes
manipulating lighting, using different colored tones, blurring
filters, phone cameras with built-in filters.
Well, I'd like to draw your attention to a makeup artist called Sasha Pallari,
and the creator of the Filter Drop campaign, which has successfully
persuaded the ASA, the Advertising Standard Association,
here in the UK, to take a look at, and rule against
filters being used in paid promotion, being used
by influencers. So, to quote the BBC, “The ruling means that brands, influencers, and
celebrities should not apply filters to photos that promote
beauty products, if the filters are likely to exaggerate the effect that the
products are capable of achieving. Ads that break these rules will be taken
down, and prohibited from appearing again,
which is likely to damage the advertiser, and influence his reputation.”
Said the ASA. This is incredible news, this is a 100%
a step in the right direction of what I've been trying to
show here, is that filters, when used in adverts,
should be illegal. It should be against the rules, it should be against the
advertising regulations. So, this is incredible. Sasha herself, said in
the article that she hopes too, that this has a positive impact on the way,
primarily young ladies, see themselves, and help refine what beauty is,
and not just what a filter says beauty should be. I'll leave all relevant links, to
the articles, and campaigns in the description box down below. But
it's happened, it's happened here in the UK. So let's
look at the influences that you have accused of using filters on their videos,
and let's start with NikkieTutorials. This is a good point to say, that I'm in
no way bashing these people, as I mentioned,
if you're not advertising I think it's fine to use filters, as long as you're
disclosing that information, and to remind you that this is all speculation,
there could be a matter of reasons here why it looks like they're using filters.
Camera quality, camera focus rendering of the photo, can all make it
look like the skin is blurred in certain places,
so this is all speculation. Okay, so I was told that the beautiful NikkieTutorials
may be possibly using filters, and I have to say,
I think she is too. I think, when we look at this video with her and Drag Race
royalty Shea Coulee, just getting ready, doing their makeup
together, I think they're doing Shea Coulee's makeup,
you can very, very obviously see on her bare skin that a heavy,
heavy filter has been used here. You'll notice that as Miss Tutorials moves,
there are a few pores that come in and out of focus, like,
that, it's not a steady focus, it's a switch to invisible to visible.
It's a filter having a hard time being consistent. There's a very obvious blur
in the hairline as well, and you know, you can see some
blemishes, very normal, normal blemishes but they are also
clearly blurred, that is not how blemishes appear on the skin,
as blurs, and there are definite filters throughout as well.
On the finished look as well, we can see a heavy, heavy filter, you can compare her
smooth on-camera skin here, to her natural skin
in her documentary, 'Layers Of Me', I believe it's called, and you know, she has
texture like everyone else. I personally don't think it looks bad.
Does this bother me? No. She's not selling us anything but I
also think it's not sneaky, I think this is a very obvious,
obvious, and purposeful use of filters. Again, she's very open about when she
uses filters, and how she uses Facetune, with dedicated videos to doing tutorials
about how she uses Facetune. If she was selling us a foundation or concealer or
a product, then this would go against the new ASA
rules, it would be exaggerating the effects of the product, the finish of the
foundation. Looking at this filter it's quite heavy,
and almost like, the old-fashioned vaseline on the lens trick,
that they used to use in like, old Hollywood glamour-type situations.
Whilst we look at these though, and whilst we look at the people using these
filters, I do want you to remember that
influencers, especially women, are under a lot of scrutiny
when it comes to their appearance, and a lot of people use these filters because
they don't feel comfortable putting their bare skin on camera, and as much as
we'd love to be like, we all appreciate natural skin, we all
love natural skin, real skin, there are trolls on the internet, and
there's always going to be trolls. So you're going to see these people using
filters, because they could just be very, very
uncomfortable at, and about, the comments they get based on the unnatural beauty
standards that are put on everyone, especially
women. So, I'm in no way saying if filters are being used, the person's in the wrong,
in any way. I just want you to think about why they're
using those filters. Is it to mislead or is it just to make them feel comfortable?
And as awful as that sounds, it's a shame that something like that
has to be done, to make them feel comfortable putting them, their true
selves online. It's a bigger issue I'm afraid.
Before we move on to the next influencer, let's look at an example of filters
exaggerating the results of products. I was tagged in this, this is the founder
of Rodial Beauty, and Nip+ Fab, using her own low lighters. I'm not sure
what they are, on what is a horrifyingly obvious face
blur. The product wand is blurred when it goes on her skin, and whilst this isn't
an advert, this is the founder of the brand and the
creator of the products, so she has a financial interest, she's
benefiting from promoting her products with
this exaggerated false finish. Not that we have to do this but let's look at a
comparison of her normal skin. Obviously, she doesn't have
natural blurred skin, she has incredible skin,
and she's also had some work done here. She looks stunning either way.
But this is when I take issues with brands using blurs like this, like
this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous, this is,
this is just beyond, beyond the lying about what your products can do.
Now, let's take a look at James Charles. I feel like people told me James Charles
uses filters because of the fact, like NikkiTutorials, he is
very, very open, and honest about the fact that he uses
Facetune on his like, finished photos. He has 100%
used heavy filtering apps, face altering apps in the past. I've talked about
paid promotion that he's done in his Instagram stories, where, you know, the
walls are bending in the background, door frames are curving into his face, he's
made his eyes bigger, face slimmer, squarer. But when it comes to his actual
YouTube videos, from what I saw, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disagree with
you. I do not think he uses filters at all.
Let's take a look at this video, 'Full Face of Frozen Makeup Challenge'.
We see his bare face, and whilst the quality of the video isn't exactly 4k,
you can still see a fair bit of detail on his skin. You can see
his, he's got very, very good skin. You can see the natural, uneven skin tone. So
where your face is going to be darker, or a little
bit redder, like under the chin, around the nose,
we can see pores, his skin is moving normally, and when it moves those
blemishes don't pull in, and out of focus, they don't blur.
If you take a look at his chin, you can see where his facial hair is growing
back, it's little dots. As well, you can see the hairs, it's not
just one grayish, greenish blur. We go right back to 2018 when he
launched his palettes with Morphe, and you can very clearly see, again,
no filters being used on his YouTube channel, when he is advertising his own
makeup. So in my opinion, the vast majority of
the time, despite what we see when we look at his Instagram,
he isn't using filters, where myself or the ASA would have an issue with him
using filters. His camera does blur a little bit as well but there's more
about the depth of focus, that's more about the camera setup, it's
a blur of the camera, it's not a filter blur.
And this is, this is the difference, with NikkieTutorials,
this bit would be blurred but this bit wouldn't, but then this bit would be
blurred, and it didn't make sense. There's too many
blurs on different levels, whereas with James Charles, you can see that his face
is mainly all in focus, then things set further back are blurred,
which is a very normal like, setting, to have on the camera.
Jackie Aina was a name that kept coming up,
and I'm just gonna say nope, no way. I don't even know why people threw her
name out into the conversation, there is no blurring, no
like, retouching here in her videos, no filters,
no beauty box, nothing being done whatsoever.
On that note as well, Michelle Phan was another name that's thrown into the
conversation when it comes to using filters in her videos. Again,
she doesn't, she's got amazing lighting but as we can see, from this video, we can
see everything going on, on her skin. She's
got amazing color correction work going on here, which doesn't necessarily
mean it's being done for the skin, it's not. Color correction is more about the
lighting, the shadows, the highlights, the mid-tones,
you know, the colors within those. It's not
about how your skin looks. When it comes to Instagram, when it comes
to beauty filter apps, there are certain filters that are going to do things like
cancel out redness, make your skin look more even, but it's
very different. they're preset apps, and it's very different
to color correction. Jackie Aina might be using some color correction but for
all I can see here, Jackie Aina, Michelle Phan, very
different filming styles, there's nothing deceptive going on here,
whatsoever. Whatsoever. I feel like that was a quick
one today, but I just wanted to get, these were the top names that kept coming up
when it comes to using beauty filters, and a few others, but I don't want
them on my channel. And there just aren't any filters going on there, but I do
understand the almost, distrust, because I have it as well.
There's so many new technologies coming out all the time, that make it less, and
less obvious when someone's being deceptive about
what a product can do for your skin, how makeup sits on the skin,
how somebody's skin is naturally. But what we got to realize as well is, that
real skin doesn't necessarily mean bad skin. Somebody could just have really
good skin, and not be, not being deceptive about it, you know. So
keep looking out for those filters, don't go accusing people of using
filters. I do it too, I'm doing it with you all the time but
also try and bear in mind why people are using them. I think it's great that
people aren't using filters when it comes to
advertising anymore, that's all I've ever wanted when it
comes to doing these videos, what I hope these videos make people realize,
but yes, I hope this sheds some light on you know, what you can be looking out for
when it comes to those filters. What's the difference between a
camera blur, and an actual beauty filter. So really, out of all those, it was only
one that had been doing it here on YouTube. Off YouTube it might be, it is
another story, so we could look into that another time, but I hope you enjoyed that.
Check out all the Instagram Vs. reality series here.
I'll hopefully be doing them more often. Also, more general light entertainment,
you can watch the videos here, and I'll see you over there.