TikTok's new beauty filter is so realistic that people can't tell when it's being used. Psychologists, aestheticians, and neurologists are all concerned.
@anamariazamzam/TikTok
- Bold Glamour is the latest viral TikTok beauty filter, and users are alarmed at how creepily realistic it is.
- Experts warn that unregulated use of the filter can distort self-perception and worsen self-esteem issues.
- A spokesperson from TikTok explained that all videos using the filters are "clearly marked by default."
TikTok Filters are one of the platform's key features. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a few have gone viral over the years, after getting picked up by creators with huge followings.
But this time, a viral beauty filter is gaining immense attention for how alarmingly realistic it looks.
Bold Glamour is unlike any beauty filter that has been released on TikTok before.
As of March 8, the filter had over 2.8 million videos on TikTok, and videos tagged #boldglamour had gathered more than 390 million views.
Previously, users were typically able to identify if a TikTok beauty filter was being used in a video. With Bold Glamour, however, many are finding it almost impossible to discern if the filter was on.
One video, depicting TikToker @notsophiesilva rubbing her face to show how the filter did not budge, had a caption noting: "This filter has to be illegal." The TikTok has over 37.1 million views and 2 million likes
TikTok did not make known the technology used to develop the filter. The Verge, a website "about technology and how it makes us feel," noted that the company had ignored emails requesting confirmation on whether AI is being used.
Some experts are saying that Bold Glamour uses machine learning, a branch of AI technology, according to technology corporation IBM.
Different than the traditional beauty filter that overlays a face mesh on a 2D screen with a facial-tracking mechanism, this new filter processes the camera image itself by comparing it with a dataset of other images and then regenerates the pixels, according to Luke Hurd, a mixed reality consultant with experiences making TikTok filters as an Effect House creator.
This technology allows the filter to not be affected by any obstruction to the camera — which would have messed with the 3D-overlay in a traditional filter — birthing the hyperrealistic look, Hurd explains in his series of TikToks.
However, Bold Glamour was met with mixed reactions on the app.
Some TikTokers are simply impressed by how realistic and flawless the filter is, while others express how it's affecting their self-esteem by making them feel ugly when the filter is off.
"I don't think my brain knows how to deal looking like this one minute," TikToker @joannajkenny said, "and then this the next," she adds as she turns the filter off to reveal her real face in her TikTok. The video has 7.6 million views and over 400,000 likes.
Many are also saying that this filter is dangerous, as it reinforces unrealistic beauty standards through a means that can be highly deceptive. "This filter should come with a warning," a caption in the same video by TikToker @joannajkenny read.
Insider reached out to some experts who warn that the filter has potential to negatively impact a person's self-esteem, as it distorts how people perceive themselves, and creates an insatiable gap between what's shown on the screen and exists in reality.
"The Bold Glamour filter can definitely harm a person's self-perception," New York-based licensed clinical psychologist Jaci Lopez Witmer told Insider, "in extreme cases the filter can lead to Body Dysmorphic Disorder," she adds. Body Dysmorphic Disorder is characterized by "persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance," according to Psychology Today.
Witmer also told Insider that users may experience cognitive dissonance due to the filter being "inconsistent with their own self-image." Cognitive dissonance is described as the feeling of discomfort when two or more states of thought contradict one another, according to Psychology Today.
True enough, users on TikTok can be seen grimacing when they turn the filter off. "Do this filter if you wanna cry," a caption of such a video with more than 50,000 likes read.
But it seems like Bold Glamour is just the beginning of a series of hyperrealistic facial-modification filters.
TikTok released a new set of generative AI effects for Effect House creators on February 22. The new tools — Eyebrow Eraser, Smile, and Pucker — can be used to modify a user's facial features in real-time.
Soon, most filters will likely start to mimic the terrifyingly realistic effect that Bold Glamour has, and Witmer suggests that this may have a lasting impact on society.
"I could see some people taking the filter to an extreme and becoming obsessed with how they look with the filter on, perhaps trying to replicate this in real life," the psychologist told Insider.
True to her prediction, TikTokers on the platform have already begun to attempt recreating their filtered looks. TikToker @raazsbeauty shared in a video that she tried to do her makeup to imitate the filter as closely as she could, but was still disappointed when she turned off the filter. "Umm I guess makeup isnt going to cut it," read the caption of the TikTok, which has garnered almost 30,000 likes as of March 8.
The self-identity confusion that can arise as a result of using hyperrealistic filters like Bold Glamour even have potential to harm interpersonal relationships, according to Witmer.
"When users feel unsatisfied with their natural appearance and judge themselves harshly against the filtered version of themselves as well as others who use the filter, it can lead to disconnection from themselves and others," she told Insider.
Users may also internalize unrealistic beauty standards that can result in interpersonal conflict as they may tend to judge, criticize, or lay expectations upon others based on their appearance, according to Singapore-based licensed clinical psychologist Annabelle Chow who told Insider in an interview.
Chow also told Insider that adolescents are most susceptible to the effects of such filters.
"They might not have developed realistic beauty standards, or appropriate habits relating to screen time and social media use," she said to Insider.
The adolescent brain is highly impressionable as they have more synaptic connections, according to neurologist Frances Elizabeth Jensen in an interview with The Guardian. This makes them the most vulnerable to the negative influences that filters like Bold Glamour can have.
"I'm so happy my teenage self only had dog ears on Snapchat," a caption reads on a TikTok video by creator @notsophiesilva. "I don't even have bad self-esteem like that but it's even making me dislike my own face," she said in the video, which has over a million views and 70,000 likes as of March 8.
"I'm worried about the younger generation. I don't know if I would have been able to differentiate my beauty from a filtered photo at 11 or 13, especially with how much they are expected to show up online these days," Brenda Varela, a New York-based licensed esthetician and owner of The Bar, who also holds a master's degree in clinical mental health, told Insider.
As someone who was able to view the effects of filter-imposed beauty standards from two professional angles, Varela told Insider that one of the first things she noticed during her career path transition was how people were aspiring to look like others on social media, without knowing that they were setting unattainable "skin goals." Varela added that, "Those idealistic figures don't even look like that in real life."
Overall, many critics and users of TikTok agree that filters like Bold Glamour should come with a disclaimer. It has the potential to cause negative effects on the user, as well as the people around them by reinforcing impossible beauty standards.
Insider reached out to TikTok for comment on the general criticism the filter has received. "Being true to yourself is celebrated and encouraged on TikTok. Creative Effects are a part of what makes it fun to create content, empowering self-expression and creativity," a TikTok spokesperson responded.
The spokesperson from TikTok went on to explain that, "Transparency is built into the effect experience, as all videos using them are clearly marked by default. We continue to work with expert partners and our community, to help keep TikTok a positive, supportive space for everyone."
Bold Glamour, and all other filter labels, disappear after a TikTok video is downloaded off the platform. It's when a TikTok has been reposted on other platforms that it can become unclear to viewers that a filter is being used.
"If this becomes an issue, we will be left with a highly anxious, overly critical, exponentially depressed, and just overall unhappy society in 10 to 20 years," said Varela to Insider.