TikTok comparison filter, explained | Mashable

“You’re not ugly; you don’t do your makeup based on the difference in your face,” begins one of the more than 52,000 videos of women using the “What’s your difference” filter on TikTok.

The latest trend of beauty filters plays on women’s insecurities to sell products, encouraging users to categorize their faces based on the differences between their features. The filter converts your face to black and white, providing a model that separates the face into high, medium, and low contrast types. However, the standard of comparison is based on Eurocentric beauty ideas, which offer only three options for skin tone: light, medium, and dark. It suggests that the darker your features are against your skin, the higher contrast you should assign. Each contrast level is linked to a recommended makeup style – low contrast calls for a subtle look, while high contrast lends itself to bolder, more dramatic makeup.

In a video that has been viewed more than 5 million times, the creator of the filter, @alieenorFrench makeup artist, says, “As someone who had very low self-esteem, this is one of my missions in the world to help women be confident in themselves. Help them use makeup to their advantage and not work against them.” He posits comparative theory as a tool to free oneself from insecurity and in the end feel good.

Her concept, like any TikTok beauty trend, dangerously conflates self-confidence with her appearance – and prizes European beauty above all else.

He argues, “It’s an important thing to know about yourself.” And she explains, “If you’re very different…to have a balanced face, you have to add some kind of firmness. If you’re not, that’s fine. You understand why you look washed out.” She talks about how discovering comparison theory helped her realize, “This makeup is not for me, it’s not because I’m not pretty.”

While @alieenor may have created the filter in good faith to help women feel confident, it shares in a dangerous ideology that empowers “feeling good” at any cost. In recent years, the beauty industry has cleverly turned beauty into a form of self-care, giving us every excuse to “make me feel beautiful!”

Posing comparison theory as a quick fix for low self-esteem sends a particularly dangerous message to teenage girls—especially in an environment where algorithms are known to exploit their insecurities. A 2021 CDC report found that one in five girls feel constantly sad and hopeless, a 21 percent increase from 2011.

Creator @alieenor’s descriptions of medium, low, and high contrast received 11.7 million, 1.7 million, and 7.2 million views respectively. Despite the popularity of comparative theory in the field, it faces significant criticism.

“This is another fake trend that only works on fair skin and I’m going to prove it to you by doing a very different makeup compared to medium on brown skin,” said Monika Ravinchandran, the beauty’s creator, in the video. He goes on to argue that classifying people with really dark skin as low contrast, doesn’t work for “full glam Black makeup.”

“There’s a reason why Desi makeup and UK Black girls are all about glamour,” continues Ravinchandran. “Brown skin shrinks with high contrast. Dark skin absorbs more light, so it actually needs more density and can take on more color.” By determining what type of makeup suits different skin tones, critics argue that the theory also implicitly states what does not suit certain skin tones – in effect labeling those choices as unattractive or unattractive.

In the long history of TikTok beauty trends, comparison theory is nothing new. It follows in the footsteps of color analysis, eyebrow filteronce perfect face ratio filter. It’s been a long time since the neutralization of the body has had its time to filter out germs. But a filter like that would be difficult to fit into TikTok’s algorithm — especially since it wouldn’t drive product sales or allow creators to earn commissions from promoting beauty products.