When reading the word “filter“, you may have thought of sunblock. Couldn’t be more wrong! It’s not about SPF, for once, and it’s got nothing to do with UVA or UVB rays, even though that matter is still very important. Did the word “filter” bring to mind one of the most widely used and famous social networks in the world, perhaps? Did you think of Instagram, by any chance? That’s a lot closer.
The word “filter” became very important in the world of beauty: it’s spelled nice and big in beauty campaigns, in bright colors on packaging, and in a lot of the booklets for new products. Filters promise a beautiful, selfie-ready skin that will make virtual, social-media filters basically useless, with a soft-focus effect that smoothens your skin, making your pores a lot less visible.
How, you ask? It’s a relatively easy trick, actually: the beauty equivalent of smoke and mirrors, basically. Formulas get enriched with reflecting micro-particles – don’t think of glitter, though, they are so small they are not visible to the eye. These particles make your skin look almost “backlit”, making it very difficult for your eyes to notice any blemishes. It’s almost magical! There are lots of products that can help us achieve this optical illusion, and they are mostly all part of the same category, which is base.
Primer will be your first step, which is also the most effective to hide your pores – the worst enemy of any close-up selfie, even more so if you use the new iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode, whose photos look incredibly clear, making it possible to zoom a lot without the photo ever getting pixelated. The good thing about these products is that they are multitasking: on top of this filter effect, primers will help your foundation or your BB Cream last longer, guaranteeing perfect picture-ready skin for the whole day.
Your last step will be grabbing your face powder, to make your complexion look more uniform, and correct discoloration. Be careful though, and make sure you don’t overdo it, to avoid looking like a mask. Powders mattify very much, but your face is naturally bright and glowy. Filters should be there to enhance your beauty, not to erase any detail that might be underneath them.
A word of caution for this tale. Forget basically almost all of these products if you will be portrayed by photographers that use a flash! The reflective micro-particles we mentioned will be your worst enemy in that case, as they will cause a glare that will look really unpleasant. Have you ever seen any photos of celebrities with a white halo on their face? Then you know what we are talking about. Sometimes digital, post-production filters are just better 😉