Are Snapchat’s Beauty Filters Making People Look Whiter?

Several Snapchat users have commented on social media that the popular app’s filters are lightening people’s complexions. While Snapchat’s “beauty” and “pretty” filters are meant to improve people’s appearance, such as by evening out skin tone and adding virtual makeup, they also seem to lighten the overall photo, including the subject’s skin tone, according to BuzzFeed. Others have noticed that the filters also change facial proportions, from making eyes appear bigger and more doelike to slimming down jaws and noses.

Twitter user @ccstreeter commented, “but why do the snapchat ‘beautifying’ filters make your skin whiter and eyes lighter,” while @SimplyAllegra wrote, “Snapchat, I am very disturbed by the fact that your ‘beautification’ filters make my skin lighter, and my nose and jaw smaller. Just saying.”

Related: Filter-Mimicking Makeup for a Selfie-Ready Look

One BuzzFeed writer who tried out the “pretty” filter noticed that her skin had been “unnaturally smoothed and made pinker, taking away its natural brown tone. My nose and jaw are both digitally made thinner, and my eyes are enlarged.”

Yahoo Beauty decided to test it out ourselves.

Photo: Yahoo Beauty

For Yahoo Beauty Associate Editor Jihan Forbes, the change was fairly subtle. The filter evened out her skin tone and added pink and yellow hues to her complexion.

Photo: Yahoo Beauty

The changes were much more dramatic for Yahoo Beauty Photo Editor Nadeen Nakib. The filter gave her a significantly lighter complexion, a more narrow jaw and nose, and even turned her brown eyes nearly blue. But not everyone minds the filter’s effects. “I’m obviously so much lighter, my eyes are almost blue, and my nose looks slimmer,” says Nakib. “But I was like, ‘Oh! I look so pretty!’”

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