Alex O’Neill’s Irish-made Christmas gift guide for the foodies in your life
Alex O’Neill’s Irish-made Christmas gift guide for the foodies in your life

Alex O Neill

Review: A blissful spa weekend less than an hour outside Dublin
Review: A blissful spa weekend less than an hour outside Dublin

Sarah Finnan

An architect’s guide to making your home more energy efficient
An architect’s guide to making your home more energy efficient

IMAGE Interiors & Living

Irish dancer Emer Walsh on starring in the new Wicked film and touring with Kelly Rowland
Irish dancer Emer Walsh on starring in the new Wicked film and touring with Kelly...

Sarah Finnan

Drobey, Ireland’s leading fashion rental platform is having a Dublin pop-up for all your December partywear needs
Drobey, Ireland’s leading fashion rental platform is having a Dublin pop-up for all your December...

Holly O'Neill

In Her Shoes: Rent the Runway’s Dorothy Creaven on skincare, Salthill and her Vespa
In Her Shoes: Rent the Runway’s Dorothy Creaven on skincare, Salthill and her Vespa

Fiona Alston

A refurb of this Victorian Rathmines home makes the most of its unusual layout
A refurb of this Victorian Rathmines home makes the most of its unusual layout

Megan Burns

Wicked and Samuel L. Jackson’s new Netflix film – what to watch this week
Wicked and Samuel L. Jackson’s new Netflix film – what to watch this week

Sarah Finnan

Supper Club: 3 Irish chefs share their favourite savoury recipes with us
Supper Club: 3 Irish chefs share their favourite savoury recipes with us

Sarah Finnan

The Pocketbook: Creative consultant Ruth Walsh’s guide to Amsterdam
The Pocketbook: Creative consultant Ruth Walsh’s guide to Amsterdam

Sarah Gill

Image / Style / Beauty
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STYLE

Will filter free images be a legacy of the pandemic?


by Rose Mary Roche
27th Jul 2021

Getty

"These impossibly perfect faces dominate social media platforms, striking not only for their homogeneity but also for their similarity to beautiful androids."

A renewed appetite for genuine imagery during Covid-19 (grey hair, stretch marks and curves) is to be welcomed but is it enough?

Wide empty eyes, pore-less skin, full pouting lips, button noses and impossible proportions are the typical hallmarks of an image edited with the Facetune app, which has now been downloaded over 50 million times globally. These impossibly perfect faces dominate social media platforms, striking not only for their homogeneity but also for their similarity to beautiful androids. Teeth-whitening, waist-whittling and skin-smoothing tools are all popular. In its infancy air-brushing was seen as a professional technical...

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