The Beauty Filter Rebellion Has Begun With TikTok’s Latest Trend

In recent years, there’s been a growing conversation about how social media filters can be harmful. In fact, a recent study found a direct link between social media filters and lower self-esteem, self-confidence, and higher cases of body dysmorphia. The UK has even banned the use of misleading Instagram filters when promoting beauty products. However, that hasn’t seemed to stop filter use from gaining headway, with a number of TikTok trends incorporating new specific filters— although some are more playful and less misleading like the clown filter. However, TikTok’s latest beauty trend is flipping the filtered aesthetic on its head.

On TikTok, people are starting videos using a beauty filter, often the smokey eye filter (which adds false eyelashes, blurs blemishes, and removes natural skin texture), then removing it to reveal their face without a filter. Videos are set to the song “Tear in My Heart” by Twenty One Pilots, with the lyrics: “The songs on the radio are okay, but my taste in music is your face.” Naturally, people are timing the filter removal with the lyrics “your face.”

The TikTok audio already has over 270 thousand videos, with viral TikTok celebrity Charli D’amelio joining in last week by posting a before and after of her with makeup on and then with the makeup removed. With over 9 million views, D’amelio fans have praised her for taking part in the trend. “She looks beautiful with and without makeup,” wrote one. “Thank you for being so real,” wrote another.

Other creators on the app have praised the trend itself for being healthy. With Canadian actress and YouTuber Meg DeAngelis joining in and captioning her video with: “I don’t think I've ever turned off enhance before this.” Other creators have used the larger trend as an opportunity to educate others on Eurocentric beauty standards. “The Eurocentric beauty standard is okay (not really), but my taste in beauty is Indigenous people embracing our natural features,” posted one creator who went viral.

While we doubt this will mean the end of beauty filters altogether, they’re pretty much embedded into our digital culture at this point, the trend is arguably one of TikTok’s most feel-good moments to date. It also serves as an important reminder that you don’t need a full face of makeup or the beauty filter to be on in order to post a good TikTok video.