How TikTok filters are shaping the latest plastic surgery trends
TikTok filters are more realistic than ever, showing us what we could look like with a few simple tweaks – and this is increasingly impacting what cosmetic procedures we’re seeking out.
Alexandra Hildreth for DAZED Beauty.
We have come a long way since the dog-eared and rainbow-vomiting filters of Snapchat. In 2024, they have been replaced by increasingly realistic and face-altering ones that smooth out your pores, enlarge lips, contour your nose and reshape your jaw. On TikTok, AI filters like ‘Bold Glamour’ and ‘Teenage Look’ are insidiously realistic, transforming your face pixel by pixel in a way that is almost undetectable. And recently, we’ve seen a new wave of filters; ones that “test” and give value to certain physical standards.
You have probably seen a few come across your feed: low v high visual weight refers to whether lighter or heavier make-up is more “flattering” based on facial feature size. The .33 facial ratio filter refers to the “ideal” proportions of facial features. The canthal tilt filter measures the angle of an eye’s upward or downward tilt, going hand in hand with celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, whose features have popularised eyebrow lifts and “fox brows” to achieve a “higher tilt”.
Since the beginning of filters, these digital transformations have jumped off the screen and had substantial real-world impacts. In 2018, Dr Tijion Esho coined the term ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ after noticing that his patients were increasingly bringing in photos of their own faces subtly (or not so subtly) altered by Snapchat filters instead of pictures of celebrities, which is what they’d done before. In the six years since, the technology has only become more realistic and widespread. So how is the new generation of TikTok filters influencing and impacting plastic surgery trends?