What Beauty Looks Like

I found an interesting article this morning, titled What Beauty Looks Like, from Argentina to Vietnam

This woman sent a very simple photo of herself to photoshop designers in many different countries with the instructions "Make me look beautiful". What results is pretty interesting, in my opinion. I think it is a great example of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and how different cultures and individuals have their own concept of what makes a person beautiful.

If you click over to the lady's own website, it is easier to view because it puts the original photo in a side by side with the altered images that is easier to scan through.

Which one do you find to be the most beautiful? I liked Ukraine and Italy. The US ones were horrible in my opinion.

I liked Greece and UK.. Greece better tho
Intresting quite a many of them looked like dead.. Germany´s looked like a ghost
US was absolutely awful in both entries ( sorry US ppl

a reply to: MojaveBurning

It's all good shooping, but there is nothing that ever tops the original. Nature is beautiful, even the ugly bits. Heck, I do not even like the idea of make up. More often than not, it's nothing but graffiti.

originally posted by: dollukka
I liked Greece and UK.. Greece better tho
Intresting quite a many of them looked like dead.. Germany´s looked like a ghost
US was absolutely awful in both entries ( sorry US ppl

I agree the US submissions were absolutely horrible. I liked Argentina's the best minus the whitening myself. The range of the perception of "beauty" is very broad in this example.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: MojaveBurning

It's all good shooping, but there is nothing that ever tops the original. Nature is beautiful, even the ugly bits. Heck, I do not even like the idea of make up. More often than not, it's nothing but graffiti.

Well said, agree 100%.
Seeing someone with makeup all over their face is a huge turn-off.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: MojaveBurning

It's all good shooping, but there is nothing that ever tops the original. Nature is beautiful, even the ugly bits. Heck, I do not even like the idea of make up. More often than not, it's nothing but graffiti.

THIS.

My wife gets angry when she asks how she looks and I tell her I like au naturale better. She thinks i am being coy.

But regular is far hotter to me than some dressed up Hollywood doll.

so, so, soooo bad... The Philippines version is terrifying!
My guess is they didn't exactly hire the best, these look like they are probably done by students working through freelance websites like peopleperhour. What you have here is a collection of shops from students, not how the world views beauty

a reply to: dollukka

Im thoroughly convinced the people of my country are out to embarrass me at every given opportunity.

We could of sent the same picture to random citizens of the same city and we would of gotten just about as many different results.

Oh and the moral of this event : Not everyone is good in photoshop.

a reply to: MojaveBurning

I seen this the other day and some of it is surprisingly awful, probably done by men that know nothing of make up, on photoshop or an iphone app, as most of it looks unnatural.

The worst is possibly both US versions, messing around with the photo's eye and head shape looks creepy. Venezuela probably got the make up more suited to the natural skin tones.

The washed out versions like Germany's is perhaps trying to make it more of a Northern European tone but rarely are there people that pale, anywhere. However it is probably the most artistic style as it has a certain transparency and luminosity contrasted with more colourful hair, for example if it was a photo in an artistic photo competition rather than 'how would you make this person look better'.

Her skin tone looks similar to mine and can suit colour, like the Australian version but more toned down, just a bit of colour and is preferable to the full on make up styles of some of the entries.

And as has already been mentioned it is the person doing the photoshop's ideals than an entire nations so it shouldn't been seen as representative of any nations opinions.

looks like the authors contracted out the photoshopping job to mexican prisoners working with a flash app. then i got to the u.s. model.



i don't know about you, but my ideal woman doesn't look like a mutated child. where are they getting that?

a reply to: MojaveBurning

I have seen this all over the internet and honestly it is horrible photoshop. She doesn't look good in the ones where they put make up on her, it looks fake and unnatural.

Personally I think women in Italy are beautiful and that is only because I've been there. SO natural and not all the fuss we Americans tend to do.

a reply to: MojaveBurning

With the exception of Germany's, *It looked like they didn't even try* I think they all had a different angle and perspective of beauty.

I would LOVE to see this woman as an ELF in one of the upcoming Lord of the Rings movies though. Liv Tyler look out! sigh, I can't believe I dissed my girl Liv like that.

Interesting.
I liked Chile and India.
USA was horrendous

She is beautiful naturally.

I think a bit of makeup to enhance is ok, but plastered all over is horrible.
I definitely look much better with a bit of eyeliner and mascara. It opens my eyes up. No eye shadow though.
My hair frustrates me and I spend more time on that if I'm getting ready to go out.

Lately though , I really don' t care how I look. I like myself how I am naturally. Took me all of 54 yrs to get to this. It was only after I divorced my unpleasable husband . All he did was make me feel ugly, " put some makeup on, fix your hair ..".

I don't know, I guess I'm weird but I thought she was quite attractive in her original photo.

I prefer the natural "girl next door" look as opposed to the made up fancy version.

My opinion always differed from the mainstream views.

While most men liked "sex symbol" celebrity's like:
Loni Anderson
Farrah Fawcett
Pamela Anderson
Anna Nicole Smith
Linda Carter


I was more attracted to other types like:

Lindsey Wagner (bionic woman)
Stevie Nicks
Erin Grey (Silver Spoons)
Valerie Bertinelli (One day at a time)


Fake blonde hair, fake or large breasts and lots of make-up never did it for me, Natural is much better.

Modern day actress types I would take Dakota Fanning any day over Megan Fox....

The more women try to make themselves "beautiful" the further they get from true beauty in my opinion.

a reply to: MojaveBurning

You want beauty? I'll show you beauty!

www.theplace2.ru...
www.coolpicturegallery.net...

originally posted by: dollukka
I liked Greece and UK.. Greece better tho
Intresting quite a many of them looked like dead.. Germany´s looked like a ghost
US was absolutely awful in both entries ( sorry US ppl

No offense taken. The US entries were atrocious. I actually did a double take when I saw the one on the left. Apparently, someone's idea of beauty is a remarkably bland 12 year old ballet student.

You all make some really great points. I agree that the photoshop work isn't great, I just think it's a good generalization about how differently each person sees beauty.

I also prefer the more natural look, I rarely wear makeup. If I do it's usually just mascara, just because it's not super noticeable and it makes me feel more put together.

Makeup is definitely a cultural thing, I find it interesting from a sociocultural perspective. I just don't personally care for wearing it, lol.

I also agree with what someone else mentioned, in that the lady's original picture is beautiful just the way it is.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: MojaveBurning

It's all good shooping, but there is nothing that ever tops the original. Nature is beautiful, even the ugly bits. Heck, I do not even like the idea of make up. More often than not, it's nothing but graffiti.

Agreed! I think the girl is quite pretty without the photo shop and the only one that I liked out of all the afters was Vietnam's because the changes they made were barely perceptible. She still looked like the same pretty girl in that one. You'd like the Navajo take on make up that I ran into more than a few times while living out there--make up is a mask which hides your beauty and who you are. I developed a bare face habit after that and I was raised to at least have lipstick on when going to the grocery store. These days, nothing is grosser than talking to a pretty girl and seeing enough shellac on her cheek that I'm tempted to try to scrape it off. It's just gross and not beautiful at all.

My daughter and I share the same view--light tweaks only. Most people think we don't wear any make up at all even when we're wearing it and we prefer it that way.

I agree with those here that thought she looked best in the original, untouched photo. The ones from the U.S. were horrific. The one from the Phillipines makes her look like a cast member from Saturday Night Live in the '70's.