I no longer allow social media to make me feel anything negative about myself. It's all smoke & mirrors. 😌😌

Me: I wonder where the filter is… James: there is a PAINFULLY OBVIOUS FILTER HERE Me: …yes…very painful…much obvious…

Mascara ads piss me off the most. They’re like: “Omg, this mascara makes your lashes look soooo full and long” - while they are using fake lashes…🤦🏻‍♀️

I’d rather buy a product from a brand showcasing real, mediocre results, than someone promising miracles with suspicious quality. At least then you aren’t left wondering how horrible your skin must be when the ‘amazing blurring effect’ doesn’t work on yours. Thank you for these videos James❤️

Has anyone been noticing that more and more fake humans are being used in advertising? There is an uncanny-valley feeling during random points in commercials and then you realize that their facial movements and speech just arent quite right? This isnt going to stop at filters

Calling natural lighting as filter seems like such a cop out. Can natural lighting be used to manipulate photos? Sure. In fact many brands do that for makeup and skincare, even wedding photographers love the "magic/golden hour" light. But calling it a filter is a stretch because it is not uniform - it can vary by the location, time of the year, cloud cover, etc. Whether it is natural or studio lights, before/after pictures need to be in a similar if not identical set up to show an honest comparison

James, I work at Sephora now, and the most important thing I learned from you that I share with EVERYONE is that the first step to flawless makeup is proper skincare. I was shocked to learn how many people come in for full coverage foundation (because of blemishes, hyperpigmentation, etc.) and when I ask them what their skin regimen looks like, they tell me that the don’t have one. 👁👄👁 I use it as a teaching moment and teach them everything you taught me. #1 EXPENSIVE DOESN’T MEAN BETTER. ❤️ Saving the world, one face at a time. Xoxoxox

Michelle making the claim that natural lighting should also be considered a filter is such a straw man argument. It's like getting caught red handed and instead of taking accountability she decided to try and justify it and say that it's actually okay because everyone else does it. You know what they say... "Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair"

I stopped following Michelle Phan because of how filtered her pictures are, her face and body changed completely and she claims it’s all natural; it was annoying reading all the comments under her videos and pictures about how a natural beauty she is. It’s sad because I really liked her, her videos were my favourite on KZfaq:(

Totally unrealistic expectation, but I want to see what foundation especially, looks like in normal life settings, where I'm going to be seen wearing it. Show me overhead florescent lighting like out running errands, or in an office setting. It probably won't make for a beautiful photo, but then I can tell if it's going to make me look better in real life.

The thing about the selfie camera distorting our faces is SO REAL. Every time I take a selfie I think my nose is ginourmous and my face is too thin (like a horse face). When i look in the mirror i don’t see that. When I had a professional photo taken, I actually got surprised by how small my nose looked like and how my face shape was more “proportional”comparing to my selfies. I actually edit my photos now to try to make my selfies look like my REAL face. :\

I got such a complex about how gaunt and skinny my face looked in selfie mode and even when i used snapchat filters that i went and got cosmetic injections and after repeat visits my nurse said "no more " "i don't see what you're seeing i can bring in every nurse in the clinic, your face doesn't look gaunt or long" , i thought i was seeing my own reflection completely warped in the mirror and that i straight up just looked like a gaunt sick skinny person because that's what my selfies showed. After seeing videos someone took of me from a distance i realised that the selfie mode was infact the issue and i also later realised a majority of the snapchat filters slim your face and thin your jawline which might be beneficial for a round face but definitely not for me. The amount of self hatred i had over my own face makes me so sad, that's why i love videos like these, i think they're so important.

Literally feel like I was living under rock not knowing that forward facing camera sucks. But makes me feel so much better because I have always hated selfies of myself because I always thought my face looked weird!

I don’t really care for her excuse, she should have filmed on the back camera or a professional camera which I’m sure she has one to use, filters on skincare ads should be illegal already! 😠

The most important thing I've learned about makeup and skincare is that if the product promises "miracles..." Run

I have so much admiration & nostalgia for Michelle Phan but I don’t like how she’s not transparent about all the changes to her face. People attribute her “glow up” to her skincare routines but it’s not just skincare products or beauty filters, she’s definitely had some cosmetic surgery to keep looking as good as she does. I think admitting to only using skin filters lends the audience to absolve a person from any surgical changes to their face which I think is still misleading

Honestly, I hate social media. My self confidence has really tanked in the last 4 years. Sometimes I spiral so hard that I feel like my phone is purposely making me look ugly because it hates me 😂That feels so dumb to say out loud but it's true!! I have certainly aged a bit in the last 4 years but somehow it feels like I'm the only one and everyone else always looks great. But whenever I edit it absolutely looks like I did. I rarely post pictures of myself anymore. Makes me feel absolutely worthless. I miss when cameras were a little less detailed and everyone cared a little less 😂

I really appreciate this content. I have such a hard time seeing myself in pictures because I can't understand why what I see in the mirror (which I actually like) doesn't look anything like the picture (which I can't stand). Thank you for sharing your insights.

I used to obsess over how impossibly beautiful models looked in magazines. Yes, magazines, I’m old😜. I was a naive teen and had no idea they could filter photos. I was always so upset with my rosacea skin and it completely hurt self esteem in a real way. I’m 52 and only recently able to go out without makeup; there were real consequences for me.

"They're treating us like idiots." THANK YOU, James. Just, thank you for bringing light to this truth.

James is doing the WORK so we can look at our faces and realize we are humans with human skin, not AI. I love this video.

The stupid thing is-Curology does give good results!! I have amazing results (2yrs out) and I know it works!! Why not use real customers and real results?? The only thing I don't love about them is the amount of products they think a human uses in 3 months!! I'd have to have a face like a hub cap and be smearing that stuff 24/7 on my big ass face to even use half of what they send!! It's not cheap, either ❤❤

I think I understand what Michelle meant by natural light or magic hour being a nature's filter. Some Instagram filters claim to be able to recreate that sunset glow or magic hour effect, thus a filter.

To me filters are those that change aspects of the features, so when i post on my social and color adjust the saturation to bring out my natural color so i don't look washed out (every phones issues i've had), i don't think of it as filter.

This was helpful to understand Michelle Phan. Even though I understand the impact of lenses, I was put off by her explanation bc the idea of a skin filter is still bothersome. Also, her products are kinda marketed as enhancing natural beauty so I find that it just doesn't make sense overall. Sigh. Felt like a bit of a letdown. I'd literally bought some EM stuff before this stuff dropped. I respect her but still feel conflicted.

"This is why you hate your selfies", such an apt way to describe my general self esteem since I was a teenager until now hahah. I hate being in photos because I always felt like I didn't look "good" or "pretty". I even avoided wearing makeup for most of my life because I didn't look like the cool girls on TV or social media, no matter how much time and money I spent. As a 25 year old with persistent acne, trying to feel GENUINE confidence can be hard sometimes but I'm learning to not take these images of increasingly unattainable beauty affect me. Accepting my outer beauty has not been easy and it sucks that I care anyway. That's why skincare has been my way of taking control of my physical beauty and defining what being happy with my God-given bare face means.

these videos are slowly making me a filter-finding expert, with full on mini-lectures i give to my mom while she looks at the stories of the celebrities she follows on ig! it’s crazy that brands keep thinking they can get away with it

I dislike how brands keep pushing unattainable beauty that's deceiving to people. What's sad is people keep falling for this lie.

She put the primer on her cheek & her nose blurred too! That’s one amazing primer.. I gotta get some!

Love how you continue to hold companies/brands and their PR bullshittery accountable for their deception and liezz.💜💜

I always look at before/ after pics with a very critical eye, because most have blatant lighting discrepancies...at that point, it's irrelevant whether there is also a filter because I already don't believe them, whether it's a brand or a content creator.

I feel like brands should use natural lighting and do both the before and after pictures using the same lighting and angles. I think that would be the best way to get an accurate depiction of how their product works.

I'm going to totally out myself and say I had no clue that the camera on a phone was different with the selfie vs the main front camera to take other pictures. Um wtf ??? Thank you, James. 🤯❤

When James says someone did a bad job, and YOU feel guilty 🤣

So I do street photography and am in the minority of artists that dislikes golden hour for photos. I have extremely sensitive eyes and the light of golden hour is too warm and often too bright as the sun’s rays are burning over the horizon. I think it’s a great time of day for portraits but I definitely think it’s cheating when it comes to pictures for ads - I would say the best time to take photos that will used for campaigns with natural light is early morning (sunrise to 9am) and afternoon (1pm to 4pm). The light is the most consistent at these times of day and the truest to how we appear on a daily basis.

I really appreciate you making me feel like a human. Thank you for these reality and dish series. They are so cool Edit: I was about to say why do the Estee stuff look blurred

This is a great video. My husband is a professional photographer, and he’s helping me get set up properly for videos. It’s amazing how much you need to consider when setting it all up to get a realistic version of yourself. Thank you for keeping us honest and exposing the cheaters.

I live for these videos. 26 years old and still definitely struggle with self esteem, although it's much better now. That's in part due to content like this. Thank you 💜🖤

The Estée Lauder one... I bought the foundation a few months ago. When you apply it, it looks ok, but as soon as it's starts drying you can feel it tugging onto your skin and it enhances the skin texture in a way thay I've never experienced before. It looks better when applied with fingers, but not even close to this obviously filtered clip.

A Certified JAMES Classic

Lol, I agree, photo taken at 4:13pm on solstice annually won’t work😄. The lighting just needs to be the same for both before and after. That’s a tough thing to achieve using golden hour, so I think studio lighting is the most reliable for before and after, with no filter. I love when you do these topics!

I’m indoors a lot. I’d like to see skincare brands show before and after results in inside lighting. I don’t think Golden Hour is a filter but it definitely inspired filters. It’s flattering NOT altering.

Thank you for the insight at @8:49 about what goes on behind the scenes when influencers do ads and sponsored content. You and your brother are so candid and transparent about the process, and I don’t think that people even think about the fact that the brands are still liable because they are supposed to be reviewing and approving ad content.

Love your brutal honesty. You do it in the kindest of ways. You are really really helping people who experience dysphasia

I’ve become pretty good at spotting a filter, and I thank you for that. 👍🏻

I appreciate several reviewers that I've watched for years show products in multiple light conditions in hd. For example Taylor Wynn does foundation reviews where she shows her skin under multiple light conditions at the beginning and end of day of wear testing a foundation.

This man's channel has got me out of a 15 year fear of being ugly in photos and videos. I wouldn't take photos or anything with my friend's and covid masks made my world because I didn't have to wear makeup and hate not looking "airbrushed" like all the beauty gurus.

Duuuude the selfie distortion made me feel so validated. I’ve always wondered why I look so weird in selfies lol

I think consistency is key in any type of picture. If you’re doing a before/after, make sure the pictures are taken with as similar lighting as possible. Natural light isn’t a filter and it’s weird to call it that. Natural light is often the only best lighting I have access to because I can’t afford studio lights and an amazing camera.

In my photographic technology class one of our labs was to take a portrait using a wide angle lens, a 50mm lens, and a 100+mm lens. Less than 50mm really does warp the face.

i bet the issue is less thinking people are dumb overall and more trying to catch those people who are young, naive, or think "their" influencer would do no wrong and turn a blind eye (as luxeria says, when you wear rose colored glasses red flags look like a parade girl!) also i wonder if part of the idea is for filtered ads to be so normalized that people sort of stop seeing them. like when you wear glasses you stop seeing the frames after a while.

So thats why I look fugly in selfies! I just need to hold my phone really far far, far away 🤣

The difference between using golden hour vs a filter ( even if it's natural) is that everyone knows pics taken during golden hour look good but people sometimes won't know that it's a filter if you don't disclose it. And no one need to disclose the golden hour. You look at the picture, you know it's been taken at the afternoon and there's your disclosure.

I showed my other half who has no clue about skincare (forgive me James I’m working on it!) and right away he said ‘wtf is going on with her hand it’s all blurry?’ So trust me if HE can see it everyone can see it!! Love these videos they are so interesting! 💜💜💜💜 BTW: started using the cosrx BHA blackhead power liquid this weekend and so far I’m loving it. Might get some for my 15 yr old son, as an army cadet camo cream is not forgiving to his skin and always breaks him out. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 hopefully this will do the trick!

"wasn't edited before we posted". Oh? So it was recorded with filters but not edited afterwards?

The part about Michelle was really interesting and helpful because even when I noticed I never liked myself using the front camera of my phone I never questioned why.

All I want for Christmas is skin that looks like James’

Can't comment on lighting vs filters, but I LOVE these videos! And, you are so spot on about selfies! I've been hating them, and now I see why!!!

Thank you so much James... I've been struggling with confidence because without a filter I look terrible on camera. Meanwhile irl I look cute/pretty. Getting info and education on how ig and filters wrapped our view about ourselves is great. Thank you so much 💜💜💜

James you noticed she was wearing mascara. You and Robert learn so much from each other and are both so helpful!

Thank you for this video. I had to step back from social media because of this idea of perfection and you normalize different forms and types of beauty being valid and worthy. Thank you 🙏🏾

This has been a penny-drop moment for me. I swear I've been saying for a few years I look different, pointy and my face is changing. But like pics from years ago. It's definitely whats fucked up my confidence. I never knew a camera could warp your face so much

love these videos!!!! we can get so caught up looking at all of these retouched images and we forget that texture and pores are totally normal and so we feel so bad, this is a lovely reminder that social media is fake!!! love you James ❤️

I feel that camera distorting my face have terrorized me more than any influencers ever will...

i love the loona lightstick in the back. this is clearly somone i can trust and i mean that. we stan

Why do brands STILL do that? Ugh 😒 Thank you for showing me the way I can see those filters in the ads and just regular posts.

James' expression at 1:12 🤣 Same! So glad I don't compare real life to online unrealistic expectations. I show all my pores/acne in my videos and I don't care. We all have pores, skin texture, breakouts etc 😉

Simplynailogical purposely shows what their nail polish looks like in different lighting. I'd love it if skin care brands did the same for foundations and such.

Omg I love your videos. Thanks for educating us and allowing us to be more discerning with new found knowledge. Also, I’m a new sub. Are you an orbit??? I see that LOONA light stick in you background. Fellow orbit here as well!!! 🥳

The only thing I have against golden hour is that we’re not going to be using products during golden hour. We’ll put it on some time in the morning and be wearing it throughout the day usually. I only ever look for reviews that have wear tests so I can see it in multiple lighting situations and how the product lasts.

I don't like ads that use a very young model to demonstrate wrinkle (?) products. How insulting to us much older women. Come on...how unrealistic and insulting. As far as lighting, I prefer to see people in studio lighting. Direct sunlight can make most people look bad. I really appreciate you discussing this type of issue in your video. You educate all of us with things we've never really thought of before. And again, as always, you are delightful and such a joy to watch. Thanks, James.

I did not know about the zoom in, pull the camera back selfie technique. My selfie-game is changed forever.

Thank you so much! I never knew this about selfies. I can go back to believing my nose is okay. Self-esteem restored!

This single video was SUCH a confidence boost. Thank you for posting James ❤

I cried when I took my first selfies😕 Now I never ever take another one with anyone and I sort of have a complex over it. Thankyou for sharing why my pictures turned out so bad

I actually feel like I prefer the shape of my face more in selfie mode than IRL or from far away. I tend to like pictures I take of myself and absolutely HATE seeing pictures that others take of me from a bit further away, somehow closer up makes my face look less round. But either way, definitely still warping my sense of self in these photos :/

I can't explain the relief I felt when I heard about the front camera thing... I struggled years hating my face because I never look good on pictures especially selfies... starting from teen, I once cried because no matter how much selfies I took, I look ugly... It resulting me to refused to be on pics and missed my chances to have memories preserved in pictures... Then I realised that I actually look decent whenever someone else took my pics... I thought it was just the quality of the camera but now I know it's because of selfie cam...

Hi James!! I love your videos! You and Robert are the only KZfaqrs I trust, you guys are my favorite, specially when you are together you are hilarious 😂. Much love from Mexico 🇲🇽

Waking up to your voice makes me so happy. Your channel as well as your brothers has become a morning rituals. ❤️

Great video! I feel so much better about myself after listening to you explain why selfies aren’t accurate representations of our faces, because I hate my selfies, but when I look in the mirror, I don’t see all the things I see in the selfies that bother me about my face, in particular, exactly what you pointed out-my nose and neck!

I just freaking LOVE YOU and your content. Hope you're doing well!

James, I love your skincare videos (i have an insane amount of products I love because of it lol) I have to say when i see you do these videos I find myself cheering you on. I think THIS is your main following. People who just want honesty. People who dont have time to watch for glitches or heck cant see them. Im 48 and i honestly dont have the time to go through junk to find truth. So personally I thank you. And of course my skin thanks you.

7:20 James' deadpan stare while that kid was pulling all those faces 🤣🤣🤣 omg

I want all photos taken in an office bathroom with harsh overhead fluorescent lighting!! If makeup and skin looks good there, I’ll buy anything.

14:00 omg yes!!! We understand her soo much!! The camera on the phone DISTORTS the face and this is nothing new. And we believe that there is NOTHING WRONG with using a filter to compensate for this distortion.

I'm so obsessed with estee Lauder tho! Their skincare has completely transformed my skin and doesn't fade my freckles! I've never felt so pretty

i think for advertisements, they shouldn’t use golden hour lighting, solely for the fact that it can blur so heavily that it’s hard to see the details of the skin. i want to be able to see the details of the persons skin in a skincare/makeup advertisement. if everything is blurred from the good lighting then it’s not helpful for me to see if it actually does anything. while golden hour is available to anyone and is definitely not a filter, it makes your skin look better than the usual lighting people exist in everyday

You're so right about the Florena ad. Helen is beautiful and just hydrated glossy skin would be perfect for this product.

I want to thank you. I have been having trouble with my skin for almost 17 years now starting with puberty. I never had a Routine or learned how to properly treat my skin. And 3 weeks ago i was over it, after watching a lot of your Videos (and Cassandras Banksons 😄) i purchased the Super jelly gel cleanser, day one moisturizer and niacinamide and zink serum. And after 5-7 days of purging my skin felt so much better, so much cleaner and happier. I have no more breakouts, i purchased a couple of New products after getting Information on them. I am much more confident and understand now how important such a Routine is and what i have been doing wrong basically forever. Tbh im very very grateful bc that was always something i thought i had to live with but with the Videos and the products im very very happy and my skin is as well. So thank you again, you made my 2021 🙂

I hate that curology has used filters, but the stuff has really helped me with the obnoxious amount of acne I got from wearing a mask all day at work. Their stuff does seem to work, and they should show those real results instead of trying to make the results seem way too unrealistic.

13:43 Michelle is so right about the selfie camera, it does it to my face too. It depends on your bone structure. Some people even look better on front facing cameras. I would be feeling my self in the mirror and the moment I take out a front facing camera it completely ruins it for me. But now it has no effect on me coz I like how I look in real life.

I love everything about your videos. I wish we had more influencers like this. So lovely and refreshing to watch.

People made fun of selfie sticks, and I understand they can be obnoxious, but they kind of took care of this selfie camera lens issue. I have very short arms and selfie stick is a blessing for me for when I want to take a photo of myself.

I love these series - calling out the obvious filters. It would be great to see some other examples where brands get it right.

To your last question, I am just going to take it from a different perspective: Instagram was initially created to share photos, art etc. as someone who works in the film and advertisement industry as a VFX artist, we consider that choice of lighting = intention. Yes, the skin shown under a soft natural light (white cast or light angle perpendicular to their skin) = flattering, but as is a mattifying powder IRL or a pore-filling primer. We can't call out people for having an intention on the way they want to shoot their pictures, because lighting can be an art and people play with that a lot. To me lighting, makeup, posing, good choice of clothes etc. is not like actively retouching your pictures in photoshop or using a filter. The issue for me is when you lie actively about using those strategies while you're making an advertisement for yourself or for some product or a brand - then it is very misleading and can be punished by law. When a brand retouch a picture or use falsies for selling a mascara, they have to say it on the picture. For me the issue lies in the fact that the social media platforms aren't regulated when it comes to this. So anyone can sell some "miracle X skincare" while using a filter, and they don't even have to mention it by law because no authority will check it. The governments are way behind when it comes to protecting the audience of these platforms. So it boils down to morals, if someone ask you: "did you have lip fillers or is it the power of this plumping lipstick?" that's your duty as a good citizen to be honest, because the audience is not always aware of what's being hidden. And for me it is truly immoral when I see peeps like the Kardashians still denying that they had any surgery done on their bodies, because everyone can see it! But they still pretend that "everyone can get it if they work hard for it like they do". THIS behavior is really immoral to me.

I genuinely thought my nose had grown over the years because of how it looks in selfies - now I understand what's going on and boy am I happy!

I usually take my selfies in the morning, when it's sunny and the sky is blue. I get compliments on my skin and I always say that it's mostly thanks to the natural light. Golden hour I look like a puff fish and my face is made of shadows

9:00 About “who the hell approves the obviously blurred adverts?” Knowing the field it was probably generated by ad agency interns with those new “design online” softwares for social media, and the managers are overbooked with bigger budgets ads and/or not paid enough to care. It’s way more profitable as an agency to create a ton of shitty ads quickly, and those big clients like Estée Lauder, usually they send some of their marketing or business managers (or directors depending on the budget) who don’t know anything about social media. And since those companies are so big, usually they don’t bring their in-house marketing specialists or designers at the delivery meeting to check if they’re being ripped off 🤷🏻‍♀️ I did in-house and agency and you wouldn’t believe the shit some agencies dare to deliver because clients just don’t know what they’re buying. If the blurry ad was made by in-house graphic designers I’d be surprised though, because a lot of coworkers and direct managers approve the work.

Can I just say I love you for explaining the whole camera angle aspect of selfies?!? I always HATE my selfies because I look like a damn alien!

I’m glad Curology is out there but everyone is hyping up how great they are because their skin has cleared up. But…using any prescription retinol/tretinoin will do that in most cases lol not just Curology’s formulas