To think phones and mirrors make me look totally different.

[Poppiedelight]

Just put a full face of makeup on. Looked nice in the mirror. Did some selfies with my daughter as I haven't put much effort in lately. Scrolled through them and even though we were sat in the same place, some made me look young and fresh and flawless. Others made me look like I had age lines and a double chin.

I said to my partner I think I need some wrinkle cream and I had awful lines on one of the pictures. I showed him it. It said it was my makeup that was making it look like that. He said I looked different in real life. He then got his iPhone out and took some shots of me being "normal" he said something funny to make me laugh then snapped loads of photos. On all of them I've got a fatter face and look Awful (in my view) totally gormless and in natural. Oh how I'd love to be one of those natural beautys that someone's caught a natural shot of.

Anyway I went back to the mirror and I don't see the extra chin the camera has given me.

I need a hair cut (lockdown frizz) but I'm feeling abit of a minger at the moment. I feel like I look a mess in real life with extra fat and lines I had never seen in my mirror.

Iiterally look different in every photo and no idea why

I don't know which is the most honest but I usually think I look OK in the mirror. Very rarely see a photo of me that I like.

Take selfies with the Instagram camera - it doesn't reverse them so it's like looking in a mirror.

Don’t worry, in real life you are moving, smiling, making eye contact with people instead of a lens, and, for want of a better word, sparkling. Your actual attractiveness is far more than what a camera can capture.

You can take photos from angles that you can never ever see in a mirror. By definition you're almost always looking directly or down at yourself in a mirror because your eyes are in a fixed position. Where as if you take a picture and the camera is at or below eyeline you'll get a very different perspective. Equally any pictures from the side will be surprising to you cause it wont be an angle you see regularly.

So I would say that you probably don't look different necessarily, you just don't look how you are used to looking cause you're used to a very specific perspective.

It's partly because the camera lens distorts your face, especially when you hold the phone close to your face. I don't look the same either.

I remember learning about this in my psychology degree. One of the reasons is that we are used to looking at ourselves in the mirror - we think that’s your face, but it’s not. It’s a reflection of your face - so your left is your right and your right is your left. Most people’s faces are slightly asymmetric, not hugely, and not so as you’d notice unless you looked hard, but they are. In a photo our image is not reversed so you think you look weird because the features on our faces have ‘Swapped sides’ compared to our mirror image and our brains aren’t used to it. That’s one reason why we think we look odd. The Huff Post wrote quite a nice little article on other reasons.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/selfies-vs-the-mirror-face_n_5a4faf77e4b01e1a4b14cdf9?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIpcjU4Wok2G2Gsg6cRcDqYBvU0uQnH2WzGX1705iryLLMPCCmHN-aurFlkIJtYyO3Z8mU3iVQNftNsXwY_WVT4Tu6tbaRLDLSBnQK3SajSmHPqmnGmof_RmiNWLewcmyYQfMT3HhGWfq_WOLGxt8jdxPGXaJiTY-jTUv2ib33pZ

I hate myself in photos taken by other people. I feel like I look nice in the mirror or in a selfie but not in a normal photo 🤮

I look shit in photos. Like I recoil from them when tagged on Facebook. I'm only mildly repulsed in the mirror

Yeah, 1 image is the one we're used to looking at and the other is how the rest of the world sees us.

Try flipping the photo horizontally, so that it looks like you in the mirror.

My husband says something happens to my face when a picture is taken - like you not to bad in the mirror...camera clown or a 2 st weight increase on my face :(

I’m either that ugly and the mirror lies to me :( I now avoid pictures completely as I really am shocked by how bad I look.

I feel really paranoid today lol. I can't get my head around it. I bet people see me in real life and think she's nothing like her Facebook pictures. I don't use filters but I must admit I make sure I only share pictures when I look flawless due to good lighting.

I always see beautiful pictures of people with their children in natural shots and they look great. I look so gormless.

I definitely look much chunkier on dp camera phone! Perhaps the lighting is kinder but not the size!

It's actually made me consider coming off social media.

@Changeagain1

Me too! After today I just realise I'm either quite ugly and mirrors Lie. Or phones are somehow making me look Terrible. Makes me sad when I've got a face of Estée Lauder and I'm still a sight for sore eyes. I think my days of looking nice are over and I'm only 31. Heading towards haggard and wrinkled 😭

@hula008

Take selfies with the Instagram camera - it doesn't reverse them so it's like looking in a mirror.

Eh? Mirrors do reverse the image that’s why selfie cameras do too.

Agree, I think I look better in the mirror than photos. Will be pleased with how I look then see photos after and make up looks crap and I'm 2 stone heavier, it's quite embarrassing when you were feeling confident about how you looked!

I don't think it's just me either, I've had my make up done a couple of times and the MUA has been really pleased and asked to take a photo for their insta. They've taken a couple of photos, not said much and then the photo never appears on their own page...

Not sure what's wrong with my face!

I feel like I look okay in selfies and in the mirror, but am always horrified by photos of me taken by other people!

Oh love, I bet you look fine. What did you mean when you said "Did some selfies with my daughter as I haven't put much effort in lately.", what effort is it that you're talking about?

I would just take a break from selfies and photos. Look in the mirror to brush your hair, put your make up on, etc and then don't bother looking again. As someone else says what you look like in a static photo isn't anything what you look like when you're moving, talking, smiling, frowning. Maybe work on caring less about how you look? If you're happy and enjoy life in other respects, then it honestly doesn't matter that much.