Ideal beauty is a societal construct spread through various mediums. In today’s society social media contributes to creating unrealistic beauty standards. Due to the fact that social platforms have built in editing tools, thus making it easier for its users to beautify themselves. 

This study examined how the platform TikTok represents content related to beauty ideals. The examination studied the trends “inverted filter” and “no-filter”, by analyzing videos and their comment sections. The methods that had been used during the research are multimodal- and content analysis.

This study reveals that beauty trends lead to different reactions because they fall under different categories. “Inverted filter” showed negative reactions from both the creators and the public. In those videos, the trend triggered insecurities for both creators. While the public expressed varying reactions, such as some claiming that the filter is false or praising the creators’ look.

Whereas the “no-filter” trend had only positive reactions from both creators and the public. Hence the trend is promoting natural beauty.

In conclusion, beauty ideals are represented on the TikTok positively and negatively depending on the trend. Some trends promote toxic beauty ideals whilst others promote healthy beauty ideals.