As of late, my TikTok feed has been bathed in content about applying makeup based on whether you have high, medium, or low “facial contrast,” thanks to an increasingly popular AI filter that helps people determine which camp they fall into. Hundreds of videos under the contrast filter’s tag have been posted online, plenty of which have accumulated millions of views. It’s deeply rooted in the practice of color analysis, so it begs many of the same questions: What does it really mean to be high contrast versus low contrast? Does it really matter whether or not you’re wearing the most “flattering” makeup for your contrast level? Does this technique actually help people apply makeup better, or are we just following yet another unnecessary rule?

For those uninitiated into chronically online beauty culture, facial contrast is based on how much contrast there is between your hair color, skin tone, and the color of other facial features like your eyes and lips. The concept itself is nothing new—in fact, it was researched as a metric cue to perceived age years ago. But applying makeup based on one’s facial contrast, however, has garnered popularity over the past couple of months thanks to the developer of this filter, French makeup artist Aliénor Dervanian, who has popularized the idea that each contrast level is flattered best by a particular style of makeup.

The filter works as such: Users look at themselves through the front-facing camera and hit one of three buttons (light, medium, or deep) that best describes their skin tone. From there, they can “try on” high, medium, and low contrast looks based on that skin tone and compare them to their own faces. Whichever one is the closest match is their determined contrast level, according to the filter.

Maria Santa Poggi

Maria Santa Poggi

Maria Santa Poggi

The whole goal of understanding your contrast level and doing your makeup accordingly, Dervanian tells Allure, is all “about balancing your face.”

For example, having high contrast means there’s a great degree of difference in color among your features—such as having light skin with dark hair and eyes or vice versa. Higher contrast faces, Dervanian’s rule claims, are complemented by bolder makeup and brighter colors (think bright red lipstick or an intense smoky eye). According to Dervanian’s TikTok videos, higher contrast faces need the added intensity of bolder makeup, otherwise, “you will look a bit washed out.”

Low contrast, on the other hand, means that all of your facial features have the same value of intensity—such as having entirely dark features (i.e. a deep skin tone paired with brown eyes and black hair) or entirely light features (i.e. fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes). According to Dervanian’s formula, the most complementary makeup for low contrast faces incorporates neutral tones and lower intensity pigments to keep a natural harmonized look to match the softness of the facial features. On TikTok, she posits that, if you have low contrast, things like bold lipstick simply “won’t look as good on you as it can on another friend.” As you can guess, the rules for medium contrast faces fall somewhere in-between.

On TikTok, Dervanian has gone so far as to say that this contrast-based makeup method “isn’t a trend, but a fact.” I think Grace Jones in metallic pink blush would beg to differ. Marilyn Monroe’s juicy red lipstick would, too.

The upside to the facial contrast makeup trend is that it has helped some people find a new way of doing their day-to-day makeup that they might not have considered otherwise. Content creator Charine Cheung simply sees the trend as a new way to analyze and appreciate her own features and says she’s developed a new everyday makeup routine based on Dervanian’s filter and approach to beauty. Content creator Silvia Khan discovered via the filter that she has a medium-to-high facial contrast and has adapted her routine accordingly, which she says has given her a new boost of confidence because she feels she’s highlighting what makes her face unique. Beauty creator Zayit Bemmel tells Allure that the facial contrast makeup trend has even helped her find color palettes that work well with her deeper, olive-toned complexion.

But is it actually important to “balance” your features to create the most “flattering” look? Isn’t the notion of what’s “flattering” within the realm of beauty subjective? Well, yes. “So far, the people and execution I’ve seen of [facial contrast makeup] does work well,” Los Angeles-based makeup artist Delina Medhin tells Allure. “I just don’t want people to think you can only wear your makeup a certain way.”

Cheung also points out that the filter itself isn’t perfect and can wind up being inaccurate for people of color such as herself. “The trend doesn’t consider factors like facial weight and feature prominence, which differ between ethnicities,” she explains. “For example, East Asians like me with naturally softer features, finer eyebrows, and sparser eyelashes may be mislabeled as lower contrast, even if their skin, hair, and eye colors show a stark contrast in color.”

AI-based color analysis has historically excluded people of color, and that rings true of AI or digital filters at large, a result of companies using light-skinned and white subjects as the de facto model within the technology. Dervanian shares with Allure that she is currently working on an updated filter that will account for a wider range of skin tones.

Although facial contrast makeup is not by far the most problematic or dangerous beauty craze to blow up my feed, I do have to question the language we’re encouraged to use to discuss and classify our faces—and the fact that we feel such a need to put our faces into staunch categories at all. Lately, online beauty has revolved around facial “balance” and “harmony.” Beneath this content lies an implicit suggestion that our faces must be sculpted and painted in a very particular way in order to be uniformly attractive (usually based on Eurocentric beauty standards cloaked as a hyper-symmetrical science).

So think of facial contrast makeup as a suggestion or a starting point for experimentation rather than a rigid rule that defines what makes you look good (‘cause really, whatever makes you feel like yourself is what’s going to make you look good). If the facial contrast method works for you, that’s great. But if it doesn’t, no sweat—there will be a new beauty trend to fumigate your timeline in only a matter of weeks.

Now, watch Jennifer Aniston react to TikTok trends: