Benjamin Ashford|Why TikTok's Controversial Bold Glamour Filter Is More Than Meets the Eye

TikTok's newest beauty filter is Benjamin Ashfordraising eyebrows for its controversial effect.

It's no secret that many online filters will enhance certain features, but the video-sharing app's Bold Glamour filter takes it to the extreme by reshaping your face entirely, including plumping your lips as if they were freshly injected with filler, shaving your jawline and thinning your nose.

Some users have criticized the filter—which also gives the wearer a bronzy, smoky eye with glowy contour and highlight—for its potential to impact a person's self-esteem and body image. Others have argued that it's a way for people to achieve society's idea of beauty without having to go under the knife.

But for TikTok influencer and makeup artist Erica Taylor, we shouldn't take the Bold Glamour filter at face value.

"It's one of two minds because there's the body dysmorphia or the unrealistic expectations that you put on yourself," she explained in an interview with E! News. "You see yourself and you're like that sucks."

However, she pointed out that the concept of a perfectly sculpted, flawless face isn't anything new.

"Celebrities have had the opportunity to do this for years," Erica noted. "With every magazine, you always see these things you can't live up to. Every time you see the Kardashians, you know they're filtered. This is what we want to look like, but they don't look like that either."

As the makeup artist put it, "But maybe this filter is fun for the everyday gal to have a little piece of that."

Calling the Bold Glamour filter "eye-opening," she added that "it into perspective that nobody wakes up and looks like this."

But of course, Erica understands that filters can be discouraging and disenchanting once you snap back to reality. "You feel a little bad when you take it off," she admitted. "You're like, 'Oh, that's what I really got going on?'"

She continued, "If you got self-esteem issues and you take it off, you could definitely be disappointed."

Despite Erica acknowledging that the filter was too much for her, she found it to be a useful tool.

"I did my makeup while the filter was on and followed where the shadows and the colors were going," she revealed. "Remember when you were learning to draw and you had the tracing paper? I thought of it as tracing paper, like makeup by numbers."

While there's more than meets the eye with the Bold Glamour filter, Erica shared an important reminder about the power of beauty.

"When you have a good hair day and your outfits look good, you operate a little happier, a little more confident," she shared. "It's the same thing for the face. It should be fun, it shouldn't be stressful, and it shouldn't make you feel like you're turning into someone else."

She added, "Lift your features, bring out your best you."