We all know by now that TikTok is the Wild West of beauty trends—open the app and you’ll find the best lip product combos, ways to apply your foundation for the most natural finish, or swatches of soon-to-be-launched makeup products. In fact, we’ll be the first to admit that our beauty routines are highly influenced by TikTok. And if you’ve been on the beauty side of the app lately, you might have come across the high versus low visual weight trend—and how people are basing their 2024 glow-ups on this beauty theory. But what exactly is visual face weight? And what does it mean if you have a high or low visual weight? Here, we explore the trend, give examples of people with high and low visual face weights, get insights from professional makeup artists, and share some tips on how you can find your visual weight.
Visual Face Weight Explained
According to TikTok, your visual face weight refers to how pronounced your features appear on your face. In the most simple terms, you have high visual face weight if you have big features on a small face, and you have low visual face weight if you have small features on a big face—but there are also other factors to consider when it comes to your visual face weight.
Nica Marcello, Revlon’s National Education Manager, told Refinery29 that your visual face weight is “influenced by three key factors: the distinctiveness of your bone structure, the prominence of your facial features, and the overall volume of these features.”
While visual face weight sounds like a new concept, it’s something that makeup artists and beauty enthusiasts have already taken into account when doing someone’s makeup, whether it’s done intuitively or actively. “‘Visual FaceWeight’ is definitely a new term, at least for me, as a makeup artist. This was not something taught to me in makeup school or in the years I have been trained in the industry. I guess I do take it into account unconsciously in the sense that I take into consideration the face shape, proportions, and my clients’ personal makeup style when doing her makeup. It all boils down to achieving what my client wants but also adjusting accordingly,” says makeup artist Tamara Pineda.
Makeup artist Czari Domingo also weighed in on the trend: “As a makeup artist, I was already taking into account visual face weight with my clients without even realizing it. I would always assess how much makeup my client could ‘take’ on their face before doing their makeup. To my knowledge, there wasn’t a universal term for it until now, so I’m glad it’s become more mainstream since I really do think it’s a useful tool for us to find the beauty looks that suit us best. Unless it’s for a creative shoot or a specific brief, makeup is mostly about enhancing your client’s natural beauty and features, and you can’t do that without an understanding of their visual face weight.”
People with high visual weight usually have high cheekbones and a generally sharp facial bone structure. Their eyes, nose, lips, and cheeks stand out against their face, and these features are typically bigger relative to the space on their face. Let’s take Kim Kardashian as our example of someone who has high visual face weight. Her cheekbones sit high on her face, she has a more narrow face shape, yet her eyes, lips, and nose appear big and prominent on her face.
Meanwhile, people with low visual face weight have softer features that appear to blend together—nothing sticks out. Those with low visual weight have a gentler look to them: features aren’t that sharp, the cheekbones sit lower on the face, and the nose bridge isn’t that pronounced. A great example for someone with low visual weight is IU. Her features appear smaller on her face, and she has an overall softer look compared to someone who has high visual weight.
How To Tell Your Visual Face Weight
If you’re a little lost, no worries! A lot of TikTok creators have created guides on how to find your visual weight. Here are some of the factors to consider when it comes to determining your visual face weight, according to TikTok:
The Photo Contrast Test
Take a selfie on your phone (preferably with no makeup), and edit it so that it becomes black and white. Turn up the contrast to 100, and then turn it down to -100. If your features stand out more when the contrast is turned up, you likely have high visual face weight. Meanwhile, if your features look more clear when the contrast is turned down, you have low visual face weight.
TikTok Filters
A popular way to determine your visual face weight on TikTok is to use the Bold Glamour and Glowing filters on the app. The Bold Glamour filter will give you a dramatic, high-contrast makeup look, and if it suits your face, you most likely have high visual weight. The Glowing filter adds subtle makeup to your face, and if it flatters your features, then you have low visual weight.
There’s also a filter called Visual Weight which splits the screen into a bold makeup look and a subtle makeup look, and you can bounce back and forth between them to see which one looks better on you.
Makeup Test
If you’ve got some time on your hands, why not do a makeup side-by-side? Draw a line down the middle of your face and do a subtle makeup look on one side and a glam makeup look on the other side. Which side highlights your features better? If it’s the subtle makeup look, then you have low visual weight, and if it’s the glam look, then you have high visual weight.
Makeup Artists Weigh In On The Trend
So is the visual face weight trend a passing fad or a useful tool? While the trend itself is new, the concepts and theories behind it aren’t. “Being made aware of the different elements of a client’s face is all part of what we call the ‘artist’s eye,’” says Tamara. “Seeing beyond the superficial level and really zooming in on what colors are present on the face, what needs to be corrected, what are the undertones, what needs to be added or taken away to achieve balance, and the like. Taking into consideration the ‘visual face weight’ of a client is just another element to improve this ‘artist’s eye’ and as the artist, we can choose whether this is important to us or not in achieving the desired look.”
While the term visual face weight has been coined recently, makeup artists recognize it for what it is: balance. “One of the most important criteria in my makeup school was balance,” says Czari, “and I think that’s what visual weight is all about. I’ve always been taught about how important it is to make sure that your client is wearing the makeup, not the other way around. Understanding their visual weight helps me keep the balance and harmony within their faces.”
It can definitely be useful to makeup artists who want to help their clients enhance their natural features. “I see the visual weight being most useful when one is doing more traditional makeup looks,” Czari adds, “Whether your client is a bride, a student attending prom, someone taking graduation photos, or attending a big event, et cetera.; versus when your client just wants to look their best but still look like themselves, the principles of visual weight will be your north star and can guide you when considering what makeup looks to do on them. It will help you know which parts of the face to play up and enhance, or inversely, which parts to soften and keep subtle.”
Makeup Tips for Low Visual Face Weight
People with low visual face weight look best with natural, subtle makeup looks. Think fresh complexions, neutral eye makeup, and sheer glossy lips. But while a no-makeup-makeup look can help enhance the features of those with low visual face weight, that doesn’t mean they can’t still experiment and have fun with their makeup looks.
“I think eyes are always a great starting point when you want to bring more glam and drama to your makeup looks. I always like to play up the lashes with realistic wispy pairs that have invisible bands to better blend with your natural eye shape. Some of my faves are from Faboulash L13, L6, and L17. Even for those with high visual weight, I tend to use dark brown liners instead of black for softer definition,” says Czari.
“I’d also recommend looking into more Asian makeup techniques. Personally, my makeup artistry has improved since broadening my horizons and learning more about how the Korean and Japanese contour, apply blush, and do their eyeshadow. They are masters at seamlessly blending, defining, and enhancing the face. They provide some of the most life-changing tips for natural makeup,” she adds.
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Makeup Tips for High Visual Face Weight
Those with high visual face weight can put more makeup on their faces while still making sure that it’ll look flattering on them. Dramatic eyes, a sharp contour, and bold lips are just some details that would look great on those with high visual weight.
“Don’t be afraid to highlight more than one feature at a time,” says Czari, “but don’t forget to maintain the harmony of your face. Whether it’s brows and lips, eyes and lips, or in my case brows and cheeks, those with higher visual weight can take more makeup on their faces, so have fun with it! I like to find unexpected ways to make these features pop, but remember to be mindful of your techniques so you don’t go overboard. I think it’s best to leave some elements of your makeup looking lived-in, and not too stark and perfect.”
Czari also shares some of her favorite makeup products she uses to enhance her high visual weight features. “Since there’s a tendency for the face to register quite strong, I always like to keep the brows looking believable regardless of the brow style with ultra-fine brow pencils from Benefit. I also love mixing desaturated blush shades with purple blush from Asian brands like Canmake, Rom&nd, and Etude. I also like to blot and blur lip lines whenever I do bold lip colors to keep things more casual.”
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Does It Matter?
With all that said, does knowing your visual face weight and applying the rules of makeup based on it really matter? We can certainly see how it would be helpful to makeup newbies who want to learn how to enhance their natural features or to people who want to experiment with their looks but don’t know where to start.
“For me personally, I don’t think it is that important unless it is your ultimate goal to determine what your visual weight is,” says Tamara. “It all boils down to knowing what suits you or not, and to achieve that, there is going to be a lot of trial and error. As Francois Nars once said, ‘Don’t be too serious, it’s just makeup!’ Have fun experimenting and finding the makeup style that fits you and makes you feel more confident and beautiful.”
