The Passport Challenge: The New TikTok Trend of the Moment?
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In the span of 6 years, TikTok has become the place to create trends. Between WTF videos, dances, tips and tricks, content creators are constantly coming up with new trends that are picked up by creators all around the world. The beauty world, very present on the platform, has seen a new trend emerge in the past few months that has taken TikTok by storm: the passport challenge. Its promise: to have a perfect passport photo! But between beauty tips and creating insecurities, let’s take a closer look at what’s really behind this beauty trend on TikTok…
Let’s chase away naturalness and it won’t come galloping back on TikTok… That’s how we could describe the passport challenge that has been flooding the social media platform since last April. With thousands of views on TikTok, this trend promises to give you a perfect passport photo that will last for the next 10 years. A tempting promise considering the not-so-flattering photos that end up on our identification papers and make us look like:
- A corpse or a criminal, depending on the intensity of the blinding white light
- Someone who has won the award for the biggest under-eye bags
So when this TikTok trend tells us that we can forget about our horrifying photos and maybe become the new Tyra Banks (reminder: the model was booked solely based on her passport photo), our curiosity is immediately piqued, just like the thousands of TikTok users who have shared or even tried the passport challenge.
How to succeed in the TikTok passport challenge?
To succeed in your passport challenge makeup before entering the photobooth, you need: a good brushstroke, a little bit of technique, and above all, not to be afraid of looking somewhat like a pot of paint in the end. Because yes, while passport photos are meant to be natural, the TikTok challenge approaches it from a completely different angle, means not leaving a single area of your face without makeup. So don’t hesitate to go heavy on the foundation and bronzer.
The passport challenge trend took off on TikTok with the video by creator Georgia Barrat. Explaining the original idea: to look fresh in your passport photo for the next ten years. Then filming a makeup tutorial to recreate the look step by step, the TikTok video won over users with the final reveal, once the photos were printed. This was followed by thousands of recreations of the look by people looking for a full glam passport photo!
Natural or painted face?
To succeed in the passport challenge makeup, the young woman explains that the key is symmetry and contouring (a lot of contouring). These two points allow you to reshape your face, especially by making it look thinner. Starting by setting her eyebrows with gel, the creator continues by redrawing their base with a light stroke to enhance their symmetry. Then comes a ballet of illuminating serum to give the skin a glow, along with primer, foundation, concealer, bronzer, highlighter, blush, and mattifying powder… Applying as many layers as a thousand-layer cake to redefine the shape of her face.
By playing with certain areas and shades, Gerogia Barrat perfects her passport challenge look by slimming her nose, elongating her chin, contouring her cheeks, and highlighting her cheekbones… Then comes the moment to elongate the eyes with eyeliner extending from the lashes, as well as in the inner corner. Not everyone can pull off the doe-eyed look. The final touch is applied to an enlarged mouth with a pencil stroke and plumping gloss, giving the impression of being stuck in the neck of a Cristalline bottle.
With her hair pulled back and Kim K-like makeup, the creator presents the result in a photo. With the photobooth’s flash being far too powerful, the result shows a “perfect according to current beauty standards” face, frozen, without dark circles, wrinkles, imperfections, or redness… A magazine-type photo, but one that will undoubtedly cause confusion when going through customs after an 8-hour flight, with mascara running down bags as low as a saggy pair of pants and a T-zone as humid as Arizona…
The passport challenge look has been revisited multiple times, with variations that are more “natural” while still maintaining the full glam aspect of the look. Some have opted for half false eyelashes, for example, instead of eyeliner, to add a touch of volume more subtly.
The success of the passport challenge highlights the interest that social media users have in the world of makeup. While initially focused on YouTube, TikTok now allows for even greater exposure for creators and beauty trends. However, there is a fine line between positive aspects and negative influence on young people, and that line is often crossed.
Social media platforms have become the best platforms in just a few years to communicate your passions, exchange ideas with the world, and create trends like the passport challenge. This is how we have seen makeup artists launch their channels and accounts to share their tips and advice so that everyone can try their hand at makeup. We can take the example of makeup artist Marion Moretti, aka Marion Caméléon, who trained at the Make Up Forever Academy and offers looks and product reviews on YouTube and her social media accounts.
These profiles have allowed other people to become interested in the world of makeup and cosmetics and gain expertise. New vocations have been born, both for girls and boys, like content creator Gaëlle Garcia Diaz who has launched her own makeup brand, Martine Cosmetics.
Gaining visibility and experience, these profiles in the makeup world are also highlighted through shows like Glow Up, which is launching its 4th season on Netflix. Featuring profiles more or less established in the industry, the show highlights many people who share their makeup looks on social media and have gained recognition that way.
Makeup videos on social media are a way to propel one’s career while sharing tips to recreate different looks and make makeup more accessible to everyone.
Why is TikTok dangerous when it comes to the beauty industry?
Social media platforms are often at the center of scandals. This is particularly true for TikTok, which is already banned in many countries and has recently been accused of being spyware, with a request to remove it from Apple and Google phones in the US by the Federal Operations Commissioner. In addition to concerns about the questionable management of data by the app, the content itself is controversial.
On the one hand, there are dangerous TikTok challenges, like the recent labello challenge or scarf challenge, which have had dramatic consequences. And on the other hand, there are challenges and speeches on social media that affect the mental health of its users, who are often young and impressionable.
The passport challenge is part of this content that promotes an idealized idea of beauty. A beauty image that has been constructed over the past few years and is based on icons like the Kardashian clan, with a complete absence of naturalness, layers upon layers of makeup, all sprinkled with botox injections and butt enhancements that would make Poltronesofa jealous.
This trend, supported by the spread of contouring and countless filters, has contributed to the ideology of a beauty that can be summed up in a thin face and a pouty mouth. As a result, users who were initially confident have developed new fixations on their slightly square jaw or too round nose according to “standards”… To the point where they either become house painters and spend two hours doing a facelift to reduce these new insecurities. Or they even resort to plastic surgery, which has seen an increase in requests lately.
Thus, the passport challenge, with its dozens of contouring steps to reshape the face, also contributes to the spread of a very false and sad idea of beauty.
We can all have little insecurities that we want to hide, but we should never let social media or society dictate what we should look like to be considered beautiful! And if you want to get rid of dark circles, trade the 5 layers of makeup for facial yoga!
