Wednesday 25 March 2015

Day 25 #BeRealMarch

I tried a little 'not so scientific' social experiment the other week. I'm not saying the results were conclusive, but I just wanted to test something out. I published two photos to Tumblr, one without makeup or editing and one with makeup and purposefully heavily edited (to the point I had no freckles and even took my scars out). Actually I decided in order for the test to be a little fairer, I used a faint tint (the same on both), so nobody could guess what I was doing. I posted both within a couple of minutes of one another and left the tags on both exactly the same, so as not to gain more 'likes' with a popular tag or time. I also tried to find two photos with a vaguely similar pose (though that was actually pretty hard). BeRealMarch selfie
Obviously, I was trying to see which photo gained the most reblogs and likes. The one with makeup ended up with almost 4 times as many as the one without. Neither were by any means one of my more popular posts, but the result was as I expected.  So I decided as I'd gotten away with it and nobody had suspected what I was up to, that I'd try it again with two more photos. Here's the one without makeup and one with.  Again I kept the time, tags, border/filter the same, but really smoothed my skin on the makeup one until it looked completely unreal!  To my surprise, they have both been liked/reblogged the same.  I even got a comment on the bare faced one to say how cute my freckles were.  Faith in humanity restored...for now!

#BeRealMarch information

Day 24 #BeRealMarch

10 comments :

  1. Fell in love with your blog! You do a great job! I know how much time it requires to keep updating your blog, but don’t stop doing it!)

    I’ll be happy to see you in my blog!)

    Diana Cloudlet
    http://www.dianacloudlet.com/

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    1. Thank you, that's so sweet. Been quite a challenge to blog every day, but I'm really enjoying it.

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  2. Oh I'm glad! That would be really sad if not!x

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    1. Haha, I don't think any of the results were conclusive enough.

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  3. I think you're gorgeous either way :) Tumblr can be a pretty superficial place but there's so many great movements and communities hidden inside it that can restore your faith in people on the internet a little haha xx

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    1. I didn't expect anyone to reblog and like my BRM photos which I've been posting regularly and they have, which was a surprise.

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  4. It doesn't have to be about the make-up. In the made-up photos you have colored hair and I think that also makes a great difference as do hair accessories etc. I'm glad that the second set of photos made you feel better about people but I think if the photos had been all with the same hair that the experiment would have had more substance. And maybe the number of likes would have been different in the first set of photos as well. How knows? You look great though in all of them;)

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    1. Exactly, I didn't make that clear enough above. It's the whole thing, getting dressed up, fancy hair, makeup and editing. That's why I didn't want to put in any 'blue hair' tags or anything and therefore perhaps encourage more people to see it. Like I say, I've been surprised when anyone has reblogged my bare faced shots.

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  5. Being completely honest, I think you're more beautiful in the ones without makeup and filters. Your skin looks glowing and you have cheekbones to die for. I think in a world where everything fake is expected of women, you're a breath of fresh air. x

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    1. Thank you Leah, that's so kind. I'm kinda coming round to liking my face without makeup, which has never been something I've done before.

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Wowee your comments cheer me up!

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