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I know I'm not the only one who, desperate to feel something, has gotten all done up for a night spent at home. Makeup did, hair blown, random fancy dress I ordered during a hopeful late night binge-shop when I thought coronavirus might be over by at least the fall and I would have some place to go, on. All this, of course, for no other reason than to take a selfie capturing this now-infrequent effort.
With some random influencer's self-portraiture in mind, I approach my large vanity mirror, a bedroom update I made post-pandemic for this very reason. I attempt to take the perfect selfie. But no matter how many times I adjust the room's lighting, or even wipe clean the dust specks and layer of candle smoke residue which seems to obscure every photo I take, the mirror selfie is just not good. My proportions are all off! You can't see my perfect cat-eye! Does this outfit actually look that terrible?!
Even with the filters and Photoshop I realize are at play, I just couldn't understand how the people on Instagram always manage to snap the perfect mirror pic - even in places where there shouldn't be a mirror, like, outside for example, or weird corners of their home. Not to mention how they always seem to have perfectly cropped out the actual mirror frame.
So what the hell is the deal? Is there a special gigantic mirror out there that influencers are buying and selling on the black market?
As it turns out, no. It's quite the opposite. For the secret to the perfect mirror selfie has finally been revealed... and it actually involves having no mirror at all!
Social media star Kara Del Toro, who boasts over 1 million followers on the 'gram, shared this mind-blowing trick of the trade on TikTok last month, citing a few of her fellow influencers, along with her own pictures, as examples:
All you need is a trusty tripod and an extra phone - to use as a prop that is. That's right, not only is there posing involved, but acting, too. Everyone has been looking down at their phone screen for no good reason, because the other phone is the one doing the work.
@karajewel Secrets bloggers don’t want you to know part 1 ##greenscreen ##selfie ##phototips ##blogger ##model
♬ original sound - Kara Del Toro
Del Toro helpfully gives a step-by-step tutorial for achieving this perfect "mirror" selfie in her TikTok video, and explained to BuzzFeed why the trend seems to be so popular these days. "The mirrorless trick is just a game changer. It's great because you can do it anywhere," she said. "It has an effortlessness to it and an ‘in the moment’ appeal, I think."
I'd add that there's an inherent comfort involved in holding something in your hand, like how you reflexively grab a drink to hold in a picture taken at a party, even if the cup is empty or it's not actually your glass. I get it... sort of.
All in all, I feel lied to, but also relieved. Maybe I'm not that ugly after all! Now who has an extra phone I could borrow?
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