Scroll To See More Images
Selfies are here to stay—so why hasn’t anyone come up with a smartphone camera that delivers a perfect-looking picture every time? I mean, we live in a world where our phones can instantly download music, track how many steps we take every day, and pretty much give us any nugget of information we could ever ask for—yet most of our devices still deliver sub-par pics. Luckily, technology has given us some of the best photo editing apps so we can feel like pros without spending a lot of money or time.
The best selfie apps help us look like we’ve photographed ourselves always in the best lighting, blurs our imperfections, and can even refresh our face the morning after a late night of partying.
If you’re on the hunt for a great selfie editor app, you’re not alone—according to a survey by TruePic in May 2017, 64 percent of the adults polled admitted to editing their pics prior to posting them. Five percent of them admitted to eliminating and/or modifying problem areas such as blemishes, dark circles, red eyes, while 15 percent edited their pics to feel better about themselves.
That said, here’s a complete guide to the best ones.
This Google-sponsored app brings a full-scale editing suite to your fingertips, with 29 tools and filters as well as the ability to open JPGs and raw files. Use this to take your selfies or vacation posts to the next level.
Photo: VSCO.
Who doesn’t use VSCO by now? If you aren’t, you’ll quickly become obsessed. This free app does more than edit your pics; you can also take pics directly in VSCO, edit video and even emulate film with its advanced presets. You can also upgrade to the VSCO X membership experience for $19.99/year to unlock even more editing tools.
Photo: Retrica.
Want more filters? You got it with Retrica, which has over 100 filters to choose from. Plus, you can see them in real time before you even take your selfie. This free app also captures live video and can create GIFs, has collage options, and has plenty of fun stickers.
Photo: Photo Wonder.
This slick free app— which currently has over 100 million users in 218 counties—pretty much does it all. The range of tools are plentiful, and includes “slimify,” “blemish fix,” and “make-up.” Plus, there’s a cool collage function, and you can select various backgrounds and frames. It’s also worth noting that it gets excellent reviews on iTunes.
Photo: Facetune.
This app helps you fake perfect skin: smooth creases and wrinkles, even out skin tone, erase zits, create an overall more flattering visage with a few simple swipes. It also offers a reshape feature that allows you to make yourself look taller and slimmer, if you’re into that sort of thing. Like most good things, perfection comes at a cost—this app clocks in at $3.99.
Photo: Visage.
After uploading your selfie, this free app will instantly apply skin makeup, eye makeup, teeth whitening, shine removal, and smooth out your wrinkles–all in about 10 seconds. The final result might appear a bit too airbrushed and doll-like for some, but your skin will never look smoother.
CreamCam
Another skin-perfecting app, CreamCam—which is free—uses swipe functions to tweak imperfections like pimples, shine, flyaway hairs, uneven skin tone and shine. The app has two editing features: brightness and blur, both of which can be customized on a sliding scale of zero to 100 percent.
Photo: YouCam Perfect.
This free app promises to brighten tired eyes, remove blemishes, smooth wrinkles, and slim your face for perfect selfies with just one-touch.
Photo: AirBrush.
AirBrush is a free app that’ll help give you flawless-looking skin, remove coffee stains, adjust the angle at which the photo was taken (so you can show off your best side), and even add a few inches to your height. Technology is great, isn’t it?
Photo: Perfect365.
Perfect365 is a free app that allows you to apply makeup, enhance your skin and eyebrow color, and whiten your teeth with separate tools. Naturally, after gussying up your selfies, the app lets you post the results to your social channels.
Photo: PicLab.
This app is more about adding fun text and effects to your photos, but it also features ways to improve the actual photo, as well. If you upgrade to PicLab HD, you’ll have access to icLab HD features full layer-based editing and also packs plenty of tools for making your original photo look its best, with loads of lighting and film effects to choose from as well as preset photo filters and adjustment tools for fine tuning the brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, and the blur level of your photos.
Photo: TouchRetouch.
Literally remove unwanted elements of any photo with this game-changing app that costs $1.99. Currently, this app is only available for Apple devices.