With more and more people looking for aesthetic treatments and new clinics popping up left, right and centre on social media it's difficult to see the woods for the trees sometimes. One very common way of catching your attention is good before and after images and these are very useful as they give you an idea of what results are possible and also give you an indication of the the injector's skills and experience. BUT ... how do you know if the images are real? With so many filters and apps available it is really easy to make someone look better than they look in reality.  Unfortunately, misleading before and after images are everywhere which makes finding the right injector for you more difficult. So how can you spot a fake before and after? Here are our top tips on clues to look out for.

Look at both the before and after images carefully and bear in mind that the before image could have been taken in a way which makes features look worse as well as the after one being taken or edited to make the person look better.

If it seems too good to be true - it usually is! Whilst amazing transformations are possible they are rarely the result of one treatment in isolation. To achieve significant improvement usually a combination of treatments is required - there is no magic fix!

Lighting is important and can make a huge difference to the way a photo looks so check that the images have been taken under the same light conditions. If the after image is much lighter it may have been edited.

Facial expressions and posture can affect how features look in photos. For example, a slight smile can lift the facial features while a frown can make someone look tired and lower the brows and eyelids. A dipped head can make jowls/jawline look worse and can also reveal dark circles under the eyes. A tilted head can make everything look better so make sure the head is in the same position in both photos.

The angle that the photo has been taken at is crucial as a slightly different angle can change how the person looks. Also the photos should be taken at the same distance, a common trick with lips is to take the photo slightly closer which makes the lips look bigger.

Does something in the photo not quite look right? Often when 'face tuning' apps or filters are used it can distort the face into something that doesn't quite look right. You may not be able to put your finger on exactly what it is but if it looks a little bit strange then don't trust it as being real. It's common to see slight distortions or blurring in photos which have been edited, an example of this is when software is used to sharpen a jawline and in the process is distorts the ear lobe. So don't just focus on the area being showcased - look all around the image and see if there are any clues that it's been doctored.

The photo looks familiar. Many clinics use the same stock images so you may see a before and after image and have a sense that you have seen it before somewhere - you probably have!

At Halo Aesthetics we NEVER use stock photos of photo editing software on our before and after images. All before and afters on our social media accounts are real patients who have kindly given their consent to the sharing of their images.