Beauty Camera: Selfie Editor

Review by eFreeware

Most photo editors ask you to bring a picture and then work out what to do with it. Beauty Camera: Selfie Editor is built the other way around: it wants to take the shot itself, with an HD selfie camera, and then run it through a stack of beautification tools before you ever leave the app. The developer, o16i Apps, has kept that idea going since the app arrived in September 2018, and the most recent update landed in November 2024.

That combination of shooting and editing in one place is the reason to consider it. The tools on offer are aimed at faces rather than at landscapes or product shots.

It suits someone who takes a lot of selfies and wants them to look presentable quickly: smoothing, teeth whitening, a filter, a frame, done. If you enjoy the slower side of editing, where you control every curve and layer, this is a different proposition, and the app's focus is squarely on quick cosmetic results.

A selfie app for quick cosmetic fixes

The clearest audience here is the casual photographer who wants a good-looking photo without a learning curve. The interface is meant to be straightforward: one-tap beautification, automatic lighting and skin adjustments, a filter applied and a photo ready to share.

It also fits people who document themselves regularly, whether that is a profile picture refresh, a photo for a dating app, or a set of shots from a family gathering. The templates and frames point in the same direction, since they exist to dress up an ordinary picture for a specific occasion.

Where it looks less essential is for anyone editing subjects other than people. The tools are named for skin, teeth, facial features, hair and silhouette, so the app's strengths sit with portraits rather than with architecture, food or travel scenes. That is not a flaw so much as the shape of the product.

Filters, brightness and the basic correction tools

The editing side starts with the ordinary adjustments you would expect: brightness, contrast and saturation, alongside a set of picture filters. The developer groups those filters into broad moods, from vivid color tones through monochrome looks to styles it calls trendy, and they can be applied to a photo you have already taken as well as to one you shoot inside the app.

Beyond color, there are the repair tools. Red-eye correction is included, skin tones can be adjusted, and blemishes can be retouched away. Background blur is there too, which lets you push the subject forward by softening what sits behind them.

For finishing touches, the app handles text, stickers and overlays, so a photo can carry a caption, a decorative element or a graphic layer. None of this is unusual for the category, but it is a complete enough set that a single photo can be shot, corrected and decorated without leaving the app.

Retouching, makeup and body shaping

This is the part the app is named for. Skin smoothing and blemish removal are offered directly, teeth can be whitened, and facial features can be adjusted. Body shaping is available too, so you can adjust the silhouette in a shot.

The makeup side goes further than a simple filter. There is virtual makeup to try, plus hair color and highlight adjustments, which the developer frames as a salon-like finish. One-tap beautification ties several of these together, adjusting lighting, smoothing skin and brightening features in a single action when you do not want to work through the options one by one.

The trade-off with this kind of toolset is familiar. Automatic beautification is fast, though results will vary from person to person. Manual controls give you more say, at the cost of a little more time per photo. Having both available is the sensible arrangement, and it is what the app provides.

Shooting inside the app: HD camera, video and templates

The camera is not an afterthought. The developer describes an HD selfie camera that captures both photos and videos, with the intention that footage comes out sharp and ready for social media. Because the beautification tools sit in the same app, shooting and editing can happen together.

Templates and frames extend that. They are pitched at two situations: a specific event, such as a celebration or a gathering, and the everyday photo that just needs a little more character. Custom backgrounds and effects are part of the same idea, adding depth to a shot that would otherwise look flat.

Between the camera, the templates and the overlays, the app is trying to cover the whole path from pressing the shutter to posting. That is a reasonable ambition for a free tool, and it explains why the app has held a place in the Beauty category since 2018.

What the free download includes

Beauty Camera: Selfie Editor is free to download and carries a content rating of Everyone. The app contains advertising and offers in-app purchases.

The app has been installed more than a million times and holds a 4.1 average across 6,536 ratings. That is a healthy figure for a free photo tool.

There is no recent-changes note attached to the latest update, so there is nothing new to report on that front. The app was last updated in November 2024.

How it compares with other ways to edit a photo

The obvious alternative is a general-purpose photo editor, the kind that treats every image the same way and gives you a broad set of adjustment sliders. Those tend to be stronger on non-portrait work and weaker on the specific cosmetic tasks this app is built around.

A dedicated beauty or makeup app is the closer comparison. The difference usually comes down to how much control you want over individual features versus how quickly you want a result, and this app leans toward speed with its one-tap option while still offering manual adjustments.

You could also simply use the camera that came with your phone and a separate editor. The case for Beauty Camera: Selfie Editor is that it keeps the cosmetic tools in one place.

A reasonable pick for selfie-first editing

Beauty Camera: Selfie Editor makes sense for someone who photographs people, mostly themselves, and wants the result to look polished without spending time on it. The combination of an HD camera, automatic beautification, manual retouching, makeup, hair adjustments and a set of frames covers the usual ground well, and the free download makes it easy to try.

Ads are present and in-app purchases are offered, and the app's strengths are concentrated on faces rather than on general photography. If your photos are mostly of places and things, the toolset here will feel pointed at the wrong subject.

For selfies and portraits, though, it is a straightforward proposition. I would treat it as a fast cosmetic editor rather than a full editing suite, and judge it on how well it handles the one job it is named for.