How to add makeup to a photo on iPhone

Snapchat's camera has Lenses, augmented-reality effects you choose before you take the picture, so you see the makeup on your face while you frame the shot. Snapchat publishes makeup Lenses of its own: its Fresh Makeup Lens, for one, is listed with winged eyeliner, fuller lashes, rosy blush and pink lipstick.

It is the only way here that puts the makeup on before the photo exists, and it works for video too. We did not test Snapchat for this guide; the steps are from its own help pages.

Makeup is one of PhotoTune's AI tools. You choose one of four looks, Everyday, Soft, Evening or Bold, and tap Apply Makeup. That sends the photo to our editing service, which passes it to Google's Gemini model and returns the result. We do not store the photo, and nothing is sent until you tap.

Every look is asked for the same way: subtle, natural makeup in that style, with the face shape, bone structure and skin texture kept exactly, nothing slimmed, reshaped or smoothed, and nothing changed but the makeup. Our service writes that request. You choose a look, not the words.

Apple's guide to editing photos in iOS 27 covers light and colour adjustments such as Exposure, Brilliance and Highlights, Photographic Styles, filters, copying edits from one photo to others, and adding stickers, text and shapes. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence there are three more tools: Clean Up removes distracting objects, Extend expands a photo past its frame, and Reframe changes the perspective. None of them adds makeup, and none changes the colour of just the eyes or the lips.

Where Photos still helps is the light: makeup, added any way, is hard to judge on a face that is too dark. Fix that in Photos, or with Lighting in PhotoTune, which applies on top of the makeup.

Start with Everyday or Soft. A light look is easier to judge, and if it is not enough, Evening or Bold is one undo and one tap away.

Then check what the makeup should not have touched. Real makeup sits on skin, so freckles, pores and fine lines should still be there, and the expression should be the one the camera caught. In the example on this page the freckles survived and the smile did not. Look at the photo at the size people will see it, not zoomed in on one eye, and if more than the makeup changed, undo and try again.

Some editors split makeup into separate products. Facetune's page describes a feed of preset looks, among them natural, glam, night, glossy, dewy and no-makeup styles, each with an intensity slider, and separate tools in its full editor for eyeliner, lipstick and lashes, with a Paint tool for adding blush and lip colour.

If you want to choose the exact lipstick shade, or turn a look down by half, an editor built that way is the better choice. PhotoTune's Makeup has four complete looks and no slider.

PhotoTune is an iPhone app; there is no Android or web version. Saving an edited photo needs a subscription, and the annual plan starts with 3 days free. The pricing page has every plan and what the trial turns into.

What this guide says about software other than PhotoTune comes from the pages below, read on the dates shown. The PhotoTune screenshots are captures of the app.