How to Look Your Best on Zoom Calls
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What are your best tips to look your best on Zoom calls (or other video calls)? Do you do your makeup differently? How often do you these calls for work, and what do you do to look your best?
Here are some of my top tips, but I'd love to hear yours…
How to Look Your Best on Zoom Calls
Think about lighting. If possible have a window or ring light behind the screen like this one.
Ditch your blue light glasses or transitional glasses. Maybe this is a me thing, but I think glasses that are slightly tinted look horrible on Zoom calls. If you have an old pair that is not blue light, put those near your monitor and switch to them before you start your call. This depends on your prescription, of course, but for me personally if I'm not walking anywhere then a slightly older prescription probably doesn't matter. (I'm, uh, unfortunately at that age where I have to take off my glasses to read anyway, so, yay.) Another option: get a cheap pair at a spot like Zenni.
Turn on a filter. Don't feel silly about turning on one of the very slight beauty filters that Zoom offers — one of the mildest ones is “touch up my appearance.”
Think about the goals for any workplace makeup — you want to look awake and interested, as well as physically healthy. A lot of this comes down to your skincare — make sure you moisturize that day. A good concealer can go a long way, even for touchups — such as this eye highlighter or this eye brightener.
Consider special makeup for Zoom. There are a few differences for Zoom calls — you want your skin to look blurred rather than matte, for example. I would argue that you should assess how your eyebrows and lips look on Zoom — a lot of times they need to be darker!
Readers, what are your best tips on how to look your best on Zoom calls?
Stock photo via Stencil.
yup. i wear a much darker lipstick for zooms than i wear in person. also if i’m home and starting from scratch i wear statement earrings.
Agreed on lipstick. I have short hair and most of the time my earrings don’t show up on Teams which bothers me way more than it should. Any tips?
My earring solution (also short hair; also unreasonably bothered by my earrings disappearing on Zoom) is to make sure that there is a piece of the earring ON my ear. So, no dangly earrings on just a wire, because those might as well not be there.
I do blush and lipstick so I don’t look like a potato.
Lighting, camera position (no one at this point should be filming themselves from below), and wearing camera-friendly top is like, 90% of it.
The other 5% is simple makeup and not using a background filter if it’s going to constantly glitch at detecting your actual head!
uh, 10%, thanks multitasking while on a Teams in which 2 of these 5 recs are not being observed by the presenter.
I find the ring light reflection in my (non-reflective coated) glasses really distracting. I’ve stopped using it.
Same – mine is gathering dust. BUT I had the thought that maybe if I placed it -behind- the laptop screen there might be some soft lighting benefits. I might try one more time.
Probably in the minority, but I do not care if I look washed out or unflattering on Zoom. I am mostly in person anyways, so if I’m Zooming in I’m probably under the weather. But even during our full time WFH pandemic days, this was not the least of my worries
My work literally made a zoom dress code because too many people were not caring much (but we’re permanent offsite / WFH / in the field so I think the perception matters more in this case).
I think obvious things like wearing nicer clothes than a hoodie sweatshirt or an oversize T-shirt can make a difference. But I think what is most noticeable is people’s expressions. So many people sit in meetings with frowns on their faces, or they look frozen and numb. I think it’s awkward seeing your own face, and I’m not saying I look perfect either, so I just kind of laugh that so many of us have resting B faces…
I hated being on Zoom meetings with my now ex-boss – he’d start rubbing his forehead minutes into any tactical conversation. It made nearly every topic feel unwelcome.
I try to wear jewel tones on top – Red/royal blue/Emerald green to make sure to pop on the screen. The color also helps with stabilizing some of the background effects.
Lighting is incredibly important, and if you wear glasses, the typical recommendations are a very bad idea. You need to light from both sides and NOT from in front of you in order to avoid reflections. People want to see your eyeballs, not the reflection of your lights.