About

Before and After Contour is a series of images comparing two different illustrations or photographs, joking that the second is the result of a drastic makeup transformation.

Origin

In November 2013, a series of makeup transformation photographs reached the frontpage of the /r/WTF^[5] and /r/MakeupAddiction^[6] subreddits with the title "Contouring in the new photoshop" (shown below).

On November 5th, 2014, Tumblr^[1] user colabrat posted several different illustrations of the cartoon character Arthur with the caption "it's not plastic surgery it's contour, you're all so ignorant, im quitting this toxic site" (shown below). Within two years, the post gained over 342,000 notes.

Spread

On February 21st, 2015, Twitter user @twelveoclocke^[4] posted a picture of the character Helga G. Pataki from the cartoon Hey Arnold! standing next to an illustration of herself wearing a dress and makeup with the caption "it's not plastic surgery it's contour, I'm leaving this toxic website" (shown below, left). On January 8th, 2016, Twitter user @ItsPepe^[3] posted a picture of Sad Pepe juxtaposed next to a Handsome Face illustration of Pepe (shown below, right).

On April 18th, the wot_u_sayin_tho Instagram^[3] posted a photograph of an English Bulldog next to a photo of an Italian Greyhound with the caption "before and after contouring" (shown below). On July 29th, Twitter user @nohpetsallowed^[7] posted a picture of the Pokémon Charmander next to a picture of its evolved form Charizard with the caption "before vs. after she contours" (shown below, right). Within one month, the tweet accumulated upwards of 43,000 likes and 35,500 retweets. On August 29th, The Daily Dot^[2] published an article about the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References