Alternatives to YouCam Makeup for trying a whole look
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YouCam Makeup ships face slimming and an anti-aging filter next to its lipstick try-on, so the real alternatives split by what they refuse to touch.
YouCam Makeup, from Perfect Corp, is a live AR filter: it tracks your face on camera and paints a shade, or a preset "look", onto the video as it plays. The same app also ships face slimming, jaw contouring and an anti-aging filter alongside the makeup, on the same canvas. The real alternatives split three ways: other brand-owned AR try-on, another live AR app, or a generative try-on app such as Looksmith.
Why people go looking
The complaints are specific, and Perfect Corp's own pages confirm most of them.
| What people say about YouCam Makeup | What Perfect Corp's own pages show |
|---|---|
| It reshapes your face, not just your makeup | AI Face Shaper: "slim the face, adjust your jawline, define your cheekbones, reshape your nose, and enhance your lips." Face Symmetry, from the app's own App Store listing: "Fix asymmetrical faces in photos instantly" |
| It smooths and lifts skin too | AI Facelift: "one-tap anti-aging tool that lifts and firms your features." Skin smoothing: "remove wrinkles and blemishes, eliminate dark circles" |
| The free tier is limited | Premium "unlocks exclusive professional makeup looks and palettes, removes ads, and gives unlimited access." Unlimited is the word Perfect Corp reserves for the paid tier, so the free one has a ceiling somewhere |
| It works one product, or one preset, at a time | The try-on happens on live camera video, and that video is the same canvas the reshaping tools work on |
Source for all four rows: YouCam Makeup, checked 22 August 2026.
None of that is hidden. It is written on the product page in those words. The question worth asking is not whether YouCam Makeup does these things, since it says so itself, but whether the next app you try does them too.
The alternatives, compared
| Alternative | What it actually is | Good at | Where it falls down |
|---|---|---|---|
| A brand's own try-on page | Live AR filter, usually Perfect Corp or ModiFace running under that brand's name | Free, instant, tied to a real item you can add to a basket | One brand's shelf only, and the look is gone when you close the tab |
| Sephora Virtual Artist | Live AR filter, built by ModiFace exclusively for Sephora | Spans Sephora's whole assortment rather than one brand, over 1,000 blush, bronzer, contour and highlighter shades in Sephora's own 2017 count | Only what Sephora stocks, and still a live overlay you cannot keep as a finished look |
| MakeupPlus, from Meitu | Live AR filter, same category as YouCam Makeup | Free preset "looks" library, no single brand's catalogue | Meitu's own page lists face contouring on the same canvas as the makeup |
| Doji | Generative try-on of a still photo, but of clothing | A whole outfit rendered onto your body, kept as a file | Not a makeup tool. It has no face render at all |
| Looksmith | Generative try-on of a still photo of your own face | A complete makeup look kept as a file, with face geometry locked, coming soon to iOS | Not released. About a minute per look, and no live preview |
Read the last column first. Every option gives something up, including the one this site is selling you.
Does switching to another AR app fix the face reshaping?
Usually not. Meitu's own page for MakeupPlus, checked 22 August 2026, advertises "LIVE MAKEUP FILTERS" built on "Cutting AR makeup tech" next to "FACE CONTOURING", described there as "the easiest and finest face contouring ever." That is the same pairing YouCam Makeup ships: makeup and reshaping on one canvas, because the canvas is a live face tracker and a face tracker can move contours as easily as it can paint colour.
Sephora Virtual Artist reads differently. Sephora's own 2017 launch material for the app describes shade try-on and curated "Looks" and does not mention a slimming or anti-aging mode. That is not a promise it will never add one, but it is what Sephora's own copy says, and it is worth more than a guess.
So the honest version is that reshaping is a habit of the AR filter category, not a single company's decision. Moving from one live filter to another does not reliably get you away from it. What gets you away from it is a tool that was built with the limit written down, which is what Looksmith argues for itself: no face slimming, no jaw edits, no eyelid changes, by design rather than by omission.
Is Sephora Virtual Artist a real alternative to YouCam Makeup?
Only if the thing you want is inside Sephora's own catalogue. It is built by ModiFace specifically for Sephora, so it will show you a look assembled from Sephora's own brands and nothing outside that assortment. Within that boundary it is a genuine step up from a single brand's page, because it spans dozens of lines rather than one. Outside it, it cannot help you, the same way YouCam Makeup cannot recommend a product Perfect Corp has no shade data for.
Can any of these give me a finished picture instead of a live filter?
Two of the five can, and only one of them does a face. Doji renders a still image of an outfit onto a photo of you and hands back a file, which is the generative pattern, but it is a fashion app: its own App Store listing describes creating "your AI likeness" and trying on clothing from other people or from stores, with no mention of makeup or a face render. Looksmith is the one built for a face, but Looksmith is not released yet.
That leaves a real gap today. If what you specifically want is a kept, finished picture of a whole makeup look on your own face rather than a live overlay of one shade, none of the four available options in this table does that. The live filters were not built to produce a file, and the one generative option that produces a file is not doing makeup.
Should I wait for Looksmith instead of using YouCam Makeup today?
No, not if the question in front of you needs an answer today. Use a live filter for what a live filter is for: is this eyeliner shape right for my eyes, is this shade family anywhere near me, checked for free in a few seconds. That is a real job and YouCam Makeup, MakeupPlus and a brand's own page all do it adequately, reshaping settings aside.
Wait for Looksmith only for the job none of them do, which is seeing a whole coordinated look settle onto your own face as a picture you can hold next to another one. Looksmith is not out yet, so today that job has no digital answer at all beyond a counter consultation. That is a real gap, not a sales pitch.
Where Looksmith actually fits
Looksmith is a generative try-on app from Mirable Labs, Inc., and it is coming soon to iOS rather than available today. You save a Likeness once, a set of selfies that becomes your reusable face, then pick a look through one of three ways in: Style Me puts you in several looks at once, Create Look takes a description in words, and Mirror a Look transfers the makeup from an inspiration photograph. Looksmith paints that look across twelve regions, from lips and liner through brows and blush, and sends back a 9:16 poster of your own face with the products it used listed beside it, in roughly a minute.
Looksmith will not slim your jaw, will not lift your cheekbones, will not touch your eyelid topology or your age, and will not give you a fringe. Those are locked by design, the same list a Meitu-style filter leaves open. Looksmith grants six free looks at onboarding, then runs on credits bought in packs, with no subscription. There is no price printed here, because Looksmith has not launched and there is nothing to buy yet. What Looksmith does with the photograph you send is set out in the privacy policy, and who is behind the app is on the about page.
None of that makes Looksmith the answer for someone who needs a shade checked in the next thirty seconds. It is the answer to a narrower complaint: that the fast, free options in this category were built to reshape a face a little on the way to showing off a lipstick, and rarely say so until you go looking, the way this page just did.
The honest summary
Pick by what actually bothers you. If it is the price, a brand's own try-on page costs nothing and always will, because your phone is doing the work. If it is that only one brand shows up, Sephora Virtual Artist or a similar multi-brand retailer tool widens that without fixing anything else. If it is that nothing survives past the session, only a generative try-on app solves it, and today that means Doji for an outfit or waiting for Looksmith for a face. If it is the reshaping, no live filter in this comparison stops doing it, because the tracking that paints a lipstick is the same tracking that can move a jaw, and most of these apps built both. Read the terms of anything before you hand it a selfie, and if a question about any of this is not answered here, help is the place to ask it.
Looksmith renders a full makeup look onto your own face and lists the products it used. iOS, coming soon.
You’re on the list.