While we've all succumbed to editing our pictures from time to time - you know, by adding that filter which makes your eyes pop, and makes it look like you haven't spent the weekend living off a diet of wine and takeaway food - in the online age that we live in, it's imperative to remain conscious of the fact that our favourite celebrities and influencers are never not Photoshopped.

Certainly, paragons of perfection such as Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian have been known to use editing software to slim down their figures, and to create thigh gaps - and if such beings are feeling the pressure to conform to society's beauty ideals, then you can bet that the heat is on for us mere mortals.

With this in mind, dietician Lyndi Cohen decided to conduct an anthropological experiment by posting photos of herself to Instagram, and asking her followers to "Photoshop her beautiful".

As you could expect, the results were far from heartening.

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To the 28-year-old's disappointment, in almost every Photoshop edit, her slender size 10 figure was made to look slimmer.

"I did a social experiment. I asked a bunch of strangers to photoshop images of me," Lyndi wrote on the social media platform. "And without me asking, they all made me slimmer. They removed my birthmark from my shoulder. They even made my bone structure smaller. They created an image of what they thought was beautiful and healthy - and the result worries me."

"When all we see is photoshopped images of already slim people - it’s difficult to think of beauty or health as anything else. I tell you my friends... there’s nothing wrong with my bone structure or my birthmark or my stomach or my natural body shape. The problem is that every photo we see is photoshopped, causing us to question whether the girl in this picture, with the stomach rolls is actually healthy. My stomach rolls are not the problem. Our cultures obsession with the thin ideal and photoshop is. It’s no longer radical for magazines to include a photoshop free cover or shoot in their magazines. I’d love to live in a world where our media does more and where photoshop is the exception, not the rule."

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"Seeing the before and after photos side by side, you can see how much has been changed," she continued.

"Problem is - in real life - you only ever see the ‘after’ photos. And it’s easy to forget that almost EVERY photo you see in the media is photoshopped. This conditions you to believe you’re never good, pretty or thin enough - so you literally waste your life lying in bed feeling guilty for eating more than you wanted and hating yourself on holidays because you can’t stand how you look in photos. We have to stop chasing a goal that DOESN’T EVEN EXIST."

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So, the next time you go to smooth over any wrinkles or stomach rolls, remember that we, unlike society, should be championing our bodies, warts and all.

Society's concept of beauty continually needs challenging. While the old platitude tells us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's clear that the West prizes some modes of "attractiveness" above others. Just scroll through your Instagram feed, and you'll find endless amounts of perfectly retouched and filtered women - all of whom sport long limbs, tanned skin, and all of the other signifiers of western beauty.

With all of these perfect beings that we see on a daily basis, it's easy to feel as if we're falling short. And apparently we are: Avengers star, Elizabeth Olsen, has claimed that she's been Photoshopped beyond recognition in a new issue of Empire magazine.

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While Elizabeth Olsen is a very beautiful woman, apparently even she doesn't live up to society's largely unattainable beauty standards. The 29-year-old recently called out Empire magazine, after alleging that her features were altered in Photoshop.

Olsen took to Instagram to air her grievances, writing "April 27^th ... Does this look like me?"

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From the picture, it's evident that actress's nose and hair have been retouched, so much so that it appears as if she has had rhinoplasty.

Olsen's fans were quick to condemn the changes. "No Lizzie, you don’t need this terrible photoshop,” one Instagram user wrote, while another corroborated "No, that is insulting to your real, actually sweet face! So unnecessary."

Empire have asserted that they are not responsible for the Photoshopping. "Empire magazine did not make any alterations to the ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ artwork, supplied to them by Disney and Marvel Studios, that appears on the May 2018 cover," they wrote in a statement to Today Style. However, as of yet, neither Disney nor Marvel have responded to the allegations.

Elizabeth Olsen's Instagram post has since been deleted.

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Olsen is the latest in a string of celebrities to condemn the entertainment industry's readiness to retouch images. While everyone from Jennifer Lawrence to Nicki Minaj has spoken out about being digitally altered in photos, Chrissy Teigen perhaps gave the most scathing rebuke. Speaking at last year's BeautyCon Festival in Los Angeles, California, the model asserted "Nobody knows what a real face looks like anymore."

"There have been times I've cried to John, where I felt like I would never have that body. Everyone has a butt now and curves and a little waist and that's not me … I'm jealous of those bodies and I want that, but I also feel like I really want to be cool with my body because of people like you guys …That's why I don't post many makeup selfies, because I don't feel anyone knows what a real face looks like anymore and it kills me that we have to completely wash a face or body out for it to get likes."

In related news, Kim Kardashian just got called out for her terrible Photoshop skills on Instagram.

Social media platforms such as Instagram are forever skewing society's conception of what is considered "beautiful". I mean, when you're constantly affronted with photographs of perfectly retouched celebrities and Instagram models, it's hard not to aspire to such standards. But, as we all know - it's just smoke and mirrors - the people in question spend hours editing their selfies before posting them to their fans, many of whom remain naively enamoured by their contouring skills, impossibly smooth skin, and figures which are "beach body ready" come rain or shine.

However, more and more Instagram stars are using the platform to draw attention to the reality behind it all. Food bloggers have been admitting that fad diets have been making them unwell, and Rihanna recently proudly displayed her leg hair. Now, one prominent beauty YouTuber, Lauren Kurtis, has revealed how much editing goes into her Instagram posts...

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The 25-year-old Instagram user and vlogger showed her 1.5 million followers how she edits her photos with two side-by-side photographs. "I think there needs to be more transparency on social media, so here is a side by side comparison of before and after editing this pic," she wrote;

"Besides the obvious colour editing (which has warmed up the image therefore boosting the colour of my tan), I whitened the whites of my eyes which were yellowed after the colour edit, and then fixed the gross fake tan on my hand. I also lightly smoothed over my legs as I was freezing which makes my skin go a little blotchy.

"Of course none of this editing was necessary and I’m sure many of you would prefer the original image, but I absolutely love the process (I studied photography straight out of high school and editing was always my favourite part) and so that’s why I do it! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post - Instagram is really just smoke and mirrors"

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Curtis's fans loved that the beauty YouTuber was so candid about the editing process, and many stated that the edits were so subtle that they would have never noticed that the image had been altered in the first place.

"If only more people were as honest and interested in bettering themselves and helping others as you are," one Instagram user wrote, while another corroborated: "I didn’t read that you’d edited one, and just swiped across as usual. I thought to myself, she looks more beautiful in the second photo!! So interesting! Maybe the untouched versions of us emanate beauty more because they’re true. Food for thought".

A third individual clearly noticed a difference between the two, writing "Omg it looks so different! Her face! Obvs she’s beautiful in both but this is actually really interesting".

Well, I don't know about you but I think Lauren looks gorgeous in both pictures - but good on her for being so open about everything that goes into being #Goals.

Societal conceptions of what is considered beautiful continually need challenging. While the old cliche informs us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's evident that Western society prizes some modes of "attractiveness" above others. Just take a scroll through your social media feeds and you'll be greeted by perfectly retouched and filtered models - all of whom sport long lithe limbs, tanned skin and all of the other signifiers of occidental beauty.

And with the endless amount of perfect beings we see on a daily basis, it's easy to feel as if we fall short. And evidently we do: Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes-  two beautiful stars from Netflix's Riverdale - were photoshopped to unrecognisable dimensions in a recent editorial.

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21-year-old Lili Reinhard and 23-year-old Camila Mendes were both featured in February's issue of Cosmopolitan US. The original editorial featured the two with their proportions intact, and the accompanying interview saw Mendes speak to female empowerment, saying "If I could go back to before I started Riverdale, I would tell myself to speak up when I felt like something wasn't right. To use my voice and know that it's worth hearing."

And it appears that they both took this sentiment to heart. After Cosmopolitan Philippines shared some heavily photoshopped images of the pair, both Reinhard and Mendes took to social media to call out the publication.

While Mendes said that the original photos "included our natural silhouettes, and we're relieved that they didn't see our waistlines as something that needed tweaking," she spoke on behalf of Reinhart when denouncing the actions of Cosmopolitan Philippines. "[We] feel disrespected and disturbed by the sight of our photoshopped bodies," she asserted. "those bodies are not ours; they have been distorted from their natural beauty. We prefer to see our bodies the way they actually are. I'm not interested in having a slimmer waist, I'm more than satisfied with the one that I already have".

Mendes then directed her fans to Reinhart's story which featured side-by-side images of the photographs, as well as an impassioned speech by the actress about how difficult it is to be body positive in the entertainment industry. After recognising International Women's Day, the 21-year-old wrote, "We still have a long way to go. Our fight is not over."

Speaking to societal pressures in Hollywood and beyond, Reinhart continued "Camila and I have worked incredibly hard to feel confident in the bodies that we have. It's an every day battle, sometimes. And to see our bodies become so distorted in an editing process is a perfect example of the obstacles we have yet to overcome."

"So we cannot stop fighting. Our battle has only just begun. We are fucking powerful, beautiful and strong... we aren't going to hide behind photoshop to conform to beauty standards. 

That's why I'm calling out @cosmopolitan_philippines. It's sad that you felt our bodies needed to be slimmed down. But Camila and I are f***ing beautiful. As is. And you can't "fix" us. So, like every other day, women....go kick some ass. You are being heard. You are strong and sensational."

Reinhart, who has previously been open about her struggle with depression, then implored celebrities and public figures to put an end to photoshopping. "It's only encouraging an unrealistic body image," she declared. "It's adding to the problem."

Kim Kardashian has been accused of wearing blackface in a new magazine cover for 7Hollywood.

In a picture that was allegedly supposed to channel the glamor of old Hollywood legend, Elizabeth Taylor, the reality star, 39, appears to have donned a deep tan, which has resulted in intense backlash online.

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One person tweeted: "I didn't recognize Kim Kardashian, and I guess that was the point. Negative or positive press is still press. But truly, this is really gross that she's normalizing blackface for young kids to follow suit. Kim pretends to be a role model and then she reminds us that she isn't."

This model addicted to tanning injections was also accused of blackface: 

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Another remarked: "You want to be a black woman so bad without any of the struggle or magic. Darkening your skin (bronzer, tanning, whatever) to get the look of being what equals a light-skinned black woman isn't cute. Its [sic] blackface no matter how skilled your makeup artist is. Stop it."

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As per Page Six, a source close to the reality star has denied the blackface allegations. They claimed that the lighting in the photograph had the effect of darkening her skin.

"It's the lighting that makes her look darker in this specific image, There are multiple covers and images from this shoot where the lighting looks more natural," they said.

"People are so quick to find the negative in everything and also often forget that she is of Armenian descent."

The controversial snap was taken for the Winter 2020 edition of the 7Hollywood magazine, and the source claimed that they were present during the photo shoot.

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However, anyone familiar with the Kardashian-Jenner clan will know that this is far from the first time that Kim has been accused of cultural appropriation. She has been slammed for wearing Fulani braids and cornrows, and in June, she was criticised for the name of her new line of shapewear.