The current global pandemic has most of us ‘non essential’ workers working from the comfort of our sofa. This is great news for those of us who find grooming and putting on a ‘polite face’ a chore, but it also means extra work making yourself look presentable during those Zoom sessions with your boss or client.

Usually I switch my camera off and to be extra sure that no one sees my ungroomed face, I have even pasted tape over the camera on my laptop, but sometimes, clients ‘insist’ on seeing my face and that’s when the the problem arises.

After some frantic googling, here are some useful hacks to make yourself look fab during your next Zoom call without having to slap on an entire face of makeup.

Zoom’s Secret “Touch Up” Filter 

To make yourself look more ‘filtered’, go to the lower-left-hand corner of the screen, find “Video Settings,” and click on the box marked “Touch Up My Appearance.” Zoom describes the webcam beauty filter as “a softening effect to skin to minimize the visibility of imperfections.”

The Book Stack Hack

All you need for this hack is a tower of books. The goal is to not let your co-workers see up your nose.

The appropriate keyboard height for typing isn’t the proper height for your camera to be looking at your face during a video call. You’ll need to raise your laptop so that the camera lens meets you at eye level.

A stack of five or six books underneath your laptop is just what you need so that you’re eye level with the camera for a much more flattering angle.

Get a Custom Zoom Background

Zoom also has an awesome tool called virtual backgrounds, which may not be suitable for formal business calls fyi. You can upload your own images if your computer is up-to-date. When you’re in your next Zoom meeting, click the “^” arrow next to Start/Stop Video and then click choose a virtual background and have fun 🙂

We hope these tips and hacks help you as much as they have helped us, because the last thing we need while WFH is to have to bother with beauty blenders and foundation when lying on a sofa in bleach stained (but clean) home clothes.