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Service Offers Retouching For Mere Mortals

Photos courtesy of PicWash

The PicWash program takes a service long used by movie stars and makes it available to the masses.

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By CLOE CABRERA

ccabrera@tampatrib.com

Published: October 16, 2008

When the Rubenesque America Ferrera appeared on the cover of Glamour magazine last year, her fans were quick to ask, "Quien es?" The star of TV's "Ugly Betty" looked far leaner than she ever had on the hit show.

Although the magazine denied it altered any of her curves, critics concluded she got some serious airbrushing.

Even country music hottie Faith Hill wasn't hot enough for Redbook magazine; editors slimmed, tightened and smoothed her out for the cover of their July issue.

Have you seen vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the cover of Newsweek? I bet she wishes they'd done a little tweaking to remove facial hair, blemishes and wrinkles.

Well, now there's an online retouching service that lets mere mortals improve their image.

For $7, PicWash will eradicate wrinkles, pores and acne. For an extra $8, you can lose the love handles, cellulite and tummy bulges.

Photoshopping is a common practice these days for celebrities. But everyone has a few photos that make them wish they had put on some makeup, stood up straighter or lost a few pounds.

Misleading? Not at all, says Daniel Ciraldo, founder of PicWash. He's simply taking a service long used by movie stars and magazine editors and making it available to the masses.

"Everyone has photos they want to share, but they just aren't 100 percent happy with the way they look," says Ciraldo, 25, of Miami. "We want them to look nice enough to share those special photographs and be 100 percent confident in how they look."

Ciraldo says the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, which allow users and their friends to post pictures online for the world to see, is making people think harder about what image they want out there.

Ciraldo launched the PicWash site, picwash.com, after watching his three sisters struggle to spruce up photos of themselves before posting them online. "If they were having so much trouble, I thought I could do this as a service and offer it to everyone," he says.

Ciraldo launched his service offering basic photo facial retouching to remove acne, red eye and facial shine; even skin tone; and smooth age spots and wrinkles. It wasn't long before customers began begging for body work.

"If there's a certain area a customer wants to take care of, we will work on it. But we won't make you look 80 pounds lighter," Ciraldo says.

Beauty expert Cybele Parsignault, editor of Cybelesays.com, says she sees nothing wrong with improving on Mother Nature - just as long as you don't turn someone into Angelina Jolie.

"I think that any kind of airbrushing of photos for the social networking sites is OK, but only to a point," she says. "After all, most blemishes and some other facial marks are temporary, so if a photo catches one, having it airbrushed out is fine. It's what women have done with foundations and concealers all these years, taken away what life has temporarily popped up."

Have you spotted a beauty trend worth hot pursuit? Call Cloe Cabrera at (813) 259-7656 or e-mail ccabrera@tampatrib.com. And don't forget to strut over to her blog at TBO.com, Keyword: Hot Pursuits.

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