Trouble at customs Why it's better not to wear make-up for your passport photo

A few years ago, passport make-up went viral on social media - the face is made to look more beautiful. But these perfect passport photos are now becoming a problem at the airport.

Looking good in a passport photo seems to be an impossibility. At least that's what many people thought until a few years ago, when passport make-up went viral on social media channels with the hashtag #passportchallenge. The result is a look that visually enhances the face - and that is exactly what is now becoming a problem.

Now the first people have used their new passport with a perfect photo at the airport - or at least tried to. Because at the airport, most of them look like they've just got out of bed. Hair tousled and with a sloppy look. Make-up? Usually not a thing. And not a trace of a lifted face.

TikToker Alisha Marie films her experience at the airport. "They almost didn't let me on my flight," she says in a video (see above). Wearing a black cap and a dark jacket, she is at the airport. "They said I don't look like my passport." She writes on the video: "I've never felt so humiliated in my life." Her video currently has around 21 million views.

But she's not the only one. Creator Beth Gould doesn't get far with her passport at the airport in Taiwan either: "The machine said I didn't look like my photo. I had to report to security and prove my identity."

While you can often bring your own passport photo abroad, the regulations in Switzerland vary from canton to canton. In Zurich and the two Basel cantons, for example, the photos are taken directly on site at the passport office. Unlike the strict rules on wearing glasses in photos, there are only recommendations for make-up.

It is recommended not to wear too much make-up so that the difference between the passport photo and the actual appearance is not too great.

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