Your face is your ultimate asset

I saw an ad for something called QOVES. The name sounds like gibberish. The website is immaculate. You send them photos of your face, they assess it, and you get a plan and a picture of what you could look like if you followed it. The proposition is bizarre. I can also see why someone would want to see that picture. QOVES

First we counted steps. Then we started checking how well we slept before deciding how tired we felt. Now the quantified self has reached the face. A better night’s sleep is one thing. A better face promises more control over what happens when you walk into a room.

I keep thinking about the assetification of the self. Instagram got us used to watching our faces circulate. Now your face is something you can invest in. Put in the time, the money, the discipline, and maybe a few more doors open. There’s a reason that sounds plausible. We’ve all seen looks open doors.

I read about Bay Area matchmakers whose female Chinese and Chinese American clients were asking to meet men working in AI. In that corner of the dating market, the value of someone’s stock options can enter the room before they do. Meanwhile, the perfume industry has found an eager market in young men who keep several scents for different occasions. I like the idea of choosing how I want to smell on a Tuesday. I can also imagine getting to the point where Tuesday feels like another thing I could be doing better.

What stays with me about QOVES is that picture of your future face. I wonder how easy it is to look at an ordinary photograph of yourself once you’ve seen it.

I find these screenshots from QOVES’s mobile site and Instagram feed endlessly fascinating. In a society of the spectacle, obsessed with looking at ourselves and improving what we see, what could be more interesting than the face? Look at how much there is to fiddle with. A little stubble, a different brow, a shade of eyeshadow. QOVES makes it hard to stop looking. This is definitely an app to watch.