15 Essentials For The Perfect Selfie

1. The peace sign selfie.

In which you make a peace sign with either or both of your hands, and grope your face with them. A model below for guidance:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TcEx7l1z0A%5D

2. Make sure to keep your eyes on yourself – not the camera.

Looking at yourself ensures that, in the final product, you’ll be looking off into the distance and not directly into the camera. It establishes an air of aloofness that’s compulsory to killing the selfie game. Does Alexa Chung look into the camera when she takes a selfie? I didn’t think so.

3. A grill selfie.

I can’t relay how important it is that, should you buy yourself a grill, you give it the Instagram face time it deserves. One grill selfie is often all you need to procure a record deal.

4. The mirror selfie.

This could be the full mirror selfie — the #OOTD, as it were – or the smaller-mirror selfie in which only the upper half of your body is exposed. Regardless of the mirror size, it’s crucial that you hold your phone inconspicuously, as if you’re handling a delicate flower. Look to the Man Repeller for artistic direction:

5. The diva selfie.

There are a plethora of ways to achieve the diva selfie – one of the most popular being the in-the-chair-getting-my-hair-did selfie. But there’s the mani-pedi selfie too, the steam room selfie and, of course, we can’t forget the bikini wax selfie – a no-brainer.

6. The crouching mirror hidden flaws selfie.

I say this because there is something about the elusive crouch stance that flatters any body type. Ideally you’re with a crew and are all crouching together in a spontaneous yet choreographed-looking kind-of-way. And hopefully you’re all crouching around a car or a stoop. An example:

7. The it’s-snowing-and-I’m-not-having-it selfie.

True, a selfie of this ilk is most at home on California transplants’ Instagrams, but it’s certainly not limited to these people either. No one likes a lousy winter, and everyone likes to show it. The trick here is to make sure the photo is well-lit, captures the chapped-nipple essence of winter and contains some defining characteristic that distinguishes it from the rest of the kill-me-it’s-winter selfies.

8. The half-face selfie.

If there’s anything the half-face selfie proves it’s that a little uncertainty goes a long way. We can pull off this selfie a number of ways, but the foremost and frankly most flattering method would be taking a photo of half of your face, like Alexa Chung below:

9. The selfie with a selfie master.

Another surefire way to kill the selfie game is to track down an Instagram star, or an early-2000s celebrity — think: Paris Hilton, Denise Richards, or Amanda Bynes – and accost them until they agree to take a selfie with you. Post that little guy to your Instagram and you’re instantly crushing it.

10. The museum selfie.

Cropping up on more and more Instagram feeds these days is the museum selfie. Whether popular on its own merit or because of its random proliferation we’ll never know. As always, bonus points if you can identify the artist.

11. A walking-down-the-runway selfie.

Not many people will ever even have the opportunity to take one of these selfies, which perhaps sheds light on its prestige. Cara Delevingne did this in the Giles Deacon show a couple days ago and hers was a selfie video.

12. The “spoil me” selfie.

Encapsulating luxury and garishness, the typical “spoil me” selfie is taken in a hotel room, while lounging in a white bathrobe and nibbling on some crudité.

13. The hide-your-face-with-something selfie.

Typically we like to approach this selfie in a work-with-what-you-have kind-of-way. Lots of girls favor the coffee-cup-hiding-the-face selfie, a reproduction of which you can find below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd3IH5-KVwk%5D

14. The puppy and/or kitty selfie.

I literally can’t see you unless you have one puppy or kitty selfie to your name. Devoid of one and you’re dead to me; invisible. Incidentally, bonus points if puppy or kitty is covering part of your face.

15. The I-woke-up-like-dis selfie.

Inspired by Queen Bey, the I-woke-up-like-dis selfie is a burgeoning niche in the selfie market. And it’s a great way to communicate your natural beauty to your followers without saying it outright.