Thanks to selfies, business is booming for plastic surgeons, makeup artists

It's called the "selfie economy," and it's making plastic surgeons and makeup artists very rich.

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery polled 2,700 of its members; 1 in 3 reported an uptick in requests for procedures by patients wanting to improve their image on social media. The survey found a 10 percent rise in rhinoplasty (aka nose jobs) in 2013 over 2012, 7 percent increase in hair transplants, and 6 percent jump in eyelid surgery.

Dr. Sam Rizk told Reuters that more and more people are coming to him asking for plastic surgery, but that he often refuses, because selfies distort actual images and the patients usually don't need the requested procedures. "We all will have something wrong with us on a selfie image," he said. "Too many selfies indicate a self-obsession and a certain level of insecurity that most teenagers have....Now they can see themselves in 100 images a day on Facebook and Instagram."

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When people aren't turning to plastic surgeons, they're going to makeup artists like Ramy Gafni for a quick fix. Gafni told Reuters that the key to a perfect selfie is clean makeup, well-defined eyebrows, and color on the lips. "You want to enhance your features, perfect your features but not necessarily change your features into something they are not," he said.