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Warning: Spoilers for Survivor seasons 49 and 50 ahead.
Before she arrived in Fiji to compete on Survivor season 49 last April, Savannah Louie amped up her workout routine. She took bootcamp classes to improve her strength and endurance, did hot yoga to condition her body for the island heat, and worked out after fasting to get used to exerting herself while hungry and weak. She prepped aesthetically, too. Before the 26 days of filming began, she made a point of getting a gel manicure and having her hair colored. She’d already gotten laser hair removal, and was reaping the wrinkle-reducing benefits of a recent Botox appointment. After all, on Survivor you don't have access to makeup, skin care, or even a shower—but Louie and some other contestants still managed to look camera-ready at all times.
As a former newscaster, Louie already knew how much work it takes to look good on screen. But she wasn’t the only contestant that season who prepared this way—and fans noticed. "Why does this cast seem so well-groomed and polished?" asked one Redditor in r/survivor. In the comments, fans speculated on a laundry list of beauty treatments contestants might have had done: Eyebrow microblading and lamination, lip blushing and tinting, lash lifts and extensions, laser hair removal, keratin hair treatments, teeth whitening, gel manicures, Botox, fillers, the list goes on.
They weren’t wrong. But pre-show cosmetic interventions haven’t always been the norm. The competition series has a long and complicated relationship with beauty—and the contestants' newly snatched appearances reflect not just the way the show has changed but the way society around it has changed, too.
Sage Ahren-Nichols on season 49.
Photo: Courtesy of CBS
Survivor premiered in 2000, and watching the early seasons, you can tell. Beautiful women (and men—you've seen photos of Boston Rob in 2002, right?) were key to the show’s marketing strategy. One of its most-referenced early scenes featured contestants Heidi Strobel and Jenna Morasca stripping naked in exchange for chocolate and peanut butter in a 2003 episode titled "Girls Gone Wilder." In 2015, CBS promoted the show on its website by publishing a photo slideshow of female contestants with the headline "The 36 Hottest Bikinis Ever Worn on Survivor."
But back then, beauty on Survivor was a lot less… polished. Parvati Shallow, one of Survivor's best-known players, first competed on Survivor 13: Cook Islands in 2006 and went on to compete in four other seasons through 2025. She tells me that when she found out she’d been cast on the show for the first time, she only had one piece of beauty prep in mind. "The only thing I did before Cook Islands was laser hair removal for my bikini and my underarms," Shallow says, recalling the way cameras would often pan up and down women’s bodies. "There is always a challenge where you're holding your arms over your head. I saw that and said, 'I'm not gonna be the girl with the hairy pits.'" But otherwise, she says, "On Survivor, you're going to be covered in dirt and look a little like a caveman. I just accepted that." Her prep remained low-key for her next three appearances, but for Survivor Australia v. the World in 2025, she says she got Botox "because I get very squinty in the sun."
I'm a relatively recent Survivor fan. In the past 14 months, I've watched 30 seasons and counting, spanning 25 years of television, and have witnessed a time-lapse of changing aesthetic ideals. Survivor is a particularly interesting example of changing beauty trends because contestants don't have access to makeup or skin care products on the island—save for sunscreen (more of a health necessity than a beauty one). You don't see makeup trends like the Tumblr-beloved winged eyeliner, colorful eyeshadow, or bold matte lipstick, but you can pinpoint when microblading went mainstream (season 30 from 2015). In the early seasons, many of the female contestants are thin, pretty, and often wearing skimpy bikinis—but their faces are bare with scant lashes, faint eyebrows, and foreheads that crinkle naturally with their facial expressions. In contrast, many of today's female contestants have Botox-smooth foreheads, clear, dewy skin, dramatic brows and lashes, and sparkling white smiles.
"To be perfectly honest… going on the show has made me a lot more self-conscious about how I look than before."
Savannah Louie
All this beauty prep isn't a secret; in fact, many female constants are happy to talk about it. In a pre-season interview, season 49 contestant Sage Ahren-Nichols told The Seattle Times that she thinks her fellow contestants misjudged her, in part, because her Botox made her appear unempathetic. During and shortly after season 49 aired, Louie and fellow contestants Sophi Balerdi and MC Chukwujekwu answered fan questions on TikTok about their on-island beauty looks; Balerdi credited a Grande Cosmetics serum for her long lashes, while Chukwujekwu shared that her glow during her first appearance on the jury was thanks to bug spray, not body oil as some assumed. That said, sometimes there’s nothing juicy to share: Balerdi tells me that Fiji’s humidity, sun, and salt water were responsible for her “Survivor glow.”
If male contestants are engaging in pre-taping primping, they’re remaining tight-lipped about it—with the notable exception of Survivor New Zealand's Adam O'Brien, who revealed he got a whopping 36 units of Botox before competing so he could purposefully hide his expressions from his competitors (one has to wonder if he was also viewed negatively among his castmates like Ahren-Nichols says she was).
Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick on season 50.
Photo: Courtesy of CBS
Other contestants beauty prep for reasons beyond the aesthetic, too. Tiffany Ervin says she got her hair braided before filming season 46 for practical purposes. "Being out there in the jungle with a curly afro is absolutely not a thing," she says. "It was a non-negotiable: I had to get braids." She decided to style her long box braids in Scary Spice-inspired space buns, which immediately made her stand out in press photos. "I thought it was a cute way to have a braided hairstyle but make it unique to me," Ervin says. She decided to recreate her hairstyle for her return on Season 50.
And speaking of season 50—the first all-star season since 2020—trailers and cast photos ahead of its February 25 premiere have shown a transformation among returning contestants. Louie is returning for season 50; she got Botox during her short break between seasons. "When you hear Survivor 50 and you know how many resources are going into it and how much excitement there is, you want to look good," she tells me. "You can tell from just watching the trailer, the women are gorgeous. You can tell people have their eyelashes done and they look spectacular." She sees a difference in her own appearance between seasons 49 and 50, too: “When you watch the trailer for 50, I feel like I do look a little different. My forehead does look a little bit smoother, and I'm like, 'Thank you, Botox.'”
Tiffany Ervin on season 50.
Photo: Courtesy of CBS
For other contestants, going on Survivor season 50 meant returning to the show for the first time in over a decade. Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick is returning for season 50; she was just 24 when she first appeared on Survivor in 2005 and was 30 the last time she appeared on the show in 2010. "I'm 46 now. I don't look like I did in my twenties," she says. Her season 50 prep included laser hair removal, a series of facials, dermaplaning, an eyebrow tint and wax, a lash lift and tint, Botox, and collagen and peptide supplements. "In the new era, everybody's more contoured and everybody has the lashes and everybody has big perfect brows and all that because that's in," she says. “It's just another level of beauty, you know?”
While contestants can be critiqued by fans for not looking well-groomed enough, those who are perceived as too polished can also get backlash. "It felt a little tricky on my first season of Survivor, because when someone looks at me, they immediately have a perception of me," says Dee Valladares, who won Survivor 46 in 2024 and is returning for season 50. Her well-groomed looks—she got Botox and microblading before her appearance—led some Survivor fans to perceive her negatively. "I've been told, 'You're from Miami and you might be stuck up.' I even got fans calling me a 'mean girl.' If I looked different and I said the same things, you might not say that about me, or if you met me in real life," she says. "But, you know, you're either loved or hated."
Savannah Louie in season 49.
Photo: Courtesy of CBS
Savannah Louie in season 50.
Photo: Courtesy of CBS
Louie says she was also frustrated by some of the fan commentary on her looks during season 49. "It's not a show about being the best-looking person on the beach, right?" she says. "I've been very surprised to get feedback talking about what I look like when the game is supposed to be about strategy and physical competition and social game. People are like, 'her smile is too toothy' or 'her eyebrows are crazy.' To be perfectly honest with you, I feel like going on the show has made me a lot more self-conscious about how I look than before."
So, yes, Survivor contestants are looking more snatched than ever before—but can you blame them? It sounds like fan reactions would be even more brutal if they weren't. And honestly, it feels like everyone is looking more snatched than ever before, whether they’re on TV or not. "I know so many women in my circle who are not on TV who are getting the same treatments that I got when I was getting ready for Survivor 50 and Survivor 49," says Louie. "I think it's just a reflection of where our society is as a whole with beauty. And that's one of the cool things about Survivor—the game itself is a reflection of our society."
