What have they done to Demi Moore? Commentators have suggested Demi looks like a CGI (Computer Generated Image) in the campaign Commentato...

What have they done to Demi Moore?

Commentators have suggested Demi looks like a CGI (Computer Generated Image) in the campaign

Commentators have suggested Demi looks like a CGI (Computer Generated Image) in the campaign

Commentators have suggested Demi looks like a CGI (Computer Generated Image) in the campaign

49-year-old Demi Moore

Demi's marriage to Ashton Kutcher ended last November amid cheating allegations. The star suffered a near-breakdown, culminating with a week in rehab in February for addiction and eating disorder issues

Having notched up a marriage breakdown, severe weight loss, drug-related collapse and a stint in rehab over the past few months, Demi Moore has had a difficult time of it lately.

Naturally, she has been looking less than her best, the worry and torment of her experience etched across her thinning face.

But as heavily airbrushed photographs of the star from the latest campaign for beauty brand Helena Rubinstein are released, it is apparent that any such signs of stress have been entirely erased.

More than that, thanks to an over-zealous session with Photoshop and the omnipresent airbrush, the natural contours of Demi's face are gone: her strong, angular chin; the lines running from nose to mouth, the shape of her nose - all are entirely obliterated.

The 49-year-old star is all but unrecognisable. In her place is a bleached, smooth, line-free version of Demi that looks more like a computer generated fembot than the familiar Hollywood actress with five decades under her belt.

MailOnline spoke to Life & Style Picture Editor Craig Gunn, who studied a digital version of the images. 'This would have had been done by someone very expert and would have been at least a day's work,' he said today.

'Without seeing the original photographs I can only speculate. But it looks as though the skintone has been heavily airbrushed, with quite a thick application of the brush. Doing this gets rid of all pit marks, pores, moles, blemishes and fine hairs on the face to create a smoother look.

Gaunt: Demi's struggle with the breakdown of her marriage resulted in extreme weight loss that left her looking gaunt

'In Demi's case, they have left nothing behind.

In the process they've also taken out a lot of her natural skintone, and made her look a lot paler than she is in reality.

'She does have good cheekbones herself, but here it looks as though they have been heavily defined in after-effects. The shading underneath is quite clearly enhanced.

'Her natural hazel eyes have been changed to a light green - probably by changing the hue in Photoshop, a simple process that takes moments.

'It's tricky to see exactly what liquefication she has had done (a process that reshapes and slims the shape of the face, making it look narrower) because the photographer has cleverly made Demi cover the jaw area using her hands.

'But it does look as though she may have had a slight reduction of scale of her face, including a smoothing of her chin into a more almond-like, less angular shape. Her chin bone is visible in normal photos but is not at all here.

'Such subtle changes would change the resulting face shape quite dramatically, even if individually each element is quite subtle.'

Regarding her flawless hairline, Gunn says this too was more than likely created in Photoshop.

'There's only so much they can do with hair and make up,' he says. 'And here they have clearly made the hairline look very symmetrical.'

'She looks quite unlike her usual self. It's a slightly alien effect. When you start taking away people's skintones and smoothing out their features, they look like mannequins. You're removing the human elements of the face.

'There's no doubt it makes celebrities and models look younger, but you lose the essence of their face.

'Still, it's commonplace in the beauty industry. It's all about creating symmetry - but it's a false beauty.'