Stubble is also edited out of each photo behind the scenes

The models also wear hair extensions and have body parts swapped out

These include plumping up the models' breasts and bums

However, an anonymous former re-toucher revealed some of the secrets

Victoria's Secret models often look perfect in the brand's campaign photos

While most people are aware that re-touching at fashion labels is widespread, not so many people know exactly what sorcery goes on behind the scenes.

Enter one anonymous former Victoria's Secret Photoshopper, who has stepped forward to reveal what really happens during - and after - a bikini shoot.

The unnamed woman spoke to Refinery 29 about the secrets behind a swimwear shoot at VS, so that women can understand bodies as they really are, without having been edited to perfection.

From bumping up a model's cleavage and making the Victoria's Secret girls curvier, to removing unwanted stubble and even switching up body parts, FEMAIL takes a look at her findings.

Scroll down for video

Insider secrets: One anonymous former Victoria's Secret Photoshopper has revealed many of the secrets behind the perfect VS bikini shoots - the level of re-touching is surprising

Perfection: From bumping up a model's cleavage and making the Victoria's Secret girls curvier, to removing unwanted stubble and even switching up body parts, FEMAIL takes a look at the re-toucher's findings

VICTORIA'S SECRET SECRETS * Hair extensions are added to the models' hair to make it look thicker and more lustrous. * Chicken cutlets and shaping pads are inserted into the models' cleavages. * Push-up bras are often worn underneath swimsuits and bikinis, before they are edited out later on. * Nipples are erased by a re-toucher. * Breasts are made rounder, higher, more symmetrical and larger. * Blue hands and feet are corrected. * Armpits are highlighted to remove the gray colour everyone has underneath their arms. * Re-touchers make the models look curvier, making their bums look plumper, hiding their ribs and softening their often jutting hip bones. * Sometimes, body parts are even switched up - one model's body will be matched with another's arms. This is to stop the photos from attracting criticism rather than to make them look perfect most of the time. Advertisement

THE DAY OF THE SHOOT

Before the editing process begins, the anonymous source says many alterations take place on the models in the flesh.

'The first thing they do is put in [hair] extensions,' she remembers.

'I don't think I was ever on a shoot with a model that had real hair.'

Next, she says that they enhance the women's cleavages, via 'chicken cutlets' and other shaping pads.

'If you hold up the bathing suit in your own hand, it's so heavy because they have all this sh*t sewed into it,' she says.

And from adding push-up bras to the models when they are wearing bikinis and swimsuits, to editing them out with technology later on, the source says that Victoria's Secret isn't the only brand to do this.

Instead, she believes it to be a routine practice.

'When you're wearing a strapless bikini, in no way, shape, or form [can] you have cleavage. It’s physically impossible with the way gravity works,' she says.

'That's why we're used to seeing anti-gravity breasts everywhere.'

Before the shoot: On the day of a swimwear photo shoot, the anonymous source says that many different things happen - the models are often given hair extensions and chicken cutlets to insert in to their bikini tops

Anti gravity: She says: 'If you hold up the bathing suit in your hand, it's so heavy because they have all this sh*t sewed into it' - sometimes, there will be bras placed underneath the bikini tops which are later edited out

THE DAY AFTER THE SHOOT

Once the photos have been taken, the re-toucher will get to work behind the scenes.

They come to these photo shoots, and, like, they have their arms up in the classic beach pose, and they have, like, hairy armpits

The bra worn underneath the swimsuit will be removed, nipples are erased and breasts will be made rounder, higher, more symmetrical and larger, according to the source.

Next, 'blue hands and blue feet' will be corrected, as well as the fact that the model's armpits will be highlighted (the re-toucher says that everyone's armpits turn gray on camera, no matter how closely they shave beforehand):

'They come to these photo shoots and, like, they have their arms up in the classic beach pose, and they have, like, hairy armpits,' she says.

'They all have stubbly pubes - all the normal stuff [non-models have],' she adds.

After the shoot: Once the photo shoot is done, the re-toucher will make some edits behind the scenes - these include erasing nipples and making the model's breasts look rounder, more symmetrical and larger

As well as this, the source says that 'adding meat on their bones' is standard - as the re-touchers spend hours making bums look more curvy, hiding ribs and softening hip bones.

'We have to curve them out,' she says.

In the past, the source told Refinery 29 that Victoria's Secret had tried women of different sizes to see if it worked for sales, but she laments that sadly those models didn't sell.

'One time, during a swim season, they had these two girls come in that had abs and thick thighs and busts,' she says.

'They were still obviously models. But they were a different look. but, they didn't sell anything and so they stopped using those girls.'

Curve appeal: The source said that often the Victoria's Secret models are curved out to remove their jutting hip bones, rib cages and plump up their bums

Different woman: Sometimes, she says that body parts are switched up, and different arms are added to a different model's body - this is done to avoid criticism, rather than to make them look perfect, apparently

Not alone: The anonymous source says that Victoria's Secret is not the only brand to have a heavy re-touching process - in fact, many of the big-name brands spent a lot of time editing out various details

HOW BODIES BECOME TOTALLY DISTORTED

As well as all of the above, the source says that occasionally fixing various body part turns into something much more sinister.

Across the industry, re-touchers do not just edit bodies, but swap them and their parts for those of other people.

A lot of the time re-touching isn't about trying to make a body look ideal, but also to avoid criticism of that image

'There's a lot of the switching bodies up,' the anonymous woman says.

'Can you change these arms with a different girl's arms, because her arms are making it look like she's, like, picking her butt?', is something she remembers hearing in the past.

'A lot of the time re-touching isn't about trying to make a body look ideal, but also to avoid criticism of that image,' she says.

The source adds that she nowadays, she refuses to take in waists, or whiten teeth or eyeballs.

'Nobody has really white eyes,' she says.