A look at the contestants before and after

I've been reviewing the progress of contestants through this show and have to wonder what impact the make-over team have had.

First, let's see who's been sent home so far:

Arin started looking quite mature for his years and cool.

This press photo turned him into some strange looking geek. Terrible pose and someone clearly decided to let this one with him biting his lower lip go through for some reason best known to themselves!

Beatrice probably would have preferred that her mum hadn't worn those clothes at this stage of the competition but that didn't stop Britney keeping her in the Top 3 teens.

This was a great makeover in comparison to most of the others. Strangely, Beatrice seemed to get more nervous and less confident, though, as the weeks passed.

David was never going to win any beauty competitions but the hat was quite iconic.

Press photos put him on a one-way street and emphasised the tattoos but the arms crossed defensive stance didn't match the attempt to look annoyed. The shave was successful but what on earth were they thinking with the top-knot affair? This was a singer who put emotion into his performances but his image was quite the opposite, as if he didn't care.

Jason was a gentle, lovable sort of tubby guy at the start. 

The make-over team made him smart and certainly fixed the hair and even disguised the waistline. That flower! Oh boy. It still retained his best qualities, though, and I can imagine that he has gathered as many copies as he could and is busy still signing them and sending them out to fans.

Jennel looked slightly chunky in the early days but that didn't stop her talents coming through when she started singing.

Hers was an amazing make-over and whoever was responsible deserves some sort of award. Brilliant pictures and I'd expected the 'Melanie Amaro' look might have been really good for her. I have no idea why she left so early. One of the shows big mysteries this year.

Paige looked good naturally - a little different in the early days but she was vulnerable and likeable.

Someone clearly decided to go extreme with her. This was one of the gentler incarnations. There is also an appalling shot of her almost totally disguised in a massive gold mask. Later, Demi refined her appearance with a hair cut and brought out a more pretty, less threatening Paige but one has to wonder whether the damage had already been done.

Vino looked like someone who had just wandered in and started singing. Relaxed and with a hat covering the tattooed head which many might have been put off by. He looked happy in those days too.

The make-over team went black and white. Mostly black with big face pictures and clenched fists. The hat stayed but those arms up did make you keep your distance. He seldom looked that happy afterwards, although did maintain a Top 3 position for a while so clearly wasn't affected by any of this. That last performance, crouched and all in dark clothes can't have helped him. He was better standing up.

Will had a great personality that just oozed out of his appearances, with a country boy hint in his clothes somewhere.

Whilst he looked great in the suit and the hair and smile remained intact, either those colours or the emphasis on more big band style than Country style didn't help him for long.

There were precious few shots of Lyric in the early days so comparisons aren't easy. And, of course, Lyric145 was a made up job with the two guys anyway. SisterC were similarly conspicuous by their absence in photos during the auditions and really only appeared in the press after their make-over. They looked great in that and probably did before.

Now, how about those remaining. Tate never seems to change and that can't be bad. I have a feeling that whatever the make-over team did he'd still look like Tate! Carly Rose is not that photogenic, although she may well turn into a stunning girl at 16 or 17. At 13 bits are all still growing and changing shape so ears can look big and expressions odd. The new photos are OK but for this girl it is simply about an amazing talent and whether she wins this competition or not, she's going to be the one that will be in the best shows on Broadway and with the big album sales.

Emblem3 don't seem to have changed much at all so far. I'm waiting for some 'look' to be developed by Simon, who is usually pretty good at this sort of thing, but it may be he's leaving them as the pretty experienced West Coast band they are for now. With Fifth harmony, he has transformed five girls of quite different characters at the outset into five potential stars, each looking great and yet managing to retain a group identity. Expect to see them merging more in either colours or styles or both as the competition progresses. I would still like to have seen at least a couple of these girls as solo finalists but never mind.

Diamond has actually looked pretty cool from the start, with a natural photogenic rapport with the cameras. Her make-overs have emphasised the street kid but her performances have been older. Her character shines through whatever she wears or has done with her hair, though. 

Lastly, Cece has made the Top 6 as a very unnatural blond, and without leopard spots. I love this girl but I have to admit to being surprised as she has had so many incarnations that I wonder how losing one identity and creating another each week can have kept her in. We've seen a determined but quite confident Cece at the start, taking on Paige at every juncture doing the audition stages, a vulnerable Cece who has had to cope with being in the bottom two almost every week since and a earthier, sexy Cece last week doing the Voulez Vous Couchez Avec Moi thing. To be honest, I can't see her getting further in that vein and would love to see her return to how she was before entering the competition. Whoever was advising her then, and it may well have been herself, really had got it right as this old shot clearly demonstrates.