Sims all look the same!

You can put lipstick on a pig but it will still look like a pig (not saying anyone's sims look like pigs just trying to make a point). Changing the color of skin or hair or changing the makeup will not produce variety in the look of a person's sims if the underlying shape of features are left the same. That's why people can spot an EA NPC sim because all the sliders are at default value (zeros) even thought they have different weights, skin tone, hair color and style, clothes and makeup. It's why some players' sims have very distinctive styles that can be easily recognized even if there is variety in the surface looks of their sims.

"Mort_Opal;d-949973" wrote:
Every time I try to make a sim in Sims 3, they always seem to look the same. Does anyone have any ideas or CC to change this? I'd love to get back into the Sims 3, but I get bored with it because all the sims look the same in the face.

Since you are not adverse to CC then one easy way to change the look of sims' faces is to use different skins. I'm too lazy to do that. I have one default replacement skin for my female sims and one default replacement skin for my males. The only exception is when making Asian sims I use one of 2 non-default skins I have installed.

But changing the skin does not change the underlying look of a sim as much as changing the sliders.

Here is my first attempt at a Japanese sim:

https://i.imgur.com/T6kWfss.jpg
The picture on the left is using my default replacement skin. The one in the middle I don't remember which skin that was. The one on the right is an Asian face only skin (one of the ones I still have installed).

None of them look all that Japanese to me and they all look very similar, so I tweaked the sliders a little and changed the hair and facial hair to see the features better.

https://i.imgur.com/U9UQYzL.jpg
On the right my default skin, the next two are the 2 Asian skins I kept installed. Although the skin does change the look slightly you can still see it's the same sim underneath.

After more tweaking of features and using the middle skin this is the final result.
https://i.imgur.com/JqmNSAC.jpg

So for me the only way to get some variety in my sims' underlying looks is to use the sliders.

Another way I have simplified things is to get rid of all my eye "contacts" and to use a default replacement eye. And although I have added some body sliders, the only face slider I added was one to put a cleft/dimple in the chin.

Now there is some variety in the looks of my sims but I have a few pet peeves with EA's default setting for the sliders.
1. They have the eyes too large for the rest of the features so I almost always reduce the size of the eyes. Sometimes that requires that I decrease the distance between the eyes.
2. EA default has the brows too high IMO so I usually lower them.
3. The nose is too long down the length of the face ( not EAs nose length slider which determines how far it sticks out from the face but EAs nose height slider) and the distance between the bottom of the nose and the height of the mouth is too small. To increase the distance between the bottom of the nose and the top of the mouth I lower the mouth, raise the nose and/or lower the height of the jaw - any combination of the three.
4. The nose with all zero sliders is also too bony/thin in my opinion so I almost always give some mass to the nose.
5. EA default for the jaw also has no shape I usually give shape to the jaw.

Because I usually correct these features from the default setting my sims do have a similar look/style but I don't find that as a problem. :)

https://i.imgur.com/UIDsUTo.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1okzxS6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hWp1Si9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SVPDI4W.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IGLHg2I.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WihcqCu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dgS2Fj6.jpg