There is a complex relationship between women and makeup.
For some they love it. You’ll find them bouncing from Sephora to Mecca wanting every new product, enjoying the process of creating new looks with their treasured brushes. For other women they try and keep things simple, just applying the bare minimum or not wearing it at all. Then there are others that despise makeup because they don’t like how it feels on them or they dislike what it symbolises.
Regardless if you hate it or love it, there is no denying that women have used makeup to make themselves look and feel better for a long long time. I’ve always found it fascinating how simply applying some product to the face and eyes can make such an incredible difference in how you look and feel.
So why exactly does makeup work the way it does? Is there a scientific reason why it makes us feel and look attractive?
In nature, female mammals promote sexual availability and dominance through physical signals. Whether it is a physical feature or particular behavious, these females make it obvious to potential mates that they are open to, capable and ready to produce healthy children. Humans however lack those obvious signals, it’s virtually impossible to tell if a woman is fertile by simply looking at her.
There are some universal beauty principles that emerged in various cultures at different times. Makeup gets used to smoothen and even the complexion, make the eyes darker, make the cheeks pinker and make the lips redder. The reason makeup works is because it exaggerates (or in some cases, completely fabricates) the natural signals of fertility, youth and sexual availability.
Studies have been carried out that show that women’s faces are considered more attractive to both men and women when they are are most fertile, when they are near ovulation. At this time, a hormonal shift increases vascular blood flow underneath the skin, this leads to pinker cheeks and redder lips, but also leads to women being more easily turned on sexually too.
A study carried out by Dr. Russell concluded that when you digitally darken the eyes or the lips of a woman’s face, it becomes more attractive. The reason why foundation makes a woman appear more attractive is because it evens the skintone giving the impression of youth because when we are young and healthy our skin is flawless, but it gets discoloured and becomes less even-textured as we get older. So it is no surprise that covering up our imperfections makes us look younger and appear healthier.
Despite some men saying women look prettier without makeup, study after study find that when shown pictures of women with and without makeup, people always rate images of women with makeup as being more feminine, attractive, confident and healthy.
We are attracted to wear Makeup because it plays on our primal urge to want to enhance our femininity and prove we are a catch, whether we realise that its what we are doing or not.
Rightly or wrongly, makeup is a tool that we can use to enhance our physical appearance, improve our confidence and feel younger and more attractive. I’ve seen women cry with joy after seeing themselves with professional makeup because of how it makes them feel about themselves.
If you would like to see some of my work and get a quote on getting your makeup professionally applied for any occasion, you can do so by clicking here.
