Studies aiming to find a formula on beauty suggest that bilateral facial symmetry and waist-to-hip ratios (a curvy 0.7 for women, 0.9 for men) are synonymous with beauty. Scientific research from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Toronto in 2009 has suggested that the distance between a woman's eyes, as well as the distance between her eyes and her mouth, are key factors that determine her attractiveness. (Read http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091216144141.htm)
In 2008, Tel Aviv University Professor Daniel Cohen-Or of the
Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences and number of other researchers created a program dubbed "the Beauty Machine" that can alter a submitted image to fit within their self-researched golden proportions of beauty. The image to the right illustrates the point: The upper row is the untouched images, and the bottom row consists of the digitally altered photos.Such a program can be very useful in advertising, magazine covers, and plastic surgeons, says the TAU team. Interestingly enough, this only works with strangers and not well-recognized faces, such as those of movie stars or politicians. (Read: http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7899)
While this may seem dismaying to the rest of us Plain Janes and Regular Joes out there - after the neurotic webcam-and-measure, I definitely know I do not fit into this ratio - make yourself feel better and read a 2004 article via Science Daily bearing the title " Physical beauty involves more than good looks."
Other factors - such as the length of time you've known a person and been exposed to their personality traits - influence a person's relative attractiveness to another; positive personality traits definitely boost a person's physical attractiveness. (Read further: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040416011549.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129145852.htm)
I do get skeptical at how often Science Daily articles tend to rely on the evolution of primitive mating practices and evolutionary fitness and all that jazz to explain certain results, but maybe that's just me.
/edit: I forgot the "and me" part. I'm currently eyeballing some red lipstick - specifically MAC's VIVA GLAM Cyndi. Lovely stuff, and it's suitable for all skin tones apparently (including my Asian tan!). Image above is a user-submitted pic via MakeupAlley.
