Makeup and Psychological Profiles

Article citation: Relation between facial morphology, personality and the functions of facial make-up in women, R. Korichi, D. Pelle-de-Queral, G. Gazano and A. Aubert, International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2011, 33, 338–345.
Link to article:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8625e9ab-c622-40f7-bbd8-337ffaf0533a%40sessionmgr4001&vid=2&hid=4206
The paper concerns itself by the study of relations between specific emotional and psychological profiles and the use of makeup. In an experiment, sixty-two Caucasian female subjects, that use makeup daily, were divided into two distinct groups depending whether hey use makeup for camouflage (group C) of seduction (group S). Women in group S had high self-esteem, high assertiveness and low anxiety, while women in group C low self-esteem, low assertiveness and high anxiety. The study revealed that women from the group C have a greater asymmetry of the lower face and that this could be related to a possible larger amount of negative emotional experiences. It was observed that women from the group S more extensively changed their facial attractiveness by using a large range of colors. They also spend more time putting on makeup around mouth and lips area than women in group C. The results of this article suggest that make-up is used differently, depending on psychological profiles of women, to manipulate their facial features to enhance their attractiveness.
These findings are in agreement with the paper “Cosmetics: They Influence More Than Caucasian Female Facial Attractiveness” by NASH, REBECCA FIELDMAN, GEORGE HUSSEY, TREVOR LÉVÊQUE and JEAN-LUC PINEAU, that was discussed in my previous post, which concluded that there are monetary and other benefits offered to women who use makeup to enhance their beauty.
Nugget #1
Concerning morphological variables, further analyses of our data revealed significant differences in upper vs. lower facial asymmetry (i.e. eyes and mouth) between our two groups. Indeed, group C subjects have significantly greater lower facial asymmetry than ‘S’ subjects, while expressing marginally lower upper asymmetry. Such differences could be related to fluctuating asymmetry (i.e. random differences between two sides, as opposed to the global asymmetry) that have been argued to develop throughout the lifespan of the individual and would represent a sign of the phenotype being subjected to some levels of stress [50]. Interestingly, some studies reveal that lower face was associated with emotions and more specifically with valence-related asymmetries [51]. As lower face asymmetry is greater in women from group C, it could be hypothesized a link between their facial asymmetry pattern and a possible larger amount of negative emotional experiences [50], especially as negative emotions implies more salient facial features [52]. Interestingly, mouth asymmetry and make-up duration was highly correlated in subject from group S, but not in group C. As mouth and lips have been related to secondary sexual signals [33], it could be therefore hypothesized that make-up would be used as a tool to adjust visual asymmetry in women from group S, and therefore increase for potential attractiveness. However, the exact relation between facial asymmetry and emotional expression remains to be further examined.
In this nugget the authors observed that most women’s foreheads are more or less symmetric. The authors report on their observation that women with asymmetric faces use makeup more often to conceal their flaws while women with symmetric faces use makeup more often to make themselves more desirable and attractive. In other words, all experimental subjects used makeup to enhance their looks. So the authors experimentally verified that women don’t use makeup to make themselves less attractive (unless, maybe, if they want to rob the bank, but bank robbers were obviously not part of this study  ). This nugget supports the main claim of the paper and is consistent with the results of the paper studied in my previous post.
Nugget #2
Total duration of make-up, duration of self-observation and duration of make-up for forehead, eyes, cheekbones, cheeks, chin and neck were not significantly different between C and S groups
(P > 0.22). However, as shown in Fig. 3, subjects from group S displayed significantly longer application of make-up on the mouth and lips area compared to group C (t = 2.098; df = 59;
P < 0.0412). Moreover, make-up duration of the mouth was highly correlated with mouth asymmetry (p9p10) in subjects of the group S (r = 0.938; P 0.31).
In this nugget the authors observed that women in group S spend more time putting on makeup around mouth and lips area than women with bigger facial asymmetries. (Mouth and lips are related to secondary sexual signals.) When a good looking women makeups herself into a stunning beauty, man and companies are willing to pay a huge premium for that. This upgrade can be compared to being promoted from a senior management position to a CEO (a significant salary gap between the two). Therefore, it is logical that women will spend more time transforming themselves into a knock-out (which means that they will also spend more time applying makeup to areas associated with secondary sexual signals such as mouth and lips) than women from camouflage group, who merely want to fix their facial imperfections.