It turns out that both men and women find women more attractive when they have less makeup on, according to a new study published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
The study involved 44 women to model for photographs. Researchers presented the models with a wide range of makeup and asked them to apply it as if they were going out for the night. The models were photographed pre and post makeup.
These photos were then altered to create 21 pictures of each woman with various amounts of makeup on and presented it to 44 observers (22 male, 22 female). The observer could scan through the images smoothly, seeing a gradual increase and decrease in makeup.
Afterwards, they were asked to choose which version of each woman was the most attractive to them, which version they thought would be the most attractive to men, and which version they thought would be most attractive to women.
Surprisingly, women preferred a bit more makeup than the men did, although not much. But the thing is that the models put on over 30 percent more makeup than any observer found attractive, which was also more than what any observer thought others would find attractive.
So ladies, chances are you're overdoing your makeup!
Both men and women thought that other people would prefer more makeup than they themselves preferred. Both sexes assumed that men would prefer more makeup than the women would, but in reality, the opposite was true.
There you have it. Less is seriously more. So if you're piling on the facepaint to impress someone, you might want to tone it down a little.