Beauty and Makeup Blog

What is Beauty?

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says it is “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit” - a definition that portrays beauty as an incredibly subjective quality. To a certain extent, it is. For instance, to you beauty may be large eyes, an aquiline nose, and a regal bearing, while a friend might see beauty as flawless skin and a bold jaw line. Equally, a co-worker could insist that a smooth forehead, a rosebud mouth, and impeccable taste in pantsuits are the pinnacle of beauty.

Ask a scientist what beauty is and symmetry is the answer you’ll probably get. Even though there are many cultural and personal preferences - such as hairless or natural legs; blue or brown eyes; large, pendulous breasts or high, firm breasts - the one trait appreciated in every culture is symmetry. Scientists reason that insects, animals, and humans favor the regular over the irregular. This is because when something - whether it be a flower, a landscape, or a face - has a recognizable pattern, it is easier to spot the out-of­place, the possibly weak, the unhealthy, or the dangerous. Interestingly, research has found that babies, too, prefer looking at both symmetrical patterns and symmetrical faces over asymmetrical ones.

The preferred type of smmetry in humans, animals, and insects is bilateral symmetry, which is of a left-to-right nature rather than up-to-down.

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