Student Florence Colgate fits the scientific formula for beauty
They say beauty is in the eye of
the beholder, and this is the face held as the most naturally
beautiful in Britain... and it needs no makeup.
Florence Colgate, 18, has been
chosen from more than 8,000 entrants to officially be crowned the
most naturally-beautiful woman in the country.
The teenager won her title
following a public vote after she reached the final three of a
competition to find the country's most beautiful face without
make-up, organised by ITV's Lorraine programme.
In an age when cosmetic surgery
and beauty treatments have become commonplace, the teenager said
she was reassured to know natural beauty still has its
place.
And with a face which naturally
almost exactly fits the scientific formula for beauty - many might
think that's probably easy for Florence to say.
According to extensive studies
of 'attractiveness', researchers believe the 'beauty' of a woman's
face can be summed up in a series of simple ratios.
The 'perfect' face has a
distance between the pupils of just under half, or 46 per cent, of
the width of the whole face from ear to ear - pretty Florence's
ratio is 44 per cent.
Scientists believe the distance
between eyes and mouth should be a third of the overall length from
hairline to chin on the perfect face - Florence's face has 32.8 per
cent ratio.
According to researchers
Florence's youthful, feminine features, such as her large eyes,
high cheekbones, and full lips, are subconscious tell tale signs of
fertility, health and good genes.
The sixth-former on
Saturday revealed her simple secret to beauty is drinking tap
water.
She said: "My friends and family
said I was naturally beautiful and encouraged me to enter the
competition so I thought I would give it a go.
"I was fine having my picture
taken with no make up on as I am used to it. I never really wear a
lot of make up.
"Women should not have to feel
that they have to wear make up. I hope people will look at me and
think they don't need to wear lots of make up.
"You have to have quite a lot of
confidence to enter a competition, so I guess I am confident. It
felt amazing to win. My friends are really happy for me.
"I am very happy with the way I
look. I would never have any plastic surgery or botox.
"My advice is for people to make
sure they keep their skin really clean, drink lots of water and eat
a healthy diet."
Natural Florence, from
Deal, does admit she normally wears light foundation,
concealer, mascara and a touch of vaseline.
She is studying business,
geography, psychology A Levels at Dover Grammar School and hopes to
do Business management at university.
But Florence says she would love
to have a career in modelling on the back of winning the
competition.
And like international
supermodel Agyness Deyn, Florence spends her saturdays working in
a fish and chip shop.
Carmen
Lefèvre, PHD student at the University of St Andrews' Perception
Lab in the School of Psychology, said beauty is strongly linked to
symmetry.
She said: "Florence face looks
very youthful and feminine. Youthfulness and femininity are both
linked to fertility and are thus found attractive.
"More particularly, Florence has
all the classic signs of beauty: large eyes, high cheekbones, full
lips and a fair complexion.
"Symmetry appears to be a very
important cue to attractiveness. Although we don't realise it in
everyday interactions, in most people's faces the right and left
half of the face are actually quite different.
"For example the size of the
eyes is different or the nose is slightly bent to one side. An
explanation why symmetry is important is that it may be a signal of
health and good genes.
"Research suggests that our
experience of beauty is driven by a whole number of things; the
reason we commonly attribute large eye, full lips and high
cheekbones as beautiful in women is because they reflect
femininity.
"Femininity is linked to
fertility which explains why it is attractive to men.
"In addition a cue that has
recently emerged as important is skin colour: a slightly yellow
skin tone reflects health and is seen as highly
attractive.
"Measurements are probably not
as important for beauty, although I understand the appeal of that
idea."
Florence's face will be
appearing on billboards at Superdrug stores across the country
after she was voted most naturally-beautiful by veiwers of ITV
programme Lorraine.
23/04/12
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