BY LISA WILLIAMS
Florence Colgate was crowned the most beautiful woman in Britain in 2012.
The 18-year-old student beat 8000 other participants in a competition in the search of the “Perfect Face”. Contestants were judged without makeup and were barred entry if they received plastic surgery or chemical enhancement.
Some speculated her beauty secret was the air in her home town, or possibly a special ingredient in the chips from the seaside shop she was part-timing at. But it was really the blue-eyed blonde’s flawless mathematical facial proportions that added up to her success in winning the title as Britain’s most naturally gorgeous face.
Read More: Forget Brows: Women Are Now ‘Thread’-Lifting Their Faces
WHAT IS IDEAL BEAUTY?
Beyond personal taste, humans seem to have an instinctive understanding of what is beautiful. Philosophers, artists and surgeons have been obsessing over this for centuries to identify the mysterious simple mathematical order behind the confusion of the observable world.
The ancient Greeks found major consistencies in the proportion between various sections of attractive faces. A set of model facial proportions – the Neoclassical Canon (or the “artistic ideal”) – was created as a guide for painters and sculptors. For example, a woman’s face is said to be most beautiful when the relative distance between eyes and mouth is just above a third of the measurement from hairline to chin. And Miss Colgate’s ratio – 32.8 per cent.
The Golden Ratio – ratios of 1 to 1.618 (or phi) between various features or body parts – is another set of “divine proportions” that’s been used in great works like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man. For a quick facial analysis, different divine proportions of the female face have been put together in the “Phi Mask” by Dr Stephen Marquardt; and it matches a heart-shaped face with well-balanced features as popularized by ageless superstar, Madonna.
For Florence Colgate, perfect symmetry, or how one half of the face mirrors the other, further adds up to her beauty score sheet. Facial symmetry is thought to be an important hidden cue for attractiveness with a more primal background: If you have a history of poor developmental stability (such as a major illness in early childhood or nutritional deficiency in the womb) which may affect your abilities to have a healthy vigorous brood, you tend to have more asymmetrical features.
Read More: Drink Up! the Fountain of Youth Found
Understanding the aesthetic ideal goes a long way in helping each one of us identify what our main facial issues were. For example, when I looked at my own face, I realized I was very far from the beauty ideal. I thought my face was slightly too chubby and looked slightly saggy, even though I was only 32.
How can I upgrade my own look and create my own perfection? Read on to find out.
CREATE YOUR OWN PERFECTION
Mind-boggling theories and numbers aside, the more practical question (and the real reason why you’re still reading) is: How can we utilise these principles to enhance our own beauty?
Armed with these tools to crack the secret codes of beauty, great artists have created masterpieces that have endured the test of time, and plastic surgeons have carved their careers (along with big fortunes) by perfecting faces with their scalpels. The good news is, advancement in medical aesthetic technology and techniques now allows us to get one step closer to divine beauty without undergoing the blade! For women who dream of achieving the ideal face, non-surgical facelifts and other facial beautifying cosmetic weaponry are tools at our disposal right now!
“Instead of creating ‘cookie-cutter’ beauties with the same ‘Anne Hathaway’ eyes and the same ‘Natalie Portman’ nose, we employ some of these mathematical principles in our treatments to bring out the best of each individual by working towards the ideal facial contour, harmonious proportions and balanced facial curves,” says Dr Low Chai Ling, fromSW1 Clinic, one of Singapore’s premier aesthetic clinic.
“With that, mature faces will look more youthfully attractive, and young faces more naturally beautiful.”
Read more: The 4 Faces of Ageing: Which One Are You?
CONTOUR & SCULPT: BOTOX JAW & ULTHERAPY
Botox in the masseters (jaw muscles) is the open celebrity secret behind many fabulous V-shaped jawlines – allowing you to slim down a heavy, squarish jaw miraculously without downtime. For the perfect heart-shaped face, Ultherapy in the lower face tucks and lifts fatty soft tissue and saggy jowls sans surgery for a lean, naturally defined and elegantly grown-up look.
ACCENTUATE & DEFINE: DERMAL FILLERS
Juvederm Voluma, the latest generation natural filler, allows for precise contouring of balanced and curvy killer cheeks,while restoring a dewy, bouncy firmness for an impressive 18 months. Due to its unique particle size, Voluma is also optimally suited for sculpting a more defined nose or a chin that’s in proportion to the entire face, and boosting sunken temples to build a perfect frame for the eyes and brows.
Read More: The Lowdown on Nose Thread Lifts – What Some Doctors Don’t Tell You Before Your Lunchtime Nose Job.
LIFT & SHAPE: FACE THREADLIFTS
Infinity V-Lift ,the latest non-surgical facelift giving hope and firmer skin to scores of women worldwide. This latest generation facial thread lift harnesses the strong lifting prowess of 100% bio-absorbable threads which stimulate a supporting collagen matrix as they dissolve. The main claim to fame is the versatility, relative simplicity and versatility of these face-lifting threads— they are not only able to lift sagging skin (they are loved for their lower face and jowl lifting capacity) but are also able to contour and shape the lower face, achieving the coveted V-shape look. The “inverted triangle of youth” is so-called precisely because of this lower face V-shape effect; nothing ups the beauty factor more than achieving a slim, lifted and shapely lower face effect. In fact, so convinced was I about the Infinity threadlift that I jumped at the chance to have my own face treated. And I cannot say I regretted my impulsive decision.
I realised that the takeaway message is that each of us has the power to create our own idea of beautiful, and when guided by a few universal rules, the sky’s the limit.
“Like the famous saying goes, ‘Pretty may be what you’re born with. But Beautiful, now that’s an equal opportunity.’” says Dr Low.
And that’s probably more true today then ever before, with the wide selection of clinically proven non-surgical and surgical advanced treatments which bring the classic mathematical rules of beauty from canvas to life.
Read more: Beauty Secrets: V-shaped Face without the Blade
It is like balancing your face.
(Health and Beauty) Great quality purodct. Used it many times before. The only thing could be questionable is the taste. Not everyone likes it. Overall very good. Helps my teeth to be healthier with the herbal touch.