| 'There is no
excellent beauty which hath not some strangeness in the
proportion' said Sir Francis Bacon 300 years ago,
recognizing that interest and beauty in a face derive
much more from how the features work together than on how
symmetrically 'perfect' they are. Beginning your
self-analysis with a similar appreciation of harmony,
make the most of your face by working with
it—accentuate the good, minimize the not-so-good and
rebalance the shape where necessary.
| Makeup can help you to do this,
but first consider your features not in isolation
but in relation to each other—length of face
in terms of width, shape of nose in terms of
shape of chin, line of eyebrow in terms of line
of eye. Assess your face shape too. If, as is
probable, your face is so familiar to you that
you cannot pinpoint exactly what is good or not
so good about it or what its general shape is,
try some objective arithmetic. |
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| Measuring
your face Take
off your make-up and pull your hair well away
from your face. Taking a ruler and holding it
absolutely straight, measure the length of your
face from the top of the forehead to the tip of
your chin (left). Be as precise
as possible and measure in
centimeters, not in inches. Continue by measuring
the widest part of the face (usually along the
top of the cheekbone, as right). The perfect
oval-shaped face has a length that is one and
half times the width. If the width is two-thirds
or more of the length, the face is wide (usually
round).
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If the
length is more than one and three-quarters of the
width, the face is long. Now measure your face
across the jawbone. If it is significantly less
than the width measurement and the chin is
pointed, the face is heart shaped. If it is the
same and the chin is blunt, the face is probably
square. Assess the width of the mouth by placing
the ruler at the outside corner of the mouth so
that it lies parallel with the bridge of your
nose, as above right. Look straight ahead. The
outside edge of the ruler should line up with the
inner edge of the iris.
To see how well spaced your eyes are, measure
them for length and then measure the distance
between the eyes (below right). It should be one
eye's length. If it is less than three-quarters
of the length, the eyes are definitely close set;
if more than one and a quarter times the length,
they are wide spaced.
Test your profile by placing the ruler against
your nose and chin (below left). Your lips should
come well within it. If they touch the ruler, the
chin is weak. |
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