Men look more masculine when they wear make up, study shows

One study has found that men look more masculine when they are wearing makeup.

The findings showed that male faces were rated as being higher in attractiveness when presented as wearing makeup as well as having an increased perceived masculinity.

Guess it's time to get the guy-liner out in full force.

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The study, originally published in PLoS ONE, set out to examine whether the 'positive effect' of makeup in regards to women can also be extended to male faces.

To go about answering the question, researchers Carlota Batres and Hannah Robinson got together a group of 20 men who they photographed twice.

The first shot showed the individual without wearing any cosmetics while the second showed the same man donning make up that was applied by a professional makeup artist, Carmina Cristina.

Carmina was told to sort the 20 men out with some super subtle makeup without making it too noticeable that they were wearing it.

The paper details that she was instructed to: "Increase skin homogeneity, decrease facial contrast, and accentuate the bone structure without it being too obvious that the targets were wearing makeup."

PLoS ONE

Think a 'no make up' make up look.

The make up artist used a whole range of different cosmetics on the participants such as concealer and powder.

Two hundred participants were then asked rate all 40 of the images on attractiveness.

Dr. Carlota Batres, who led the study, commented: "We found that the male faces were rated as higher in attractiveness when presented wearing subtle makeup, compared to when presented not wearing makeup.

"This was true for both male and female raters, and whether analyzing the data using a by-participant or a by-face analysis."

"Previous studies have found that lower facial contrast makes faces appear more masculine," the study noted, "additionally, bone structure in men affects perceptions of attractiveness."

PLoS ONE

The paper concluded: "Therefore, we predicted that male faces with makeup would be rated as more attractive than male faces without makeup, since makeup could potentially be applied to influence skin homogeneity, facial contrast, and bone structure perceptions."

Effectively, the use of make up can make skin appear more even allowing for a more healthy youthful glow, increase perceived masculinity by decreasing facial contrast and, lastly, influence bone structure to give men a proper chiseled jawline.

So there you have it, according this particular study, male faces are rated as being more attractive when wearing makeup compared to when not wearing makeup.