Most women would confess to rarely leaving home without their full face of make-up,lipstick andmascara.

大部分女性坦言很少不化妆出门，出门必是擦了口红，打了睫毛膏，满脸妆容才出去。

But spending hours in front of the mirror and splashing out on expensive cosmetics¹, it turns out, could all be a waste of time.

但事实上，当你花费数小时站在镜子前挥洒着昂贵的化妆品精心打扮时，这一切可能全是浪费时间。

Because, according to new research, wearing make-up does little to boost a woman’s attractiveness.

因为据最新研究，化妆在提高女性个人魅力方面的效果微乎其微。

Instead, scientists say, natural looks are much more important when it comes to how pretty a woman is viewed by either sex.

相反，科学家们认为女性在异性眼中到底有多美更多的体现在自然面貌。

Robin² Kramer, a research psychologist at the University of York, who jointly³ carried out the research, said: ‘The point is you are what you are.

罗宾克雷默，约克大学研究型心里学家，曾协助做过相关研究并得出结论：“做你自己才是最重要的。”

‘While make-up does make women slightly more attractive to others, it barely does anything when compared to natural features.

当然，化妆确实会使女性看起来更迷人些，但与自然容貌的魅力相比它的作用却是微乎其微。

‘If you put make-up on an unattractive woman it won’t make her more attractive than a pretty woman without make-up.

你给毫无魅力的女人化妆并不会使她看起来比不化妆却天生丽质的女性美丽。

The features and identity (you are born with) determine attractiveness and there is not much you can do about it.

与生俱来的容貌特征决定着人们的个人魅力，对此，你没有任何办法。

The study involved 44 female undergraduates, aged⁴ between 18 and 21, who were each photographed with and without their make-up.

参与研究的有44名女大学生，年龄在18到21岁之间，每人各照一张化妆的和不化妆的照片。

The photographs were shown at random⁵ to another 62 students – both male and female – who were asked to rate the women for attractiveness on a scale of one to seven, with one being very unattractive and seven being very attractive. They were shown either the ‘before’ or ‘after’ photograph but never both, so they could not compare two images of the same woman.

这些照片被随机的展示给另外62名学生（有男有女），要求他们按照1到7分将照片中的女性按魅力程度排名，其中1代表最没有魅力的，而7代表最具魅力的。他们所看到的要么是化妆前的照片，要么是化妆后的照片，但并非同一个人，这样他们就无法比较同一个人化妆前后的形象。

The ratings were then analyzed⁶ and the results found that make-up accounted for just two per cent variation in what or was not deemed attractive, while the woman’s general attractiveness, features or identity was much more important, accounting⁷ for 69 per cent.

之后开始分析打分数据，结果显示化妆对女性个人魅力的影响只占2%，而女性自身整体魅力，外貌特征却更加重要，占了69%的影响率。

In other words, the variation in faces and attractiveness of a woman far overshadowed the application of make-up when it came to rating their looks.

换句话说，当涉及到给女性的外在形象打分时，女性的面部变化和自然魅力远超化妆的作用。

The results go some way to explaining why models and celebrities⁸ often appear just as attractive without make-up as they do when dolled up for the red carpet.

实验结果从某种程度上说明了为什么那些名人和模特不化妆时也能像她们精心打扮后走红毯时一样的魅力十足。

Dr Alex Jones, of Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA, who also contributed to the research, added: ‘There are many reasons that women might wear makeup⁹, and one of those reasons might be dissatisfaction with their appearance.

艾利克斯琼斯，美国宾夕法尼亚大学葛底斯堡学院教授也为实验做了贡献并补充道：“女性化妆有许多原因，但对自身形象的不满意可能是其中之一。”

Body image concerns are very prevalent in modern society, and we have shown previously¹⁰ that less makeup is considered more attractive. The take-home message here seems to be that, for better or worse, our attractiveness is mostly determined¹¹ by our natural appearance, and wearing makeup will only have a small effect in comparison.

对身材形象的关注在当今社会是非常普遍的，很明显，我们已经验证了不化妆更具魅力的事实。我们所获得的关键信息是：无论好坏，我们的魅力更多的取决于自然外表，化妆只能带来很小的对比成效。