The Science of Beauty

Daily Mail, 14th January 2008

An extract from the Daily Mail's 'Life Style' supplement, The Science of Beauty

Brows and Lashes

A German study showed that lush, well-arched, dark brows were a key factor in the difference between a plain and a pretty face, with sparse, thin eyebrows reducing attractiveness levels.

Kamini Vaghela, London's eyebrow queen, uses her unique, painless threading technique to create bespoke eyebrows for celebrities including Sophie Dahl.

'People under-estimate the effect that eyebrows have on your appearance,' she says. 'Women often over-pluck or have eyebrows that are too thick in one area and too thin in another.'

'I create the perfect curve for your bone structure. If you have thin or pale eyebrows, I tint them to create a thicker look. My specialist threading technique makes all eyebrows look thicker and healthier.'

The Beauty Treatment: For those with thin eyebrows, semi-permanent make-up by an expert such as Debra Robson Lawrence looks amazingly natural.

She uses injected micropigments to replicate each hair individually. The results last six months to a year.

Long eyelashes were also rated as more important than eye size. A new cream called Dermalash stimulates hair follicles, resulting in naturally longer, fuller eyelashes.

For quicker fix, lash extensions offer the biggest impact and they can last up to nine weeks.

Try out the new Dermalash product for yourself here.

Skin Deep

In an Austrian study published in the journal Evolution And Human Behaviour, botchiness, age spots, sallowness and redness were shown to add ten to 12 years to a woman's perceived age.

'Skin tone and luminosity may be a major signal of a woman's attractiveness, as well as of her assumed age,' says Dr Karl Grammer, who headed the University of Vienna research team.

The Beauty Treatment: The Superceutical Anti-Pigmentation Peel takes just three minutes and evens out skin texture and colour from around £50 a treatment.

And this spring is due to see the launch of a peptide anti-pigmentation cream from Dermaquest Skin Therapy, which the manufacturer claims to be the most effective treatment over the counter.

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