People primarily wear eye makeup to enhance their facial appearance and increase perceived attractiveness, often by creating higher contrast.
Eye makeup, such as eyeshadow, serves a key purpose: to boost facial contrast. Research indicates that increasing the color contrast between features like the eyes, lips, and the surrounding skin is often perceived as more attractive, particularly by men.
Here's how it works and why it's common:
- Increasing Contrast: Eye makeup makes the eyes stand out more vividly against the skin. This enhanced contrast is a visual signal often associated with vitality and attractiveness.
- Historical Context: The creation of products like lipstick and eyeshadow was specifically aimed at achieving this effect – making features more prominent and boosting facial contrast.
- Highlighting Features: Beyond contrast, makeup can also be used to alter shape, add color, and draw attention to the eyes, which are often considered a focal point of the face.
In essence, a significant reason people wear eye makeup is to leverage the principle of facial contrast, making their eyes appear more defined and thereby enhancing their overall attractiveness, a concept embedded in the very origin of some makeup products.
