Decoding the Triangle of Beauty
Posted: Sunday 11 April 2010 02:52pm
The photo to the left might be a fair representation of my brain processes after preparing Younger You for launch, but is in fact how the eye travels over another’s face, subconsciously registering its owner’s apparent age and attractiveness.
It has been dubbed the Triangle of Beauty (with thanks to many doctors, Michael Miroshnik, Joseph Hkiek, Peter Bakaric, Warwick Nettle, Jack Ting, Glenn Murray, Terrence Scamp, Deborah Davis and Cath Porter among them, who have educated me on this and related topics over time, and Dr Miroshnik, who supplied me with this whizbang graphic).
TOP: Victoria's Secret models Miranda Kerr and Alessandra Ambrosio BOTTOM: Brigitte Bardot
When we look at someone we focus first and repeatedly across their eyes and cheeks, and then up and down along the nose to the lips and back around the eyes/cheeks in a triangular pattern, with only a cursory check of the peripheral face. All in a matter of nanoseconds.
“Notice the disproportionate amount of time spent looking in the eye area and then the centre of the lips (the cupid’s bow),” says Dr Miroshnik. “This area describes what can be called the Triangle of Beauty and if this area looks good/youthful then the person looks good/youthful. Note how little time is spent looking outside this inner triangle!”
Although Victoria’s Secret supermodels Miranda Kerr and Alessandra Ambrosio are not (can you believe) classic beauties because they disobey classical proportions of facial beauty, they are still regarded as gorgeous because The Triangle is just-so; beautiful eyes and ripe cheeks, a streamlined nose and full lips.
As we age, this triangle (if it was ever in proportion) has a habit of morphing into other geometric formations, the most devastating probably when the triangle simply overturns and the peak becomes the trough; when those ripe cheeks migrate south for the winter of our lives and set up home around the jawline, leaving the mid face “flat”. Take Brigitte Bardot, for example.
It is caused by a combination of skin and muscle laxity and loss of fat/volume in the upper face; the supreme joke of ageing, that we lose fat where we most need it and gain it everywhere else.
Catherine Deneuve in 1999 (L), and 2010 (R).
A quote has long been attributed to legendary French actress and beauty Catherine Deneuve that after a “certain age” (she nominated 30, back in the days when that was tantamount to 50) a woman had to choose between her face and backside.
As a teenager in the 1970s, the idea of having to make that choice terrified me, locked as I was in a constant battle of the butt (to my dear little brothers I was Jumbo Jen).
But I am now delighted, personally and professionally, to report that this decision need never be made, and with no resort to a scalpel.
It’s all about Volumetrics; the technique utilising a new generation of hardier, longer-lasting dermal fillers that can restore volume to the mid face in a matter of minutes, a virtual cheek implant in a needle that not only renews youthful contours but serves to subtly lift the lower face. It doesn’t just restore what you’ve lost, but can also create what you never had – aesthetically-pleasing contours that weren’t bestowed by nature.
In Australia the trend is for subtlety; far less product is used to volumise than is the norm in the US and Europe. Like anything, you can have too much of a good thing, as evidenced by French First Lady Carla Bruni’s bizarre new look in March:
Carla Bruni in November 2009 (L), and in March 2010 (R)
And then there’s the modern miracle of lasers; lasers that can literally reinvent the skin from the deepest levels of the dermis, subtly tightening, lightening, correcting and rejuvenating the complexion over a period of weeks and months. Treatments that can be had in a lunch hour with do downtime and only mild telltale signs for a few days afterward.
It’s all in Younger You – we look forward to taking you on our journey of exploration.
