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Women with attractive faces tend to have higher levels of the sex
hormone oestrogen, according to a study published today. The finding
suggests that features such as large eyes and lips are linked to
higher fertility and so make women appear more attractive.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
Biological Science, also revealed that make-up masks the visual clues
to fertility, perhaps conning men into selecting a less fertile mate.
Miriam Law Smith and colleagues at the University of St Andrews
photographed 56 female students aged 18 to 24 and collected urine
samples from each before measuring their oestrogen levels at the same
point during their menstrual cycles.

A group of 15 female and 14 male volunteers was shown the pictures
and asked to rate them in terms of attractiveness, femininity and
health. The researchers found that the higher a woman's oestrogen
levels the more attractive on average she was judged to be.