A new study has found that most men prefer women to look 'natural'. But how natural exactly? asks Richard Holt。

一项新研究的结果显示男人更偏爱看起来“自然”的女性，但到底有多“自然”呢?理查德·霍尔特问道。

I didn’t realise until quite late in life that some women don’t just wear make-up, they wear a full-on disguise – the sort you might adopt if you were evading capture. At university one of new flatmates came downstairs late one night and I thought we were being burgled。

我直到很晚才意识到，生活中，有些女人不仅仅是在化妆，而是戴着不折不扣的伪装——她们用的伪装很夸张，你甚至可以采用那种妆容来逃避追捕。大学时，我的一位新室友在深夜时分下楼来(完全没化妆)，而我还以为我家被破门盗窃了。

It had been obvious before that she wore a lot of make-up, but I naively hadn’t realised that without it she would look like a completely different person. On a later occasion I overheard her, in unpainted form, opening the door to a guy who knew her quite well and having to overcome his puzzled expression by saying: “John, it’s me!”

她一直浓妆重抹，这点很明显。而我天真地没有意识到，如果不化妆的话，她看起来完全像是另外一个人。之后有次，我听到她讲话。那时她没有化妆，给一个和她很熟的人打开门，却不得不因为对方满脸困惑而解释道：“约翰，是我啦!”

Apparently half of women admit to doing their make-up at least four times a day and a whopping 67 percent only go bare-faced twice a month。

显然有一半女性承认她们每天整理妆容至少四次，高达67%的女性的女性一个月只素颜两次。

These findings are presented as part of a campaign to give women the confidence to “pare back the amount of make-up they wear” and to let their “own natural radiance shine through”。

这些调查结果都被认为是提升女性信心“减少化妆程度”这一运动的一部分，并鼓励她们“秀出自然美。”

The study was carried out by a company called St Ives。

这项研究是由一个名为St Ives的公司开展的。

In case anyone remains unconvinced, the company has enlisted the help of Lydia Bright, star of a television show called The Only Way Is Essex, to front the campaign。

为防止有人依然对此不信服，该公司还请了莉迪亚·布莱特为这一活动开场。她可是电视节目“埃塞克斯是唯一的生活方式”的大明星。

Bright, 23, says of her time on TOWIE: “I don’t know whether anyone remembers my first ever appearance, but I was caked in make-up. It looked like I’d applied it with a trowel。”

23岁的布莱特，在“埃塞克斯是唯一的生活方式”节目中讲道：“我不知道是否还有人记得我的第一次亮相，但当时我的脸上被化妆品堆叠成蛋糕一样的。看起来像是我用抹刀砌上去的。

I don’t recall her first appearance – or any of them, if I’m honest – but I am prepared to believe her. Not least because we are treated to before-and-after shots showing what she looks like in full warpaint, and then after the damascene moment when she was told she may be overdoing it a touch。

老实讲，我不记得她的第一次亮相了——或她的任何亮相。但我打算相信她。尤其是因为她拍摄前的照片和拍摄后身着盛装的照片都被展示出来了，人们都觉得她化妆有点过头了。

The only problem is that the “after” shot shows a woman still wearing what appears to be quite a lot of make-up. The “before” shot looks as if she’s trying out as an Alice Cooper lookalike。

唯一的问题是，后图展示的是一位看起来依然浓妆重抹的女子。在前图中，她看起来似乎是想尝试一下爱丽丝·库珀(休克摇滚先驱)的妆容。

“No make-up” meaning “less make-up than usual” forms part of the tabloid narrative。

“不化妆“实际上意味着“画比平时少的妆” 。

So when the campaign says that three-quarters of men prefer the natural look, it is in this context. They don’t actually mean “natural” – ie the face as it really is. They mean tabloid natural. The illusion of natural. The campaign is telling women that cosmetics are a good thing, but that they could be applying them better。

所以，当调查显示四分之三的男人更喜欢素颜时，就是指在上述情况下。他们并不是真指“素颜”——即脸本来的样子，他们是指淡妆素颜(假素颜)。这项活动告诉女士们，化妆品是好东西，但她们可以更好地运用它。

And I think I’m fine with that. I’ve got absolutely no problem with make-up, as long as the person underneath remains vaguely recognisable, and doesn’t look like she’s been painted in the style of a late-1930s Picasso。

而我对此没有意见。我对化妆真的一点看法都没有。只要能依稀辨认出妆容下的那个人，并且不要看起来像是按照20世纪30年代后期毕加索风格画的就好。