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

　　一項新研究的結果顯示男人更偏愛看起來“自然”的女性，但到底有多“自然”呢?理查德·霍爾特問道。

　　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.

　　我直到很晚才意識到，生活中，有些女人不僅僅是在化妝，而是戴著不折不扣的偽裝——她們用的偽裝很夸張，你甚至可以采用那種妝容來逃避追捕。大學時，我的一位新室友在深夜時分下樓來(完全沒化妝)，而我還以為我家被破門盜竊了。

　　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!”

　　她一直濃妝重抹，這點很明顯。而我天真地沒有意識到，如果不化妝的話，她看起來完全像是另外一個人。之后有次，我聽到她講話。那時她沒有化妝，給一個和她很熟的人打開門，卻不得不因為對方滿臉困惑而解釋道：“約翰，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.

　　顯然有一半女性承認她們每天整理妝容至少四次，高達67%的女性的女性一個月只素顏兩次。

　　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”.

　　這些調查結果都被認為是提升女性信心“減少化妝程度”這一運動的一部分，并鼓勵她們“秀出自然美。”

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

　　這項研究是由一個名為St Ives的公司開展的。

　　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.

　　為防止有人依然對此不信服，該公司還請了莉迪亞·布萊特為這一活動開場。她可是電視節目“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歲的布萊特，在“埃塞克斯是唯一的生活方式”節目中講道：“我不知道是否還有人記得我的第一次亮相，但當時我的臉上被化妝品堆疊成蛋糕一樣的。看起來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.

　　老實講，我不記得她的第一次亮相了——或她的任何亮相。但我打算相信她。尤其是因為她拍攝前的照片和拍攝后身著盛裝的照片都被展示出來了，人們都覺得她化妝有點過頭了。

　　

　　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.

　　唯一的問題是，后圖展示的是一位看起來依然濃妝重抹的女子。在前圖中，她看起來似乎是想嘗試一下愛麗絲·庫珀(休克搖滾先驅)的妝容。

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

　　“不化妝“實際上意味著“畫比平時少的妝” 。

　　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，當調查顯示四分之三的男人更喜歡素顏時，就是指在上述情況下。他們并不是真指“素顏”——即臉本來的樣子，他們是指淡妝素顏(假素顏)。這項活動告訴女士們，化妝品是好東西，但她們可以更好地運用它。

　　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.

　　而我對此沒有意見。我對化妝真的一點看法都沒有。只要能依稀辨認出妝容下的那個人，并且不要看起來像是按照20世紀30年代后期畢加索風格畫的就好。

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