Do Contrasting Colors Make Our Skin Look Better?

Skin appearance plays an important role in the perception of age, health, and attractiveness. Of course skin appearance is affected by actual skin condition, but previous research has also found that skin appearance is affected by the features adjacent to it (e.g., eyebrows, eyes, and lips). Now, a new scientific article published today (of which I am an author) aimed to examine whether this effect can be extended to the contrast between the facial skin and the surfaces surrounding the face.

In our first experiment, faces were surrounded with an oval in a background color that either formed high-contrast or low-contrast with the skin. Even though the faces were left completely untouched, participants perceived the skin on the faces with the high-contrast oval as appearing more even than the skin on the faces with the low-contrast oval.

In the second experiment, we aimed to see if this effect could be carried over to a more realistic situation by increasing or decreasing hair lightness. Even though the faces were again left completely untouched, participants perceived the skin on the faces with decreased hair lightness as appearing more even than the skin on the faces with increased hair lightness. These results thus show that skin appearance is affected by contrast between the skin and surfaces that surround the face, whether it be background color or hair color.

Examples of the facial stimuli used. From Study 1, one of the faces with a high-contrast (i.e., black) background (A) and with a low-contrast (i.e., skin-color) background (B). From Study 2, one of the faces with hair increased in lightness (C) and with hair decreased in lightness (D).

Source: Images created by Dr. Carlota Batres and Dr. Richard Russell

Previous research has found that black clothing increases ratings of attractiveness the most (when compared to red, blue, green, yellow, and white). Researchers have proposed that black leads to increased attractiveness via perceived fashionableness. The current results suggest that black may increase attractiveness partly due to the effects of contrast increasing perceived skin evenness.

Additionally, previous research has also found that the same women are rated as more attractive when their hair is down, compared to when their hair is pulled back and that long and medium-length hair increase attractiveness more than short hair. Given the results of this new study, it could be that the positive effect that has been found of hair down and hair length, could in part be due to the effects of contrast between hair color and skin color. In other words, having one’s hair down as well as having longer hair both could lead to increased contrast around the face, which based on these new results, would increase the perception of the skin’s evenness.

The study “Perceived skin evenness is influenced by background color and hair color” authored by Dr. Richard Russell and myself was published today in the scientific journal Perception.