Make-up helps women look 10 years younger: Survey

Research suggests that when a woman applies make-up well enough, it can make her look almost a decade younger.

Those who go out in their warpaint appear to be between five and nine years younger than when they are bare-faced, the Daily Mail reported.

Kate Moss, 38, and Carol Vorderman, 51, were shown to have the most age-reducing regimes, with both looking nine years younger after applying make-up.

Meanwhile, 54-year-old Madonna managed to shave seven years off her age and Cindy Crawford, 46, took off six.

The study, which was conducted for a beauty retailer, involved showing respondents images of well-known women, first bare-faced and then with make-up.

Respondents were asked to identify a “make-up age” and a “bareface age,” with the collective results making an average for each.

Britney Spears, 30, managed to look five years younger with make-up on.

Demi Moore, 50, was the only woman whose “bareface age” was below her real age at 47 – but with make-up on she looked even younger, at 43.

Respondents were also asked about their own make-up, with 70 percent of over-30s saying it made them look younger.

Of that, 36 percent thought that make-up made them look one to three years younger, while 29 percent thought it could make them look three to five years younger.

An optimistic 2 percent thought make-up took ten years off their real age while 18 percent thought it took off five to seven years

Only women under 21 thought that a slick of black kohl and some lipstick actually added a few years.

The survey by Escentual.com showed that the older you are, the more reliant you are on make-up to turn back the clock.

Only 60 percent of those aged 30 to 39 thought they looked younger with make-up, compared with 100 per cent of those aged 60 to 69.