Face it! Stars all have the same nose
Ever noticed that many A-listers sport near identical profiles? We tested the theory by digitally transplanting Cara Delevingne’s model nose on to these celebrities. So can you spot the difference...
HOLLYWOOD loves a overagain.carbon copy. From remakes of old movies to rehashed plots in film franchises, the A-list are serious fans of flogging audiences the same thing over and
You’d also be forgiven for thinking that a sense of deja vu seeps on to the red carpet, too. Look closely and many celebrities appear to share the very same features. In fact, it’s as plain as the nose on their face.
From 28-year-old catwalk queen Cara Delevingne to actresses Emma Stone and Carey Mulligan, via Victoria Beckham and Margot Robbie, there is something startlingly similar about all of these beautiful women’s central feature. Perhaps it’s no coincidence, for there is a subtle science behind the so-called perfect nose.
Research suggests that there are 12 to 14 typical nose shapes, of which only a few stand out as ‘attractive’. Top of the bill is the upturned or ‘celestial’ nose, considered the most appealing in a female. It is this shape that all these stars share: refined, soft and delicately turned up, it’s neither too pointy nor too rounded.
‘Depending on a person’s ethnicity, there is an agreed standard of what makes a nose attractive,’ says Dr Emily MacGregor, co-founder of STORY London Aesthetic Clinic (storyclinics.com).
FOR Caucasian women a slightly upturned nose is deemed attractive and youthful: it is a nose that is straight, causing that light reflex on the top of the nose which many choose to exaggerate with highlighter make-up, and then in profile has a little dip before it goes up at the nose tip. This little dip is called a supratip break.’
No surprise, then, that it is the shape most requested by women looking to alter their noses cosmetically.
In addition, research shows that the ideal angle of a woman’s facial profile is between 100 to 110 degrees from the bottom edge of her nose to the tip of her upper lip, and the prettiest lie in the middle of that range, just like Cara’s.
‘An attractive nose normally goes unnoticed, playing a role in bringing together the overall balance and harmony of the facial features without demanding too much attention for itself,’ says Dr Ayad Harb, a plastic surgeon known as The Nose Guy (drayad.com). ‘Ultimately, beauty and a beautiful nose are subjective, individual and mysterious and can never be contained within a single formula or template.’
However, he agrees that Cara and many of her fellow celebrities have uncannily similar profiles — and that there is a good reason for it. ‘We find that many celebrities tend to have similar-shaped noses. This is usually because they fit the aesthetic ideal of the time, meaning that there is a selective bias towards people who have a particular aesthetic or certain features.
‘The case of Cara Delevingne is a great example. She has an aesthetically beautiful nose with all the features described above. And transplanting her nose on to other female faces with similar face shapes, size and ethnicity seems to produce similarly aesthetically pleasing results. However, take her nose and place it on to the face of a woman from another ethnicity or another beautiful actress with a different face shape, or a man, and you will find that the nose now seems to jar.’
To test the theory that many celebrities sport near-identical noses, we gave all these famous women a Delevingne nose-over — but can you really tell the difference from their real noses?