Loathe or Love: Geometric Beauty

Do you ever think of your makeup and hair in terms of circles, squares, and triangles? Maybe makeup shapes are more high school geometry than high fashion, but sometimes we underestimate the importance of math in beauty! We've seen blocked-out rectangular brows and graphic eye appliqués strut down the runway at Dior, but it's not just Euclid and his forms we have to thank. Remember learning about the ancient golden ratio found in classical Greek architecture? This nifty number (approximately 1.618) is responsible for many beauty techniques we use today.

From the shape of our teeth to the distance of our eyes, we see reoccurring mathematical patterns all over our face. Use the golden ratio to find your perfect brow arch by connecting a line from the edge of your nose to the point on your brow bone directly above the pupil. Or, sculpt more symmetry and balance among your facial features with contours and highlights.

We admit—spherical buns, angular eye shadow, and triangular lips are more on the avant-garde side of things, but think of these basic building blocks and proportions when creating your next beauty look. Do you ever get back to geometric beauty basics? Vote in our poll below and let us know how math and geometry inspire your routine.