Beautiful people are not necessarily attractive just as attractive people are not necessarily beautiful. Although many people use the two adjectives as if they had the same meaning, there are subtle but significant differences.

Being beautiful is having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, or think about, as in a beautiful sunset, a beautiful painting, or a beautiful woman. All these beautiful objects provide pleasure in the viewing. The way I see it, beautiful objects are often static: you view them, recognize them as beautiful but there is little give-and-take between the beautiful object and the viewer. The object (or person) is beautiful to look at, and so you look.

Being attractive is a more dynamic experience. By its very definition, being attractive is having the quality to attract, whether it is attention, interest, or interaction. A two-way process occurs when viewing an attractive person; you do more than look at an attractive person, you are engaged by the attraction like metal to a magnet. You might be attracted by eyes that shine warmth, or humor, or delight. You might be attracted by a smile that is genuine. You might be attracted by words that are compassionate or caring.

I had occasion to discuss business with a bank officer recently.  This woman definitely fell into the beautiful category. She is tall, slender, and blond with perfect features, perfect hair, perfect body. Looking at her was like viewing a beautiful painting. However, in spite of all her beauty, she was not attractive. She wore that type of professional smile often required of customer service personnel, but there was no warmth in her smile or her eyes. It was like I was sitting across from Barbie. I soon grew bored. 

Then there was my grandmother, a short woman with a dumpy body and pockmarked face. She probably wasn’t even beautiful as a baby. Yet here was a woman whose eyes literally twinkled and her genuine smile was positively infectious.  Wherever she went, people were drawn to her like a magnet.

As owner of LivingYoung medical spa, I have the opportunity to meet and treat women of all ages and appearances. I recently took a very unscientific poll asking women if they would rather be beautiful or be attractive. Surprisingly, only 25% of women would rather be considered beautiful; attractiveness seems to be a more desirable quality.  The women who would rather be beautiful perhaps failed to realize that all those clichés about beauty are true:  beauty fades, beauty is in the eye of the holder, and beauty is only skin-deep. My conclusion was that beautiful people are perhaps insecure, caught up in cultural definitions of what it means to be beautiful and perhaps read too many beauty magazines. The women who would rather be regarded as attractive were magnetic women who were down to earth, happy with their self-image, and content.

As much as some of my clients hope, all the treatments in the world cannot make a plain woman beautiful. Beautiful people are born beautiful. However, much can be done at LivingYoung for attractive women who want to enhance or maintain their most attractive features. Perhaps your eyes are your best asset. When people meet you, they are drawn into those windows to your soul because they exude light and warmth, wit and joy.  As you age, crow’s feet are likely to frame those eyes and compete for attention. Many attractive women opt for Botox to eliminate the competition!

Or perhaps your most attractive feature is your engaging smile. If so, that is the feature you should think about maintaining. Aging often causes fine vertical wrinkles to appear above the upper lip. It also produces those long marionette lines that frame the mouth, creating distracting competition for your engaging smile. This is where Dermal Fillers come instantly to the rescue.

If you are an attractive women and want to stay that way (and why wouldn’t you?), Botox and Dermal Fillers are two easy tools for maintaining your attractiveness and eliminating any signs of aging that compete with your natural magnetism.