Skinema’s Industry player: The Beauty Mark
Is there any skin lesion an actor actually desires? Outside of the occasional tantalizing tattoo, we can think of only one. One that added the mystique of movie icon Marilyn Monroe. A Hollywood standby since the early days of silent film, The Beauty Mark reigns supreme as the spot Tinsel Town can’t resist.
Is there any skin lesion an actor actually desires? Outside of the occasional tantalizing tattoo, we can think of only one. One that added to the mystique of movie icon Marilyn Monroe. A Hollywood standby since the early days of silent film, The Beauty Mark reigns supreme as the spot Tinsel Town can't resist.
This high end piece of real estate is still in demand. Starlets-in-training pencil in solitary dark dots, drawing attention to their lips or eyes. We can't think of any other skin growth that an actor would actually want. But what makes beauty marks so attractive?
What puts the Beauty in Beauty marks? Why would one want an asymmetric dark spot? How did it catapult Cindy Crawford to the top of the supermodel summit? And why couldn't it save her from her doomed movie attempt: 1995's disastrous "Fair Game." Let's put it this way: Beauty Marks are powerful, but even this lucious lesion has its limits.
Remember when the only scandal surrounding pop singer Janet Jackson was her sultry facial mole? When her name recalled the phrase "super cute"rather than "Super bowl halftime fiasco? The longetivity of the Beauty mark is also based on the fact that it only suggests sensuality without over-reaching.
Much like real estate, the value of a facial mole in part depends on three things: location, location, location. As illustrated by film femmes Jean Harlow and Sherilyn Fenn, moles near the mouth and eyes draw attention to those features. Those areas also happen to be proportionately larger during young adulthood when courtship rituals are crucial for the survival of the species. In other words, when being a hottie is most important.
Since noses, ears, chins, and foreheads grow larger over the years, they are the features associated with (gulp!) old age. Therefore, a mole on the nose or ear is not considered particularly pretty. Check out the distracting lumpy mole on the witch from Snow White. Forehead moles seem to suggest a one-eyed cyclops, rather than a sight for sore eyes. Moles in these locations don't enhance the romance.
A beauty mark also knows to avoid excess. Small lesions, as seen here on actress/model/vixen Kate Upton, are sufficiently alluring additions. Great glamour can come in a small package.
For beauty marks, size is everything. Small size, that is. The humor in Fred Savage's prosthetically applied "Moley mole" from the Austin Powers series is it's savage size. This is no accent, more like an accident! Hairs protruding from a mole, though a reassuring sign of the lesion's non-cancerous nature, do not add attractiveness.
Small, flat, discrete dark spots project beauty, as seen on the cheek of actress Eva Mendes. This is the look of a young person's mole. It turns out, facial moles can change over time.
Take Cindy Crawford as an example. Her mole was flat and dark during her teen years. Over time, however, facial moles tend become lumpy and raised, losing their dark tone. This is current appearance of Crawford's mole. These are not dangerous changes, except on an aesthetic level. Shall she let the lesion continue to grow and potentially droop? Have it entirely removed, like fellow fashionista Sarah Jessica Parker? Or possibly undergo a shave procedure, flattening the lesion and restoring its dark, alluring hue?
Much like the career of actor, moles have a lifespan and trajectory. Blake Lively's spot is in its prime. Individual lesions can come and go, but the allure of the Beauty Mark lives on.
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