Identify The Most Flattering Feature Of Your Face

Countless hours of YouTube tutorials, on perfecting the winged eyeliner had me thinking that I was adding on the rubies and emeralds to the diamond necklace- the one stunning feature of my face, my Eyes. My father wanted me named 'Nayantara' which translates to 'starry eyes'. I always thought I had sparkling eyes like my father said, who would often remind my mother, about having opposed the idea of naming me as a celestial body.

In hindsight, I don't remember receiving any admiration around my eyes. In college I would draw the eyeliner thick hoping to draw all the attention to my eyes and steer away the glances from the hideous feature below my eyes. I was never proud of my teeth, they were never aligned correctly, my parents for lack of medical insurance never sought a dental opinion on the autonomous journey of my teeth.

My father used to joke around, that God decided to throw my permanent set of teeth from heaven down to earth, and I caught them hurriedly. My Canines were sharp and pointed like those of a ‘vampire’. My mother told they are called ‘lion’s teeth’ and in my culture it was supposed to be lucky, but to me it was ugly.

I never smiled heartily opening my mouth, all through my teenage life I had this awkward smile trying to look happy but without showing my teeth - a plastic smile. Afraid the ugliness of my teeth will over shadow the beauty of my eyes.

Often friends and relatives taking the picture would ask me to smile widely, I always ended up being the girl with that awkward smile in the picture. Ever conscious about my smile, I developed the perfect fake smile- never to show my teeth; just a stretch of the lips.

This deep conviction that my teeth was chipping off the beauty of my face, had me wondering if while talking, was I being judged based on my ‘crooked’ teeth. Taking this possibility, I never looked into the eyes of the person during a conversation, looking up, down or sideways trying to screen my teeth. Upon being asked to “say cheese” in a photo-op, what they got instead was a hot-sauce response, to just get on with the picture.

I remember meeting an acquaintance, who directly commented on how “pretty and different” my teeth were. I thought she’s taking a jab at me for the unruly not so perfectly lined teeth of mine, I responded by immediately closing my mouth and a tightly closed lip with the plastic smile, continued into our conversation. I later contemplated on how could anyone comment my teeth as pretty, well they are different but it just did not fit the “tooth-scale” of prettiness.

My mother had her “lion’s teeth” removed in college. As a young working woman, I began to save money to fix my teeth, and determined to remove my lion’s trait. Also, my love for travelling and experiencing new adventures had me solo travelling around the country, I set out on my travels having minimum makeup on among which my eyes were always lined by a black eyeliner in my view to draw attention to the most stunning feature of my face.

Compliments I received during my travel was never first directed towards my eyes, I always received a compliment of having a pretty smile and gorgeous set of teeth, almost always during my unconscious smile, with me not consciously masking my teeth. I wondered may be my teeth are not so unattractive after all, if not for the perfect attractive set, it seems to be in contrast from the rest.

I slowly started to unveil my teeth behind the smile, I started to be less divergent, in conversations and looked directly into their eyes. I began to steadily accept my lion’s teeth and not view it as a cancerous growth needing immediate removal. Yet there were moments, I would look at others with their dazzling set of perfectly aligned teeth, wondering if I could just have that instead.

I had a beauty standard for the teeth, being perfectly aligned like the ones you see on the toothpaste commercials, like the one I saw my friends, classmates and cousins have. Why was I given this anomaly to behold? – A question I pondered my whole teenage life and my early 20’s.

The waiter in the crowded hotel serving me and my best friend on our vacation, hurriedly took our orders and brought us the food, as we were walking out paying the bill, he came towards me and said “You have a pretty smile” (Me and my bestie were engaged in a rambunctious conversation in the hotel laughing our hearts out). He was the 5th person (yes, I counted all who complimented my smile) in my 29 years of earthly existence to flatter my smile. The case was finally rested, in the search for the most flattering feature of my face, it finally struck me it was my teeth because it's different, unique, not present in every one, its exotic. What I believed to be a strong contender for the title was never popular amongst the popular vote.

We seem to have a mental standard of beauty of high cheekbones, spotless skin, puckered full blown lips and a perfect smile. This is hammered into children from a very young age, from what they see on the TV, magazines and billboards.

This yearning to be perfect, sets us on an ill-fated course, trying to hide or fix what is inherently ours to behold. Thus, we spend most of our lives whining about the god-forsaken feature, wishing and hoping how much more attractive we would have be, had it not been for the wide forehead, the bifid chin, the broad nose, the scar on the lips, the freckles on the skin and so much more.

Exotic by definition means that which is not very common, trying to fit into this 10/10 beauty symmetrical scale, makes for well an ‘apple amongst apples’ and that is not exotic, you know then what is- a pear, mango, plums in a basket of apples now this is exotic.

So, the most flattering feature is what strangers seem to compliment-Probably. Examine what features of your face you are most embarrassed about or trying to hide because may be that is what makes you unique- Go Ahead, Own It and Flaunt It.