Scientific Proof That a Beauty Regimen Can Improve Your Love Life

The sad, honest truth of long-term relationships is that sometimes, they can get a little stagnant. Your work life starts taking precedent over your love life, and the next thing you know, you can't remember the last time you snuggled with your sweetie. You can't even remember a time when you had a spare 15 minutes to do your hair. Turns out, your openness to romance is directly affected by your beauty routine — who knew?

Revlon partnered with Fordham University on a unique study called the Love Test, asking hundreds of women to perform the following daily ritual: face a mirror, use a favorite fragrance, apply makeup, savor a candy, take a deep breath, and look at yourself while smiling. Sounds simple, but over 97 percent of the participants reported a significant positive change after just one week.

This video shows a handful of the women and their partners. The pairs were interviewed about their relationship, including its strength, its duration, and any roadblocks they face as a couple. A majority of the women cited confidence as their biggest problem — then went off to try the Love Test. The duos returned after a week, and the women were interviewed separately about how their self-esteems had improved. Their partners secretly listened to the responses (many of them tearing up), because all of the ladies reported a feeling of empowerment, as well as a dramatic boost to their love lives.

Confession: we cried watching this. If you're dealing with PMS right now, be warned. But we admit, we now feel inspired to rev up our morning beauty routine. It looks like taking time for ourselves each morning can have a more significant effect than we ever realized.