They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this is the face held as the most naturally beautiful in Britain... and it needs no makeup.

Florence Colgate, 18, has been chosen from more than 8,000 entrants to officially be crowned the most naturally-beautiful woman in the country.

The teenager won her title following a public vote after she reached the final three of a competition to find the country's most beautiful face without make-up, organised by ITV's Lorraine programme.

In an age when cosmetic surgery and beauty treatments have become commonplace, the teenager said she was reassured to know natural beauty still has its place.

And with a face which naturally almost exactly fits the scientific formula for beauty - many might think that's probably easy for Florence to say.

According to extensive studies of 'attractiveness', researchers believe the 'beauty' of a woman's face can be summed up in a series of simple ratios.

The 'perfect' face has a distance between the pupils of just under half, or 46 per cent, of the width of the whole face from ear to ear - pretty Florence's ratio is 44 per cent.

Scientists believe the distance between eyes and mouth should be a third of the overall length from hairline to chin on the perfect face - Florence's face has 32.8 per cent ratio.

According to researchers Florence's youthful, feminine features, such as her large eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips, are subconscious tell tale signs of fertility, health and good genes.

The sixth-former on Saturday revealed her simple secret to beauty is drinking tap water.

She said: "My friends and family said I was naturally beautiful and encouraged me to enter the competition so I thought I would give it a go.

"I was fine having my picture taken with no make up on as I am used to it. I never really wear a lot of make up.

"Women should not have to feel that they have to wear make up. I hope people will look at me and think they don't need to wear lots of make up.

"You have to have quite a lot of confidence to enter a competition, so I guess I am confident. It felt amazing to win. My friends are really happy for me.

"I am very happy with the way I look. I would never have any plastic surgery or botox.

"My advice is for people to make sure they keep their skin really clean, drink lots of water and eat a healthy diet."

Natural Florence, from Deal, does admit she normally wears light foundation, concealer, mascara and a touch of vaseline.

She is studying business, geography, psychology A Levels at Dover Grammar School and hopes to do Business management at university.

But Florence says she would love to have a career in modelling on the back of winning the competition.

And like international supermodel Agyness Deyn, Florence spends her saturdays working in a fish and chip shop.

Carmen Lefèvre, PHD student at the University of St Andrews' Perception Lab in the School of Psychology, said beauty is strongly linked to symmetry.

She said: "Florence face looks very youthful and feminine. Youthfulness and femininity are both linked to fertility and are thus found attractive.

"More particularly, Florence has all the classic signs of beauty: large eyes, high cheekbones, full lips and a fair complexion.

"Symmetry appears to be a very important cue to attractiveness. Although we don't realise it in everyday interactions, in most people's faces the right and left half of the face are actually quite different.

"For example the size of the eyes is different or the nose is slightly bent to one side. An explanation why symmetry is important is that it may be a signal of health and good genes.

"Research suggests that our experience of beauty is driven by a whole number of things; the reason we commonly attribute large eye, full lips and high cheekbones as beautiful in women is because they reflect femininity.

"Femininity is linked to fertility which explains why it is attractive to men.

"In addition a cue that has recently emerged as important is skin colour: a slightly yellow skin tone reflects health and is seen as highly attractive.

"Measurements are probably not as important for beauty, although I understand the appeal of that idea."

Florence's face will be appearing on billboards at Superdrug stores across the country after she was voted most naturally-beautiful by veiwers of ITV programme Lorraine.