Red-Lipped Waitresses Get More Tips

Anyone with restaurant experience, or waitress/waiter friends, knows that a few subtle compliments and mild flirting with customers helps with the tips.

Turns out, female waitresses can also add a little more color for a few extra bucks, Live Science reports. A new study from researchers at Université de Bretagne-Sud found that male patrons tended to tip waitresses wearing red lipstick more often, with more money.

In France, tipping is unusual because a 12 percent service charge is automatically tacked onto the price.

Compared to other waitresses wearing pink, brown, or no lipstick, red-lipped females tended to get larger tips more often.

Previous research also discovered that men tipped women more if they were wearing full makeup. But red lipstick itself apparently has a large effect, since red lips are associated with high estrogen levels, sexual arousal, and health.

"Such positive perceptions of the women could perhaps explain why men gave more tips to the waitresses wearing red lipstick in this experiment," the researchers wrote.

The researchers did not find an lipstick effect on tips from female customers. Next up, whether low-cut shirts help bump up tips as well.