The Facts on Facials

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This is going to be one of those articles that is packed with too much information, and likely the first NSFW article I've ever written, but you asked, so we researched ;)

Facials have been around forever. The act itself is not a modern invention - literary references go back centuries, and visual depictions appear in traditional erotic art that date back to the 16th and 17th century.

So while there is no doubt that facials are likely as old as sex itself, there’s also no doubt that they are more popular now than ever, so where did this new level of popularity come from?

The surprising answer is that it came from the 1980s, and of all things it came from the safe sex movement.

The phrase "come on me, not in me" originated in the 1980s as a safe-sex slogan.

This created some issues in terms of porn production. If a man came on a woman’s stomach or breasts, then the camera couldn’t capture her facial expressions. However, if the male actor came on her face, the viewer could then see two very important things at once: The cum and the woman's reaction to the cum.

With this, the facial started to become the ‘grand finale’ in most porn movies, and this eventually moved the facial into mainstream conversations.

How mainstream?

Heather Locklear once joked to paparazzi that a little semen on her face is what keeps her from looking her age… she was joking of course (I think).

This raises the obvious question, “Do women actually like it?” and the answer according to research is yes, some women do like it.

Is it actually fun?

Depending on the study (yes there are studies on this) typically somewhere between 41% to 52% of women interviewed said they had always enjoyed the experience.

A quick internet search on articles about this topic will find quotes such as:

“When a guy cums on my face I feel like it’s the mark of a job well done. I like that he finds looking at me so arousing, and I’m proud that he wants to look at me when he has his climax.” - Alexa

and

"It makes me feel really sexy. Maybe it’s because of porn, but I just find it really hot. I like being the center of attention." - Sofie

Of course, for every Alexa and Sofia there are also women who find the act unpleasant. It really is a personal preference just like everything else sexual in nature.

The big debate of the last decade or two hasn’t been whether or not women like it, but whether or not the very act is inherently degrading to women.

Not surprisingly, this has also been studied…

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It's all in the facial... expresion

When men and women were asked to watch movies of facials a consistent finding was that positive facial expressions on the recipient improved the rating of the scene for both sexes.

In other words, men (and women) liked the scene more when the person getting the facial looked like they were enjoying it.

Follow-up studies in 2023 and 2024 including cross-cultural samples from Brazil and the Philippines largely replicated this finding - It was important that the recipient looked like they were enjoying the act.

Fun fact - Typically women rated the images or videos slightly lower than men, with the one notable exception: Brazilian women rated the facial images about as positively as Brazilian men.

The thing about facials is that they’re not new, not inherently degrading, wrong, bad, or problematic. They’re also not right for everyone. Just like any other sex act, as long as it takes place between two consenting adults, it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

Finally, many of us women are more open than you think, it's just a matter of feeling comfortable enough with our partner and having the right communication about trying new things!

Lisa

References:

Archilochus. Cologne Epode (fr. 196a West). 7th century BCE.

Bridges, Ana J., et al. “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update.” Violence Against Women, vol. 16, no. 10, 2010, pp. 1065–85.

Salmon, Catherine A., and Jessica A. Hehman. “Perceptions of Sexual Images: Factors Influencing Responses to the Ubiquitous External Ejaculation.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 51, 2022, pp. 1271–80.

Salmon, Catherine A., Jessica A. Hehman, and Aurelio José Figueredo. “Pornography’s Ubiquitous External Ejaculation: Predictors of Perceptions.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 52, 2023, pp. 431–42. (Advance online publication 2022)

Glickman, Charlie. Interviewed in Schwyzer, Hugo. “He Wants to Jizz on Your Face, but Not Why You Think.” Jezebel, 11 Jan. 2012, https://jezebel.com/he-wants-to-jizz-on-your-face-but-not-why-you-think-5875217.

Hay, Mark. “How Money Shots (Facials) Became the Most Popular Move in Porn.” Men’s Health, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a30858335/money-shot-facial-porn-sex/.

Heck, Richard Kimberly. “Are ‘Facials’ Misogynistic?” Unpublished manuscript / related discussion papers, Brown University.

Margold, William. Quoted in “The Oral History of the Money Shot.” Vice, 12 Dec. 2016, https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-oral-history-of-the-moneyshot/.

My Secret Life. Anonymous Victorian erotic memoir, c. 1888–1894.

Sade, Marquis de. The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage. Written 1785. Various modern editions.

Schwyzer, Hugo. “He Wants to Jizz on Your Face, but Not Why You Think.” Jezebel, 11 Jan. 2012, https://jezebel.com/he-wants-to-jizz-on-your-face-but-not-why-you-think-5875217.

Shunga.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunga. Accessed 31 July 2026.

“The Oral History of the Money Shot.” Vice, 12 Dec. 2016, https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-oral-history-of-the-moneyshot/.

Williams, Linda. Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible.” University of California Press, 1989 (and later editions). Frequently cited on the emergence of the money shot in 1970s feature-length pornography.

Zwicky, Arnold. “Face work.” Arnold Zwicky’s Blog, 27 Nov. 2016, https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/11/27/face-work/.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/23/time-talk-facials-kind-involve-semen-7337371/

https://adventuresfrom.com/2018/03/11/should-i-let-him-come-on-my-face/#comment-370473

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