Alcott isn't suggesting that love makes us prettier—she's observed something subtler: that being loved, and loving in return, actually changes how we carry ourselves and meet the world. There's a physics to it, almost: the person who feels genuinely cherished stands differently, speaks with less defensiveness, allows their face to settle into something more open. Watch someone receive an unexpected kindness or reconnect with an old friend, and you'll see it—the shoulders drop, the eyes brighten—because love has given them permission to stop bracing against the world. That transformation from rigidity to ease is what Alcott means by beautification.