What’s the secret of the perfect pout? Your top lip should be half the size of the bottom one!
FROM Cleopatra to Grace Kelly, history has known some real dazzlers.
But research has found the key to true beauty is in the lips.
Scientists found a perfectly proportioned female face has full luscious lips, and women with a lower lip twice as big as the top are deemed the most attractive.
But the findings also come with a warning for those looking to enhance their pout artificially. They say women who increase the size of their lips by more than 50 per cent risk leaving their face looking out of proportion.
The report suggests stars such as Taylor Swift and model Miranda Kerr have been blessed with the naturally attractive 1:2 lip ratio. But the likes of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini – both considered gorgeous – have the less fortunate 1:1.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine asked groups of men and women to assess the attractiveness of 160 pictures of white women’s faces.
They found that while the overall surface area of the lips was important, it was the ratio of top lip to bottom lip that most determined whether a woman’s mouth was seen as being attractive. Increasing the surface area of the lips by 53.5 per cent with a one to two ratio of upper to lower lip that make up about 10 per cent of the lower third of the face were deemed to be the most attractive.
It comes just a few days, however, after another study at the University of Califor- nia, Irvine found on average models in Vogue over the past 50 years have had lower lips 47 per cent larger than the top lip.
Dr Brian Wong, a specialist in facial plastic surgery at the university, said women who do not have the ‘ideal’ lip ratio should not despair. He said: ‘Many attractive peo- ple do not have numerical measurements of attractiveness. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.’
The researchers hope their findings – published in journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery – will help plastic surgeons when advising clients about enhancements.