Abstract
Background
The lips are one crucial determinant of facial attractiveness. Current studies investigating lip attractiveness were mostly conducted in Caucasians, and the results could not directly apply to Asians. Aside from lip proportions, lip contours play an important role in attractiveness but it is unclear how people perceive different lip contours. The aim of this study was to investigate the aesthetic perception of various lip shapes by Chinese to identify the most attractive lip morphology for women and men, respectively.
Methods
303 Chinese participants were invited to rate the attractiveness of identical lip images with different contours and proportions in a young female and a young male. Stratified analyses were performed to assess the effect of gender, age and occupation on the preference of lip shapes.
Results
The lips that were rated to be most attractive had a flat upper vermilion border, an M-shaped oral fissure and a U-shaped lower vermilion border in both genders. Most respondents considered an upper-to-lower vermilion proportion of 1:1 to be more attractive, regardless of the gender of the lip models, and the lip thickness-to-width proportions of 1:2 and 1:2.5 were perceived most attractive for female and male, respectively.
Conclusions
This study adds to our understanding of how lip contours contribute to attractiveness and that Chinese have distinctive aesthetic preferences for lip morphology, which possibly stem from racial characteristics and cultural differences. With such knowledge, practitioners may better tailor the treatment strategy when performing lip rejuvenation procedures.
Level of Evidence III
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Funding
The work was supported by National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding, Grant No. 2022-PUMCH-B-042, 2022-PUMCH-B-041, 2022-PUMCH-A-210, 2022-PUMCH-C-025 and Major Collaborative Innovation Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Grant No. 2021-I2M-1-068.
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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital (No. I-22PJ693) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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All participants provided written consent for the use of their facial images.
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Yang, Y., Chi, Y., Liu, D. et al. The Ideal Chinese Lip: Impact of Lip Contours and Proportions. Aesth Plast Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-024-04183-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-024-04183-y