﻿Qoves Cheekbones 101/Do you have High or Low cheekbones?
[In this episode…] On this channel, I’ve noticed that a lot of the
newer viewers don’t really know what I’m talking about when I use anatomical terms like jaw ramus,
zygomatic bone or mandible body and partially this is because I’ve taken for granted what I expect
people to already know since we’ve covered it on the channel in the past. In this new series, we’re
going to bring back an old series called defining beauty, but in a more newbie friendly format, so
that you can revise what you already know or learn a thing or two and see how certain anatomical
features on your face affect your facial appeal greatly. Today’s episode will be focusing on the
Cheekbones. Since the zygomatic region has a broad array of talking points, particularly we
will just be focusing on the ogee curve and how we can tell apart high vs low cheekbones.
What do we mean when we say Cheekbones? First, let’s get some cheekbone terminology
out of the way that should help us as we go through some examples. The cheekbones,
also known as the zygoma, zygomatic bones, or malar bones, are a large bone mass that
lie around our midface region. They border other midface bones like the maxilla and
infraorbital bones right underneath our eyes. So, in effect, they are also midface
bones, but more towards the outer parts of our face. Because they are positioned higher
than the maxilla(aka the upper jaw), they play a larger part in how our eyes look and the contours
surrounding the upper part of our midface. The ‘Zygomatic Arch’ is the part of the cheekbone
that is most identifiable by a layperson who has no knowledge of facial aesthetics.
It is the arch the cheekbones make with the temporal bones near the forehead, and the bones
connecting to the lower part of the face. The outermost part of this arch is called the Zygion;
this will also usually be where the widest part of the face is. Similarly coined, the gonion is
the outermost positioned bone of the jaw body. The ogee curve just refers to the outline, or ‘curve’,
that these bones make on the face. This can be viewed from a ¾ profile, or front on. Usually it
is easiest to show the ogee curve in a ¾ profile because most people hold too much facial fat
to have a pronounced ogee curve in the front view. That elusive ‘hollow cheek’ look is not
as common as we make it look here at Qoves. Simple enough, alright let’s look at some examples.
How does changing the morphology of our cheekbones change the way our face looks?
First off, we have model Corey Wallace. We can see the widest part of his face, his Zygion, is very
high set right near the eyes. There is a lot of distance between that point and the lowest part of
his jaw at the Gonion. To really create that ‘high cheekbone’ look, there has to be enough distance
between these two points. We will see some later examples of how a shorter face just cannot achieve
this same look, even despite the zygomatic bones being higher up on their midface. The best way
to explain this is to think of a 300meter high mountain and a 600meter one. If you are climbing
mountain 1 and are almost at the top you would say you are pretty high on that mountain. Still,
a person almost at the top of mountain 2 is still ‘high up’ on that mountain, but it is clear who
looks higher side to side. To really create the illusion of height and depth with the cheekbones,
the face has to have some downward dimension to it. A really short face just looks round no matter
how high their cheekbones are. We’ve touched on dimorphic facial height in our Video, ``Why Zoë
Kravitz Was Selected For Catwoman”. To sum up, shorter facial height is a feminizing quality;
since men typically have taller faces, their cheekbones usually appear higher set and more
compact relative to their total facial height. Model Paolo Roldan also has high cheekbones, with
little distance between his zygoma and his eyes. If we soften his Ogee curve and make it less clear
how high or low his cheekbones are, he loses some of the ‘look’ western modeling standards
really select for. Model Haejin Lee has less of a pronounced Ogee curve, and her cheekbones
can be classified as ‘medium’ set. This overall rounds out her cheek area and face as a whole.
Altering model Marta del Cano’s high cheekbones gives the appearance of weaker dentofacial growth.
Granted, it was only on one side of her face, but it makes all the difference in what modeling
agencies tend to look for. There are exceptions, though, like model Nayara Oliveira, who has other
prominent dentofacial markers despite having a less pronounced ogee curve. Her cheekbones
are quite low set and just lack that drawn out verticality. A simple adjustment goes a long way;
here her cheek is less rounded and zygoma is higher set. We don’t want to go overboard
making the cheekbones protrude excessively or it can hurt facial harmony. Anarcius Jean has
moderately high set cheekbones, and we can clearly see how lengthy the ogee curve appears in contrast
with Nayara. French model Lement chabernaud has high cheekbones as well. One way we can
tell is that there is not much distance between his eyes and the widest part of his face(aka
Zygion). One thing we can do in photoshop to accentuate the ogee curve is to add some shadows.
To be fair, this technique is used on almost every single photo in the modeling industry. So
some of this has probably already been done in this next example. Here is English model Efosa
Uwubomwen. Just some subtle shadows along his Ogee curve makes his already high cheekbones look more
pronounced. His Ogee curve makes up over 70% of his midface height. This is another way you can
generally tell how high up the cheekbones are. Lower zygomatic bones will obviously make up
less than half of the midface height. Even in the side profile Efosa has extremely pronounced
zygomatic bones. Another model, Marc Schulze also has medium to high cheekbones. Yes, I know it is
getting repetitive seeing all these models, but don’t worry some basic celebrities are coming too.
Originally Canadian model Alyssah Ali also has high cheekbones, as we can see in her Ogee curve.
Research by Liu et al. tried to understand how certain facial features correlated with beauty
scores. High cheekbones positively correlated with beauty. Low P values also would suggest these
findings are significant. Looking young and heavy makeup were also highly correlated with beauty.
Interestingly enough, the latter two would seem to tie into having high cheekbones.
Makeup can help accentuate the ogee curve and appearance of the cheekbones.
Also, a study by Diana Draelos titled the ‘perceptions of beauty’,
found high cheekbones as a universal beauty indicator across all skin colors, ethnicities,
and facial structures. She notes how estrogen influences the development of female cheekbones,
and thus high cheekbones are a strong indicator of reproductive prowess. This is
not to say that Low cheekbones are inherently unattractive, but generally there is a reason
that Western beauty standards seem to select for ‘costly biological displays’. Even in men,
high cheekbones signal strong dentofacial growth and lean facial features. Without going into an
endocrinology lesson, Men also require estrogen in sexual development, regulation, and signaling.
A man that can afford to have higher estradiol levels because it is in balance with his higher
testosterone levels may also benefit from the reproductive signaling of high cheekbones.
Model Zoe Barnard has high cheekbones, but they are not overly pronounced and so her Ogee curve
just looks a bit ‘flat’. This is not necessarily an unattractive trait; if we make her cheekbones
more pronounced, it gives a bit of a KIm K effect. You can let us know which you think is
more attractive; adding some cheekbone protrusion does seem to help her ¾ profile, but it is hard
to say exactly how it would harmonize with her facial width in frontal view. It is not like she
had bad cheekbones in the first place. We already know high cheekbones are probably the single most
selected for facial features in the modeling world. However, this is not exclusive to modeling.
A lot of the Hollywood movie industry also seems to select for high cheekbones. Of course it has to
align with the character they are trying to cast, but high cheekbones likely won’t hurt your chances
of acting. Chris Hemsworth has exceptionally high cheekbones; although they are not super pronounced
due to his weaker facial definition, his dentofacial growth creates that lengthened,
high cheekbone, ogee curve. Changing his cheekbones won’t make or break his face,
but flattening his cheeks does not help. In contrast, giving him an Ogee curve similar to
Sean O’ pry, who we’ll look at in a second, makes him look more modelesque. Sean is an example of
that 99.99th percentile high cheekbones; perhaps this is why he has had so much
success in the Western modeling world. The same can be said for successful model David Gandy.
Shaving off some of Sean’s zygomatic bone makes his cheekbones look lower, less masculine,
and less sharp. Mauritian model Shawna Blackburn , from mixed east African Island Mauritius,
has somewhat medium to low cheekbones, and an overall shorter facial height. Making her
cheekbones more compact and higher set changes her look significantly. Another popular face today,
Chris Evans, also has very high cheekbones. It is a common theme for most superhero actors
to have strong dentofacial growth, with high cheekbones, wide faces, and strong jaws.
Supermodel Adriana Lima has cheekbones that are incredibly high and prominent. Again,
cheekbones like this are so rare that she can probably attribute a lot of her success to them.
The widest part of her face is so close to her eyes, and her ogee curve
almost comprises her entire midface height. Adding some shadows further brings depth or 3-d-ness
to her Ogee curve. A study by Linkov et al.in the “Aesthetic Surgery Journal”, sought to study the
desirable midface position of female subjects. In short, the distance from the pupillary line to the
midface is a strong indicator of youth. It is no secret then why high cheekbones are so attractive.
Adriana has that ‘lifted’ bone structure appearance, with minimal distance from her
midface to her eyes; thus, she will likely age better than someone with lacking midface bones.
A midface lift can have a powerful effect on how youthful your face looks. The researchers note
how a defined S shaped Ogee curve is important in an idealized, heart shaped,youthful face.
A prerequisite to seeing if your cheekbones are high or low is to not have a high amount of body
fat. Actor O shea jackson jr is a counter example of this. On top of already poor dentofacial
growth and low cheekbones, high amounts of facial fat just flatten his cheeks. Lastly,
we have model Saffi. She also has some more facial fat than some of the previous models,
but prominent cheekbones and favorable body fat distribution make her Ogee curve still visible.
Photoshopping her low cheekbones to be higher and more compact gives her face a slimmer and
arguably more harmonious result. There is a noticeable difference in what Eastern Beauty
standards seem to prefer and Western standards do. In the West, it is very common to see an
increase in cheekbone volume and dimension through fillers and other surgeries. Eastern
beauty standards would seem to look down on prominent cheekbones and prefer a softer,
more rounded facial contour. They commonly opt for zygoma reduction surgery.
If you would like to get your face assessed, discover your cheekbone morphology and how it
affects your face or just get an indepth look into your face order a QOVES facial evaluation over at
our website, performed by our in-house team of doctors and dentists to help you achieve that
next big glow-up. As always follow us on Instagram for bite-sized content and subscribe on youtube.