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Nose to lip ratio: comparing nose width to mouth width
The nose to lip ratio divides the width of your mouth at rest by the width of your nose at its base. The classical reference puts the mouth at about 1.5 times the nose. Under roughly 1.3 the nose reads wide for the face; over about 1.7 the mouth reads wide. Both features are cartilage and bone, and only surgery moves the ratio.
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VerdictAbout 1.5x
Verdict
About 1.5xMouth about 1.5 times nose width is the reference; under 1.3 the nose reads wide, over 1.7 the mouth does
Do your facial analysis: Lip shape detector →What the ratio compares
Nose width is measured across the alar base, the widest points of the nostrils. Mouth width is measured between the two corners of the mouth at rest. Dividing mouth width by nose width gives the ratio, and the figure quoted in classical proportion guides sits around one and a half.
A second version compares nose width to the interior width of the lips or to the eye positions instead. There is no single authoritative definition, so check which one a calculator uses before comparing results. The alar base to mouth corner version is the one most commonly meant online and the one used here.
How to measure it
Straight-on photo, camera at eye height, head level, neutral relaxed expression with the mouth closed but not compressed. Mark the outer edge of each nostril and the corner of each lip, measure both horizontal spans, and divide. Pixels are fine, since dividing one span by the other removes the scale.
A smile is the obvious trap: it widens the mouth substantially while leaving the nose alone, and can swing the ratio from 1.4 to 1.8 in one frame. Head rotation is the subtler one, because it foreshortens both spans unevenly depending on which feature is nearer the camera. Level and square, every time.
How much is too much, and what it costs
Between roughly 1.3 and 1.7, the relationship is not one observers pick out. Under about 1.3 the nose reads wide relative to the mouth, and the lower face reads crowded around the nose. Over about 1.7 the mouth reads wide, which in a photograph tends to read as a broad lower face. These bands are rule-of-thumb widenings of a drawing canon, not clinical cutoffs.
The canon itself was calibrated on a narrow sample. Nasal width differs markedly between populations, so a ratio under 1.3 is typical in many ancestries and is a difference from a European drawing convention, not from a biological norm. Read the number against faces of your own background before treating it as wide. A nostril that has widened or flared on one side recently is a clinician question, not a proportion one.
What actually changes it
Nothing non-surgical. Alar width is cartilage and soft tissue set by genetics; mouth width is set by the muscle and skin at the corners. Exercises do not narrow a nose or widen a mouth. Makeup can shade the alar sides to read narrower and can extend the lip line slightly, and both wash off.
Alar base reduction, a rhinoplasty step that removes a wedge from each nostril base, narrows the nose by a few millimeters permanently. Filler at the lip corners changes mouth width marginally. Both are facial plastic surgeon decisions. Measure your ratio with the lip shape detector on a relaxed mouth; because expression swings it so much, repeat it on a second day before drawing a conclusion.
Measure it on your own photo
- Lip shape detectorFull, wide, bow-shaped, or heart — and what flatters each.
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FAQ
Common questions
What is the ideal nose to lip ratio?+
The classical reference puts mouth width at about 1.5 times nose width. Between roughly 1.3 and 1.7 the relationship goes unnoticed. Under about 1.3 the nose reads wide for the face; over about 1.7 the mouth reads wide. The canon comes from drawing instruction, not population data.
How do you measure nose to lip ratio?+
From a level, straight-on photo, measure the width across the outer edges of the nostrils and the width between the mouth corners at rest, then divide mouth width by nose width. Keep the expression neutral.
Is a wide nose a problem?+
Under roughly 1.3 the nose reads wide relative to the mouth. That is a proportion, not a health issue, and it is typical in many populations because the canon was calibrated on a narrow sample. Alar base reduction is the only thing that changes it, and it is surgery.
Does smiling change the ratio?+
Significantly. A smile widens the mouth by a large margin while the nose barely moves, so it inflates the ratio. Measure with a relaxed, closed mouth and the result becomes repeatable.