The craze of high, prominent cheekbones has been around for a minute and is here to stay. From the 90s to date, models and celebrities make sure their cheekbones look high and popping in each of their public appearances.
To understand why prominent cheekbones play such a huge part in your looks, let’s take a deep dive into everything there is to know.
Table of Contents
What are Cheekbones?
In medical terms, the cheekbones are known as zygomatic bone or malar bone. These malar bones are attached to various other facial bones, such as – the maxilla, the temporal bone, the sphenoid bone, and the frontal bone. These bones are mainly situated at the center of the face.
The cheekbones make the highest point of your face and provide structure and dimension to a rather flat looking face.
What are Prominent Cheekbones?
Prominent Cheekbones are cheekbones that are sitting high on the face, usually near the eye sockets, projecting outwards.
With prominent cheekbones, your cheeks seem drawn inwards, creating a shadow on your face, due to the higher placement of the cheekbone. This shadow creates the illusion of a sharper face.
How to Tell If You have a Prominent Cheekbones?
Some people have trouble locating their cheekbones. While there is no exact science in determining whether someone’s cheekbones are prominent or not, there are a few steps that can make it quite clear. Let’s learn how:
Step 1
After removing all your makeup, stand in front of a mirror, in a well-lit area of your house.
Step 2
Firstly, place your thumb directly at the top of your ear. Secondly, place your index finger at the bottom of your nostril near your cupid’s bow.
Now bring both of your index finger and thumb together, towards each other – the line drawn by your fingers is the exact location of the cheekbones on your face. You will be able to feel the bone poking out from under the skin.
Step 3
Once you are aware of the location of your cheekbones, it is quite easy to determine their prominence. While looking in the mirror, check if it is located closer to the southern part of your nose or is it located near your eyes sockets.
Final Step
If the point where your fingers met i.e. the highest point of your cheekbone is around your eyes or adjacent to the bridge of your nose, this means you have high, prominent cheekbones.
On the other hand, if the cheekbones are located towards the bottom of the nose, this means you have low, less prominent cheekbones. If this is the case, you should check out our Low Cheekbones Guide.
Types of Cheekbones
- High Cheekbones
- Low Cheekbones
- Asymmetric Cheekbones
- Prominent Cheekbones
- Flat Cheekbones
Why are Prominent Cheekbones considered Attractive?
Hundred of researchers are trying to study the human brain and its psychology to figure out why we find certain traits and features more attractive than others. Same goes for prominent cheekbones, let’s see why prominent cheekbones are considered sexy and desirable.
Human Tendency
A survey was conducted by The Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology wherein 20k people around the world were shown images of women comprising of diverse backgrounds such as Caucasian, Hispanic, African, and Eastern-European.
The evaluators belonged to various cultures and all of them surprisingly chose women with high cheekbones as attractive.
According to some group of researchers, prominent cheekbones are a mark of high estrogen levels in women. Estrogen is a component that determines the reproductive state of a woman’s body.
While beauty is said to be subjective, there is a pattern we follow when it comes to our various aesthetic preferences.
Also, prominent cheekbones are generally associated with youth, whereas flat or low cheekbones represent premature aging.
Youthfulness and fertility, even though unconsciously, are factors men highly seek out in a partner. Therefore, it is not surprising that prominent cheekbones are an acclaimed symbol of beauty.
Symmetry
What we define as a perfectly proportionate face is often just symmetry. Interestingly, prominent cheekbones are often considered to be an indicator of a symmetrical face. There are two main explanations for this reported by a study conducted through Face Research.
The first explanation is the ‘Evolutionary Advantage’ view. According to which symmetry is related to beauty as asymmetrical faces are considered signs of birth defects or other health complications.
The second debate is the ‘Perpetual Bias’ view. This theory applies that symmetrical faces are more conveniently processed by the human brain. While asymmetrical elements take longer to process.
Honesty
In a study conducted by NYU, it was found that it only takes our brains milliseconds to assess the trustworthiness of a person by looking at their face. In this particular study, it was noted that, while looking at images of faces, individuals associated with prominent cheekbones with honesty.
How to get Prominent Cheekbones
Mewing
We all can agree that it is impossible to naturally change the size or shape of your cheekbones, however, there is a thing that could actually make the bones in your skull reposition. Yes, we are talking about ‘Mewing’.
In orthotropics, it is the various environmental factors like your tongue posture or swallowing and breathing patterns that can mold your facial structures throughout your lifetime.
Orthotropic expert, Dr. Mike Mew believes that you can alter the placement of your cheekbones by changing your lifestyle habits. Extensively by adopting a proper tongue posture, you can gradually shift your maxilla i.e. the central facial bone forward and upwards.
As learned initially, the maxilla is attached to the malar bone, which means the cheekbones will follow the upward swing of the maxillary bone.
While changing positions, the cheekbones can move upwards providing them a more prominent look.
Facial Exercises
Facial exercises are known to tone your face and reverse the aging process while restoring function after trauma such as paralysis or a stroke.
In physical therapy, facial toning is considered a type of cosmetic procedure that helps to change the shape of the face. This can be achieved by increasing the volume and toning of the facial muscle.
Facial exercise aids in preventing muscle loss due to faces such as aging. It is said to help rejuvenate the skin and muscles by reducing wrinkles, sagging, and smile lines on the face.
Lose weight
If you are overweight or obese, chances are that your malar bones are quite prominent however, are hidden underneath the excess face fat. To overcome this situation, it is vital to start working out, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly start mewing.
Drink water
Water helps the skin to retain the lost fluids throughout the day. Hence, you should be drinking plenty of water to flush out any impurities, this will helps you to get prominent cheekbones.
Chew Gum
Mastication, also known as chewing can workout your facial muscles including your cheeks and jaws. Chewing a piece of chewing gum will help to define your facial features, making your cheekbones pop out.
Chewing is an easy, on-the-go exercise that you can perform anywhere. Remember not to overdo it though, as that can cause dental complications like TMJ.
If you do not wish to chew regular gum, you can give mastic gum or falim gum a try. Also, various jaw training tools could aid your jaw workout routine.
Smile
Smiling is a simple activity that involves various facial muscles. It can help reshape your face and make your cheekbones more prominent over time.
Makeup Hacks
In today’s time, we have broken all gender-based barriers and hence makeup is considered for all. If you know anything about makeup, you might be well aware of the term ‘contouring’. If not you can simply google it.
Contouring is a technique that deepens the shadows of your face giving you a more structured look. To contour you will need a bronzer, a bit darker than your natural skin tone. There are several YouTube videos you can watch before trying out this technique.
Takeaway
Your cheekbones are a very unique and rare feature of your face. Make sure to highlight them in the best way possible. Mewing as a technique can take time but is definitely worth a sincere shot.