Lip position (Ricketts E-line)
Where your lower lip sits relative to Ricketts' aesthetic line (nose tip to chin).
Why it matters
The E-line is a classic profile harmony check for lip projection. The lower lip ideally sits just behind it (around 2 mm behind in the classical ideal). A receding (set-back) chin pulls the line backward, so normal lips can read as protrusive when the chin is weak. The ideal is also ethnicity-dependent — fuller lips, common in many African and Asian profiles, often touch or sit just ahead of the line and still look harmonious — so treat it as a guide, not a hard rule.
What the E-line check is
This metric reports where your lower lip sits relative to the E-line, Ricketts' aesthetic line, which is drawn in profile from the tip of the nose to the most forward point of the chin. The tool measures the distance from your lower lip to that line and reports it as a share of the nose-to-chin length, with negative values meaning the lip sits behind the line and positive values meaning it projects in front of it.
In plain terms, the line frames the lower face between the two most forward landmarks of the profile, the nose tip and the chin, and asks how the lip rests inside that frame. Because the chin anchors one end of the line, the chin's position is built into the result.
Why lip position matters in profile
Lip projection is one of the clearest signals of lower-face balance in side view, and the E-line is the long-standing shorthand for it. In the classical ideal the lower lip sits just behind the line, on the order of a couple of millimetres back. The profile-analysis tradition behind this tool, including Naini 2011 and Arnett & Bergman 1993, uses lip-to-line relationships of this kind to describe how the lips, teeth and chin sit together.
A crucial caveat is built into the geometry: a receding, set-back chin pulls the line backwards, which can make perfectly normal lips look protrusive even though the lips are not the issue. So a lip that reads as far forward sometimes points to a weak chin rather than full lips.
The typical range, and honest variation
This tool scores a band of roughly minus four to plus two percent of the nose-to-chin length, with a modelled mean near minus one percent, that is, lips resting just behind the line. The ideal here is openly ethnicity-dependent: fuller lips, common in many African and Asian profiles, often touch the line or sit slightly ahead of it and still look entirely harmonious.
For that reason the E-line is best treated as a guide rather than a hard rule. It was formalised within a narrow aesthetic tradition, the preferences it encodes are debated, and they vary by sex as well as ancestry. A value outside the band describes a profile relationship, not a flaw, and says nothing about a person's worth.
Interpreting your number
Profile lip and chin positions are approximate, and the sign of this measure can flip with head angle, a small upward or downward tilt of the chin moves both the line and the lip. Use a relaxed, level, true side-on photo with the lips lightly together, and read a value near the edges of the band as roughly on-target rather than off.
If the number reads forward, check the chin before concluding anything about the lips, since a set-back chin is a common reason for an apparently protrusive result.
What is changeable and what is fixed
Lip posture and the relaxed set of the mouth are within your control and worth getting right before reading the result. The deeper drivers, the forward positions of the lips, teeth and chin, are structural and are not changed by grooming or skincare. Photographic levers such as a true side angle and good posture mainly make the reading accurate rather than changing the structure.
Where someone wishes to change the relationship, filler can adjust lip or chin projection temporarily, and rhinoplasty or a genioplasty changes the nose-to-chin frame of the line permanently. These are listed only as factual options, not as advice, and each is a clinical decision for a qualified practitioner.
Typical range
~lips just behind the nose-chin line
Ricketts' aesthetic line runs from the nose tip to the chin. The lower lip ideally sits just behind it (about 2 mm behind in the classical ideal). A receding (set-back) chin pulls the line backward and can make normal lips look protrusive; fuller lips can sit on or just ahead of the line and still look balanced. Negative = behind the line, positive = in front (more protrusive). Shown as a share of the nose-to-chin length. From the profile photo.
What your reading means
- Typical
- Your lower lip sits just behind the nose-chin line — the classical E-line ideal.
- Less common
- Your lower lip is close to the E-line ideal.
- Distinctive
- Your lower lip projects in front of the line (can look protrusive), or sits well behind it (often paired with a set-back chin).
How we measured it
From your side photo, the lower-lip distance from the nose-tip-to-chin line, as a share of that length (negative = behind).
The evidence
Lip and chin positions in profile are approximate and sign can flip with head angle; indicative only.