Rate My Face: How Face Ratings Work and How to Get Yours
A face rating scores your face out of 10 from one straight-on photo. Most raters look at the same things: symmetry, the balance of your facial thirds, eye spacing, canthal tilt, and how wide your face is compared with its height. Lookist gives you an overall score out of 10 and 15 feature scores, each with a written note. This page explains what those numbers mean and how to check the main proportions yourself with a photo and a ruler.
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How to get your face rating
The full rating happens in the Lookist iPhone app. It takes one front photo and a short setup. You get the overall score, the 15 feature scores, and a note for each one that says what it measured.
- Get Lookist on the App Store and open it on your iPhone.
- Take one front photo. Face the camera, keep a neutral expression, and use soft light from the front.
- Read your overall score out of 10, your potential score, and where you sit on the percentile chart.
- Open each feature score and read the note behind it. Start with the lowest one.
- Pick your goals and follow the daily glow-up plan. Rescan later with the same setup to compare.
What face ratings measure
Every rater picks its own inputs, but most of them come back to six proportions. Each one is a ratio or an angle, so the size of the photo does not change it. Here is what each one means and how people check it.
Symmetry
Symmetry compares the left and right halves of your face across a line down the middle. Research links symmetry to how attractive faces look, but the effect is modest. Every real face has small differences between sides, and that is normal.
Facial thirds
Classic art rules split the face into three equal parts: hairline to brows, brows to the base of the nose, and nose to chin. A 1985 study of 153 young adults found that the old vertical rules, equal thirds included, matched real faces worst of all the classic rules. Treat equal thirds as a reference point, not a target.
Eye spacing
Eye spacing is the gap between your inner eye corners compared with the width of one eye. The old rule of fifths says the gap should be about one eye wide, a ratio near 1.0. Real faces vary a lot around that number.
Canthal tilt
Canthal tilt is the angle from your inner eye corner to your outer eye corner. A positive angle means the outer corner sits higher. Published averages are positive, often around 4 to 8 degrees depending on the group studied.
Width-to-height ratio
This is face width at the cheekbones divided by the height from your brow line to your upper lip. Researchers call it fWHR. In a 2008 study the average was 1.80 for women and 1.86 for men.
Jaw-to-cheek ratio
This is jaw width at the jaw corners divided by face width at the cheekbones. A lower number means a jaw that narrows more under the cheekbones. There is no published ideal for this ratio, so treat any target you see online as a convention.
How to rate your face yourself with a photo
You can check the main proportions at home. You need one straight-on photo, a way to zoom in, and a ruler or a measuring app. Measure on the photo, not on your face in a mirror, because a mirror makes it hard to hold the ruler still.
- Take a photo with the phone at eye level and at arm's length or more. Keep a neutral face and pull your hair off your forehead.
- Open the photo and zoom in. Use a ruler app or print the photo and use a real ruler.
- Measure the distance from your brows to the base of your nose, then from the base of your nose to your chin. Divide the first by the second for your thirds ratio.
- Measure the gap between your inner eye corners and the width of one eye. Divide the gap by the eye width for your eye spacing.
- Measure your face width across the cheekbones and the height from brow line to upper lip. Divide width by height for your fWHR.
- Measure your jaw width at the jaw corners and divide it by your cheekbone width.
- Compare each number with the reference in the table below. Look at how far off each one is, not at one total.
| Proportion | How to measure | Common reference |
|---|---|---|
| Facial thirds | Brows to nose base, divided by nose base to chin | About 1.0 |
| Eye spacing | Gap between inner corners, divided by one eye width | About 1.0 (rule of fifths) |
| Canthal tilt | Angle from inner to outer eye corner | Positive, often 4 to 8 degrees in studies |
| Width-to-height (fWHR) | Cheekbone width, divided by brow-to-lip height | About 1.80 women, 1.86 men (2008 averages) |
| Jaw-to-cheek | Jaw width at the corners, divided by cheekbone width | No published ideal |
| Symmetry | Left side compared with right side across the midline | Small differences are normal |
What the Lookist face rating shows
A Lookist report starts with your overall score out of 10, a potential score, and a percentile chart that shows where your score sits among other Lookist scans. Below that are 15 feature scores. Each one comes with a short written note, so you can see what the score is about.
The 15 features are symmetry, facial harmony, jawline, cheekbones, nose, eyes, lips, chin, forehead, skin clarity, skin texture, skin tone, skin radiance, eye brightness and hair. That covers far more than geometry. Skin, eyes and hair change how a face looks in real life, and a ratio cannot see them.
Your results then feed a daily glow-up plan with skin care, hair care and sleep tasks. Scan history keeps your past reports, so you can compare photos taken the same way. Hairstyle Tester lets you try new cuts on your own photo, and Future Me shows a preview of how you could look after your glow up.
What a face rating out of 10 means
Most face raters use a scale from 1 to 10. The numbers describe the photo, so read them as bands rather than exact verdicts. A small change between two scans usually comes from the photo, not from your face.
| Score | What it usually means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| 9 to 10 | Most features score high in this photo | Keep your routine and your photo setup consistent |
| 7.5 to 8.9 | Strong overall, with one or two lower features | Read the notes on the lowest feature scores |
| 6 to 7.4 | Balanced, with a few clear areas to work on | Pick one or two goals for your daily plan |
| 4 to 5.9 | Several features score lower in this photo | Retake the photo first, then focus on skin, hair and grooming |
| Below 4 | Often a photo problem | Check the angle, light and expression, then rescan |
Is a face rating the same as an attractiveness test?
Not quite. An attractiveness test asks how people react to a face. A face rating describes features in one photo. Studies find that people agree on some things about faces, such as clear skin and some symmetry, but they also find big personal differences in taste.
That is why a rating is most useful as a map of what you can change. Skin, hair, grooming, sleep and body fat all show up in a photo. Bone structure mostly does not change with routines. A good rating tells you where to start, not what you are worth.
Limitations: a score describes one photo, not your worth
Any face rating reads one photo. It cannot see your voice, your expression in motion, or the way you carry yourself, and those things shape how people react to you far more than a ratio does.
The reference points are averages and conventions, not ideals. Plenty of faces that people find striking sit far from them. A lower number on one proportion can simply mean your face is less average, and that is not a flaw.
One photo also has limits. A phone held close to your face makes your nose and the center of your face look bigger. A slight head turn shrinks one side. A smile moves your mouth corners and cheeks.
If a number is making you feel bad about yourself, put the phone down. If you think about your looks most of the day or avoid people because of them, talk to someone you trust or a doctor. That feeling is common and it is treatable.
Tips for a photo that rates fairly
Most odd scores come from the photo, not the face. These steps keep your numbers steady from one scan to the next.
- Hold the phone at eye level and at arm's length or more. Closer than that, the lens stretches the middle of your face.
- Look straight into the lens. A turned head makes one side look smaller and lowers symmetry.
- Keep a neutral face with your mouth closed. Smiling changes the lower third, your mouth width and your symmetry.
- Use soft, even light from the front. A window in front of you works well. Hard side light hides one side of your face.
- Pull hair off your forehead and jaw and take off glasses.
- Skip filters and beauty modes. They reshape the face before any rater sees it.
Frequently asked questions
How attractive am I on a scale of 1 to 10?
No photo can fully answer that, because attractiveness depends on the person looking. A face rating gives you a score out of 10 based on your features in one photo. Lookist adds 15 feature scores with notes, so you can see what pushed the number up or down.
Is there an app to rate my face?
Yes. Several apps rate faces, and each one uses its own method. Lookist gives an overall score out of 10, a potential score, a percentile chart and 15 feature scores with written notes, then builds a daily glow-up plan from them. It is on iPhone.
Are face ratings accurate?
A face rating describes one photo, and the photo changes the result. Camera distance, head angle, light and expression all move the numbers. Take your photos the same way each time and compare the range across a few scans, not one number.
Why did I get a different score on a different photo?
Camera distance, head angle, expression and lighting all change what the photo shows. A selfie at 30 cm stretches the middle of the face. A small head turn lowers symmetry. Use the same distance, light and neutral expression each time if you want to compare.
What is a good face rating score?
On most scales out of 10, anything from 6 up means your features are mostly balanced in that photo. The more useful question is which feature scores sit lowest, because those are where a routine can help.
How do I rate my face myself?
Take a straight-on photo at eye level, then measure your facial thirds, eye spacing, face width to height, and jaw to cheekbone width. Compare each with the reference table on this page. Look at each number on its own rather than adding them up.
What does facial harmony mean?
Facial harmony describes how well the parts of a face fit together in size and position. Symmetry is one part of it. Lookist scores both. Our guide on facial harmony vs. symmetry explains the difference.
Can I improve my face rating?
You can improve the photo: straight-on, neutral face, even light, phone at eye level. Bone structure does not change with routines. Skin, hair, grooming, sleep and body fat change how a face looks, and the Lookist app builds a daily plan around those.
References
- Little, Jones and DeBruine (2011). Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366
- Farkas, Hreczko, Kolar and Munro (1985). Vertical and horizontal proportions of the face in young adult North American Caucasians: revision of neoclassical canons. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 75(3)
- Carré and McCormick (2008). In your face: facial metrics predict aggressive behaviour in the laboratory and in varsity and professional hockey players. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275
- Lee, Choung and Choung (2020). Diagnostic analysis of vertical orbital dystopia and canthal tilt for surgical correction. Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 46(6)
Read how we check sources. For photo handling in the app, read our privacy policy.