Cheekbone ratio: two widths, undone by a head turn.

Cheekbone ratio compares the width of the face at cheekbone level against the width of the face at the jaw base — both measured side to side, corner to corner:

• Higher ratio — cheekbones read wider relative to the jaw.
• Lower ratio — jaw is closer to or wider than the cheekbones.

That's the whole definition — it's a proportion between two widths, not a claim about bone prominence, fat coverage, or bone structure itself.

Cheekbone ratio is built from two horizontal widths measured at different points on the face, front to back. Because of that, it's directly sensitive to yaw — how far the head is turned left or right, off a straight-on axis — since a turn foreshortens the farther width more than the nearer one and shifts the ratio even though nothing about the face changed.

Of the six ratios Mogalytics tracks, cheekbone ratio is one of the more turn-sensitive — see the full breakdown of why scores swing between scans for how the other five ratios get thrown off by different camera variables. A single uploaded photo has no way to correct for head turn; whatever angle the head happened to be at is baked into the result.

The fix isn't a better single photo, it's ruling out head turn as the variable before trusting the number:

• Face the camera straight-on.
• Hold distance and expression steady.
• Take more than one reading — the practice guide covers framing and pose in more detail.

If the ratio still moves between attempts once turn is controlled for, that's a more meaningful signal than one photo can ever give you.

Mogalytics tracks cheekbone ratio as one of six weighted geometry ratios, settled over a 30-frame trimmed-mean window so a single head turn doesn't define the result, alongside:

• Eye line
• Jaw ratio
• Frame symmetry
• Midface
• Bridge

It's read live from your own camera on-device, not from one uploaded photo, so you can square up to the lens, check the read, adjust, and check again in the same session instead of guessing from a single shot. See what the full composite tier actually means once you have a stable reading, and how to track it across sessions rather than trusting any one scan.

Cheekbone ratio is one piece of a six-measurement composite. If you're auditing the rest:

• The facial symmetry test — shares the same head-turn sensitivity from a different angle.
• Jaw ratio — a height proportion instead, sensitive to chin pitch rather than turn.
• The nose bridge ratio — has its own angle sensitivity tied to the bridge's raised shape.
• Facial width-to-height ratio (FWHR) — the closest widely-searched analog to this measurement.
• Gonial angle — a related jaw-corner angle read from a side profile rather than this front-facing width read.
• Eye separation ratio (ESR) — shares this same cheek-width axis, divided by interpupillary distance instead of jaw width.
• Buccal fat & hollow cheeks — a related cheek trait about fat-pad volume, not width, that no geometry ratio (this one included) can measure.
• Ogee curve — the oblique-angle cheek-to-midface contour this ratio partly overlaps with, but doesn't fully capture from a frontal read.
• Bitemporal width — a third width ratio sharing this same bizygomatic anchor point, with its own hairline-occlusion problem.
• Chin width — a related width discussed as an absolute figure, often confused with this ratio's jaw-corner denominator despite being a different span.
• ZygoNasal distance — a profile depth differential at this same zygomatic landmark, not this ratio's frontal width proportion.
• Buccal corridor — shares this cheek-width axis, but only exists during a wide smile, not this ratio's resting-face read.