Lipsology

I see orthodontic fees in your future!

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Lipsology is the practice of analyzing the characteristics of a person's lips in order to discern their personality. Like phrenology, palmistry, and graphology — which also examine certain physical traits as a means to deduce one's psychology and morality — this is nothing more than pseudoscience.

The "art and science of reading lip prints" was devised by Jilly Eddy, after she noticed apparent "correlations between personalities and lip print characteristics." This, in turn, was based on her hobby of collecting lip prints the way others might collect autographs. Unsurprisingly, this makes Eddy the "world's leading expert" in lip print interpretation. It is unclear (without forking out cash for her self-help book) what benefits may be derived from having one's lip prints interpreted by an expert.

“”It can help you understand yourself and others in new ways and give you direction to act on what you learn by offering valuable insights, affirmations, and encouragement

—Lipsology press pack, "Fact Sheet"

Given that just about any leisure activity might legitimately make the same claim, along with various forms of woo that employ cold reading and similar techniques and pass it off as something else, testing Eddy's claim face-to-face is probably a waste of good lipstick. Testing it cold by sending her a pucker print on a piece of paper without any other contact or identifying information is tempting, but she appears not to offer this service.

Eddy herself appears to use lipsology as a form of ice-breaking, novelty party entertainment. For a fee, naturally.

See also

• Lipsology, Pepper Schwartz, Love Lessons blog at Psychology Today
• Slide show with examples of lipsology readings.
• Phrenology
• Iridology
• Copromancy