Describing a kiss [1] is not always entirely subjective — "good" tends to mean you kept the slobber from reaching peak French bulldog, or that you refrained from baring teeth because you are aware this is not the time to show off your dental work. A kiss print, made of etched lipstick [2], on the other hand, tells a completely different story — and it's exclusively yours.

"Kiss prints can change based on our energy levels, emotions, and what's going on in our life," said lip and face reader Beth Bongar of Lip Reading by Beth [3]. Yes, that is a real thing: Bongar uses a modern adaptation of Chinese face reading [4] — taking into account your lipstick colour of choice [5], the shape of your kiss, and how hard you smooched the paper — to help determine your emotional state and personality traits, analysing the mark like it's a crystal ball into your life.

"Chinese face reading originated as a mother's art; in China, mothers believed that specific facial characteristics were indicators of fertility in women eligible for their sons to marry. In particular, the shape of the lips was really important." The best gauge of fertility — "or success as they valued it," she said — was if someone had diamond-shaped lips. Then, there were a few others to note: "Triangular-shaped lips indicated a woman would be a helpful, caring companion, while square-shaped lips indicated a practical, thrifty person, which was another important value to them."

Equipped with our own crystal balls and ready for a night of fortune telling, we asked Bongar at a recent Beauty by POPSUGAR [6] and STORY event at Macy's Herald Square in NYC to break down exactly what our kiss prints mean, what your lipstick application technique says about you, and more. Go read our lips ahead, but remember: "Your lip print is not your destiny unless you make it so. We always have a hand in our own destiny. Kiss prints change and evolve with time."

First, What Do Your Lipstick Lines Mean?

In a word, stress — or at least some form of it. "A more useful insight is that the lines in someone's kiss print indicates the person is probably not good at asking for help from others, or knowing when to let things go," said Bongar. "Some lip reading experts claim there's a distinction to be made if the stress lines are coming from the outside to the inside, or vice versa. I stick with the more general insight, and look for how pronounced the stress lines are: The more pronounced, the more stress [7], I've found."

Diamond-Shaped Kiss Print

Diamond-shaped lips can indicate success or, more specifically, "someone who is good at debating and articulating an argument," she said. "A thin upper lip and thicker lower lip suggests having — or wanting to have — people around you who are devoted to you. But you are also independent and self-reliant, self-motivated, and value physical gratification over emotional love."