Choosing The Right Eyewear For Your Face Shape

Eyeglasses have never been more trendy, and they come in a wide variety of frame styles, colors, and visibility. However, since eyewear frames are standardized for a variety of face sizes and shapes, it can be tricky to know which ones look best on you.

When you’re ready for a new pair of glasses, you’ll have an easier time choosing the right eyewear for your face shape by following these three simple steps.

Three Steps To Finding Eyeglasses That Look Great On You

Here are three simple steps to narrowing down your choices the next time you’re shopping for eyewear. Once you know the right frame shape and size that’s best for you, the eyeglass shopping experience will be far more efficient, and you’ll feel confident with the final choice.

Identify Your Face Shape

Certain frame sizes and shapes enhance or detract from your features depending on the shape or proportions of your face. So, the first step to finding glasses that complement your looks is to understand more about the shape of your face.

Face shape is largely determined by the dimensions of your forehead, cheekbones, jawline, and chin, as individual sections as well as a whole from the top of the forehead to the chin. However, other features, such as your hairline, can also affect the description of your face shape.

Face shapes are usually divided into six different categories:

• Oblong
• Oval
• Square
• Round 
• Heart-shaped
• Diamond

You may be someone who is considered to have a “combination face,” meaning it straddles two of the categories. However, in that case, you can decide which one seems to describe you best, or have double the options once you go shopping for new eyewear.

Oblong 

An oblong face is always longer than it is wide. However, each section of the face (forehead, cheekbones/cheeks, and jawline) has about the same width. If you were to draw lines on a picture of your face (unsmiling) from edge-to-edge of your forehead, cheekbones, and jawlines, and connect the perimeter of those lines, you’d have a shape similar to a rectangle.

Oval

Oval faces are also longer than they are wide. However, with this face shape, the forehead is wider than the jawline/chin. So, if you connected the dots from side to side and then drew a perimeter, it would be a gentle oval or almost an egg shape, with the chin narrower than the forehead. This is considered the most common and versatile face shape, so patients with oval faces have an easier time finding frames that work.

Square

People with square face shapes are usually described as having a “strong jaw.” While their face is similar in length and width (although this can vary a bit), the distance between their forehead and jaw is also similar. Also, unlike those with a round face, square faces are more angular or chiseled than soft or round. When you draw dots from side-to-side of the forehead, cheekbones, and jawline, the shape will wind up being closer to a square than a rectangle.

Round

When drawing dots on the round face, you may see something akin to a square because the forehead and jaw widths are similar. However, people with a round face have softer curves. You may feel like you have - or be described as having “baby cheeks” or a “baby face” if your face is round.

Heart-shaped

Here is a face shape that is defined by both the features and the hairline. People with a heart-shaped face have a face that is not longer than it is wide (like a round face), but their chin is noticeably narrower. A slight widow’s peak hairline accentuates the heart-shaped effect.

Diamond

If you have a diamond face, your forehead and chin are narrower than your jawline. So, when you draw the perimeter through the dots that outline these areas, the resulting shape will be more like a diamond than an oval or rectangle. This is the least common face shape, and that can make it the most challenging one to fit well. The key is to find glasses that balance the narrow-wide-narrow proportions of the face.

NOTE: If your child needs glasses, we focus more on finding fun glasses they like and that fit well rather than trying to pair the style to their face shape. For now, we just want them to have fun and feel positive about the experience. They can focus on finding eyeglasses for their face shape as they get older.

Learn Which Frames Enhance The Shape Of Your Face

Now it’s time to isolate frames or lenses that complement your face shape. 

Oblong faces have many options

If you have an oblong face, you have lots of options. The balanced proportions from top to bottom of your face mean that just about any frame shape, including bold ones, will look great. 

That said, some people like to de-emphasize the longer face shape, so frames with broader tops - or with tops that have some flair - can help to detract from the longer bottom half of the face. We recommend having fun with some bold rectangular and square glasses. Your oblong face also looks great in cat-eye frames, but you should avoid oversized or round glasses.

Oval faces like rectangular frames

Oval faces with narrow chins tend to look best in rectangular frames. With a longer, narrower face, the goal is to ensure the frames aren’t too wide for the face or that they create an over-round “bug eyes” look. You should also explore glasses with half-rims or the classic wayfarer shape (trapezoidal). If they aren’t too wide or bulky, cat-eye frames may also work.

If you’re in the market for sunglasses, oval, round, and square faces all look great in aviators.

Square faces

To soften and balance a square face, we typically recommend exploring frames with a round or oval shape. The right round cat eyes can also work as long as they aren’t too short for the face.

Round faces

In the same way we look at softening square faces, those with round faces may want to add some dimension by choosing square or geometric frames. Round or oval glasses on a round face only accentuate the roundness. Transparent frames are also a nice choice, as are classic wayfarer frames.

Heart-shaped faces

With a heart-shaped face, optometrists typically work to balance the narrower, pointier chin. So, rather than round frames, we recommend oval glasses or wayfarers. Semi-rimless glasses with lighter colors on top or rectangular glasses also work well for heart-shaped faces.

Diamond faces

Like square faces, diamond faces are usually angular. So, we direct patients with a diamond face shape to round or oval glasses that soften the angles and add overall fullness. Cat eyes are also a good choice. 

Choose Your Glasses In Person (With Help From The Pros)

Once you’ve worn glasses for a while, you’ll know what you like and what you don’t when it comes to choosing the right eyewear for your face shape. However, the first time around, we recommend working with your optometrist or visiting an eyeglass store in person, where you can get an objective professional’s opinion and have them fit and adjusted correctly. Save online eyeglass shopping for after you know what works for you, so you don’t wind up with the wrong frames for your face.

Schedule An Eyeglass Fitting At Eye to Eye Family Vision Care

Are you getting eyeglasses for the first time? Or, are you ready to change things up and get a new style? Schedule an eye exam at Eye to Eye Family Care. In addition to ensuring your prescription is up to date, our team loves helping people select eyeglasses that suit their face. We’ll make sure you leave our office with a pair of glasses that look great for all occasions.