How To Choose the Right Glasses for Your Face Shape

Finding a good pair of glasses is perhaps one of the most difficult style choices in the world...right up there with figuring out your natural eyebrow shape and what shade of foundation matches your skin.

Like I said, it's rough.

I've been a glasses wearer since middle-school and jumped at the chance for contacts because I never liked how I looked in glasses.

Then the old, "geeky" ones I'd had for years finally broke and with great delight, I saw the light at end of the fashion tunnel...the light of style and chic, mature sophistication.

But first, I had to decide what my face shape was in order to figure out what type of frame would look best on me. After much frustration and scrutinizing my face in the mirror with one eye closed, I had an epiphany and realized why I'd always looked bad in glasses. I wasn't wearing glasses that went with my face shape.

back in my brunette days, i.e. last semester

So girls, if you don't like how you look in glasses, chances are it's because you're wearing the wrong frames that don't properly accentuate your face!

Here's some general rules of thumb that I discovered:

1. Your Face Shape Is Important
There are about seven face structure types: oval, round, heart-shaped, square, oblong, triangle-shaped, and diamond-shaped. For the longest time, I'd thought I had a round face and so always chose thin, rectangular frames. Which, of course, looked horrible and too small on my face like tiny granny glasses.

It wasn't until last year that I realize I actually have more of a heart-shaped oval face. Which leads to the next very important point that I didn't realize for many years...

2. Glasses Should Contrast Your Natural Shape
Probably the biggest mistake I ever made with glasses was not understanding the concept of contrast. Whatever your natural face shape is, you want your glasses to provide contrasting angles. So if you have a long and narrow angular face, then round or curved glasses best for you.



Because my face is more rounded on top and tapers to my chin in a an oval shape, I needed slightly boxy angular frames to accentuate my cheekbones and add angles to my face.

3. The Color Can Make Or Break It
I really loved the look of clean, black square frames - they sounded great, but as soon as I'd try pairs on, they always looked too heavy and dark on my face. Because my face is so small to begin with, it was quickly swallowed up by the dark frames in a distracting way. In other words, when you looked at me, all you saw was the glasses. Not the girl behind them.

Every face is different...so try as many colors as possible to see which ones look the most "natural" on you. Remember, you want the focus to be on your whole face, not just the glasses. 

Instead of the black, I realized a lighter, multi-colored frame like a tortoise shell added depth and dimension to my hair...I still had the darker shade that I wanted, but it was no longer a stark black that was loud on my face. I also wanted a nice neutral shade that would be appropriate in every situation - class, work, at a party or wedding. One option that I seriously considered was a gorgeous dark flecked gray pattern, but settled on the brown tortoise because of how well it went with my warm skin tone.

Colored glasses are such a fun way to put more "oomph" into your style and showcase your personality. I also toyed with the idea of deep red or a nice dark teal which would have looked good with my brunette (at the time) hair. Overall, the tortoise shade I chose worked well with both dark and blonde hair...so don't forget to think about that! You want a nice color that will transition with possible hair changes down the road also.

 So there you go  - some tips on how to choose stylish glasses. Because who said you can't look gorgeous in them? Happy Wednesday, friends!