Choosing the Best Glasses for Your Face

Are you tired of spending hours at the eye doctor’s office trying to determine which pair of glasses look best on you? You are not alone. In fact, more than 63.7 percent of Americans either permanently or occasionally wears glasses.

With thousands of glasses frame brands to choose from, figuring out the best pair for you can be frustrating and challenging. However, by knowing the shape of your face, the color of your eyes and the shade of your hair, you can quickly choose your next pair of glasses with confidence.

Glasses for All Face Shapes

Hearts, ovals, squares, and circles aren’t just arbitrary shapes when it comes to choosing glasses. These shapes describe your face. Knowing what shape your face resembles makes choosing flattering glasses much easier.

- An oval face has balanced facial features with a narrow chin and wider forehead.

- A round face is typically defined as a soft, circular shape where the width and length of the face are more or less equal.

- Heart-shaped faces tend to have wide foreheads and narrow jawlines with a small chin.

- Square faces have angular features like a broad forehead, well-defined jawline, and strong cheekbones.

What is my Face Shape?

Determining your particular face shape, however, can be challenging. If you are unsure of your face shape, consider following these quick steps to make an accurate judgment:

- Place a piece of paper on top of a photo of your face and trace the outline.

- Stand in front of a mirror and use a dry erase marker, lipstick, or eyeliner to outline your face shape.

- Using a flexible tape measure, take measurements of your face. Measure your cheek-to-cheek width, your jawline, your forehead, and the length of your face.

Choose Glasses That Compliment Your Face Shape

Once you’ve determined the appropriate shape of your face, it’s time to choose eyeglass frames that best accentuate your unique look. Whether you’re looking for everyday spectacles or fashionable sunglasses, knowing your face shape will make glasses shopping much easier.

- Eyeglasses for Oval Faces: Shop for styles with geometric shaped frames like rectangles and squares. Stay away from thick, oversized, and narrow frames.

- Eyeglasses for Round Faces: Try angular, geometric, rectangular, and upswept frames and avoid choosing round or oversized frames.

- Eyeglasses for Heart Faces: Choose bottom-heavy frames, low-set temple frames, oval-shaped frames or other light, rimless styles. Stay away from embellished, top-heavy, or wide-top frames.

- Eyeglasses for Square Faces: Look for rectangle, square, cat-eye or wayfarer glasses and aviator or wrap-style sunglasses. Avoid boxy, oval, and heavy brow frames.

Pair Your Glasses Frames with Your Eye Color

Though it may be an unexpected factor to consider when choosing eyeglass frames, your eye color can have subtle, positive influences on your overall appearance.

By selecting frames that are similar to your eye color, you can achieve a natural, mellow look. Contrasting colors, on the other hand, have a more dramatic appearance that can make your eye color pop.

- Glasses frame tips for blue eyes: Coordinate your frames and eye color with blue and grey tones like mineral, cadet, or dusk. Contrast with your eyes by selecting rich browns and tortoise colors like brindle or dark chocolate.

- Glasses frame tips for green eyes: Go for frame styles with earthy tones like gold, browns, and greens for a more natural appearance. Pair your green eyes with shades of pink, opal and purple to create a stark, contrasting look.

- Glasses frame tips for hazel eyes: Deep greens and greys give hazel eyes natural depth, while gold shades like amber and topaz bring out vibrant flecks hidden in hazel eyes. Find frames that incorporate these green and grey tones.

- Glasses frame tips for brown eyes: Give your brown eyes a rich look with warm frame tones like sepia or russet and provide stark contrast with green colors like olive, chartreuse or artichoke.

Pair Your Glasses Frames with Your Hair Color

Whether you have natural or dyed hair, choosing the proper glasses frame color can have a big impact on your overall appearance. Though it’s important to consider the shade of your hair, you should also consider the warm or cool undertones that exist as well.

- Glasses frame tips for warm blonde hair: Your hair has honey and bronze tones that give off a slightly darker appearance. Consider warm pastel frame colors like hemlock and peach or tortoise and brindle patterns.

- Glasses frame tips for cool blonde hair: Being a cool blonde means you have ashy undertone that brighten your overall color for more of a platinum shade. You can easily choose frames with black, blue, dark green and light pink tones, but stay away from bright yellow or gold.

- Glasses frame tips for warm brown hair: As a warm brown, your hair contains darker shade of brown with auburn and red undertones. Choose light tortoise frames with warm tones like hemlock and bourbon. Also consider warm reds, creamy whites, and vivid green frames.

- Glasses frame tips for cool brown hair: Your cool brown hair has lighter shades of brown and ashy tones that pair great with black, pink, blue or dark tortoise frames.

- Glasses frame tips for red hair: Lucky for you, your vibrant red hair makes you the perfect candidate for rich greens, tortoises, and black frames. For best results, steer clear of ashy and yellowy toned frames.

- Glasses frame tips for black hair: Your black hair complements saturated, bright colors like sea and cranberry. You will also look great in black and dark tortoise frames but avoid ashy, washed-out tones.

- Glasses frame tips for grey/white hair: With grey-toned hair, you have a unique opportunity to wear crisp, bright colored frames. Stay away from yellow and brown shades and reach for bold blacks, radiant reds, or gunmetal greys.

Save on Your Glasses Frames with VSP Vision Insurance

Ready to start shopping for your next pair of perfect glasses frames? Now that you know what glasses will look best on you, let VSP Individual Vision Plans help you get started with an affordable family vision insurance plan. If you don’t have a vision insurance plan, we invite you to get a free, no obligation VSP vision plan quote today.

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Not covered for vision? Get an individual plan, customized for you – including where you want to use it: at the doctor, in a retail location, or even online.

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