When it comes to choosing the right pair of glasses, it all comes down to how they sit on your face. There’s nothing worse than glasses which make you feel like your head is in a clamp, or ones that always fall down your nose. And if you have trouble with your eye sight, seeing what they look like on can be a challenge, or downright impossible!

To work out what kind of glasses suit your face, we first have to work out what shape your face is. I’ve read a lot of articles which don’t properly explain how to work out if your face is a ‘heart’, ’round’, ‘oval’, etc. But! I’ve found the perfect guide from Hair Boutique. It involves a little bit of math and a measuring tape or ruler.

How to find the shape of your face:

1. Measure your face across the top of your cheekbones. Write down the measurement on a piece of paper.

2. Measure across your jaw line from the widest point to the widest point. Write down the measurement.

3. Measure across your forehead at the widest point. Generally the widest point will be somewhere about halfway between your eyebrows and your hairline. Write down the measurement.

4. Measure from the tip of your headline to the bottom of your chin.

Oval Face - Length equal to one and a half times width. An oval face may change according to weight gain or loss and age. It is common for people who have a classic oval face to have small features.

Round Face - If you have a round face your face will be as wide as it is long. This may vary a little where your face is not quite as wide as it is long, but within 1/4 to 1/2 inches.

Long/Rectangular/Oblong - Longer than it is wide. Like SJP.

Heart - Narrow at jaw line, wide at forehead and cheekbones.

Square - If you have a square shape your forehead, jaw line and cheekbones are almost equal in width.

Triangular - Wider forehead that narrows gradually to a slightly pointed or rounded chin.

Diamond - Wide cheeks, narrow forehead and jaw line. May have a pointed chin.

Pear - Wide chin with a narrow forehead.

There’s an important rule when choosing eyeglasses or sunglasses - purchase a frame that has the opposite shape to your face. So if you have a round face, then squared frames would suit you best. The aim is to balance your features.

Oval Face - If you have an oval face then you have it easy! Because your face is already quite balanced, almost all frames and even hairstyles look great on you. To keep that balance, you might want to opt for frames which are as wide as the broadest part of your face.

Round Face - Because your face is almost wide as it is long, you’re probably going to want to elongate it. Choose narrow glasses to lengthen your face, and rectangular frames to balance your soft features. Go for something like this.

Long/Rectangular/Oblong - People with long faces tend to have long noses (think Paris Hilton). So you’re probably looking for frames with a low bridge to shorten the length. You’re best off with glasses that aren’t wider than your face, (as this will make it look narrower than it is), and ones which have large, curved lenses. A good example is here. Just kidding! Here’s the real example.

Heart and Triangular - Light coloured and rimless (or semi-rimless) frames work best for your mug. You can get away with large, round glasses, but they shouldn’t be wider at the top than the bottom. A good example are aviator glasses - they totally mimic your face shape, when really, you want a frame which is an upside down heart to create balance. This is a perfect example, because not only are the frames semi-rimless, the rim is on the bottom, which draws less attention to your forehead.

Square - Round and oval glasses which have more width than height, are perfect for square faced peeps. The curves soften up your features whilst narrow frames lengthen your face.

Diamond - Aw, you’re lucky! Not only is your face the rarest of all face shapes, but you get to rock cat-eye glasses and actually look good in them! (Jealous.) You might want to look at rimless glasses to highlight your eyes and cheekbones, and frames which have some sort of detailing along the brow lines. Take a look at this for some inspiration.

Pear - Because your face is like an upside down triangle, you probably want to widen your forehead while narrowing the lower half of your face. Opt for glasses with a lot of detailing or with heavy colours on the top half, much like cat-eye glasses.

Well, I hope this helped you, even just a little bit! You know, you could just scrap the whole ‘balancing out your face’ thing and go crazy and wear these! Or these! (Actually, I quite like the latter ones, I would definitely parade them at a festival or something.)

You might also want to read this and this to help you choose the right pair of eyeglasses which compliment your skin tone, hair and personality.

Big love & rock on,