Glasses to Suit Your Face

Glasses to Suit Your Face

There are so many different styles, shapes and colours of eye glasses to choose from these days you couldn't possibly have the time to try on all of them. So how do you determine which will be the perfect ones to suit your face and your hair style? According to style experts there are three keys to choosing the right glasses to suit your face:

• The frame shape should contrast with the face shape.
• The frame size should be in scale with the face size.
• Eyewear should repeat your personal best feature (such as a blue frame to match blue eyes).

Face Shapes

Here are top tips for the seven basic face shapes:

1. Round
   A round face has curvilinear lines with the width and length in the same proportions and no angles. To make the face appear thinner choose a bridge that widens the eyes and frames that are wider than they are deep, such as a rectangular shape.

2. Oval
   The oval face is considered to be the ideal shape because of its balanced proportions. To keep the oval's natural balance, look for eyeglass frames that are as wide as (or wider than) the broadest part of the face, or walnut-shaped frames that are not too deep or too narrow.

3. Oblong
   The oblong face is longer than it is wide and has a long straight cheek line and sometimes a longish nose. To make the face appear shorter and more balanced, try frames that have a top-to-bottom depth, decorative or contrasting temples that add width to the face or a low bridge to shorten the nose.

4. Triangular Base-Down
   The triangular face has a narrow forehead that widens at the cheek and chin areas. To add width and emphasise the narrow upper third of the face, try frames that are heavily accented with colour and detailing on the top half or cat-eye shapes.

5. Triangular Base-Up
   This face has a very wide top third and small bottom third. To minimise the width of the top of the face, try frames that are wider at the bottom, very light colours and materials, and rimless frame styles (which have a light, airy effect because the lenses are simply held in place to the temples by a few screws).

6. Diamond
   Diamond-shaped faces are narrow at the eye line and jaw line, and cheekbones are often high and dramatic. This is the rarest face shape. To highlight the eyes and bring out the cheekbones, try frames that have detailing or distinctive brow lines, or try rimless frames or oval and cat-eye shapes.

7. Square
   A square face has a strong jaw line and a broad forehead, plus the width and length are in the same proportions. To make the square face look longer and soften the angles, try narrow frame styles, frames that have more width than depth and narrow ovals.

Skin

Skin tone is the prime element in determining colouring. All complexions fall into one of two colour bases - blue (cool) or yellow (warm). A cool complexion has blue or pink undertones, and a warm complexion has a "peaches and cream" or yellow cast. Olive skin is considered cool because it is a mixture of blue and yellow.

Eyes

Eye colours are usually a secondary element in determining colouring because of the wide range of eye colours. For example, blue eyes can range from a cool almost-violet to a pale blue-grey, which is warm. Brown eyes can vary from a light cider shade (warm) through a medium-brown to a cool almost-black.

Hair

Hair colours are also considered warm or cool. Strawberry blond, platinum, blue-black, white, salt-and-pepper and brown are cool. Warm hair colours include golden blond, flat black, brown-gold, bronze and grey.

Some examples of frame colours best for warm colouring are:

• camel,
• khaki,
• gold,
• copper,
• peach,
• orange,
• coral,
• off-white,
• fire-engine red,
• warm blue,
• blond tortoise.

For cool colouring, the best eyeglass frame colours are:

• black,
• rose-brown,
• blue-grey,
• plum,
• magenta,
• pink,
• jade,
• blue,
• amber (darker) tortoise.