Your Complete Guide To Choosing The Best Sunglasses For Your Face

The right pair of sunglasses can become more than just a tool to block your eyes from the sun—they’re a powerful accessory and fashion statement that can change the entire way that you portray yourself. Think of your sunglasses as any other item of clothing—whatever looks most flattering on you is going to be tailored according to your features. Just like a power suit or a nice pair of jeans, the perfect sunglasses should be styled according to your unique sizes, shapes, and curves.

While it’s a bit impossible to get a tailor to hem or alter your sunglasses for you, finding just the right style and size of frame according to your face can elevate your unique style and enhance your beautiful features. Don’t get overwhelmed—the process of finding the right pair of sunglasses isn’t rocket science! You just need to understand your face shape and what would work best.

Are you ready to throw on your favorite colorful earrings and the perfect sunglasses for your face shape? Here’s all you need to know:

Black sunglasses

Find your face shape

Everyone knows their hair color and blood type, but not many can put a name to their face shape. You don’t tend to think about your face shape often, but it determines the type of frame sizes and shapes that would flatter you the most, as well as bring out the best of your facial features.

To identify your face shape, start by pulling your hair back so that the complete outline of your face is visible. Figure out which part of your face is the widest—it might be your forehead, cheeks, or jawline. The answer is usually the best indicator of your face shape. You can also look at different factors, such as your jaw shape—is it pointy, angular, or round? Also, take a look at how long your face appears to be. If you still aren’t sure about your face shape, you can try tracing your face’s outline on the surface of a mirror with a dry-erase marker or lipstick.

If you’ve got a tape measure, you can get the exact measurements of your features in the following manner:

  • Place one end of the tape measure right below the eyes to find your cheekbones, and measure toward the other side of your face until you reach the same point.
  • Feel underneath your ears to find the area where your jawbone ends, and measure around the bottom of your face from one end of the jawbone to the other.
  • Measure the length of your face from the center of the hairline, over the front of the nose, and all the way down to the bottom of the chin.

Round face

If the widest part of your face is around your cheek area, with your forehead and jawline narrowing slightly, you might have a round face shape. People with round faces usually have chins that are also in line with their jaws.

Square face

If your forehead, cheeks, and jawline appear to have the same width and a sharper jawline, you probably have a square face shape.

Oval face

Oval face shapes are similar to round faces, but the length is more than the width. Essentially, the length between your chin and the top of your forehead is more than the length between your ears.

Heart face

Your forehead is likely going to be the widest part of your face, and your face slowly gets narrower towards the jawline. Your chin also might protrude a bit below the jawline, like the point of a heart.

Oblong face

An oblong face shape is similar to an oval face; however, it’s much longer from the forehead to the chin.

A man wearing sunglasses

Best glasses for round faces

Round faces have less defined angles and more noticeable curves than others. The best way to find flattering sunglasses is to avoid curved features and look for something with more emphasized, sharp lines, to help you elongate your face and give it a sharper, thinner look. People with round faces can benefit from colorful frames that lie a bit higher on the temple as well. Some great glasses shapes that can benefit your face shape include square, rectangle, shield, and wrap. Try going for a thinner frame with sharper edges—it’s almost going to act like a contouring kit! Say hello to your new cheekbones.

Best glasses for square faces

Square faces usually have a similar length and width—their strong jawline and broad forehead work best with oval or round-shaped glasses. These softer shapes balance out the sharpness of square faces and provide a balanced look. Search for circular frames with soft lines and gentle rims to soften your fierce and gorgeous features. Some common styles that would work well for your face include aviators, butterflies, or any other frames with round and oval-shaped curves. Top-set or center temples work best with a square-shaped face.

Different sunglasses on a shelf

Best glasses for heart faces

In contrast to other face shapes, the best frames for a heart-shaped face mimic the shape that you already have. Cat-eye frames and aviators are narrower at the bottom and wider at the top, making them great for highlighting your features. However, it’s important to balance your proportions, so go for thinner and smaller frames if you have smaller features and larger or thicker frames for more defined or dramatic features. You can also try butterfly or shield-styled frames.

Best glasses for oval faces

Oval faces can easily rock oversized frames and round shapes. Round sunglasses tend to be wider, which is great for balancing out the length of oval faces. A smaller frame can accentuate your narrow face, so try to go for oversized styles to give the illusion of wider cheekbones. The gently rounded and rather even features can work well with almost any frame—from function to fashion, sport to designer, everything goes!

Best glasses for rectangular and oblong faces

Rectangular or oblong faces have few angles and tend to be rather narrow and long. If you have an oblong face shape, you’ll look great in oversized sunglasses or glasses with thick frames to add some width to your face. Think of large wayfarers or glasses with rectangular lenses.

You can also go for sunglasses featuring deep or tall lenses and vintage frames with bold lines and sharp angles to give your face an edge and sharper your soft features. Stay away from small frames, which might end up emphasizing the length of your face.

A woman wearing large sunglass

The size of your head matters

Head size is a bit different than face shape—this is all about the length and width of your head. The size of your head will determine the size of your lenses since you need sufficient sun protection for your eyes. It’s also important to cover your entire field of view in case you need to get prescription lenses.

Make sure that your chosen glasses cover the sweet spot—this means that the lens of the glasses needs to be tall enough the reach the center of your brows and go around 2/3rd of the way down your nose. The width needs to be roughly as wide as your face itself, from eyebrow to eyebrow.

Choosing a frame that’s too narrow will reduce your field of view and sun protection, while choosing a frame that’s too tall or wide, and hides your eyebrows completely, can look comically oversized.

Best colors for sunglasses

Start off with brown or black sunglasses if you’re just starting off since they’re great for wearing around the year.

For summer and spring, you can delve into lighter colors such as light yellow, white, or clear. For the lenses, stick to classic colors such as grey, black, or green.

If you want to be a bit more adventurous, you can choose brightly colored sunglasses that flatter your skin tone the best. However, it all depends on the style and look that you’re aiming for.

A pair of sunglasses next to a pool

Common sunglasses

Here are some of the top sunglasses shapes for you to choose from:

Aviator sunglasses

Initially popularized by Tom Cruise, Hawaii Five-O, and pilots, the aviator style for sunglasses has become a fan-favorite around the world. Its distinctive features are simple and clean, with teardrop lenses and gorgeous metal frames. Just throw these on with a snug T-shirt and leather jacket, and you’ll look like you stepped right out of a Hollywood movie.

Cat-eye/butterfly sunglasses

Oversized butterfly sunglasses tend to vary in regards to the temple height, width, and even shape. Butterfly styles have a major functional advantage in the sense that they cover more of your face from the harmful rays of the sun, and they’re great for drawing unwanted attention away from a larger nose! Butterfly and cat-eye sunglasses are also perfect for the mornings after parties when you don’t want anyone to catch a look at your face.

Rectangle sunglasses

Rectangle sunglasses have more width than length. These angular frames are great for round faces and can add plenty of length to a short face due to the contrast. Rectangular frames with softer edges are also great for oval faces!

A man’s face with sunglasses on

Semi-rimless/round sunglasses

Round sunglasses often tend to be semi-rimless, and have been around for a long time—since 1957, to be exact. This browline, anti-Ray-Ban, or clubman style recently regained its popularity. You might remember seeing some iconic figures such as Jeff Goldblum, Malcolm X, Colonel Sanders, and John Lennon wearing some awesome clubman frames.

Shield sunglasses

Shield sunglasses feature a large, single lens. They’re great for offering some serious sun protection because they cover the whole eye instead of just the front. These frames are perfect for spending long days under the sun, such as when you’re playing badminton or going to the beach.

 

A man wearing reflective sunglasses

Square sunglasses

Got a round or narrow face? Need to add some extra oomph around your eyes to beef up your jaw? Square sunglasses are amazing for oblong and oval faces due to the contrast in angles. Usually a bit oversized, these glasses give a rather fashion-forward feel and are great for blocking out those pesky rays of sun on a difficult Saturday morning.

Wayfarer sunglasses

Wayfarers have a classic sunglasses shape that’s been around since the 1950s. Think about the Blues Brothers and James Dean—these timeless and versatile glasses are perfect for almost every face shape.

A woman’s wearing black sunglasses

Wrap sunglasses

This style of sunglasses is perfect for athletes as well as people wanting to look like an athlete. The streamlined look increases the face’s aerodynamic properties, and the lightweight frames will make you feel like there’s nothing on your face at all. Wrap-around sunglasses have large lenses that cover a major proportion of the eyes, blocking out any UV rays that might sneak in from the sides, making them perfect for snowboarding or even hiking through the snow. Some wrap sunglasses are spring-loaded to make keeping them on your face easier when you are active.

Colorful sunglasses

Check out these high-quality sunglasses

Now that you know the best sunglasses for your face shape, it’s time to start shopping. Make sure that you get something that’s high-quality and long-lasting so that you can have some peace of mind. The right sunglasses should fit well, look good, and actually protect your eyes from harmful UV rays!

Serenity Trends is an online retail store that has some incredible sunglasses designs in a wide variety of styles. You can also find some adorable glasses cases to store your new sunglasses in!

The store also has a wide range of jewelry items and accessories, such as pin-up style keychain wristlets,anime-themed keychain wristlets, and cute portrait earrings.

Check out their products here!   

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