Shopping for sunglasses, in my opinion, is right up there with shopping for bras in terms of a ratio of frustration to success. You always need to try on a million before you find one that actually works for your features and is also in your preferred price range. The problem is, if you don’t know your face shape, you could be shopping blindly, wasting valuable time on frames that will never look good.
And when I said never look good, that has nothing to do with your face being wrong. Just like there are dresses that fit to a woman’s shape and emphasis all the features she wants, sunglasses are the same. No face shape is the same, but for the most part, you can fit yourself in a shape that 9/10 times will help you find your correct frames.
With the help of our friends over at Teen and Gurl, and some amazing frames from Warby Parker and Vint and York, we’ve given you tips on how to figure out your face shape, and what kind of frames work best for you.
Jess, Gurl.com’s Senior Editor, has an oval face. This means her forehead and chin are the same widths and that the widest part of her face (although still thinner) is at her cheekbones.
Steph, Teen.com’s intern has what would be described as an Oblong face. Very similar to an oval, but skinnier and a little bit sharper of an angle at the forehead and chin.
Teen.com’s Senior Editor Kaitlyn (and myself) has a Heart Shaped face, which includes a wider forehead and pointy chin.
Sara, our Associate Editor, has a square face. Her jawline is strong and her forehead, cheekbones, and chin are all the same width.
Ashley, our contributor, and Accidental Virgin author has a Diamond Face, which is slightly uncommon. Her cheekbones are the most pronounced feature on her face, with a slimmer width at both her forehead and chin.
Aly, Teen.com’s Associate Editor, has a round face. Her fuller cheeks are softened the slightly smaller width of her chin and forehead.
An oval shaped face is helped out with a rounder silhouette. It balances out the width of the cheekbones. Because Jess has smaller features, we went with the Warby Parker Haskell.
Oblong faces get the best of everything because they can literally wear any shape. Since Steph’s face is long and she has a lot of hair, we went with a larger frame from Vint and York.
Since the narrowest point of Kaitlyn’s face is her jawline, a wider frame with a straight shape helps balance it out. These are the Warby Parker Jackson frames.
With a diamond shaped face, we tried to go a little bit out of the box. The extreme rounded lenses provide enough of a balance for the sharper angles created by Ashley’s cheekbones. These ones are the Moll frames from Vint and York.
Both Square faces and Round faces, like Sara above and Aly below, benefit from both an exaggerated shape and soft lines. Sara’s stronger jawline is softened by the rounded nature of these, but the cat eye plays into the sharpness that Aly needs to balance out her fuller cheeks. These are The Beesknees from Vint and York.