Face shapes and personal colorings

For people who want to buy a pair of prescription eyeglasses, the first task is to get proper visual aid. But more and more people pay much of their attention to eyewear aesthetic appearance. In order to get a best appearance, the eyeglass frame selected should match the face shape and personal coloring as well as face size. These three aspects are most important among various factors in choosing right eyeglasses. There is no single pair of glasses that fit all users. Eyewear customers should consider personal conditions carefully and make personalized decisions. At an eyeglass store, the best way is to try on some glasses to find the best match.

The guideline

There are some criteria for considering eyeglass frame color, size and shape. Firstly, the color of eyewear should go with or repeat personal coloring. Determined by skin tone, eye color and hair color, this personal color base is the most noticeable personal feature, which must be evaluated. Secondly, the frame shape should contrast with wearer’s face shape. Wearing glasses in a suitable shape will help achieve a comfortable look. Thirdly, the frame size should be in scale of your facial size, even if small glasses continue to be gaining popularity by today.

Cool and warm coloring bases

Personal coloring is another critical consideration while choosing eyeglass frames. As mentioned before, eyeglass color should go with personal coloring, which is either cool or warm. Cool (blue-based) coloring or warm (yellow-based) coloring involves three aspects: skin, eyes and hair.

Skin tone is the most determinative element of personal coloring. It is estimated that about 60% of Americans have a cool coloring, which has blue or pink undertones. The other 40% of people have a warm coloring. Eye color is considered as the second determinative factor. While blue eyes fall into warm coloring, brown eyes are cool. Cool hair colors include blond, platinum, white etc… And a warm hair color can be golden blond, flat black, brown-gold and so on.

Matching frames with facial shapes

The existing seven basic face shapes require differently shaped frames. Round and oval faces have few angles. While a round face requires a rectangular shaped frame, an oval face needs a frame that is as wide as the broadest part of the face. It is encouraged to choose a frame shape to make a round face appear thinner and longer and select a frame to keep an oval face’s natural ideal balance.

In contrast, oblong and square faces have more obvious angles. People with an oblong face usually have a long straight cheek line and sometimes a longish nose. While an oblong face is longer than its width, a square face has an equal width and length. Frames with a more depth than width are suitable for people with oblong faces and frames with more width than depth flatter those with square faces.

There is still another obvious contrast between base-down triangle and base-up triangle faces. While a base-down triangular face has a narrow forehead and wide cheek and chin area, a base-up triangular face has a very wide top third and small bottom third. Eyeglass frames for the former type should add width to the upper face, and frames for the latter type should be wider at the bottom. Diamond-shape faces are rare and require frames with detailing or distinctive brow lines.

Large and small frames

Currently, many young and fashion-aware people tend to choose small eyeglasses which have a small frame size. An eyeglass frame has three typical size numbers, namely, lens width, bridge size and temple length. Most people can adapt to frames with a size of 46-18-140. However, big guys are usually persuaded into searching for frames with a large size like 58-21-155. This is also a personal decision based on facial size. In some cases, achieving a balance between frame size and face size is not a strict requirement on the basis of frame flexibility. The optician will help make slight adjustments.