1. The Shape of Things

To start with, you will need to decide what kind of facial shape you have. To do this is quite easy: simply stand in front of a mirror and pull all of your hair away from your face; secure it with a hair tie so it stays out of the way. Look up at your face; what do you see? Choose between square, oval, heart shaped or round. If you don’t think you can be objective enough to decide, ask a friend to do it for you.

2. Bridge Issues

Before you set out to buy frames based on your face shape, you need to think about the bridge of your nose. Basically, you want a frame that will sit close to your eyes at all times: if the bridge of your nose juts out quite significantly, this can be an issue. If you so have a bridge like this experts suggest you opt for a style that contours to your face. Unlike a straighter, more rigid frame, this curved variation will ensure that your glasses don’t sit very far away from your eyes.

3. Colouring

While the colour of your frames hardly affects the shape of your face, it is important to choose one that works with your skin tone. Unless you’re going for a serious statement, you might want to be careful with bold shades like cerise: if you have a pinker skin, the red won’t do you any favours. If you have warm colouring, go for a brown or tortoise-shell frame, and brown or gold lenses. If you are cold complexioned, you’ll look good in black, and also colours like navy blue.

4. Consider Your Ears

Smile when you try your sunglasses on in the shops. If they move up and down on your face, or pinch and swivel around your ears, they definitely don’t fit. Put them down and move on.

5. Square Features

If you have a square or angular face, experts suggest that you opt for frames that will work to counterbalance and soften your features. This means you should look for rounded glasses. Experts suggest you stay away from aviators; apparently the broad bridge and tapered, tear-drop lenses will make your jaw appear wider.

6. The Lucky Oval

If you have an oval-shaped face, you are pretty much the equivalent to the clothes-hanger catwalk model. Basically, most styles will work for you – round, square, rectangular; you name it.

7. The Rounder Face

Round faced girls look good in rectangular glasses. These lend a sense of angularity to the features and will, the gurus suggest, even help to slim down the cheeks and emphasise the cheek bones. Go for fabulous oversized squares in a colour to suit your skin tone or consider a pair of cute eighties inspired wayfarers.

8. The Heart

A heart shaped face has a wide, open forehead and narrow jaw. This is another fairly versatile face shape, but if you’re keen bring your features into balance, the aviators that the square face shouldn’t wear will absolutely do the trick on you.

While most of us simply find our sunglasses by means of a kind of instinct, it turns out there is far more to the business of making a choice than we might have thought. Glasses should not only be comfortable and effective, they should be flattering as well, and this list of 8 tips to match your shades to your face shape should get you on the way to making that happen. Do you have any great suggestions of your own to add?

Top Photo Credit: Simon Peckham