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Choosing the best glasses for your face shape is a subjective opinion. You want your pair of eyewear to compliment your natural features and display your own personal style.
Only you can decide which frames you’re going to sport. However, there are some techniques to help guide you in the right direction when choosing your eyewear, whether it be eyeglasses or sunglasses.
The top frames for people with round faces include:
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Before choosing a frame, we should make sure that you actually do have a round face. It’s worth noting that determining your face shape is not an exact science. Few people have a perfectly “round,” “square,” or “oval” face shape. Most people have elements of different face types.
The best way to determine your face shape is to identify your most prominent facial features and match them to the closest face shape. These will usually be your jaw, cheekbones, and forehead.
The most distinct elements of round faces are:
Square faces and round faces have similar proportions: both are composed of jawlines and foreheads that are similar in width. However, round faces are often easier to identify than other face shapes because of their curves, soft features, and lack of angles.
When choosing eyewear, consider the shape of the face. Round face shapes have distinct features that may be highlighted by certain types of eyewear frames.
Most people with round faces opt for angular frames. This is to provide contrast and balance to your softer, rounder features. People with round faces look great in bold, thick, full-rimmed frames with angular lines.
Here are the best sunglasses and eyeglass frame shapes for round faces:
Rectangular frames help to add angles that accentuate your features —their shape and width work to lengthen your face, making it appear longer and thinner. Like rectangular frames, square glasses add balance and angles to the soft features of a round face. They also help your face appear longer and thinner. These are a perfect fit for many round faces.
Cat-eye glasses are a trendy pick among women with rounded, fuller cheeks. The upswept frames that flare out near the temple provide a flattering “lifting” effect that contours your face and gives a beautiful retro or vintage look. Most women with round faces opt for frame styles that are angular and avoid rounded shapes.
Wayfarer frames are a classic choice for eyeglasses or sunglasses. The look has seen a considerable increase in popularity since Ray-Ban came on the scene and made them fashionable once again. Wayfarer style frames work best for round faces when they have longer temples and a flat or minimally curved browline.
Bigger frames tend to work best for round faces. Soft features provide a beautiful canvas for big, bold, and colorful frames that express your style and creativity.
Aviators are one of the most popular styles of sunglasses and are even becoming popular as prescription glasses. Since the teardrop shape isn’t suited for everyone with a round face, we recommend going with frames with a more angular or square shape, often referred to as “navigators.”
Geometric frames come in all shapes and sizes. Hexagon and other unique, angular shapes can give you a really stylish look that balances against your features' soft roundness.
The best frames for round faces include rectangular, square, cat-eye, wayfarer, oversized, aviators, and geometric frames.
Typically, people with round faces tend to opt for frames that provide contrast to their features. The following frame types have the opposite effect. That’s not to say that you can’t pull them off!
Here are the frames that people with round shaped faces typically avoid:
While big frames add structure and length, small frames exaggerate the width of round faces. That doesn’t mean you have to get oversized frames, but small and rimless frames may not have the effect you’re looking for.
Rather than providing contrast and balance, circular and oval frames can actually exaggerate the roundness of your features.
Remember, this is simply a set of guidelines meant to help you navigate the many choices you have. There are no hard rules when it comes to finding the right glasses for you. You should choose a pair of glasses that make you feel happy and comfortable.
Glasses styles that look best on a round face include square, rectangular, cat-eye, wayfarers, oversized, aviators, navigators, and geometric frames.
Use a face shape guide like our types of glasses page or sunglasses styles page to choose glasses for your face.
Round glasses exaggerate the roundness of your features. Some people prefer this look, while others like angular frames to provide balance and contrast.
Du, L., Jia, P., Zhou, Z., & Hu, D. (2009). Human face shape classification method based on active shape model. Journal of Computer Applications, 29(10), 2710-2712. doi:10.3724/sp.j.1087.2009.02710
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