Sunglasses are more than a major summer accessory: they protect our eyes from harmful radiation, reduce fatigue, and add harmony to our overall image. Provided, of course, we choose the type that suits us.
Today WeGoRo offers a selection of tips on how to select sunglasses to match your face shape as well as how to tell a high-quality lens from a poor-quality one. Plus, there’s a helpful bonus waiting for you at the end of the article!
Take one of the following: a washable marker, a lipstick, a piece of soap, or a pencil. Stand at arm’s length in front of a mirror. Trying not to let your hand stray, trace the outline of your face on the mirror’s surface, starting from your chin and ending with your hairline. Take a step back, and look at the resulting shape.
Your task is to visually lengthen your face, so choose glasses with dark frames. They narrow the face and bring its contours closer to an oval shape. To balance your facial proportions, choose a frame where the width is greater than the height.
Suitable for round faces:
Not suitable for round faces:
In this case, the main goal is not to disturb your face’s harmonious proportions. Therefore, you should avoid glasses that look too massive. Preferably, the frame should be as wide as your face, or a little wider. Make sure that the frame’s upper part is in line with your eyebrows.
Suitable for oval faces:
Not suitable for oval faces:
Sharp-angled rectangular or square frames can “overload“ your face’s outlines. On the other hand, rounded frames will help to visually balance and soften overall facial proportions.
Suitable for square faces:
Not suitable for square faces:
Aim to make your face appear visually broader. Go for large, massive-looking glasses. Also, make sure they have transparent lenses and slender frames that match the tone of your skin.
Suitable for rectangular faces:
Not suitable for rectangular faces:
Your goal is to balance out the upper part of your face by making the lower part appear bulkier. Massive-looking glasses won’t help: they’ll just add more bulk to the upper part. We advise you to choose glasses where the width equals the width of your face. Opt for a teardrop-shaped design. “Aviators“ would be ideal.
Suitable for heart-shaped faces:
Not suitable for heart-shaped faces:
Your main aim should be to visually broaden the upper half of your face while making the lower half less conspicuous. Choose sunglasses with a large frame and a broad upper part. The lower part shouldn’t have square or sharp outlines.
Suitable for triangular faces:
Not suitable for triangular faces:
Take a UV flashlight, and shine it through the lens of the sunglasses at any fluorescent object (such as a pen cap, an earphone speaker, a marker, or a sticker). The better the glasses are at filtering out ultraviolet light, the fainter the object will glow.
Polarized lenses filter out reflected light, remove glare, and reduce eye fatigue. Finding out whether your glasses have polarizing filters is very easy: just look at a reflective surface with unprotected eyes, then put on the glasses and look again. If the glasses are polarized, the glare should disappear.
Also, try turning the glasses in your hand. Under certain angles, the glare will disappear and then reappear.
Photographs by Roman Zakharchenko for BrightSide.me