How to Choose Eye Glasses

Last Updated: February 27, 2020

Your eyeglasses are an integral part of your style, especially if you have a permanent prescription that must be worn constantly. The wrong pair can make your face look disproportionate or washed out, but the right pair can make you look fashionable and well put together. Choose eyeglasses that flatter the shape and color of your face, along with your own personal sense of style.

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Consider Your Face Shape

Some frame shapes can make the curves and angles of your face look disproportionate, depending on how your face is shaped. When shopping for new frames, start by trying on shapes that are more likely to flatter your face.

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Look for oval or round frames if you have a square, angular face. Look for a pair with center-set temples or those that connect at the top of the frame.
- Avoid geometric, square frames that may accentuate the sharp angles of your face. Also avoid color accents on the bottom of the frame, since these may draw unwanted attention to your chin.
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Consider frames that are square, rectangular, or geometric, since these add sharp angles to the soft curves of your face. Most other frames flatter this face shape fairly well, however.
- Avoid frames that are excessively large.
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Look for tall frames if you have a narrow, oblong face. These help create the illusion of a shorter face. Also consider broad glasses with accented top rims and decorative details at the temple, since these features add width.
- Avoid small, short frames that look out of proportion.
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Try angular frames that sharpen your facial features if you have a round face. Horizontal shapes and rectangles are especially useful in making your face look thinner. Also consider frames with temples that connect at the top of the frame to help create the illusion of face length.
- Avoid small, round frames that look out of proportion and emphasize the curves of your face.
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Shop for oval frames that maintain the balance of your face if you have a diamond-shaped face. Also look at upswept frames and rimless styles, both of which show off your cheekbones.
- Avoid narrow frames that make your eye line look narrower than usual.
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Balance out a heart-shaped face with bottom-heavy frames that create the appearance of width on your lower face. These frames are especially effective if they have low-set temples and narrow, round frames.
- Avoid top-heavy frames. Also avoid decorative temples, since these tend to emphases the upper portion of your face.
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Look for semi-rimless frames and top-heavy styles if you have a triangle shaped face. These styles balance out the width of the jaw by drawing the eye to the upper face.
- Avoid low-set temples that widen the line of the jaw, and also avoid narrow frames, since these often look disproportionate with your face.

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Consider Your Personality

Glasses can also be used as a fashion statement. Certain frame styles can suggest a lot about your personality.

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Create a professional, business-oriented look by selecting conservative shapes like ovals and rectangles.
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Add to the professional look by sticking with traditional colors. For men, consider silver, gunmetal, brown or black frames. For women, consider brown, gold tones, silver, burgundy, black, or espresso frames.
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Show off your creativity or youthful style with funky designs and visual detail. Consider thicker, larger plastic frames in geometric shapes or frames with laser detail patterns along the side of the frames.
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Consider a less traditional color, like blue or green, for a fresh, youthful appearance. Also consider multi-colored laminates.
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Use your eyeglasses to show that you are young at heart, if not in age, by selecting frame shapes that subtly uplift the face. Men should go with upswept rectangles, while women can consider soft cat-eyes.

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Consider Color

Determine your coloring and choose an appropriate color of frame based on that. For the purpose of eyeglasses, everyone is either classified as cool (blue-based) or warm (yellow-based).

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Examine your skin tone. Individuals with pink or blue undertones have “cool” toned skin, while individuals with yellow or peach undertones have “warm” toned skin. Olive skin falls between warm and cool, since it is a mix of both yellow and blue undertones.
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Consider your eye color. Determining the warmth or coolness of your eye color can get tricky, since the spectrum of possible eye colors covers such a wide range.
- If you have blue eyes, determine how close they are to pale blue-gray. Most blue eyes are considered cool, but the closer they are to gray, the warmer they get. Another option is to go with a peach or orange color which will make your eye color pop.
- If you have brown eyes, determine how close they are to black. Most brown eyes are considered warm, but extremely dark browns often qualify as cool toned.
- If you have green eyes, determine whether your eyes are blue-green or yellow-green. Blue-green shades are cool-toned, while yellow-green shades are warm.
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Look at your hair color. Cool tones include strawberry blond, platinum, blue-black, white, auburn, salt-and-pepper, and ash brown. Warm tones include golden blond, brownish black, brown-gold, carrot, or dusty gray.
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Average your three tones together to determine your overall coloring. If you have more warm tones, then you likely have warm coloring. If you have more cold tones, you likely have cool coloring.
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Search for frame colors that coordinate well with your natural coloring.
- Think gold, copper, camel, khaki, peach, orange, coral, off-white, fire-engine red, and blond tortoise if you have warm coloring.
- Lean toward silver, black, rose-brown, blue-gray, plum, magenta, pink, jade, blue, and dark tortoise if you have cool coloring.

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General Considerations

Before you go shopping for a new pair of eyeglasses, there are a few basics you should take into consideration.

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Get an eye exam. Before you invest in a pair of eyeglasses, you must have an accurate prescription for your lenses.
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Shop at inexpensive stores that either specialize in eyeglasses or that have an eyeglasses section if you need emergency lenses because an old pair broke or got lost.
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Consider going to an optometrist or boutique if investing in a quality pair. These options usually cost a little more, but the quality of service and product may be worth the price.
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If you have a weak prescription but still want glasses, try shopping online for them. Many of the inexpensive eyeglass sellers don't carry glasses weaker than +/- 1.0. If you have a +/- 0.5 prescription and you don't want to pay a high price for your glasses, you'll find many options online.

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Mind Your Budget

You can still buy a quality pair of eyeglasses without spending a fortune.

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Only buy what you need. Lenses come with a number of added features, such as scratch-resistant coatings and color-changing features meant to offer ultraviolet protection. While many of these features do effectively provide what they offer, they are also largely unnecessary. If you have a tight budget, skip the extras and stick with a basic prescription lens.
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Shy away from brand names if your budget is low and you don't need to get the latest styles.
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Look for coupons. If you purchase your eyeglasses from a department store or popular eyeglasses chain store, you may be able to find coupons in magazines or online.
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Check with your medical insurance. Many carriers cover a portion of the cost for eyeglasses if you buy them at specific places. Depending on your coverage, you could have more or less choice available to you.