Thursday · October 29 “Soft is not the opposite of strong.”
Contrast, Not Matching
Geometric thick black sunglasses with black lenses from Love Your Beauty
You have bought sunglasses you loved in the shop and never wore again, more than once. Something about them was wrong in every photograph and nobody could tell you what.
How do you choose sunglasses for your face shape?
Contrast, not matching. Angular frames suit softer, rounder faces and curved frames suit angular ones, because the frame supplies whatever the face has less of.
That single rule settles about eighty per cent of it. The rest is scale — the frame should be roughly as wide as your face and no wider.
How do you work out your face shape?
Tie your hair back, look straight into a mirror and ask two questions. Is your face longer than it is wide, or about equal? And is your jaw a curve or a corner?
Roughly equal with a soft jaw is round. Roughly equal with a defined jaw is square. Longer than wide is oval or oblong. Wide at the cheekbones narrowing to a small chin is heart.
That is as precise as this needs to be. You are choosing sunglasses, not being fitted for a suit.
Which frame for which face?
Round face — go angular
Straight lines and corners give definition where the face is soft. A square or geometric frame does more for a round face than any other shape.
Geometric Thick Black Sunglasses With Black Lens — £40.00 — Shop →
Thick, architectural and entirely unapologetic. Avoid small round frames — they double down on what is already there.
Square or angular face — go curved
Oval and round frames soften a strong jaw and a broad forehead. The curve is doing the opposite job to the one above, for the opposite reason.
Black Oval Shaped Sunglasses With Metal Gold Detail — £40.00 — Shop →
Sleek black ovals with fine gold detailing. Enough softness to balance, not so much that they disappear.
Heart-shaped face — balance the bottom
Wide cheekbones and a narrow chin want a frame that adds visual weight low down, or one that sweeps outward at the top to match the cheekbone line.
Black Pin-Up Style Sunglasses With Geometric Design and Cat Eyes — £40.00 — Shop →
A cat eye lifts at the outer corner, which is why it flatters this shape more reliably than anything else.
Oval face — wear what you like
The genuinely irritating answer. A balanced oval face suits almost every frame, so the decision comes down to preference and scale rather than geometry.
Dora - Metal & Wood Sunglasses — £167.00 — Shop →
A Windsor-style round frame in metal and wood. The kind of thing you buy when the shape question is already answered and you are choosing on character instead.
The three checks that matter more than shape
Width first. The frame should not extend past the widest point of your face, or it will slide down your nose all day.
Then eyes. Your pupils should sit roughly in the centre of each lens, not high or off to one side.
Then smile. If the frame lifts off your nose or rests on your cheeks when you smile, it will annoy you within a week. This is the check almost nobody does in a shop.
And then ignore all of it
These are guidelines for narrowing down a wall of options, not rules you are failing. Plenty of people wear the "wrong" frame and look completely themselves in it, because confidence reads louder than geometry.
Sunglasses sit in Soft Power at Love Your Beauty for exactly that reason. They are one of the few things you can put on that changes how you hold your face before you have said anything.
If you have narrowed it down to shape and are stuck on colour, warm versus cool tones against your skin works the same way for frames as it does for metal.
Buy the pair you would wear to the corner shop.
Common questions
What sunglasses suit a round face?
Angular ones — square, rectangular or geometric frames add the definition a rounder face has less of. Small round frames tend to emphasise the softness rather than balance it.
What sunglasses suit a square face?
Curved frames, particularly oval and round shapes, because they soften a strong jaw and a broad forehead. It is the same contrast principle working in the opposite direction.
Do cat eye sunglasses suit everyone?
They flatter heart-shaped and round faces most reliably, because the upward sweep at the outer corner lifts and balances. On a very angular face they can add sharpness where there is already plenty.
How do you know if sunglasses fit properly?
The frame should be no wider than your face, your pupils should sit near the centre of each lens, and nothing should touch your cheeks when you smile. Fit fails these three checks far more often than style fails.
Can you wear oversized sunglasses on a small face?
Only up to a point. Oversized works if the frame still ends within the width of your face — past that it slides constantly and reads as borrowed rather than deliberate.
Wear it
Geometric Thick Black Sunglasses With Black Lens — £40.00 — Shop →
Black Oval Shaped Sunglasses With Metal Gold Detail — £40.00 — Shop →
Black Pin-Up Style Sunglasses With Geometric Design and Cat Eyes — £40.00 — Shop →
Dora - Metal & Wood Sunglasses — £167.00 — Shop →
Arrow keys, or swipe
One letter, most Sundays.
Written to one woman rather than a list. No offers dressed as observations, and nothing sent because it is a Tuesday.