How to Buy Proper Sunglasses

How to Buy Proper Sunglasses: Face Shapes

Aside from the UV protection, fit, and other safety needs, the biggest component of choosing the right sunglasses has to do with your face shape. If you're unsure of your face shape, you can stand in front of a mirror looking straight ahead with your hair pulled away from your face. Take a tube of inexpensive lipstick and trace the shape of your face onto the mirror. Step back and observe what you've drawn. That's your face shape.

Oval: You're in luck. There's almost no size or style on the market that won't complement your proportional face. Have fun!

Heart Stay away from very small lenses, but don't choose the most oversized glasses you can find, either. You don't want to use very narrow lenses because they'll call attention to the fact that your forehead area is much wider than your chin. Try to make sure the outer edges of the lenses line up well with your temples. Choosing wider will give the illusion of a wider forehead; choosing narrower will cause you to look as if your sunglasses are straining against your face shape.

Square If you're male, you can still get by with squarish lenses if you'd like, though an aviator may make a better choice due to the slight curvature of the style. Women with square-shaped faces should choose curved lenses if they wish to soften their jawline and create a more feminine look. Harsh angles will emphasize the angles of the face.

Oblong: Skip narrow lenses and go for styles that feature deep lenses instead. You can find retro cat-eye styles with surprisingly deep lenses (skip shallow ones). Aviators also flatter this shape. Also stay away from lenses that are too narrow. If they extend slightly past your temples, they'll give the illusion of a slightly wider face, offering balance to the length.

Triangle: You can get away with choosing large sunglasses to create width on the top portion of the face to match up with the bottom half.

Round You'll benefit most by choosing angled styles or semi-rimless sunglasses. Choosing round sunglasses will bring out the round shape of the face. Semi-rimless (visible frame on top but not on bottom) styles will also create a sense of balance on the face. Cat-eye shapes look great on round faces, as well.

Size

The guidelines for taking face size into account when you're choosing your sunglasses are almost no-brainers. The key to choosing the right sunglass size is to strive for balance.

If your face is small, don’t choose huge sunglasses. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen pull the look off well, but it's not for everyone.

If your face is large, take care to choose lenses that are wide enough to cover your face without straining at the temple areas. An ill-fitting, too-small pair of sunglasses will do nothing for your climb on the fashion ladder.

Similarly, if you have a long face, don't draw attention to it by choosing shallow lenses. Not only will they further elongate your face, but shallow lenses won't offer optimal sun protection.

Cool or Warm?

When choosing your frame and lens colors, you should take into account your skin tone. So how do you know if you're cool or warm?

Cool toned skin tends to have blue veins, pink undertones, and look best in silver, jewel tones, white, and black.

Warm toned skin tends to have green veins, yellow undertones, and look best in gold, earth tones, beige, and brown.

If your skin is cool, you'll do best choosing sunglasses that feature silver, pink, blue-red, blue, green, purple, white, and black. That means a pair of white sunglasses with black polarized lenses have great potential for your coloring.

If your skin is warm, you will find your features best complemented by shades that feature gold, brown, amber, beige, rust, copper, orange-red, forest green, and yellow. If you're looking for a sophisticated pair of sunglasses, choose a tortoiseshell style with amber lenses.

Split-Second Decisions

If you're in a rush but you want to know how to buy proper sunglasses with minutes to spare, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Stick to neutrals and skip the very bold styles. That means your frames should be silver, gold, black, gunmetal, or copper. If you can find a pair of neutral-toned frames that have a brushed finish rather than a shiny one, that's even better. They will be less conspicuous that way. Thinner frames tend to be safer.

Choose gray or amber lenses. Both are good for general outdoor use and are fairly flattering on all skin tones. If you know you are a cool, choose gray. Warm? Opt for amber.

Styles that mix angles and curves, such as aviator styles and cat-eyes, work well for almost everyone.