Whether you have been a lifetime glasses wearer or are preparing for your first pair, deciding on your new glasses can be stressful. Since you’ll likely be using your glasses daily, you don’t want to be unhappy with the glasses frames you select. The eyeglass frame style you decide on will be a big reason for how happy you are with your new pair. When buying prescription glasses, it’s not just about getting the correct prescription, but also about loving the way you look. Whether you want a more business-professional look, something more outgoing, or something simpler and more unassuming, you’ll have several options to choose from. Choosing the right eyeglass frames comes down to both needs and preferences. Your Arizona eye care team will go over how to determine what kind of glasses you should get and also go over some classic styles.

How to Choose the Correct Frames for Your Face

It’s important to better understand what you need and want from your glasses when choosing the right frames. First, we’ll talk about what characteristics of your face might impact your decision.

Face Shape

Understanding your face shape can make a big impact on what glasses suit you best. Most people either have a round face, a square face, an oval face, a heart-shaped face, or a diamond face. Your face shape is determined by your cheekbones, forehead width, and jawline length. Typically, you would try to choose a frame shape that is the opposite shape of your face shape. If you have a round face, try to choose square glasses and vice versa.

Skin Tone

While there are no perfect glasses color for your unique skin tone, there are some general guidelines you might want to consider. If you have a warmer skin tone, olive, honey, beige, and light tortoise colors might go better with your complexion. If you have a cooler skin tone, black, silver, pink, purple, or gray glasses might look the best. Regardless of what we say about shape and tone, your personal style preference is the most important factor in this entire process. All that matters is that you go home with a pair of glasses you love.

Popular Eyeglass Frame Styles

From rimless frames to round frames, here are some of today’s most popular eyeglass frame styles.

Cat-eye Frames

Cat-eye glasses have upward-sweeping corners and can be a stylish pick and statement. This frame can work with many face shapes, so they can be a great option for nearly anybody. Cat-eye frames can also slim down wider faces, emphasize the eyebrow line on those with diamond-shaped faces, and pull eyes upward for those with triangular-shaped faces. They also look great on those with balanced, oval faces. These timeless frames are also a bold choice for anybody wearing them. We recommend checking out other styles if you want something simpler.

Rimless Frames

If you want your glasses to be more subtle, the rimless style might be for you. Without the rims to outline and call attention to your lenses, rimless glasses tend to blend in with your face and almost appear invisible. The lack of rims can also make your frames feel lighter. Some people forget they are wearing them. We don’t recommend rimless for everyone. Someone who needs a strong prescription for nearsightedness will need especially thick lenses. Without the rim to hide the lens profile, this style would only accentuate the size and thickness of the lenses. By going rimless, you also lose an extra layer of protection for your glasses.

Aviator Frames

These classic teardrop-shaped glasses were originally developed for pilots to give them a clearer view of the instrument panels. It’s difficult for this eyeglass style to not look great on everybody, though they look especially good if you have an angular face with well-defined cheekbones. The longer lenses also offer additional space for your eyes to see through, provided your lenses have a single correction. Even though this style might be your top choice, these frames may not be suitable for all types of lenses. This is especially true if you want progressive lenses or bifocals. The area at the bottom where the reading prescription would go might be too narrow.

Round Frames

Round frames are one of the most classic eyeglass frame styles out there. They track back to the 13th century when glasses were first invented. Even though they might feel retro, round frames are very much back in style in a big way. For those that need thick lenses, round or oval shape frames do a great job of minimizing the profile of your lenses. In addition, round frames go well with many face shapes, including diamond-shaped faces. However, if you have a round face, these may not be your top choice.