Glasses for an oval face: most frames work, so get the width right

The short answer

If your face is oval, most frame shapes will suit it. Wayfarers and rectangular frames are the safest place to start, but round, browline and soft-square frames all sit well too. The one thing to avoid is a frame wider than the widest part of your face.

The usual optician's rule — pick a frame that contrasts with your face shape — has less to do on an oval face, because there is nothing much to contrast with. That rule is a trade convention, not a tested finding, and on an oval face it mostly leaves you free to choose by style and fit.

How to tell if your face is actually oval

Oval is the shape most people hope they have and one of the easiest to misjudge from a close selfie. At arm's length the camera enlarges the centre of the face relative to the edges; a 2018 paper in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery modelled the effect and estimated that a photo at about 30 cm makes the base of the nose roughly 30% wider than in an undistorted view. Faces look rounder up close than they are.

So use a photo taken from about 1.5–2 metres, straight on, at eye level, with your hair pushed off the forehead, and without glasses on. Then check three things:

1. Length against width. The face should be noticeably longer than it is wide across the cheekbones, but not dramatically so. If the two look close to equal, you are nearer round — see glasses for a round face.
2. Forehead against jaw. The forehead should be the same width as the jaw or slightly wider. Much wider points to a heart shape; a jaw wider than the forehead points to a triangle.
3. The outline. The sides of the face curve gently, the jaw rounds softly into the chin, and there is no hard corner at the jaw or obvious point at the cheekbones.

What suits an oval face, and why

Wayfarers

A slightly tapered, angular frame with a strong top line. It adds a clean horizontal across the face without changing the proportions much in either direction, which is why it is the standard first suggestion for almost anyone with a balanced face.

Rectangular frames

A medium-depth rectangle in acetate or metal adds two straight lines and four corners, and reads steady and classic. On an oval face, avoid the very shallowest rectangles, which can look severe, and the very deepest, which start to shorten the face. Somewhere in the middle is right.

Most other shapes

Because the outline is balanced, other shapes are open to you:

The choice is about what you want to say, not about balancing anything.

What to avoid, and why

Frames wider than the widest part of your face. This is the main miss. A frame that overhangs the sides of the face makes the head look narrower than it is and pulls the eye to the edges of the glasses rather than to the face. It also tends to fit badly: the arms bow outward and the frame slides.

A few other things push the balance one way or the other:

• Very deep, tall frames cover more of the face vertically and can make it read shorter.
• Very small, narrow frames leave a lot of face showing at the sides and can make it read wider.

Neither is wrong as a deliberate look.

Getting the fit right

With shape largely open, fit does most of the work:

• Width. The frame front should be about as wide as your face at the temples. Look straight into a mirror and check that the outer edge of the frame lines up roughly with the sides of your face, not well inside or well outside.
• Bridge. The frame should sit on your nose without sliding down or pinching. Plastic frames with a fixed bridge are less forgiving than metal frames with adjustable nose pads.
• Height. The top of the frame should sit close to the line of your eyebrows, with the brows visible just above it rather than hidden behind the lens.
• Arms. They should run straight back to the ears without pressing into the sides of your head.

Most frames have their size printed on the inside of an arm, as something like 52□18 145: lens width and bridge width in millimetres (measured on the boxed system set out in the international standard ISO 8624), then the arm length. Once you find a pair that fits, those numbers let you shortlist others quickly.

What to say to the optician

Opticians and dispensing staff will help with fit if you ask directly. Try:

"I think my face is fairly oval, so I'm open on shape. I'd like a frame that matches the width of my face — nothing that overhangs. Can you check the width and bridge fit, and show me a wayfarer, a rectangle and one round option at the right size?"

If you have a strong prescription, mention it. Thicker lenses look and feel heavier in large frames, and the optician can suggest a size or lens material that keeps the edges thin.

Not sure of your shape? Find it from one photo.

Colour and finish

On a balanced face, colour does more to set the impression than shape does. Dark acetate (black, dark tortoiseshell, navy) reads defined and deliberate; thin metal or clear frames read lighter and quieter. Choose the colour family by undertone: warm skin suits tortoiseshell, brown, gold and olive; cool skin suits black, silver, grey, navy and clear.

Trying them on properly

The shop mirror is close and lit from above, which is a poor way to judge a frame. Take a phone photo of each pair from about a metre away, straight on, then one at a slight angle. Compare the photos side by side. They show width and placement far more honestly than a mirror 40 cm away, and the photo is closer to what other people actually see.