How to Look Good in Glasses

(Last Updated On: December 7, 2022)

Selection & Style Tips

How to look good in glasses was not part of my vocabulary when I started wearing them at the age of 6 in the 1st grade. I remember them still…black, cat-eye frames on my little girl face. It set me apart from the crowd, but not in a way that made me feel good. I don’t know if the term had even been coined yet, but I felt like a nerd. That was in the early 1960s. Flash forward to today.

Fortunately, we live in a different world now, when it comes to wearing glasses, no matter our age. Glasses are cool. Glasses are trendy. Glasses are cute.

There are so many stylish glasses for women of all ages. For girls like me who are over 50 and over 60 (yes, we are still girls even if our age makes us sound old), we still have a lot of options when it comes to selecting a style of glasses that are fun and trendy.

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How to Pick the Right Glasses:

How to select glasses based on your face shape

It really is a subjective decision. I’ve gone through many phases in my 60 years of wearing glasses. I wore contacts also for many years, but always had the glasses handy. I’ve worn glasses almost exclusively for the last 10 year sor so. And, I think I look good in glasses. 🙂

Looking good in glasses has a lot to do with making an intelligent selection of frames based on the shape of your face. 

How do you know what size and shape of eyeglasses will look best on your lovely face?

There are some factors that will help pick the right glasses for you. Here are four helpful considerations from our friends at VSP:

Shape of Your Face

Round face: Eyeglass frames that are square or rectangular tend to be wider than a round face. This quality can enhance your face by making it appear slimmer and longer, adding balance to your round features.
Frames to Avoid: Rimless frames, round frames and small frames will accentuate the roundness, making your round face look even rounder.

Oval face: Frames that suit an oval face have a strong bridge, are wider than the broadest part of the face and are geometric in shape.
Frames to Avoid: Eyeglasses that are overlarge and cover up more than half of your face will throw off the natural balance and symmetry of the oval face.

Square Face: Eyeglasses that soften the angularity and sit high on the bridge of the nose look best on square faces. Oval or round eyeglasses will balance and add a thinner appearance to the angles of a square face.
Frames to Avoid: Angular and boxy eyeglass frames will sharpen and draw attention to your angular features, making a square face appear bulky.

Diamond shape face: Play up a narrow forehead and chin with eyeglass frames that sweep up or are wider than the cheekbones, such as cat eye glasses and oval frames. These frames will accentuate your cheekbones and delicate features.
Frames to Avoid: Boxy and narrow frames will accentuate the width of your cheeks, drawing attention to your narrow features rather than enhancing them.

Heart shaped face: Frames that balance the width of the forehead with the narrowness of the chin are ideal. Eyeglasses with low-set temples and bottom heavy frame lines will add width to that narrower part of your face. Round or square glasses with curved edges will help draw attention away from a broad, high forehead.
Frames to Avoid: Steer clear of any style or color of frames that draws attention to the forehead. This includes frames with decorative temples or embellished tops.

Skin Tone

  • Warm Skin Tone
    If you have a yellow, bronze or golden cast to your skin, you have a warm complexion. Stay away from contrasting colors such as pastels. White and black frames are not flattering either. Instead, the best frame colors for you are light tortoise, browns shades, gold or honey, beige, and olive green.
  • Cool Skin Tone
    If your skin has pink or blue undertones, you have a cool complexion. Avoid colors that wash you out and instead reach for frames that are silver, black, dark tortoise, pink, purple, blue, mauve and gray.

Lifestyle

Take into consideration how you live and the kinds of activities you enjoy. If you lead an active lifestyle and participate in sport, you might want to consider flex frames that will twist and bend without breaking.

Personality

Your glasses play a part in defining your look, so select them with care. Some people choose to have more than one pair of glasses…for work and for play, or for evening out on the town. I have several pairs of glasses that can work for me as long as I’m not sitting at the computer. But my current pair of glasses is my favorite by far, so I wear them almost exclusively.

I like frames that have an interesting look to the arm (the piece that fits over your ear), maybe a pattern or a different color.

How to Look Good in Glasses in Midlife

Midlife brings its own set of challenges, and looking our best as we age is a priority for many women. When it comes to our skin, our hair, our faces, and our glasses, we want to feel good,  look classy, trendy, stylish and of course, cute.

Here are a few examples of glasses that help to create an overall look and style:

Image credits:

 image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4

Where is the best place to buy eyeglasses, readers, and sunglasses?

looking good in glasses after 50

For years I felt that I had to buy my glasses in person in a retail setting. And it’s not a bad way to go. You can try them on, stare at yourself in the mirror, become more and more confused as you continue to try on more styles, and generally have no clue which frames to select. It’s great fun!

I have purchased glasses at discount outlets and also at higher end stores. And you know what? They’re really all the same.

A couple of years ago I decided to try an online source to purchase my glasses. I had spent a LOT of money on a pair of glasses and a pair of sunglasses, and wasn’t happy with either. I couldn’t see clearly out of the glasses, and the sunglasses scratched so easily I couldn’t see well out of them after awhile.

I did some online research and ultimately ordered a pair of glasses from a company completely online . I used my current eye prescription, obtained from my eye doctor, to place my order. It was risky for me, of course, because of the cost as well as the fact that I was ordering something sight unseen.

But, I was very happy with the result and I save a lot of money by using an online source.

Flash forward several years, and I am still a fan of ordering glasses and sunglasses online. I won’t go any other route now.

Looking good in glasses is important to me; it’s part of my overall style. I love my glasses and adore my sunglasses. I wear sunglasses in every type of weather so it’s important that they are comfortable and that I can see well for driving.

Shop ICU Eyewear!

My recommendations for an online source for ordering glasses and sunglasses are two-fold. There are two companies I am recommending to you, and they are quite different in the type of glasses offered.

Readers

First, check out the folks at ICUEyewear.com for your reading glasses, including sunglasses and blue light readers. Ordering is oh-so-simple, with a wide variety of options in frames, colors, and lens magnification strength.

You can use their handy eye chart to help you determine which magnification strength you need. And, you’ll feel good know about ICUEyewear’s 60 day refund/exchange policy.

If reading glasses are what you need, why not look awesome and stylish with a pair of affordable readers from ICUEyewear?

ICU Eyewear Eco friendly, sustainable Glasses and Sunglasses using bamboo, recyclable materials, and bioplastic to create stylish glasses.

Prescription Eyeglasses and Sunglasses

For your prescription eyeglass needs, my recommendation is Pair Eyewear. This is the source I used earlier this year when I needed to update my prescription and frames.

I’m not sure how I heard about Pair Eyewear…it might have been a TV commercial. But it doesn’t matter. What I l-o-v-e about this company is:

  • how easy it is to order your glasses
  • the step-by-step support you receive as the order is being processed
  • the ability to purchase a pair of frames and ‘dress’ them with covers to completely change your look.

Yes, with Pair Eyewear you order your basic frames, including your prescription, and then you have the option of ordering magnetic covers for the frames that pop right on the face of the frame.

Whether you want sunglasses (I have three pair), solid colors, patterns, themes, holidays…you name it, Pair Eyewear has it.

They offer frames in a number of styles for men, women, and kids. And, you can literally ‘try them on’ while you’re on the website to see which frames look best on your beautiful face. Yes, technology is awesome!

Prices are reasonable in my opinion, and my prescription has a lot of add-ons for my old eyes.

the versatility of Pair Eyewear eyeglass frames and covers

I have the frame called Ella, and the frames themselves are clear because that is what I wanted. You can see them in the image below. Your base frame can be any color or pattern available. I have about 10 covers in total including 3 sunglass options.

I love the versatility of being able to coordinate my glasses to my outfits. 🙂

Visit Pair Eyewear!

How to Order Prescription Glasses Online

Pair Eyewear frames in clear

First, let me say that I am not a professional so this section is just lil’ ole’ me talkin’ about my experience ordering eyeglasses online. Enough said.

This is what I learned from ordering my glasses online:

You need your complete, current prescription. It’s easy to go to the eye doctor, have your exam, and walk out the door with your prescription.

I used my existing glasses to help me determine what size frames to purchase. Every pair of eyeglass frames has 3 sets of numbers on one of the arms. I used those readings to compare them to the frames I was looking at online. Each reading represents a size…length of frame arm, width of nose bridge and lens width. As mentioned earlier, with many eyeglass sites, Pair Eyewear included, you can literally see yourself in a potential frame. It’s very cool.

The website itself is very easy to navigate, and once you input your own prescription it will guide through the ordering process, step by step. If you want to chat with a representative that is almost always an option, too.

You need to take your time, consider all of the options and carefully make your decision. I saved about a dozen different frame styles, pondered them over a period of days, and when I finally made my decision it was not at all what I thought I would select!

Conclusion: How to Look Good in Glasses

Pair Eyewear for the holidays

Yes, Pair Eyewear offers holiday covers to help make your lovely face look festive and radiant! They are so much fun!

If you’ve been wondering how to look good in glasses, I hope I’ve given you enough information and encouragement to help you find the most flattering, stylish, and amazing pair of specs out there!

Wearing glasses is cool.

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looking good in glasses

33 thoughts on “How to Look Good in Glasses”

  1. Hi Candi, I just went for my annual eye check up and wanted to get some really ‘out there’ glasses. I think they are fashion statements these days. Unfortunately, I have a small face plus a bump in my nose so not many styles suit me. I’ve never tried contacts as I don’t think I could put them in. You are so right thought that Glasses are no longer for nerds but for fashionistas!

  2. These are GREAT suggestions! I had to get glasses in middles school, and felt self conscious about them. So I fixed that with contacts for years. But then in my late twenties, my eyes have been rejecting contacts, and I had to switch back to glasses. I’ve never thought about skin tone in relation to picking out glasses, but you’re so right! My new glasses are growing on me

    1. Candi Randolph

      My eyes did the same thing to me and that’s why I switched back to glasses. Mine have definitely become a part of my style, and I’m sure yours will, too!

  3. Great post! I agree that personality has a huge part in choosing your glasses, and in how you feel while wearing them! I got glasses when I was a second grader, and had lasik eye surgery when I was 30… just when glasses were becoming cool haha!

    1. Candi Randolph

      It’s a leap of faith to go online with purchasing glasses, but I found coastal.com to be very customer oriented so felt good about my purchase.

  4. I think glasses look great on you! I’ve always been fortunate enough to not need them, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with them and look quite trendy on a lot of people!

    1. Candi Randolph

      Hopefully you’ll never need to (except for those doggone reading glasses!) but if you do, keep these tips handy 🙂

  5. The guide was great. Having worn glasses since I was eight I understand the hate/love relationship with them. I currently have two different styles of frames one in turquoise and one in purple, but golden sunglasses. One style you will NEVER see me wear again are the oversize glasses of the 70’s/80’s. I don’t like seeing them making a come back because I really don’t think anyone looks good in them. But my sister used to hate cat’s eye frames because she was forced to wear that style for years and I my turquoise pair is similar to the cat’s eye style. So I guess to each, your own.

    1. Candi Randolph

      Ultimately you are so right, to each their own. I hadn’t thought about those huge 80’s glasses in years…but I had a pair! Thought I looked pretty cool in them,too 🙂

  6. I have been wearing glasses since grade school, I really am not liking the larger rounded frames that are so trendy now. I wish that trends didn’t completely overtake. It’s pretty frustrating. Nerdy is cool too! Nothing wrong with being a nerd!

    1. Candi Randolph

      It’s a tough decision for sure. Hopefully they will grow on you and you’ll get used to seeing yourself in them.

  7. This is great, I have looked at online glasses places but am so scared to try them out. I’ve worn glasses what feels like my whole life and I don’t know how to get them anywhere but a retail store

    1. Candi Randolph

      It’s a leap of faith in a way, to order a pair of glasses online. If you decide to give it a try, I would advise a company like coastal.com that is very customer service oriented and responsive.

  8. Fun post! I disliked wearing glasses in middle school… for several years, I stopped wearing them because it was “uncool”…finally, I got over it — and now I can actually see! It takes me awhile to find a pair that I like, but I definitely see them as an accessory!

    1. Candi Randolph

      I agree, Laura, glasses can definitely be a fashion accessory and I think they are viewed as such by many people now. And, being able to see clearly has its benefits! 🙂

    1. Candi Randolph

      Well, I actually used the term ‘nerdy’ in this post with love and affection, so being nerdy is quite alright!

  9. We have a variety of styles and colors to choose from, and we are always updating our selection to make sure you find the perfect pair of sunglasses for your look. Plus, we offer free shipping on all orders over $50, so you can get your new glasses as soon as possible. Neurosurgeon Adelaide

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