Common Face Shapes

"How to Flatter Your Face Shape"

There are 7 common face shapes - they are general and outline the general shapes, and do not take facial features such as nose, chin and the scale of your face into account.

With the answers to the step-by-step guide to finding the shape of your face, you'll be able to identify what your general facial shape is - how to improve its proportions and looks its best.

List of Face Shapes - What's Yours?

Remember that this is an approximate guide. For example, you may not be an exact Square and it may look like you have a little bit of everything from the different shapes. And that's normal!

Oval

Round

Oblong

Square

Triangular

Heart

Diamond

This means that you have to be open to a secondary or even a third shape, and be flexible working with various guidelines that work for you. If you pay attention to the proportions and bone structure of your face, you'll know what needs to be visually widened and trimmed down.

A Mixed Oblong
An example of a 'mixed' face is Jessica Alba. She looks Oval with her slightly narrow forehead, but the straight line from her cheekbones down to her jawline along with her strong jaw from some angles makes her also a Square.

Her tall forehead gives her an Oblong look. This makes her a mix of Oblong-Oval-and Square and she needs to work on the guidelines for all 3 shapes - or with whichever part of her face shape she's self-conscious about.

What's important here, is that you analyze what looks out of proportion. Basically if your upper part of your face is wider and appears to dominate your whole face you might want to consider balancing it out by wearing a pair of teardrop dangle earrings. Remember - it's about proportions.

Facial Features to Consider

A general thumb of rule if you don't want to emphasize the shape of your face or any facial feature is: Avoid repeating the same shape of it!

Your facial features (strong or soft, scale, short or long) like nose, chin, lips, eyes and jawline, and also your neck.

Deflect the shape

In general, if you don't like your soft features you can sharpen them a bit (or deflect, if you will) with slightly angular earrings. You can also play down a sharp nose with softer shaped jewelry as well.

I recommend experimenting with different shapes, motifs and lengths and see what looks good, or preferably have your hubby or a friend set the conclusion.

Scale it

If you have large facial features (big eyes, prominent nose, etc.) it helps to wear larger scaled jewelry and prints to make them look smaller. The same applies if you have small and delicate features - you need smaller jewelry to harmonize with the scale of your features. Large ones will make them smaller.

Enhance Your Best Features

One fool-proof way to style your face is to enhance your best parts (instead of getting hung up on what you don't like). Like for example, the color of your eyes, the shape of your eyes, your nose, lips, etc. by wearing something that will bring attention to it.