For as long as I can remember, face shapes have been one of the major need-to-know topics in the beauty world. I first encountered this geometric beauty topic in my teens as I read Seventeen magazine. Did I have an oval, oblong, round, square, diamond, pear, or heart shaped face? Or better yet was I just a full house of facial planes?
Maria from If Makeup Could Talk recently asked me to do a post on facial shapes. It took me awhile and I apologize but I wanted to explain it in simple terms.
Going back to my teens, I remember Seventeen magazine telling me how to determine my face shape by standing in front of the mirror with one eye closed and with a bar of soap, trace the outline of my face. The instructions weren't very clear, I mean, did I trace the outline from the top of my head and around the ears or around the hairline only? Yeah, I went from oblong, diamond, oval, to round.
First of all, where did this facial shape theory come from. Well, thank good old Hollywood for it. The origin of the face shapes came from the legendary Westmores. What you see today can be credited to them. In fact, if you want to see excerpts from Ern & Bud Westmore's beauty book, please check out this excellent blog called Atomic Redhead.
The Ideal Face Shape - Oval
You could say oval is the perfect face shape because of its symmetry; the forehead is almost equal to the shape of the chin and the cheeks are slightly broader to give that soft high cheekbone look.
Determining the Shape
There are four areas which will guide you into determining your facial structure: forehead, cheekbones, jawline, and length of the face.
Since you aren't a drawing, this doesn't follow the usual dimensions of facial drawing where the eyes lie 1/2 the length of the head. This has to do with your bone structure.
Forehead -- The area most prominent is right where your eyebrows are or where your brow bones are. This is the temple area which will determine the top width.
Cheekbones -- The prominent area of your cheekbone probably lies in line right before the bridge of your nose hits the cartilage tip (soft area) of the nose. This will determine the central width.
Jawline -- Almost in line with the opening of your lips, the jaw line is where your bones open and close your mouth. This area will determine the bottom width.
Length -- The ratio of the space of the forehead and jawline will tell you if you have an oblong face, round, or oval.
The Other Face Shapes
Round -- Taking the same measurements for the oval face shape, you can see it is almost the same. The characteristics for a round face shape are less defined or softer jawline, cheeks are slightly wider than the oval and the forehead distance could slightly be shorter.
Oblong -- Either or both the lengthwise distance of the forehead and chin is longer giving the illusion of a narrower facial structure than an oval one. Many equate the oblong face with a high forehead. The cheekbones may appear to be longer in length, therefore giving the illusion of less width to the face.
Heart Shape -- Or triangle shape. The forehead is usually seen as wider on top and could be but also because the jawline narrows to a point. Cheekbones are similar in width to the oval shape. There is a difference between this shape and the diamond face shape as you will see further.
Diamond Face Shape -- The diamond face shape is similar to the heart shape above. The difference lies in the cheekbone area. It will be more prominent making the chin look more pointed or narrow.
Pear Shape -- The pear shape face is the opposite of the heart shape. You could say it is often seen as triangular shape also. The forehead appears narrower because the cheekbones appear wider and so can the jawline. Many who have this shape may categorize themselves into the round shape category because of this. The major difference is the forehead doesn't look to be of equal width to the jawline like in a round face.
Square Shape Face -- Many of you will know if you have a square shaped face due to your strong jawline. The will be little variation in width from forehead, cheek, to jawline.
These are the basic seven shapes. You may notice I don't get into measuring and such because many factors really can change your face shape. For one, your hairline, this is the biggest factor in changing your face shape. Rita Hayworth changed her face shape from a pear shape to an oval by going through grueling sessions of electrolysis thanks to the Hollywood studio heads. You could say that did contribute to her successful career. Plastic surgery is another avenue which can change the facial shape category, a forehead/brow lift could change the forehead from a normal distance to a higher forehead. Of course, diet and exercise and just plain aging could change the face shape.
However, no matter what face shape you have, I still consider all these shapes to be ideal because I love looking at what makes us different. That is the most beautiful product anyone can own!
Hope this helped some of you in determining facial structure.
*Sources: Robert Jones - Makeup Makeovers, Atomic Redhead, and my own head!
