If you’ve never stopped to consider your face shape, here’s why you should. Knowing your face shape can help inform which types of haircuts flatter your features and where to apply your blush to really make your cheekbones pop. To find out if you're an oval, oblong, square, diamond, round or heart face shape, here's how you can find yours in four easy steps.
How to Find Your Face Shape in 4 Easy Steps
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Published Oct 27, 2023
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How To Find Your Face Shape
To figure out your face shape, you’ll need to assess a few key points: your forehead, your cheeks, your jawline and the overall length of your face. Keep reading for four steps you should consider:
- Step 1: Pull your hair back and note where the widest part of your face is. If it’s your forehead and your face is on the longer side, then you most likely have an oval face. If your forehead is the widest part of your face and you have a pointed chin, then you have a heart-shaped face.
- Step 2: If neither of those descriptions fit your face shape, take a look at your cheeks next. If they’re the widest part of your face and you have a softer, more curved jawline, you have a round face. If your cheeks are wide and you have a stronger, more angular jawline, you likely have a square face.
- Step 3: Still haven’t identified the right shape? Take a closer look at the length of your face. If it’s longer than it is wide and you identify with some of the features described for a square face (e.g., a strong, angular jawline), then you have an oblong or rectangular face.
- Step 4: And finally, if you have a larger forehead and a smaller chin, but you don’t quite identify with having a heart-shaped face, take a look at your cheekbones. Are they high and lifted? And if your face on the narrower side? You likely have a diamond face.
- Optional Tip: For a fast and easy way to figure it out, grab a lip pencil or eyeliner and stand in front of your bathroom mirror. Using the pencil, trace the outline of your face and take a step back to really analyze whether the shape most resembles a circle (round), an egg (oval), a heart, a square or a rectangle. OK, now grab some makeup remover to wipe off those lines.
And if this is all still a bit confusing to you (which, by the way, we completely understand), let’s walk through some examples together below.
The 6 Face Shapes Explained
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1. Round Face Shape: Chrissy Teigen
- Key characteristics: Your cheeks and cheekbones are the widest part of your face, the length and width of your face are fairly equal and you have a softer jawline and a rounded chin with no sharp angles or edges to your face.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: A center part, long curtain bangs that fall on both sides of your face and more volume up top. (Psst, here are also 36 other options to show your stylists.)
- Best makeup tips: Apply blush higher on the cheeks rather than on the fleshiest parts (aka the apples) and keep your brows full and arched at the ends to better frame your face and create some symmetry.
- Other celebrities with round faces: Ginnifer Goodwin, Emma Stone, Elizabeth Olsen
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2. Oval Face Shape: Meghan Markle
- Key characteristics: The length of your face is pretty proportional to the width, your chin is rounded and your face has soft contours with no sharp angles.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: Sleek pulled-back styles and soft, blunt bangs that cut straight across your face. Note: Most styles are well suited to an oval shape because your features are already in balance.
- Best makeup tips: Skip the heavy contour and apply color in moderation. Think a pop of blush on the apples of your cheeks and a light pat of cream highlighter along the tops of your cheekbones.
- Other celebrities with oval faces: Halle Berry, Olivia Munn, Kelly Rowland
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3. Oblong Face Shape: Alexa Chung
- Key characteristics: Your face is longer than it is wide, your chin is typically rounded and your jawline is fairly strong.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: Bring on the bangs and texture. Long, side-swept, curly or shaggy, any fringe will flatter your face shape and help bring balance to its length. Wavy texture or curls add more width to your features, whereas pin-straight styles can further elongate your face.
- Best makeup tip: Apply blush to the apples of your cheeks and blend the color out toward the sides of your face to create the illusion of more width.
- Other celebrities with oblong faces: Keke Palmer, Jessica Alba, Julianne Moore
Jim Spellman/Getty Images
4. Square Face Shape: Zendaya
- Key characteristics: Your forehead and cheekbones are about the same width (similar to a round face), but you have a stronger jawline with sharp angles.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: Cuts that hit just below your jawline (e.g., a long bob), side-swept bangs, volume at the roots, tousled texture or a little bend to add softness to your overall features. (Or any of these 33 chic styles here.)
- Best makeup tip: Focus blush on the apples of your cheeks to round them out, and soften the perimeter of your face with a bit of contouring in a shade that’s one to two tones darker.
- Other celebrities with square faces: Olivia Wilde, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz
Stephanie Cardinale-Corbis/Getty Images
5. Heart Face Shape: Reese Witherspoon
- Key characteristics: Your forehead is larger and wider, your chin is pointed (like a heart) and your jawline is angled and well defined.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: Long, side-swept bangs work well for heart-shaped faces because they help balance the forehead and chin. (Remember when Witherspoon debuted her iconic feathery fringe at the Academy Awards in 2007?!)
- Best makeup tips: Sweep bronzer along your hairline and on the sides of your forehead, and highlight the high points of your cheeks and underneath the brow bone.
- Other celebrities with heart-shaped faces: Lili Reinhart, Constance Wu, Kerry Washington
Jean-Baptiste LaCroix/Getty Images
6. Diamond Face Shape: Jennifer Lopez
- Key characteristics: Similar to heart-shaped faces, except you have a smaller forehead and your cheekbones are higher.
- Most flattering hairstyles to consider: Longer hair with layers, a deep side part, fullness at the bottom of your hair to balance the lower part of your face.
- Best makeup tips: Bring out your sharp features with a bit of contouring along the temples and just underneath the cheekbones. Add highlighter to the high points of your face to draw attention upward and out.
- Other celebrities with diamond-shaped faces: Scarlett Johansson, Tyra Banks, Eiza González
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