July 2, 2024

How to determine your face shape with Nurse Lizzie

Written by Team Youth Lab

Facial rebalancing

Your face is as unique as your fingerprint, getting to know your face shape and understanding it, well, that’s why you are here. As a cosmetic nurse our canvas is your face and where your beauty unfolds just like an artist and their paintbrush.

One crucial aspect for us is understanding your face shape accurately as this is the key for us as a cosmetic nurse and analysing what would be the best approach for your treatment.

So, throughout this blog I will walk you through the process of determining your face shape and understanding the concept of facial rebalancing to achieve facial harmony from a cosmetic nurse and understanding some of the tools that we may use in creating your treatment plan.

Lets’s begin with getting an understanding about the basic face shapes, here is a breakdown of the most common facial shapes:

  1. Oval faces are generally longer than wide, and they have gentle rounded contours. The cheekbones in an oval face are typically the widest part of the face with the forehead being similar in width to the jawline. 
  2. Round faces have a circular shape with the width and length being almost equal in size. There is generally fullness through the mid face in the cheeks and another facial characteristic is having a rounded chin.
  3. Square faces generally have well defined angles and a strong jawline. The width of the forehead, cheekbones and jawline are relatively similar in size
  4. Heart shaped faces tend to have prominent cheekbones. The width of the forehead is the widest part then it tends to narrow down to a pointed chin. 
  5. Oblong faces are elongated and have a narrow forehead and jawline with the length exceeding the width of the face 
  6. Diamond faces resemble a diamond when viewed from above. These faces are characterised by narrow foreheads and jawline with the cheekbones being the widest part of the face and narrowing down to the jawline 

Facial rebalancing is a technique used by your cosmetic injector. A part of this is understanding clients facial shapes to ensure we treat each client’s individual facial features and proportions appropriately. Facial rebalancing involves addressing clients’ facial concerns to achieve a more balanced and harmonised appearance. 

Based on your assessment and concerned treatment areas we will discuss and recommend treatments to address the areas of concern and any suggested imbalances. These treatments may be a mixture of anti wrinkle to treat your overactive muscles, dermal fillers to add volume and correct contours/shadows or other recommended appropriate procedures. Facial rebalancing is often approached by your injector as a gradual enhancement to achieve a natural looking result and long term relationships with your treatment plan to create a harmonised appearance. 

Rebalancing your facial proportions and symmetry can address asymmetrical facial shapes and contours as well as signs of ageing that may be enhanced due to asymmetries in the face. When discussing your facial shape this will allow us to give a comprehensive assessment to evaluate your facial features and we can then discuss your personal goals which we can achieve. Based on this assessment, we will then create a personalised treatment plan on your desired outcome and specific concerns which we can address during your treatments and we will discuss with you how these will be best achieved. We will explore injectable treatments as well as non-invasive procedures with the dermal therapist as well as homecare products to allow for a full personalised treatment plan. Facial rebalancing is something which takes time. Generally the treatments are spaced out over a period of time to allow for subtle enhancements as well as this can ensure that these results are achieving the desired outcome. Having regular follow ups and a treatment plan allows for us to alter the treatment plan if required or if we are finding clients are achieving their desired results and addressing their concerns sooner than we may predict. 

Different tools of an injector

The golden ratio is a formula which injectors often use to measure facial beauty. This tool is used to assess facial symmetry and proportion, the ideal ratio for the face is one that is roughly 1.618 longer than wide. This formula is widely recognised and used alongside the golden rectangle which looks at the perfect face ratio being 1:1.6. Perfect facial proportions are seen as being one and a half times longer than wide, this stems from the fibonacci sequence! Another tool that injectors often use is linear measurements used to get the ideal proportion from a side angle from your nose down to your lips and chin. The rickets line is a line that is drawn down from the tip of your nose down to your chin. This allows for a better understanding of where volume may be lacking in the face, enhancing this area of concern such as receding chin or enhancing lip volume. 

It is important to note that even though these are tools we often use when injecting and assessing clients we also take into considerations specific clients and their ethnicity and culture as this can impact different populations on what is seen to be attractive and balancing in faces. 

As we age our facial proportions become unbalanced and this can make our face look older due to our sunken and hollow appearance, by using injectables we are able to help with the loss of fat in our faces to make us feel more rejuvenated and improve facial proportion and contour. 

We want to ensure that clients have follow up appointments after their initial treatment to allow the treating injector to make any additional recommendations. Ensuring patient satisfaction with ongoing support from your cosmetic injector. 

Understanding your facial shape is always the first step in determining treatment plans and how we can treat clients faces to allow for the best results. Understanding that everyone has a unique face whether you have an oval, square, diamond, heart, round or oblong face we want to understand its contours and proportions and this is the key to achieving harmonised facial beauty. Using your facial shape we are able to use facial rebalancing and the tools of a cosmetic injector to achieve harmony and facial symmetry all while keeping your natural beauty and changing your features. 

Nurse Lizzie x