Sabine Be for a small face: Mini, Slim, Line and Stripe explained, by eye size

Every Sabine Be listing here is marked made in France. Its own site dates the brand's launch to 2014 and names its designer as Sabine. Almost every model is called Be plus a mood word: Be Addict, Be Swag, Be Sexy, Be Groom. A second word tells you what changed. The brand's site does not define these words, so here is what each one means in the frames we hold, checked against the measurements.

• Mini is a scaled-down front. The Mini Be Crazy measures 44-19-130, about 107mm across. The 19mm bridge is one of the narrowest in the shop and the 130mm temple is the shortest. The brand keeps a Mini Be category on its site. In stock, the Mini Be Crazy is the one example.
• Slim is the thin metal version. The two Slims we hold are the only metal frames in the range here: the Be Balloon Slim at 41-23-140 and the Be Mood Slim at 48-22-140. Both take a 140mm temple.
• Line marks three models here: the Be Cute Line, the Be Bobo Line and the Be Bikini Line. All three are acetate with a two-part colour name, Blonde Tortoise / Turquoise for instance. Twelve frames without the word also carry a two-part colour name, so the stock data cannot tell you that Line means an inlay. Treat it as a model name and judge the colour from the photograph.
• Stripe is a striped acetate on a front you already know. The Be Swag Stripe is 47-23-145, the same numbers as the plain Be Swag. The Be Addict Stripe is 45-21-145, the same as the Be Addict. Same fit, different surface.
• Swell is the acetate Balloon. The Be Balloon Swell is 45-25-145 with a 43mm lens height, four millimetres wider in the eye and two wider in the bridge than the metal Slim. The brand's site names three Be Balloon models: Be Balloon, Be Balloon Slim and Be Balloon Swell. The shop holds the Slim and the Swell.

If a search for Sabine Be glasses brought you here for one of those words, that is the whole of what it changes. The mood word names the shape. The second word names the build.

Nine of the 26 frames in stock have an eye size of 45mm or less. One frame, the Be Factory at 46-24-145, about 116mm across, sits between the small group and the middle. Here they are, smallest first. Across-the-front is two eyes plus the bridge, so it tells you how wide the frame sits on the face, which the eye size alone does not.

• Be Balloon Slim, 41-23-140, about 105mm across. Metal, round, Satin Red.
• Be Square, 42-26-145, about 110mm. Acetate and metal, square, Horn / Satin Red.
• Be Gipsy, 43-26-140, about 112mm. Acetate and metal, round, Vintage Tortoise / Satin Red.
• Be Groom, 43-26-145, about 112mm. Acetate, round, Matte Blonde Tortoise / Matte Turquoise.
• Be Zoulou, 43-26-148, about 112mm. Acetate, geometric, Tawny Grey / Translucent Purple.
• Mini Be Crazy, 44-19-130, about 107mm. Acetate, round, Matte Translucent Red.
• Be Addict, 45-21-145, about 111mm. Acetate, round, Ivory / Blonde Veined Tortoise.
• Be Addict Stripe, 45-21-145, about 111mm. Acetate, round, Navy Stripe.
• Be Balloon Swell, 45-25-145, about 115mm. Acetate, round, Orange.

Notice the bridges. Four of these frames pair a 42 or 43mm eye with a 26mm bridge. That is the brand's proportion. The lens is small, but it sits well clear of the nose, and the two lenses are set apart rather than crowded to the middle. The front still comes out at 110 to 112mm across, which is an ordinary width for a small to medium head. So the frame looks small on the face without being a small frame.

That has a consequence for your prescription. On a 43mm eye with a 26mm bridge the geometric centres of the lenses are 69mm apart. Most adults measure less than that between the pupils, so the optical centres are moved inward when the lenses are cut. That is routine work for any optician, but on a strong prescription it adds a little thickness at the outer edge. The Mini Be Crazy puts its centres 63mm apart and the Be Addict 66mm, which is closer to where most pupils sit.

If your head is narrow at the temples, start with the Be Balloon Slim at 105mm and the Mini Be Crazy at 107mm. If your nose is narrow, or your eyes sit close together, the 19mm bridge on the Mini and the 21mm on the Be Addict will settle better than a 26.

The Mini Be Crazy has a 130mm temple. Nothing else in the Sabine Be stock comes close. Three frames take a 140, the Be Balloon Slim, the Be Gipsy and the Be Mood Slim. The Be Love takes a 143. Twenty frames take a 145, and the Be Zoulou a 148.

A temple is measured from the hinge to the tip, following the bend. What matters is where the bend lands. On a short head, a 145mm temple puts the bend behind the ear rather than over it, and the frame slides down the nose all day. An optician can move a bend forward, but only by a few millimetres before the tip runs out. A 130 with the bend in the right place holds a small front where it belongs.

So the 130 is for a genuinely short head: a small adult, a teenager, or anyone whose ears sit close to the front of the face. It also pairs with a 19mm bridge, one of the narrowest in the shop, so the Mini Be Crazy is built small in every direction, not only in the eye. If the front fits you but a 130 feels short, the next step is a 140. The Be Balloon Slim and the Be Gipsy both take one, and both have an eye size under 44mm.

One caution. A 130 temple on a normal-sized head will pull at the ears, and no adjustment fixes that. Measure the temple on a pair you already own before you order.

Two Sabine Be frames in stock are metal, and both carry the word Slim. The Be Balloon Slim in Satin Red is 41-23-140 with a 41mm lens height: a lens as tall as it is wide, a full circle. The Be Mood Slim in Satin Purple is 48-22-140 with a 44mm lens height, so a larger round on the same 140mm temple.

The trade is weight against colour. A thin metal rim weighs less than acetate, and on a small face that shows: the frame does not press on the bridge or leave marks on the nose the way a thick acetate front can. What you give up is colour. The Satin Red and Satin Purple sit on a thin wire, so at speaking distance you see a fine line of colour around each eye, not a block of it. The acetate Be Balloon Swell in Orange, by comparison, puts a visible border of colour on the face.

The second trade is in the lens. A thin rim gives a lens nowhere to hide its edge. On the 41mm Be Balloon Slim the lens is small, so even a strong minus prescription stays tidy. On the 48mm Be Mood Slim the lens is 44mm deep, which is generous room for a progressive corridor, but a strong minus will show more thickness at the edge. For a plus prescription, the smaller lens is the lighter and thinner one, so the Be Balloon Slim is the easier choice.

Both Slims have lens heights of 41mm and above. That is deep enough for any progressive design, so neither is ruled out for a reading segment.

Thirteen frames in stock sit between 47 and 50mm in the eye. What separates them is the bridge, which runs from 18 to 26mm across the range and can move the across-the-front width by 4mm at the same eye size.

• Be Swag and Be Swag Stripe, 47-23-145, about 117mm. Rectangular acetate.
• Be Sweet, 47-22-145, about 116mm. Acetate and metal cat-eye, Vintage Tortoise / Satin Red.
• Be Bobo Line, 47-24-145, about 118mm. Rectangular, 34mm lens height, among the shallowest in the shop.
• Be Bikini Line, 48-18-145, about 114mm. Cat-eye, in Translucent Turquoise / Solid Turquoise or Crystal / White.
• Be Mood Slim, 48-22-140, about 118mm. Metal, round.
• Be Val de Loire, 49-21-145, about 119mm. Round, 49mm lens height, the deepest in the shop.
• Be Trendy, 49-22-145, about 120mm. Acetate and metal oval.
• Be Cute Line, 49-23-145, about 121mm. Cat-eye, 40mm lens height.
• Be Sexy, 50-26-145, about 126mm. Oval, in Horn / Red or Blonde Tortoise / Neon Yellow.

Two comparisons show why the bridge matters more than the eye. The Be Bikini Line at 48-18 is 114mm across, narrower than the 45mm Be Balloon Swell at 115mm. And the Be Sexy at 50-26 is 126mm across, the widest frame in the shop, wider than the 53mm Be Cat’s at 53-18, which is 124mm. If you have been told your face is small and a 48 sounds too big, look at the bridge before you decide.

Above 50mm the range has two models, the Be Love at 51-23-143 and the Be Cat’s at 53-18-145. Both are cat-eyes and both are wide fronts. They are the bookends, not small-face frames.

Sabine Be colour names are long because they are precise. In stock the translucent acetates are the Mini Be Crazy in Matte Translucent Red, the Be Zoulou in Tawny Grey / Translucent Purple, the Be Bobo Line in Translucent Dark Green / White, the Be Love in Translucent Light Blue / Neon Pink, and the Be Bikini Line in Translucent Turquoise / Solid Turquoise or Crystal / White. The striped acetates are the Be Swag Stripe in Navy Stripe or Red Stripe and the Be Addict Stripe in Navy Stripe. Matte finishes include the Be Groom, the Be Factory in Matte Tokyo Tortoise / Matte Turquoise and the Be Cat’s in Matte Vanilla Choco.

A product photograph is lit flat, against white, with nothing behind the lens. A translucent acetate shows its full colour that way, and a stripe reads as a pattern. On a face, at a metre, it is different. Skin sits behind the rim, so a translucent red picks up the warmth of the skin and reads as a soft edge rather than a red frame. A stripe at that distance reads as texture, like a fine weave, and only becomes a pattern when someone leans in.

Matte does the opposite job. Polished acetate throws a highlight along the brow line that catches the eye across a room. Matte kills that highlight, so Matte Blonde Tortoise reads as one quiet colour from any distance. That is why the matte and translucent frames are the ones to choose if you want colour that a colleague notices only when they look for it.

A two-part name means two colours on one frame. Where the second colour sits varies by model, so look at the product photos, including the side view, before you decide how much of it will show from the front.

Every Sabine Be frame in stock is $590. They are acetate, metal, or acetate and metal, and every listing is marked made in France. What follows is what an optician sees on the bench.

Two things make the price easier to judge. The first is that every frame here is listed with its eye, bridge, temple and lens height, so you can compare it with a pair you own before you buy. The second is that acetate and metal both take an optician's adjustment: heat the temple, set the bend, and it stays set, which is what turns a good size into a good fit.

That is the case for the price. Here is the other side. A frame is only worth $590 if it fits, and a small-face frame more than most, because there is no room to spare. So read the numbers, measure a pair you own, and use the table above.

The terms, stated plainly. We ship frames as frames, without lenses, free and insured within the US, signed for on delivery. Your own optician fits the lenses; if you are local, the Eye Rx practice can do it. Returns are accepted within 7 days of delivery with a 15% restocking fee. That fee is why the measurements in this guide matter more than the photographs.

If you are anywhere near Arlington or Dumfries, try the frames on. Numbers get you close. A 26mm bridge on a 43mm eye either sits on your nose or it does not, and thirty seconds in a mirror settles what a page of measurements cannot.

Bring the glasses you wear now. We read the size off the temple, measure your pupillary distance, and show you which of the nine small frames land where your current pair does. If you have a prescription, bring that too; it decides whether a thin metal Slim or a deeper acetate is the better lens carrier for you.

Say which frames you want to see when you get in touch through the contact page, and we will arrange it. Hours and directions for both shops are on the visit page. If you would rather order online first, the frame size guide explains how to read the three numbers on your own frame, and the full Sabine Be collection shows every frame with its measurements.