Describing person's appearance

To describe the appearance of a person, it is enough to memorize several adjectives, some of which are repeated, and some simple grammar constructions. Let's divide appearance into several parts and see what descriptive elements we have.

Build
We can say about a person that he/she is "крепкий" [krepkiy] - sturdy, "спортивный" [spartivnyy] - athletic, "коренастый" [karinastyy] - stumpy, "жилистый" [zhilistyy] - strong, "худощавый" [khudashchavyy] - skinny, "худой" [khudoy] - spindling or "тощий" [toshchiy] - beanpole, "толстый" [tolstyy] - thick or "полный" [polnyy] - stout (the second one is more polite). As for the words "спортивный" and "крепкий" (athletic and sturdy), you can use the structure noun+adjective in the genitive case + build. For example,

Мужчина спортивного телосложения - A man is very athletic.

Height
We can say that a person is "высокий" [vysokiy] or "невысокий" [nevysokiy] (низкий" [niskiy]) - tall or short. And we also use the common phrase "среднего роста" - of average height. Pay attention, the structure in genitive case is repeated.

Девушка невысокого роста - A girl of average height.

Skin
As for adjectives, we mainly use the words "загорелый" [zagarelyy] - tanned, "бледный" [blednyy] - pale, "смуглый" [smuglyy] - swarthy, "темнокожий" [timnakozhiy] - dark-skinned. Or «человек со смуглой кожей» - a man with a dark skin.

Hair
Hair can be: прямые [pryamye] - straight, волнистые [valnistye] - wavy, кудрявые [kudryavye] - curly; светлые [svetlye] - fair (then a person is блондин/блондинка [blandin/blandinka] - blond), темные [tyomnye] - dark (шатен [shaten] - brown-haired person, брюнет [bryunet] - dark-haired person), рыжие [ryzhie] - red, седые [sidye] - grey. If a person doesn't have hair, he is "лысый" [lysyy] - bold. As for face, there can be "щетина" [shchitina] - bristle (или "небритость" [nebritost']), "борода" [barada] - beard and "усы" [usy] - moustache.

Face
Face can be "круглое" [kruglaye] - round, "длинное" [dlinaye] - long, "полное" [polnaye] - round.

Forehead
Forehead can be "широкий" [shirokiy] - broad, "узкий" [uskiy] - narrow, высокий [visokiy] - expansive.

Eyes
According to their size, eyes can be "большие" [bal'shiye] - big and "маленькие" [malen'kiye] - small, "широко посаженные" [shirako pasazhennye] - wide-spaced and "близко посаженные" [bliska pasazhennye] - close-set, according to their color: "зеленые" [zilyonyye] - green, "синие" [siniye] - dark-blue, "голубые" [galubyye] - blue, "серые" [seryye] - grey, карие [kariye] - brown (but not "коричневые" [karichnevye]!), черные [chyornye] - black.

Nose
Nose can be "длинный" [dlinnyy] - long, "прямой" [pryamoy] - straight, "с горбинкой" [s garbinkoy] - quiline, "большой" [bal'shoy] - big, "курносый" [kurnosyy] - turned-up.

Lips
"Тонкие" - thin or "полные" [polnyye] - full.

Chin
"Круглый" - round or "острый" - pointed.

Description of a person's appearance is one of the cases when we can omit the word "есть" (to be) because we describe real facts which we can see.

Это стройная женщина, у нее кудрявые рыжие волосы, бледная кожа с веснушками, прямой нос, острый подбородок и тонкие губы - This is a slim woman with curly red hair, pale skin with freckles, straight nose, pointed chin and thin lips.