Pieni

If you are a first time glasses wearer or even if it is just that you have never bought glasses online before, the different lenses we offer can be a little confusing. The guide below should hopefully help you choose what lenses are required for your prescription or what lenses you would like. Sometimes it’s about personal choice rather than necessity. If you still need help don’t forget to check out our Frequently Asked Questions as there is a section dedicated to lenses, or you can contact our customer service team by email or phone.

Plano/non-prescription lenses – These are clear lenses like the ones you would find in glasses frames when you are trying them on in the opticians store. If you are buying glasses for fashion use or if you wish to just buy the frame from us and have the lenses fitted by your own optician this is the option to choose. This is also the option to choose if you are wanting to buy non-prescription sunglasses (they will still come with lenses tinted the colour in the photo on the website).

Standard lenses – these are the lenses that come included in the cost of your glasses or sunglasses. They are single vision lenses for when you order glasses for a single use e.g. distance glasses or reading glasses. They are suitable for most basic prescriptions, please note that if you normally need or prefer to have a thinner lighter lenses option you may find standard lenses thicker than your normal ones. If the Sphere value (SPH) on your prescription is above +6.00 or -6.00 or your Cylinder measurement (CYL) is more than -2.00, you will need to choose a thinner lenses option. It is not physically possible to make your lenses using a standard lens. If you do not have a prescription but want to have your glasses made up as reading glasses (Ready Readers) you also need to choose the standard lenses option. You will need to know the lenses value require eg: +1.25 and advise us of this.

Standard lenses with anti-reflection coating – exactly the same lenses as above but with an anti-reflection coating added. You may know it as anti-glare coating which is exactly the same thing. If you wear your glasses to use the computer it helps with the glare from the VDU screen. It also may help with driving when the sun is low in the sky and glaring against the windscreen. We have customers who work in the TV and Theatre industry who order glasses with anti-glare coating as it stops the reflection of the stage and studio lighting. So you may want to consider it if you take a lot of selfies as it cuts down on the reflection from the camera flash too.

Light reactive lenses – These are the lenses that change into sunglasses lenses when you are in direct sunlight but appear like regular glasses lenses when you are inside or there is no sun.

Bifocal lenses – These are the ones with the line across the lenses, above the line has your distance prescription and below is your reading one. Great if you wear glasses for both distance and reading but don’t want to have to keep swapping two pairs of glasses over all the time.

Varifocal lenses – These are a multi-use lenses covering all ranges of your prescription eg distance, reading and even computer use. More expensive than bifocals but they also look better cosmetically as they do not have a line across the lenses. You also get a more natural range of vision. We offer two standards of varifocal lenses, the standard ones are the same quality as the medium priced option in most High St opticians. The premiums are a higher quality option as reflected by the price.

Thinner lighter lenses options – 1.6 , 1.67 and 1.74 are all grading’s of thinner lighter lenses. In most cases if you normally have thinned down lenses you will know. The grading you may need or want depends on your prescription values, frame choice and cosmetic preference. If you are unsure as to what thinner lens option you may need do not hesitate to contact our customer service team with a copy of your prescription. They will advise you on your options taking into account necessity, cost and cosmetic look and also the best compromise of all 3. All standard thiner lenses options come with anti glare coating included in the cost. 

Sun Tint – This is a tint applied to the lenses to turn them into permanent sunglasses. As with all our Sunglasses lenses it offers full UVA and UVB protection to keep your eyes safe in the sun.