With the warmer weather on its way, I’m certainly planning to spend a lot more time outside in the sun.
But as a full-time glasses wearer, it can be frustrating having to carry an extra pair of prescription glasses with me (one for inside and one for out).
I often opt for contact lenses during the summer and just wear standard sunglasses, but that can get fiddly after a while (and if you wear contacts, hopefully you can relate to not wanting to put something in your eyes every day!).
I’ve never ventured into the world of transitional lenses but have always been interested – so when Oscar Wylee reached out and gave me the opportunity to try a pair, I jumped at it.
So, I put down my daily glasses and put my contacts away to begin my journey of wearing my brand new prescription transitional lenses (also known as photochromic lenses) for a whole week.
What does a transitional lens do?
Essentially, the lens provides both the vision correction of your prescription and the UV protection of sunglasses, without needing to change frames!
They’re meant to be more convenient and cost-effective, which makes sense, as you don’t need to buy two different frames for inside and outside.
The website states the lenses may be good for people who “may have light sensitivity or are vulnerable to eye strain”.
So, how do the lenses work? Well, it’s through a chemical reaction – the chemical or dye in the lens reacts when exposed to UV light.
Here are my honest thoughts:
I tried to wear my glasses as often as possible over the one week to test out the full experience.
- Oscar Wylee had a huge range of different frames, which allowed me to select a pair that I thought would look good as ‘normal’ glasses and sunglasses – although this proved to be a bit of a challenge in itself.
- I particularly enjoyed how easy it was to just walk in and out of the office, shops, and cafes on a sunny day and not have to worry about changing glasses – it was great how you can just wear the one pair.
- I was able to wear the glasses all day and into the night – you would have no idea that they would turn into sunglasses during the day!
- As someone who gets migraines, I found the transitional lenses to be helpful to block out the UV rays when I was outside (even when it wasn’t too sunny).
- I’m not so keen on the colour the lenses went (which is a lighter brown) when they are in between being inside and outside – this usually happens when I first step outside or after I get out of the sun. They also go this medium colour when it’s overcast.
- There was a moment where I was standing outside and only half of one lens reacted to the sun due to the direction I was standing in, which made for a bit of a comical look.
All in all, I will definitely continue to wear my transitional lenses sunglasses, especially in the warmer months when I will be outside a lot more – they are so convenient and I love the frame!
And, as mentioned above, Oscar Wylee has a large number of frames which are compatible with their transitional lenses (it took me three visits to decide which frames I wanted for myself!).
Plus, they’ve now got celebrity-inspired styles – so if you’d like to channel your inner Sabrina Carpenter or Hayley Bieber… there’s now the option to do so with their new Edit range!
