Hot trend: Colored lenses

Colored or shaded lenses have been on the market for quite some time. Fashion trends drive this product and the available palette covers an impressive spectrum. This article provides insights into how you will find your way through the color jungle at your eye care professional’s office while making the best choice for your eyes – in particular when it comes to protection from UV rays.

When you are choosing a color for your lenses, less can certainly be more. If you want to wear the shaded glasses frequently, the shading should be minimal, so that the people you interact with can still see your eyes clearly. When choosing the color, women should wear their usual eye makeup and select a coordinating shade. Also take into account the clothing you tend to wear the most. Your eye care professional will then be able to present a matching color selection for your glasses from his or her collection.

The trend favors especially yellow, rose or blue hues. However, if you are planning to use your glasses as sunglasses, you will have to make your choice with great care, because not all lenses provide adequate protection from the sun, and most especially from UV rays. Some may even cause damages. Whenever you wear sunglasses, you pupils expand completely and are therefore not as well protected. Make sure you choose glasses that filter UV rays: Glasses that reduce the light by more than 30% provide 100 % solar UV protection. Important: The color or intensity of the shading do not indicate the level of UV protection; the only reliable indicator is the CE label. As a rule, all sunglasses sold by eye care professionals are CE certified and therefore UV protection compatible.

Besides UV ray protection, you will have to pay attention to a second protection factor. Within the light color spectrum, blue light causes the most severe damage to the eye. It attacks the eye where its sharpest visual power originates. Moreover, it can cause diffused light, which reduces the level of contrast. Good sunglasses have to provide UV ray as well as blue light protection.

If you have misgivings about your current sunglasses, your eye care professional can help you by measuring their UV protection and blue light penetration levels. He or she can also check the visual quality of glasses on site. You can also perform an initial check at home: Raise your glasses up in a straight horizontal line and move them back and forth. If your sunglasses are of good quality, the line should not be distorted. However, this test works only with non-prescription sunglasses.

Glass lenses are tinted by steaming absorbing layers onto them. These thin layers consist of metal or metal oxide compositions and are heated to specific high temperatures. They also feature high natural refractivity and their degree of reflection increases. Consequently, the layers are steamed on in multiple steps to maintain the required properties of the glass. Therefore, glass lenses are available in brown hues of different absorption levels – and as a standard feature they always have a gold anti-reflection coating on the back.

The shading of plastic lenses is achieved by immersing the lenses into color solutions. Plastic lenses can thus be dyed virtually any color.