Sunglasses that don't make the world look ugly

August 26, 2020 9:48 AM

I am a reluctant sunglasses wearer but need to keep from losing an eye to flying insects while bike riding. I bought some cheap ones with polarized lenses that make the world look like mud. I hate them. In these Covid times I can't try things on because I'm sticking to mail order, so I ask you: What kind of lenses would not turn the beautiful vivid landscape dull and depressing?
posted by HotToddy to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (26 answers total)

If you're not interested in their sun-blocking qualities, have you considered a pair of clear safety glasses?
posted by hannahelastic at 9:53 AM on August 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

For what it's worth, color of lenses make a lot of difference to me and my moods. Having a warm, brown color lens is the best and a warm green color is second best. Black and blue lenses are non starters for me as they make everything look like winter time which I find very depressing. Also I hate polarized lenses and the research I did said that they actually only keep out 1% more UV than regular lenses.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 9:56 AM on August 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

I think glass polarized lenses with an amber (or slightly rose) tint are the best optically. Also, usually less light blocking than black/grey lenses.
posted by mercredi at 9:57 AM on August 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Polarized lenses are the best for cutting glare, clear or light gray/black are best for changing colors the least, amber lenses are often considered best for driving. So I think you want clear or amber. You may not mind polarization with amber, or you can get them unpolarized.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:59 AM on August 26, 2020

I've been very happy with a rose tint on a polarized lens. Makes everything seem brighter and more vivid. (Brighter in terms of color tone, not light intensity.)
posted by mr_roboto at 10:00 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

agree experiment with tints. Warm brown or pinkish lenses make red and pinks look incredible. You know the saying "rose colored glasses".
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:01 AM on August 26, 2020

As for brands, if you're willing to spend some money, the quality, durability, and comfort of Maui Jim (one of the last few remaining independent--i.e. not Luxottica--sunglass manufacturers around) is hard to beat.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:04 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding Maui Jim.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:07 AM on August 26, 2020

Absolutely go with an amber! I don't like rose as much because I feel like it doesn't cut enough brightness for me, but my amber glasses make everything look pleasantly warm and bright. Sometimes I forget I'm wearing them and walk inside with them still on, because they don't distort in an "I'm wearing sunglasses" way, just give a nice tint. Mine are all from Zenni or Firmoo, so you don't have to go super expensive if you want to just give the tints a try.
posted by assenav at 10:18 AM on August 26, 2020

Polarized lenses are not ideal for cycling because they reduce the light from reflections. This is bad for cycling because it reduces the light from oily or wet patches on the road making them less eye catching.

There are lenses that are a gray that alter the color balance minimally so the world looks about the same with and without glasses. AO's true gray is one example.

I cycle with clear lenses for dimer times of day or night. I agree that yellows, amber and pinks will make the world look great. They do have the problem of making the world look sad when you take them off.
posted by bdc34 at 10:36 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love my Maui Jim's, but the lenses scratched up really easily.

After about a year I got replacement lenses from Fuse, an online aftermarket lens replacement outfit (I got the Carbon Mirror Polarized) and they are absolutely fantastic lenses (they were $50, the original Maui Jim's were a couple/ three hundred bucks?).

True to colour, blocks glare/ UV, not absolutely oleoresistant but very easy to clean, and after a couple of years of similar daily use - no scratches, not even patina.

Super happy with the lenses. If I get another pair of frames, I'll probably get replacement lenses for them immediately.

Fuse cuts lenses to a lot of different brands/ models. The ones I got fit in the frame really well.
posted by porpoise at 10:43 AM on August 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Amber tint all the way, it gives the whole world a warm gold glow. Green things especially look more alive. Try a few tints from Zenni, you can pick from different hues and intensity, and it's dirt cheap so you can experiment until you find something you like.
posted by Freyja at 10:44 AM on August 26, 2020

Take a look at the Goodr site - they have sliders for each pair of glasses that lets you see the world (ok, usually someone in a flamingo suit) with and without the associated tint and polarization. Based on the two pair I have, I’d say the simulator is pretty accurate.
posted by okayokayigive at 10:55 AM on August 26, 2020

I use these cheap-ass ones from amamazon. They come in a pack with grey, amber, and blueish tints. I find that if anything the amber makes colors pop more than normal. They're 3 for $10 so if you don't like it, fuck it, just give 'em away.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:13 AM on August 26, 2020

My current cycling sunglasses are a pair of polarized ones that do the job but yeah make the world look a bit muddy, although I do stop noticing it after a bit.

A long time ago I bought a pair of red sunglasses and they were great. Didn't do much of a job reducing the light coming in but they made the world look better. I'd buy them again if I happened upon them.

I recently bought some cheap clear safety glasses for night-time riding but didn't keep them in a case and the lenses got scratched up pretty quickly - I guess they're good for impacts but not so much scratches. So if you do end up getting safety glasses I'd recommend keeping them in a case.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:13 AM on August 26, 2020

At one point I was doing night cycling but still needed the wind protection so I got a cheap pair (like mentioned above) with interchangeable (single-piece) lenses that had dark tint, lighter gray tint, amber, and clear lenses. Something like this. At the worst, you figure out what color works for you and get a better pair in that tint.
posted by supercres at 11:50 AM on August 26, 2020

I bought a pair of Randolph Engineering pilot's sunglasses a decade ago. I don't know lens type they are (they look greyish mirrored, non-polarized) but they make the world utterly beautiful. Clouds against a blue sky are just alive with detail. They aren't cheap, but they're very solidly made.

For cycling, I mostly use plastic site safety glasses. They're available in various tints and they're inexpensive. The wrap-around ones are good for fending off oblique bugs
posted by scruss at 11:51 AM on August 26, 2020

Warning on cheap cycling sunglasses though: opt for ones with flatter, less-curved lenses. Cheap wrap-arounds tend to be distorted in the periphery; nicer ones have done the shaping to mitigate this.
posted by supercres at 11:52 AM on August 26, 2020

I always just got the cheap crappy ones prior to getting prescription lenses. Never had trouble with them making the world ugly, the way that polarized lenses do, and they kept bugs out of my eyes just fine. I do not like the amber tint ones, they make colors weird.
posted by bile and syntax at 12:00 PM on August 26, 2020

I absolutely love Smith's sunglasses with ChromaPop polarized lenses. They are true to their name and literally make colors pop out beautifully while reducing glare and overwhelming brightness. When out in nature I often remark at how striking something looks color-wise, while others with different sunglasses or no sunglasses wonder WTF I'm on about (until I give them my sunglasses and they go "wow").
posted by zsazsa at 12:38 PM on August 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Going to type this out instead of just throwing a + because Chromapop is glorious. You're out here looking at green grass and bright blue sky and it's actually brown grass and it's cloudy and you won't care. The optics seem excellent at resisting scratching and etc; I've got a pair of Methods that has been kicking around in my trunk, behind my seat, etc., for damn near 10 years and they look great.
posted by ftm at 1:33 PM on August 26, 2020

I have 10+ pairs of Zenni sunglasses, and the 80 % amber tint is GORGEOUS, and it makes everything look really lovely. (The grey, not so much.) Pre-Instagram, I used to put the lens in front of my dinky digital camera to make things look more romantic. Love 'em.
posted by Charity Garfein at 1:40 PM on August 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thirding Chromapop. Smith also makes their lenses in the correct shape so there's no distortion around the periphery.

The thing with polarization - it seems "muddy" because light bounce off reflected surfaces is reduced. Polarized glasses usually have one lens polarized 45° and the other at -45° so you still get some reflective depth perception. If you're trying to determine if something's wet (reflective) or not, you can tilt (roll axis) your head a little and it's obvious. This all goes to say, the one "con" of polarized glasses can be worked around, but the "pro" of not being fucking blinded by glare is still there.
posted by notsnot at 5:34 AM on August 27, 2020

Nthing amber lenses, but definitely plastic! Glass and crystal can shatter, and well, don't do that in front of your eyes. I keep hearing about Chromapop, and will probably try those for my next pair.
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:18 AM on August 27, 2020

If you dig into the specs of lenses from good brands they should give you an idea of visible light transmission (how much the lenses reduce brightness, overall) and color. I still think of the classic Ray-Ban G-15 lens (a greenish gray that allows 15% of visible light transmission) as the most natural sunglass lens and anything else looks weird to me. I got prescription sunglasses a few years ago and the optician specified brown lenses (more or less equivalent to Ray-Ban's old B-15 to someone who was a teen in the 1980s who cared about this stuff). While they were mostly neutral it took me a while to realize how much they were turning every sunset pink. This interfered with my planning for sunset photos ("This looks amazing!" [pulls out camera] "This looks dull!" [looks over lenses] "Oh.") and sometimes led to similar conversations with my wife ("is this sunset amazing, or is it just my sunglasses again?"). When I got a new prescription last year my eye doctor was super into my request "can you just do a G-15?" He must also have been a teen in the 80s. "Those will look great in those frames." They're Ray-Ban Clubmasters I bought new in 1988, so of course a G-15 looks great in them.

If the most accurate color is important to you, look at pure gray or greenish gray lenses. If a slight increase in contrast is important but with otherwise mostly accurate color, look at browns. If increased contrast is more important to you than accurate color, look at amber or vermillion lenses. Serengeti (developed by Corning) really pushed vermillion lenses in the late 80s, and amber lenses were As Seen On TV through the 90s; personally I find pink lenses make the world look less weird than amber, but I think more people prefer amber, so YMMV. And if you don't want them very dark, look for lenses with higher VLT. If you want to get really fancy you can dig into glasses with lenses that are one color and coatings that are another (think Oakley).

And a general warning about polarized lenses: smart phone screens and camera displays are also polarized, and if the polarization on your sunglasses is at just the wrong corresponding angle, you won't be able to see your screen(s). I hated one set of polarized prescription lenses so much I had them remade. My current prescription sunglasses are also polarized, and less of a problem than that first pair, but I'm still not totally a fan. I try to keep a pair of decent non-prescription sunglasses around for when I wear my contacts, and that pair isn't polarized.

(And yes, almost everything is a conglomerate now. Serengeti was one of three brands until recently owned by Vista Outdoor, which does a lot of stuff around "shooting sports" but also owns bike helmet brands Bell and Giro; Oakley and Ray-Ban are just two of optical industry giant Luxottica's brands now; Smith is part of another conglomerate, Safilo Group. Maui Jim does just seem to be Maui Jim, though.)
posted by fedward at 11:52 AM on August 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Okay, I ordered three different pairs of Maui Jims. I really wanted to try the Smiths in Chromapop but couldn't find a style that would look good on me. Thanks for all your help!
posted by HotToddy at 8:10 PM on August 27, 2020