Mirror Lenses Are Cool. High-Maintenance Cool.

We love a good mirror lens. They look seriously cool, particularly in bright South African sunshine, and there’s a reason people keep choosing them.

But we need to have a frank conversation about them.

Mirror lenses require more care than standard lenses. Full stop.

If you’re someone who sweats heavily, lives at the beach, wears loads of sunscreen, throws your sunglasses onto the dashboard, cleans them on your shirt and generally expects your sunnies to survive whatever you throw at them, we’d genuinely rather you choose one of our standard polarised lenses.

Yes, we sell mirror lenses.

And yes, we’re telling some of you not to buy them.

Here’s why.

What makes a mirror lens different?

The blue, green, silver or other reflective finish you see on a mirror lens comes from a very thin reflective coating on the surface of the lens.

That’s what creates the mirror effect.

It also means there is an additional exposed surface that needs looking after.

Standard polarised lenses are simply the more forgiving choice. If low-maintenance and durability are more important to you than that mirrored look, choose standard.

What can affect a mirror coating?

There isn’t one single culprit.

Mirror coatings can be affected over time by a combination of sweat, salt, sunscreen, skincare products, cosmetics, chemicals, heat, grit and incorrect cleaning.

Sweat

This is a big one, particularly in our climate.

Sunglasses sit directly below your forehead and eyebrows. When you’re hot, exercising, working outdoors or spending the day in the sun, perspiration can run directly onto the lenses.

Sweat contains salts and other compounds, and repeatedly allowing it to dry on a mirror coating isn't ideal.

Sometimes deterioration appears around the upper areas of a lens and progresses downwards in a pattern consistent with moisture running from the brow. That can be a useful clue, although we cannot diagnose the exact cause of coating damage from a photograph alone.

Sunscreen, skincare and cosmetics

Sunscreen and sunglasses are obviously going to meet each other.

The same goes for moisturiser, make-up, hair products and skincare.

Different products contain different oils, solvents and active ingredients, and residue transfers surprisingly easily from your face or hands onto your sunglasses.

We're certainly not suggesting you skip the sunscreen.

Apply it, give it a chance to settle, clean your hands and try to keep it off the lenses.

The beach

Here’s the irony.

Mirror lenses look particularly good at the beach. The beach is also one of the tougher environments for them.

Salt, sand, sunscreen, sweat and heat all turn up to the same party.

You can absolutely wear mirror lenses at the beach. Just rinse them with clean fresh water afterwards and don't leave salt sitting on them.

And please don't rub dried salt or sand off the lens.

Which brings us to...

Cleaning can actually cause damage

A lens covered in tiny particles of sand or grit should not immediately be attacked with a cloth.

Those particles are abrasive.

Rubbing them across a coated lens can scratch the surface. The same applies to a dirty microfibre cloth that has spent three months rolling around in the bottom of a beach bag.

If your sunglasses are sandy, salty or particularly dirty:

Rinse first. Clean second.

Use clean fresh water to remove loose particles,  then gently dry or clean the lenses with a clean, soft microfibre lens cloth.

If you need a cleaning product, use one specifically intended for coated eyewear lenses.

Avoid household glass cleaners, harsh chemicals, solvents and abrasive cleaners.

And while the corner of your T-shirt may be convenient, we'd rather you didn't.

What about swimming pools and insect repellent?

Also worth thinking about.

Chlorinated pool water and other chemicals should not be left sitting on coated lenses. Give your sunglasses a fresh-water rinse after swimming.

Be particularly careful with insect repellents. Some contain strong solvents, so spray your repellent before putting your sunglasses on rather than spraying it anywhere near the lenses.

And then there's heat

South African cars get ridiculously hot.

Leaving sunglasses on a dashboard or in a closed car in full sun subjects the frame, lenses and coatings to temperatures they simply don't need to experience.

Repeated extreme heat isn't good for sunglasses generally.

Use the case and keep them somewhere cooler whenever possible.

“But I hardly ever wear them.”

We hear this occasionally when someone contacts us about a mirror coating.

And we completely understand why it seems relevant.

The problem is that number of wears doesn't necessarily tell us what a pair of sunglasses has been exposed to.

A mirror lens worn five times on hot beach days with sunscreen, salt and perspiration may have had a much tougher life than a standard lens worn 200 times for driving.

How sunglasses are worn, cleaned and stored matters just as much as how often they're worn.

“They look like they're fading. Can I clean them?”

This is an important distinction.

If you're looking at ordinary dirt, fingerprints, oil or residue sitting on top of the lens, absolutely — that can be cleaned.

If the actual mirror coating has deteriorated, become patchy, spotted or worn away, unfortunately it cannot simply be cleaned back to its original condition.

The coating itself has been affected.

And scrubbing harder to try to remove the marks can make matters worse.

If you're unsure what you're looking at, contact us before attacking it with anything.

Does that mean every damaged mirror lens is the customer's fault?

No.

We're going to be as fair about this as we expect our customers to be.

Manufacturing defects can happen. If a mirror coating develops an unusual problem very early despite reasonable use and proper care, get in touch with us and we'll assess it.

Equally, a deteriorated coating after exposure to sweat, salt, products, heat or abrasion isn't automatically evidence that the lens was defective.

Sometimes the history and appearance give us a good indication of what has happened. Sometimes they don't.

We're not going to pretend we can conduct a laboratory analysis from a cellphone photograph.

We'll simply assess each situation as reasonably as we can.

How long should mirror lenses last?

There isn't an honest universal answer to this.

We could give you an impressive-sounding number of years, but it wouldn't mean much.

The lifespan of any surface coating depends on the coating itself and how it is used, cleaned, stored and exposed to the environment.

Some people keep their mirror lenses looking great for years.

Other people are exceptionally hard on sunglasses without even realising it.

Neither person's experience gives us a legitimate lifespan we can promise everybody else.

How to make your mirror lenses last

This really isn't complicated.

Rinse them after sweat, salt or swimming.

Keep sunscreen, cosmetics and chemicals off the lenses as much as reasonably possible.

Never rub sand or grit across them.

Use a clean microfibre cloth.

Avoid excessive heat.

Store them in their case.

That's it.

You don't have to treat them like priceless antiques.

You just need to remember that you're wearing a lens with an exposed reflective coating.

Should you buy mirror lenses?

Here's our very uncomplicated test.

If you're looking at a pair of mirror sunglasses thinking:

Those are seriously cool.

And you're prepared to give them a little extra care?

Go for it.

If you're thinking:

I'm going to wear these fishing, surfing, sweating, covered in sunscreen, leave them in the bakkie and clean them on my shirt...

Please buy the standard polarised lenses.

They're the better choice for you.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing the more practical option. A mirror lens isn't automatically a better lens because it looks flashier.

It is simply a different finish with a different care requirement.

The Hashtag Bamboo bottom line

We'd rather lose a mirror-lens sale than sell you something that doesn't suit the way you live.

So here's the deal:

MIRROR LENSES ARE COOL. HIGH-MAINTENANCE COOL.

If sweat, sunscreen, salt and careful cleaning aren't things you want to think about, choose a standard lens.

If you do choose mirror?

Wear them. Enjoy them. Look after them.

And for goodness' sake, don't clean beach sand off them with your T-shirt. 😎