How to Care for Sunglasses

Cleaning

1. Rinse both lenses under lukewarm running water. This floats off grit that would otherwise be dragged across the lens and scratch it.
2. Put a drop of mild dish soap on each lens, rub gently with your fingertips, and rinse again.
3. Shake off the water and dry with a clean microfiber cloth, the one that came in the box or any lens cloth.
4. Wipe the nose rest and the inside of the temples too; that is where skin oil builds up.

What not to use: paper towels and tissues, which are made of wood fibre and leave fine scratches; a shirt hem or sleeve, which carries dust; and household glass or window cleaner, which can strip mirror and anti-glare coatings. Wash the microfiber cloth now and then without fabric softener, which clogs it.

Storage

• Use the case. The hard case that comes with most designer pairs exists for a reason; a soft pouch is the next best thing.
• Never set the glasses down lens-first. Fold them and rest them on the temples, or on the brow, lenses up.
• Keep them off the car dashboard and out of a parked car in summer. Heat softens acetate and can warp a frame or craze a coating.
• Hanging glasses from a shirt collar or pushing them onto your head stretches the temples over time.

Adjusting the fit

Every pair ships exactly as the maker packed it, without adjustment. If the temples sit too wide, the pair slides down your nose, or one side rides higher than the other, take it to an optician. Most will adjust a frame in a few minutes, often at no charge. Acetate is warmed and bent; metal is bent cold with the right pliers; nose pads are repositioned. Do not try to bend a frame yourself with household pliers or over a kettle: acetate snaps, metal arms kink, and neither is a defect once you have done it.

Wear and tear versus a defect

GlareBear's returns page draws the line this way. If a pair arrives with a manufacturer defect, is not the pair you ordered, or arrives damaged, email [email protected] within 7 days of delivery with your order number and clear photos of the problem; if we confirm it, we send you a prepaid return label, so returning it costs you nothing. A slight misalignment of the frame, such as a temple that sits a little off, is not a defect. Frames ship without an adjustment, and a local optician can adjust them. Scratches, damage and wear after delivery, and damage from misuse, are not defects either. Separately, any pair can be returned within 30 days of delivery, unworn and in its original packaging with everything that came in the box; we email you a return label and deduct its cost from the refund. The full wording is on the returns page.

Lenses with coatings

Mirror and anti-glare coatings are thin layers on the lens surface and they scratch more easily than the lens itself. The rinse-first rule matters most for them. Salt water and sunscreen both attack coatings: rinse a pair that has been to the beach the same day. Polarized lenses have their filter inside the lens, so cleaning does not affect it. More on both in lens colours explained and polarized or not.

Screws and hinges

Temple screws loosen with use. If an arm feels floppy, a small eyeglass screwdriver tightens it in a moment; opticians do this free. A drop of clear nail varnish on a screw that keeps loosening holds it. If a screw falls out, keep the arm and the screw together in the case until you can get it refitted, rather than forcing a replacement.