Eyeglasses have become an important accessory. They allow us to show off our style in a different way than our clothes do, and I always love an opportunity to shop for something that suits my style.

Last time I got new glasses, a salesperson kept steering me towards glasses that might have been ok for my face shape, but were absolutely not right for my personal style. When I finally found a reasonably priced frame that I liked, the lenses were a fortune. I was so frustrated with the experience that I just paid for the glasses and ran.

When I decided to get a second pair of glasses, I realized I couldn’t go through the same torture and I certainly didn’t want to pay as much as I had before. I decided to check out some optical websites. It turned out to be the best eyeglass shopping experience I’ve ever had, so I decided to do a post on how to buy eyeglasses online.

Coastal.com is an amazing website with a lot of features that really come in handy when shopping for eyeglasses. First of all, and most importantly, you can upload a photo of yourself and try the glasses on virtually. I went through all the brands I thought had interesting options on the site (such as Joseph Marc, Derek Cardigan and Love) and found four pair that I really liked. It was much more fun “trying on” the glasses while sitting at my computer that doing it in a store. I included my virtual photos below so you can see them.

I liked the color of these a lot, but there was too much space below my eyes

These were too narrow for my face

These were too big for my face

I decided to get these, but in brown because it’s a better color for my skin tone

When shopping online for glasses, there are a few things to look out for.

• Try to narrow it down a bit by searching for some specific must-haves, such as a certain color, shape or style.
• Check out the measurements for lens width, bridge width and arm length on a current pair of glasses to compare to what you’re looking at online. The measurements are listed on the arm of your glasses as follows: lens width, bridge width and arm length. For example, my glasses say: 51 – 17 – 140. The lenses are 51 mm wide, the width of the bridge is 17 mm and the length of the arm is 140 mm.
• If you like your current glasses, look for measurements in the same range. Here are the average sizes for different measurements. Anything smaller is for a narrow face and larger is for a wide face.
  • Avg Lens Width is 49-52 mm
  • Avg Lens Height is 27-38 mm
  • Avg Bridge Width is 18-19 mm
  • Avg Arm Length is 136-140 mm
• Check out my post on How To Find The Right Sunglasses For Your Face Shape for tips about which style glasses are right for you. The concept is the same whether looking for sunglasses or eyeglasses.

Here I am wearing my new Love glasses from Coastal.com. What do you think?

xoxo

Illysia