Spectacles Blog

Spectacles Blog Guides To Choosing Spectacles/Glasses: Part#999

It may be foolishness on my part but Spectacles Blog has published many pieces about choosing glasses - including the shape of your face, your hair colouring, your fashion sense, your personality and so on… but never have we used our common sense and thought about spectacles and YOUR EYES. (Am I dim or just blurry visioned?)  See other Choosing Spectacles pieces on Spectacles Blog

So… Some Notes On Spectacles, Glasses, Eyes & Eye Make Up…

Most Spectacles Demand Groomed Eyebrows

Note: Long-sighted, spectacles will tend to make your eyes look larger so be careful with the frames…
So use darker shades of eye shadow on your lids and blend it in… Flaws will be magnified as well.  Similarly because of the magnification avoid shimmery and bright colours which will amplify. Itis said that it’s best not to brush mascara on both lashes - just the upper ones only so that your eyes don’t look too round.

Note: Short-sighted, spectacles will make your eyes look smaller so bolder make-up will help balance that. I this case use mascara on both the upper and lower lashes to “grow” your eyes and use top line kohl pencil to make more highlights. It’s best to make the eye lid lighter in colour and feel free to use shimmers and brighter lights in the inner corners of the eyes to helpmae them look larger.

• Curl eye lashes before adding mascara so your lashes don’t  touch your spectacle lenses.
• Care For Your Eyebrows which are critical for glasses wearers as the glasses usually rest just under your brow and are quite prominent
• “Lighten Up” as most frames can cast shadows under eyes which can make darknesses seem darker or worse. It’s good to use a light and/or reflecting “concealer” to hide and cover under loose or pressed powder.

Spectacle frames… eye make-up 

• With bold, heavy or bright colour frames use lighter hues to open up your eyes – a pale tan or soft pink are good . Use lighter lip shades or lip-glosses
• With lighter delicate frames, use a deeper hue in your eye shadows to balance the eye area. Or to be  alittle more bold use some brighter colour hues like green, blue, or pink and be more brazen with your lips stick colours too with reds or deeper earthyshades
• If in doubt experiment…

Thanks to mecho.com.au/Specsavers (Australia) & make up artist Natasha Severino for source material.

Mexico Government Issue Spectacles For 6-18 Year Olds With Mix’n Match Colours

Mix'n Match Coloured Spectacles For Individuality

I didn’t know much about the designer of these spectacles until now but Yves Béhar is the founder of fuseproject, a design agency from San Francisco working in technology, furniture, sports, lifestyle and fashion. Their website says of Yves “Béhar brings a humanistic approach to his work with the goal of creating projects that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected with human emotions and which enable self-expression”.

[Another of fuseproject’s diverse projects include the world’s first $100 “XO” laptop for Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization]

These glasses though which come in 7 colors, 5 shapes and 3 sizes, with mix’n'match top and bottoms and varying nose pads are for a free spectacles programme with the Mexican government and Augen Optics.  Part of the value is in the advanced plastic (Grilamid) frames which are almost unbreakable.  The other clever bit is that the two-part frame allows for the lenses to plop in easily with any new prescriptions.

What’s really good is that the design is unique and attractive as well as bright-thinking…

Not Much Frame On Rimless Spectacles To Be In Three Colours...

I’ll come back with more details of my new spectacles but before I get a chance to picture them myself, I’d wanted to note that my new rimless Select Specs arrived almost exactly a fortnight after ordering.  (No post strikes or volcanoes to be seen this time.)  So happy on that front.

This time was a real splash out at all of £18 - but not bad for rimless glasses!

The picture on the left only emphasises how difficult it is to see rimless glasses frames in a photo.  But I guess that being invisible is the whole point.  I’m curious though, how you could represent rimless spectacles better. Maybe on a face being virtually invisible would be best.  Let’s see if I cannot get a good picture… watch this space.

Choose Your Glasses Frames By Shape or Period or By Style

Octagonal Spectacles by Retrospecs

A spectacles site that’s quite new to me is Retrospecs which has a huge range of frames.  Prcies range from £37 to £275 - but I don’t think that includes frames. (And the site seems to make it hard to enter your prescription and order frames with lenses - at least I found it difficult.)

You can choose brands, styles, shapes, period or by price.  Worth a look.  The frames pictured hre are £137 and are from a choice of no less than 36 octagonal frames.  They have 75 “NHS” farmes.  The irony is that [1] they’re seen as so stylish now and [2] they’re not the cheapest by a way…

Edward Scarlett Glasses For Sale

How To Get Glasses You’ve Alway Wanted…

“I always wanted a pair of glasses as worne by Michael Kane in the ipcress file. I live in Victoria Australia in Melbourne and would welcome advice how to go about this”.  So wrote David from Melbourne, Australia.

The ones worn in the Ipcress File are like those in the David Bailey shot seen on Spectacles Blog before and these ones from Michael Caines site, captioned “Classic”.

"Luke" Spectacle Frames From Premiere Optical

I can only repeat my previous advice that you go to Premiere Optical and look at the hand made “blades” range (is the Luke as on the right close?) or try emailing them to ask for exact replicas.  I’m not even sure that they didn’t make the ones for the film in the old days.  If you wanted the Luke pair they’d cost from just £149 including single vision lenses. Not bad for what you want in one off hand made specs.

You can do business with them via email and post. I cannot suggest the equivalent in Australia, as I don’ know if that service exists.

Could There Be A Current UK Personality More Right For Spectacles Blog’s Famous Four Eyes?

Laughing To The Bank In His Spectacles

Reading a recent article on The Times Online I was struck by the fact that Gok has not blessed our Spectacles Blog pages before with his presence in our Famous four Eyes section.  In that article, the photo of Gok by Giles Hattersley (as seen below) is so much better than on one of Gok’s site - where they sell his fashion collections of shaping underwear and lingerie - but no spectacles or glasses.

More Natural Four Eyes

Given his background as a meticulous fashionista and given the tremendous control of his outfits and of his looks mentioned in the Times article… you’d think he’d purge all the pictures of him tht weren’t 100% “fine” and invest in some tip-top shots to flatter.  He look quite natural above, laughing but some of the other pictures there are a bit less than flattering (in my view).

With his own connection with specs on the high street as ambasador of kids in specs and with the Spectacles Wearer Of The Year, he is certainly a proud glasses wearer… but where does he buy his specs?  (I hear it’s been Vivienne Westwood and Chanel in the past but now?)

Purple Spectacles A La France

Allainafflelou Specs Pour Les 40's?

I can’t remember when I took this picture of these purple glasses frames for Spectacles Blog. I’ve just found the connecting wire to get pictures off my Blackberry phone (don’t ask/don’t say it…  Some things make me feel so technophobic).  So here they are, released from emprisionment on my phne forever.

All I know is that they looked good - possibly better on than off.  The small print says Alain Afflelou who I now discover is a pretty big dealin France and further abroad (Iberia aand N. Africa).  He even has a range called “La Forty” but I can’t see an explanation as to whether this is just for the middle aged…

Spectacles Blog Spots Sunglasses Fashion Fascism…

What Have Sainsbury's Got Against Wayfarers Sunglasses?

Out and about yesterday, Spectacles Blog was on the South Bank in London (in my clip-on sunglasses of course) and what should I see in the window of an office on the embankment (Sainsbury’s magazine I think)?  This sign clearly displayed for the benefit of passers by in their sunglasses or otherwise…

It reads “Wayfarer Free Zone: They weren’t cool last year/They’re not cool now”

I wonder what bought this on.  Does the Sainsbury’s magazine have so much style that it can’t bear a bit of retro - or is it the posing?  Who knows?  Maybe they just see too many people passing by in these classics - tourists probably.  Hmmm.

Mela Technology In Sports Glasses

Sports/Golf Glasses From Sundog

OK, so the kind people at SunDog are sending me a pair of “Flight” sports glasses with their Mela lenses - which give 100% protection from UVA, UVB & UVC and have hi-tec light filtration… which I will describe when I get to wear them.  Just reading about it makes your brain hurt but I will give the details when I’ve worn them in the sunshine…

Talking of which: Where is the sunshine?