An Amazing Find

When it comes to purchasing items on the internet, I tend to be slightly skeptical of most transactions. I despise PayPal and eBay, as I've had a few bad experiences, and I don't trust any small websites that have little to no reputation for security or holding themselves accountable to the customer. I usually only use amazon.com, a website I love very dearly.

On what may seem a completely unrelated note, I have pretty horrible eyesight. I've had glasses since I was in Kindergarten. I hate not being able to see, so I wear my contacts almost all the time, even when sleeping (oops!). My only pair of glasses broke about 6 months ago and I simply have not been able to find the motivation to purchase another $200+ pair.

So, based on the information, you can imagine my combination of skepticism and enthusiasm when my boyfriend, Alex, brought to my attention a website based in China called Zenni Optical. This website has a ridiculous amount of prescription glasses available, all under $50. It sounded too good to be true. I doubt I would have ever ordered any if Alex hadn't already bought from them a few years back and had been very happy with his purchase.

The process requires a few tools, but, all in all, is relatively easy. You need a ruler and some form of camera. You take a picture of yourself holding the ruler, centimeter side, up to your eyes. You can either zoom in on the picture or download it onto a computer and then you count how many centimeters it is from one pupil to the next (called pupil distance or pd on the website). After figuring this measurement out, you can start to pick out your glasses!

You can search different styles, shapes, colors and different sized lenses all by clicking through the column on the left of the website. Another feature available is a model on the right side of the menu. You can upload a photo of yourself and see what the glasses will look like on yourself. While not completely accurate, this feature does really help you see how the size of the frame will look. At times Zenni Optical has sales, but even without that, the orders are always surprisingly cheap. All glasses come with ant-scratch coating, UV protection, thing and light single vision lenses, a case and a microfiber cleaning cloth. 

Alex and I each chose three frames we liked. My three choices were all $10 or less a piece. Alex's were slightly more expensive, but after purchasing six pairs of glasses, all prescription, and paying for shipping and handling, we still paid under $90. I even have astigmatism in both eyes and I didn't have to pay any extra costs. They give you several boxes to enter information in, but unless you have any special conditions, you simply have to enter your basic prescription and pupil distance. They offer anti-reflection coating and the option of tinting the lenses different colors. These cost extra, but usually no more than $10 an option.

Since these glasses are being shipped from China, it does take 2-3 weeks to get your glasses. We received all our glasses, intact, and all were pretty much exactly what we expected. Below are pictures of the six prescription pairs we got from the website. I've gotten tons of compliments on these glasses and many people have asked if they're fake, because who can afford three pairs of prescription glasses? If you're buying from Zenni Optical, you better believe you can afford a variety of pairs! I've had a blast being able to accessorize and dress to my different glasses :).

A black pair for me.

A purple pair that is slightly more rectangular.

The one pair of Alex's he isn't completely sold on (also the cheapest pair he got).

Alex's second pair of black glasses.

Alex's turtle frames that are super sexy :).

The same type of frame as the black ones I got, but in red.

Wearing the red ones!

A couple other notes... Next time I purchase glasses from Zenni, I will be trying the anti-reflection coating. It's $7 a pair, I believe. The glasses don't reflect too much without it, but I'm a little OCD about my glasses being clean and I've found that I tend to think something's on them when it's merely a reflection. The total for my three pairs of glasses was under $30, so I figure, why not splurge and get the extra coating. Also, when browsing the different pairs, there's a measurement to take note of. It is the temple length. All my glasses were around 145 cm. Alex and I have pretty large gourds for heads, so he tried to get ones with around 160-170 cm temple length. If you have an old pair of glasses, you can measure this pretty easily too.