Choosing New Spectacles: -
Without help, choosing new spectacles can be a daunting prospect but our qualified advise and experience can assist you to select a pair which compliment you and give you the quality of vision you need. We can help you to look your best.
Balanced Choices
The appearance , comfort and feel of new spectacles depend as much on the lenses you choose as the style of the frame. It is important to select frames which will be suitable and complement the lenses you need, and vice versa. Today's spectacles utilise the latest manufacturing technologies to best advantage to produce a wide selection of frame materials and lenses. For example, titanium is practicularly popular for frames becuase it is extremely lightweight, very durable and strong. Titanium and nickel-free alloys have the added bonus of being hypoallergenic. Advanced materials and processes create lenses which are much lighter too, giving a greater range of choice and comfort, even if you have a higher prescription.
Selecting Your Frames
The type of frame you wear can say a lot about your personality. Rimless or thin minimalist frames make your spectacles as invisible as possible, helping to retain your natural look, A heavy, dark frame on the other hand may suggest you are serious and confident, whilst a brightly coloured frame could indicate you are outgoing. We can advise you on the shape, style and fit of the spectacles (most frames are available in a range of sizes to ensure comfort). However, it is often useful to bring someone who knows you to help you choose the frames.
So how do you go about choosing glasses?
Our knowledgeable staff will gladly spend time with you when selecting frames for your spectacles, helping and advising over the ones that look best and suit your lifestyle. They have even had “Colour Me Beautiful” training to optimise their advice. Both practices even have computer screens that enable you to see how you look in certain frames. Ultimately, the choice has to be yours, but here are a few useful pointers on choices for different complexions and face shapes:
Pale complexions
Try lightweight metal frames or those with a hint of colour such as rose or amber. Tortoise shell frames can look extremely good on some fair people as long as they are not too dark, but avoid clear crystal frames as they are too colourless for most pale complexions. Blue or green tinged frames also tend to drain colour from cool cheeks.
Dark complexions
People with olive, Mediterranean, golden or Asian skin and rich black hair often look stunning in silver, gold or clear frames. Also try burgundy and brown colours, but black can be too heavy.
Black skins
All metallic frames suit black skins. Amber usually works well too, but black is either wonderful or awful, depending on style. Be careful with colours - they rarely contribute to overall style unless they're bright, fun and specially chosen to work with a specific outfit.
Oval faces
An oval face has a slightly wider forehead than jaw, well balanced and softly rounded. This face can look good in just about any frame, but try angular or rounded aviators (not large, old-fashioned ones).
Round faces
For faces that are short and fairly wide with full cheeks and a round chin, choose slimming styles. Slightly elongated shapes work well as long as they are not too shallow, while square, or even up-swept styles can help to highlight the upper face. Avoid small and round or very large shapes that make the face look even rounder.
Heart-shaped faces
These faces have a small, neat chin and mouth, tapering up and out to a broader forehead. Frames to try include delicate, rounded or squarish styles. Avoid heart-shaped styles that echo the shape of the jaw.
Square faces
For faces that are strong and angular, or short and wide, the best frames to try are round or oval styles that soften the jawline. Avoid any shapes that emphasise squareness.
Long faces
These are faces with high cheek bones, a deep forehead and a strong or chiselled jaw line. Try wider frames that counteract the face's narrowness. Frames with a strong top line or rounded 'owl' styles can work well. Avoid small, square styles.
Flattering lenses
As well as giving you clear vision, modern glasses lens designs and materials make a big contribution to the smart appearance of today's spectacles. Highly advanced plastics have meant that lenses can be made thinner and lighter than ever before, even for higher prescriptions.
A popular option for all lenses is an anti-reflective coating that will virtually eliminate distracting reflections on both sides of the lens. If you drive at night or use a VDU you will welcome the suppression of reflections in your line of sight and, when people look at you, they will see your eyes and not a reflection of the window!
If you need spectacles that will help you see clearly both close up and far away you no longer need to have an unattractive 'bifocal' line across the lens. Progressive or varifocal lenses progress gradually from distance strength at the top to reading strength at the bottom, with a range of strengths in between.
Most lenses can be supplied to order in a wide range of tints and you may wish to consider photochromic lenses, which darken, automatically in bright light. These days, photochromics are available in lightweight plastic as well as glass. Ask a member of staff for details of different lenses for different needs.
Prescription variations
Short sighted people have lenses which are thick at the edge and thin in the middle. The effect of this is to give a "jam jar" effect of reflected rings all round the periphery of the lens.
This can be minimised in two ways: Firstly, choose as small a frame as possible and secondly use lenses made from the newer materials mentioned above that make the lenses very much thinner than standard lenses. There are several levels of density so take good advice.
Campbell Eyecare has the expertise to enable you to be as fashionable as you want and yet have an optimal optical correction from your spectacles.
Glare
No matter how dark the tint of your glasses or how efficient the lenses are at blocking UV, they won't necessarily stop glare. Glare is sometimes caused by reflected light - often from water or a road surface - and can only be reduced with polarized lenses.
Polarization completely blocks light rays on the horizontal axis only and is highly effective when applied to sun lenses. These are especially useful for those involved in snow and water sports since they remove the surface reflections that make seeing in these environments so uncomfortable.
For more information, or to make an appointment, please contact us at:
28- 30 Tower Street, Tain, IV19 1DY - Telephone 01862 892559
Or
36 High Street, Alness, IV17 0PS - Telephone 01349 882863