Hi there! We’re Paulien and Robin, we’re best friends and we like glasses. We recently got introduced to the new online eyewear webshop Polette and we’re pretty much hooked… After intensively testing both a pair of sunglasses as a pair of regular glasses and doing an even more intense photoshoot together; here’s what we think!
Paulien
You have probably seen these sunglasses on the blog before, but I think the brand deserves a proper introduction now. After all, it’s going to be your favourite new eyewear webshop as well! Let me explain the concept first. Polette basically sells high quality frames for a very low price. The innovatory thing here is that they work without any in-between parties like importers or actual stores, which means they can offer their glasses a lot cheaper than other brands! Even cooler is that you can combine EVERY strength, colour and tint on EVERY pair of glasses. You can basically design a pair for every outfit in your closet. Sounds good, right?
The frames I picked are these $19,99 Islamabad ones, combined with $5,99 anti-scratch and anti-reflective non-corrective lenses. I optionally chose a $5,99 black tint because I like to be all undercover, but you can go for other (free) colours as well, like blue, yellow and pink. After a smooth ordering process, it took them about 2-3 weeks to arrive. First thoughts? The shape looked pretty awesome! It is actually perfect for my face, although I didn’t virtually try on the glasses first. Plastic frames are of course very light, but this doesn’t really bother me: I’m used to a very heavy pair of Céline sunglasses, so it’s quite a nice shift. When I was wearing them for the first time it became immediately clear that the glasses are impressively good: I didn’t have to squeeze my eyes shut while looking straight into strong sunlight. My eyes feel very well protected, especially when I compare it with other sunglasses I have from the same price category!
The one problem that I experienced from the beginning is that the frames were unfortunately a bit too wide for my head so that they almost fell down my nose when I looked down. I adjusted them a bit myself — they’re plastic and metal after all — and that definitely helped. I hope they’ll stay this way, because they’re pretty much perfect now. Another downside for me was that the shipping took 2-3 weeks, and not the 8 days + 2 days to make the glasses that is stated on the website. So keep in mind that it might take a bit longer for your glasses to arrive on your doorstep!
My general verdicht is really positive! Polette is the ideal place to build up a large collection of fun (sun)glasses from, without breaking the bank nor giving up on decent eye protection. The quality of the glasses is clearly much better than any other pair I have in the same price category. I’m really happy with my pair of Islamabad sunglasses, and a still have a few pairs on my wishlist: the Puebla, Melrose and White Muse! What are your favourites?
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Robin
Hey guys! I was asked by Paulien to team up with her to test the Polette reading glasses, since she has 20/20 vision and I’m more like 0.33/20. Yeah I’m pretty much blind, and without contacts or glasses you are all just fuzzy balls of colour to me. So it’s the blind leading the blind here.
Now here is my problem. Lately contacts have been irritating my eyes and I’m forced to wear my glasses more often. You caught that huh, ‘forced’. I’ve never been into the whole glasses-thing since I find that I don’t look so great in them, and they always seem to end up covered in fingerprints even though you haven’t touched them. This is why I usually stick to one pair of expensive and durable ones for eight years. However, since the contacts business isn’t working out for me anymore, I wanted to get into the whole glasses-as-an-addition-to-your-fashionable-wardrobe thing. If you are on the glasses-as-fashion trip then you need more than just one pair, because Kennedy frames might not be the perfect fit for your low ridin’ jeans, or they might. You get the drift.
The reality is that you need to have money to build up a collection of uber awesome glasses, which I don’t have. This sounds familiar to some, I think. So how to look pretty fly for a broke guy, you ask? Check out Polette Eyewear; their reading glasses are not expensive at all since you will already have frames for about $30. I ordered the Harry Giraffe (this colour is unfortunately currently out of stock) frames retailing at $12.99, and since I have extremely bad eyesight (-5.75) I had to order the heaviest index 1.74; the most expensive ones. My prescription glasses then ended up being about $100 in total. Now this includes everything my friends: frames AND anti-scratch AND anti-reflective lenses. My prescription glasses usually go for €500-600, so now I can buy six different styles of glasses for the same price. JACKPOT Y’ALL!
This may sound like a sale pitch, but it’s not since there is a downside. First of all, you have to gentle with the frame, because it can bend easily (I don’t know if that counts for all the frames though). But for $13 a frame, what do your expect. The frames are plastic-like, but that shouldn’t scare you. Just take care of your glasses and you’ll be fine. I’m not the most careful person and after three months they’re still alive and well. There’s also the problem of not being able to try on your glasses. For me this can be a problem, because according to the optician “I have a funny nose” (thanks dude). So the glasses I chose were not a great fit. Now you can try on the glasses on the website by uploading your own photo, and there are measurements on the website. So advice from the wise, take measurements.
PoletteEyewear is a great way to build your glasses collection. I’m already excited to buy my next pair, now which ones to choose… What do you guys like?
Now! What do you think? Have you ordered from Polette yet? Had you ever heard of them before?
PS: Sorry for the cheesy Belgian joke in the title 🙂
With special thanks to our friends Lisa and Diederik for taking the pictures and letting us use their apartment!