Product Review: Blue Light Glasses from Clearly

BY CHRISTINA GWIRA

Sunglasses give me a headache. As much as I’d love to rock this traditional summer accessory, the headache that ensures after wearing them for not even 30 minutes is simply not worth it. In my adult life, I’ve probably only owned two pairs of sunglasses; both of them came from Walmart. So, I was very, very skeptical in ordering blue light glasses for work. As you know, I live by my computer (now laptop, don’t worry, Dell XPS 15 review is coming soon!) and so the thought of having to wear glasses while working was very very worrying for me. However, the headaches and eye fatigue were really not doing much for me.

Enter Clearly
I’ve heard quite a bit about the company from their conspicuous ads on social media, namely Instagram story ads. As someone who has never needed to wear glasses, nor someone who wore glasses casually, I didn’t know much about the company or about glasses shopping in general. However, I did know that I needed to have something to make the endless hours in front of the computer bearable.

To be honest, it wasn’t a desperate need for myself to use blue light glasses, but my sister. She was complaining of headaches after a pretty intense work week. She was in bed for most of the week – she’s a Facebook ads manager and thus, can work literally anywhere – but her complaints were becoming more and more noticeable. So, she decided to take the plunge and purchase a pair. Myself and my brother followed suit and we wrote it off as a company expense.

Order process, pricing and styles
The order process was quite painless, in fact, it was quite fun. Firstly, Clearly uses AR (augmented reality) for you to be able to try on each pair of glasses in real time. This was a very, very exciting part of the order process. As I wasn’t a very picky shopper when it came to glasses, I decided to focus on getting an affordable pair that would meet my needs. However, if you’re looking to go splashy, there were frames that were several hundreds of dollars, designer as well as the quirky and chic for you to choose from.

I picked up a fairly low-cost pair of frames from the Clearly Basics line. Even within the basics line, I found several frames that I liked which I find is always a good thing. Sometimes, brands skimp out on the “no name brand” versions of their products, not the case with Clearly. The price came to $39 before lenses were added in. I went with the Clearly Standard A2017 CS in Tortoise. The warm tones of the frames went with my undertones and I love a good animal print. Next, it was time to add the lens and this is where I messed up just a little bit. I didn’t need a prescription for my glasses, but I made the mistake of not getting this added perk: SIGHTRELAX^TM. Firstly, because I wanted to be cheap, I kept with the BlueReflect^TM lens which is the standard blue light lens that Clearly offers. I missed the very clear description of this lens: it’s meant for light screen time use, which they estimated was 2 – 4 hours of screen time per day.. LOL. I’m at my computer for at least 10 hours per day, every day. I feel like this is one of those rare instances where what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but maybe it will… I don’t know yet.

Shipping times and first glance
It took about two weeks for the glasses to arrive. We were a bit miffed that they took a while but then again, coronavirus. When they arrived, they were in a fairly small box, nothing too fancy about the packaging to be honest. I ordered my pair of glasses with my brother and this is where you notice some of the discrepancies in getting a budget pair of glasses. Only one of us got a glasses bag – not even a case – even though two pairs of glasses were ordered. My sister also ordered from the basics line, but she received a case, something to bear in mind. There was also only one proper cleaning cloth.

Conclusion
As an avid laptop and cellphone user I have noticed that my headaches from long computer and phone use have become non-existent. This is great because it means that I can work for longer but also be more productive. I’ve picked up the habit of wearing my glasses for that last round of Township before bed and also while on Zoom calls. I’m very happy with the quality of the frames; they are sturdy and fashionable. I’ll definitely be investing in new pairs of frames as the seasons change and I can say that thus far, the blue light glasses have helped me and made my quality of living much better.