I'll be honest: it had been a long, long time since I'd had an eye test. And be honest with yourself - it's been a while since you've had one too, right? Because an eye test is always on that long list of things that needs to be done, hovering around the bottom along with texting your uncle to say thanks for the birthday money and buying new Hoover bags. But when you do eventually get round to having your eyes test, you'll realise how important it was all along.
That was the feeling I had when I had my first eye test in three years. I was in Eyeworks, a cute little opticians tucked away in a row of shops in South Kensington, and the optician was doing her thing. I'm not really the connoisseur of eye examinations, so previous experiences at your bog-standard opticians had been that of sitting in a crowded waiting room full of children, in a shop that doesn't specialise solely in glasses, and so surrounded by others shopping for plasters and hair dye. So Eyeworks was a pleasant surprise - apparently not all eye tests are stressful occasions to be avoided if at all possible...
Unlike other eye tests that I had been to, my optician was more than happy to answer any questions I had, from the necessary to the trivial. I had been dreading the glaucoma test - where they emit a short, sharp puff of air directly into your eye - but she made me feel relaxed and I soon realised that, unlike other times, it really was NBD.
Another unknown treat: after my eye test, there was someone on hand to help me pick a pair of glasses to suit my face shape. As you can probably guess, it was very much like a changing room montage from a 90s chick flick. We ran through a number of different options but, as I am cursed with a small head, we were able to pick a delicate, rather bijou pair of Oliver People's glasses that suited me perfectly. We also ascertained that, as a small-headed person, bold prints were a no-no for me, so instead of a black or dark frame, we went with a light tortoise shell pattern.
Now, the glasses themselves. How to start this love affair. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Maybe not, but I will definitely be wearing them on one. Transitions lenses are designed to change colour depending on the light you're standing in. Inside, they will be clear, but step outside into sunshine and they will automatically adjust, becoming sunglasses, protecting your eyes from UV rays and reducing eye fatigue. The adjustment is so smooth that you don't in fact tend to notice the change in shade. So no more faffing about to swap your glasses to your sunglasses - Transitions have got you covered.
The clever folk at Transitions know that not one shade suits all, though - you can pick from a number of different colours to suit your frame. As my frames featured a delicate tortoise shell, it made sense for me to go for the brown shading, but if you were, say, to go for a chunkier, black frame, the green tint shading would compliment your choice perfectly.
You might have thought that Transitions lenses are more a thing for your dad to take on holiday with him, but that is simply not true anymore. That stereotype of adaptive lenses being for the older generation is dead and buried. I had my doubts before but the truth is, with the right frames you get some truly beautiful glasses with a lightweight lense that adjusts to the amount of light it's exposed to, so you're always getting that perfect tint.
Have you got a pair of transitions? Let us know what you think! @sofeminineUK
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