BEINGBAR Sunglasses, Ecotate, Fashion Sunglasses, Sunglasses, Sustainability, Uncategorized

How To Clean Your Sunglasses and Glasses?

By Team BEINGBAR

Have you been cleaning your sunglasses or glasses the wrong way?  Prepare to find out How to clean sunglasses!


Have you ever wondered how to clean your sunglasses or glasses the right way? Perhaps you just use your shirt to wipe them when you can't see anything anymore. Or you use cheap lens wipes from the supermarket. 
Well, that's the wrong way and argubly even the wrong time! 
Prepare to find out whether you've been doing it all wrong or all right for all these years. Time to become a shades and specs cleaning expert!

So, how should you clean your sunglasses properly?

We show you in this step-by-step guide

How to clean your sunglasses and spectacles

How to clean your sunglasses and spectacles

Step 1: Clean your hands thoroughly. Remove sand and dirt before you start the actual cleaning of your sunglasses.

Clean your hands first before you clean your sunglasses or spectacles

Clean your hands first before you clean your sunglasses or spectacles

Step 2: ​Dry your hands with a soft towel. This will remove any leftover oily substances from your hands.

Dry your hands

Dry your hands

Step 3: Use lukewarm water to rinse off sand and dirt from your sunglasses frame and lenses.

Rinse of sand and dirt from the lenses

Rinse of sand and dirt from the lenses

Step 4: Use neutral hand soap that does not contain corrosive ingredients, like lemon extract. Use your finger tips (thumb and indexfinger if possible) to rub the dirt from the lenses. Do this very gently so you'll actually feel with your finger tips where dirt is.

Use hand soap to rub the lenses clean

Use hand soap to rub the lenses clean

Step 5: Clean the other parts. The temples (or legs), the nose pads, the frame and hinges

Clean the temples or legs of the sunglasses or spectacles

Clean the temples or legs of the sunglasses or spectacles

Clean the nose pads of the shades or specs

Clean the nose pads of the shades or specs

Clean the hinges of your spectacles or sunglasses

Clean the hinges of your spectacles or sunglasses

Rinse the soap and remaining dirt from your sunglasses or glasses

Rinse the soap and remaining dirt from your sunglasses or glasses

Good job! Your sunglasses or spectacles are perfectly clean and you're ready for the day!


Clean them in the morning

Make sure that you clean your sunglasses or glasses in the morning, before leaving the house. That way you are certain that they are clean when they need to be, instead of having to clean them while driving or doing other things.

Good Job. You have the cleanest sunglasses or glasses

Good Job. You have the cleanest sunglasses or glasses

​​​How to clean ​your sunglasses and how NOT to clean them

Cleaning ​your sunglasses (and spectacles for that matter) may sound like a simple enough task that doesn't really need instructions. However, there are right and wrong ways to clean them, and if you don’t know how to clean your glasses properly you could ruin them. In this article we'll cover how to clean your sunglasses ​the right way.


Common mistakes

Let's first go over some of the most common mistakes people make while cleaning their sunglasses or glasses:

Clean your sunglasses and glasses with a cleaning cloth from microfiber

Do not do this...

​These are often made mistakes in cleaning your favorite shades. Don't do it, because it might ruin them beyond repair!

​Do not clean sunglasses like this:

  • You should not use toilet paper or paper towels to clean your lenses. The wood pulp used to make these leaves scratches
  • ​Do not use window cleaner or other household cleaners. There might me corrosive ingredients in there that you are not aware of. Alcohol, for instance, can damage coatings on the lenses of your sunglasses and glasses
  • ​Don't use your shirt or upper part of your sock (yes, really!) to clean them. It contains dust and oils from your body. And some fabrics leave scratches in your lenses!
  • ​Do not use the cheap cleaning wipes you can buy for next to nothing in discount stores. These are made from paper (wood pulp). I have covered ​paper in the first point already. The difference here is that the manufacturers just add a bit of water or chemicals to make it a "wet" wipe. Don't do it! It will scratch the coating of your lenses. There are good alternatives though... (see the "do this instead" section)
  • ​You should not use your (or anyone's!) saliva to wet your lenses. It is not very hygienic, is it? And there are certainly onther sustances that work better and were designed to do the trick
  • ​And an obvious one: do not clean your shades (with anything) when you're not sure if there's sand or dirt on them. The sand will act as sanding paper and completely mess up your lenses. Or at least the coatings on them
how to clean sunglasses

Do this instead!

​We are positive folks, here at Team BEINGBAR®, so this section is more up our alley. Here are the things you should do to ​enjoy your sunglasses and glasses as long as possible.

​Instead, clean your shades like this:

  • ​First, take your shades or glasses off. We recommend you always do this with two hands. You won't believe how many times you put them on and take them off over the years. And if you always use your same hand, the temples and hinges will bend overtime.
  • ​Check up on your sunglasses and glasses everyday, but always in the morning! We don't recommend you clean them everyday, because the coatings might wear out. But if you always check in the morning you see when they really need some cleaning. And not while you're in your car and it's too late. Always be prepared for the day!
  • ​Before cleaning your sunglasses, clean your hands thoroughly. Make sure they are free of sand and dirt. Including fatty substances (your skin is oily too!). You don't want to clean your lenses and find out you've only made it worse.  from any dirt or oils that could smudge your lenses.
  • ​Inspect your sunglasses or glasses first and check if there's no sand or dirt on them. ​Then rinse off your sunglasses with lukewarm water to remove anything non-sticky. From a cleaning perspective, this is the low hanging fruit!
  • Use neutral hand soap. Just a tiny drop per lens. Together with lukewarm water you can clean the lenses with your fingers (index and thumb, if possible). No pressure. While doing this gently and with attention, feel if there are imperfections in  the shape, indicating leftover dirt. some people use dishwashing soap, but you need to be sure it is not acidic and erodes the coating of your shades or glasses (lemon is the most sold soap and you should not use it).
  • ​When you're done with the lenses, clean the frame, temples, bridge, and other parts if needed.
  • ​Dry with a soft tower without lint (the lining you often see). Or make sure you use the center part of the towel to dry them. The towels should be nice and soft!
  • ​And that's it! Your favorite sunglasses or spectacles are good to go!

​How to clean sunglasses or glasses when you're on the go?

You are often in need of clean sunglasses when you're outside or in the car. so what do you do when you are not at home. And there's no tap with lukewarm water? And no towel? Don't panic. We have the right advice for you.


Cleaning spray

Cleaning spray comes in small spray bottles. You can easily bring this with you. There are sprays with alcohol and sprays without. Both work well, because the amount of alcohol normally is too small to damage your lenses or lens coating.

There ​is now a new generation of cleaning sprays that don't work with chemicals but with active enzymes that clean the lenses of your sunnies or glasses. I​f you like natural solutions it might be worth checking out!

Using Cleaning Spray to clean your lenses on the go

Using Cleaning Spray to clean your lenses on the go

how to clean sunglasses


Microfiber cloth

​These tiny little towels are made specifically to clean your sunglasses or lenses of your spectacles. You often get one when you buy a new pair of shades or spectacles. But these are often cheap and meant for branding purposes. Not for their cleaning qualities. If you are traveling a lot, I advice you to invest a small amount of money to buy a good quality one. They work a lot better.

Using a Microfiber Cleaning Cloth to clean your sunglasses lenses outside

Using a Microfiber Cleaning Cloth to clean your sunglasses lenses outside

Environmentally friendly cleaning solution

And you can wash your microfiber cleaning cloth when they get dirty from cleaning your sunglasses or spectacles. That is environmentally friendly compared to the throwaway wipes (which are often individually packed as well!). If you want to have a very good quality microfiber cloth for free, you can click here. We have a promotion where you only pay for shipping the cloth to you. The cloth is on our expense! To get yours, click here.

Microfiber cloth to clean sunglasses and spectacles

​Ultrasonic cleaning

​The last category of sunglasses and spectacles cleaning is the ultrasone machine cleaning. ​For this cleaning technique a machine is used that emits high frequency sound waves that create cavitation bubbles that react to contaminants on the lenses. This technique requires an expensive machine and requires someone to first remove the lenses. So this is an option if you're close to an optiocian.

We recommend the other techniques that are in this article through. ​


So these were the tips about how to clean your sunglasses. And as a bonus I included the tips how NOT to clean them. I hope this is helpful, as well as the video we made to explain the different cleaning techniques to you.

If you want to read more about quality sunglasses and sustainable eyewear and fashion, you can sign up. We write new posts every week. And if you want to see our range of handmade polarized eyewear, just take a look! BEINGBAR sunglasses are designed to last and made with eco-friendly materials like wood and bamboo. Hope to see you there!

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