Are Anti-Ageing Lenses Legit?

An important part of my job (alongside the fun, fashion-centric side of things, of course!) is also remaining at the forefront of science and technology in the eyewear space to uncover new trends and scientific breakthroughs. I take my responsibility seriously, so I always make sure I look into new technologies thoroughly as there can be a lot of fads and misinformation out there. For this reason I’m very careful and meticulous about ensuring that the informative I provide is accurate and verifiable, which is why I wanted to wait and do some independent research into these hot-off-the-press lenses before I shared them with you here.

What I found was pretty impressive – the protective performance of these anti-ageing lenses has indeed been verified by prominent dermatologists at the Tokyo Women’s Medical University. Their findings were extensive, so I’ll detail just a couple of key points (you can read the entire research article here). Their research concluded that not only is solar NIR light highly penetrable – it also directly contributed to ‘unexpected photoaging, muscle thinning and stimulation of stem cells, including cancer stem cells’.

“Skin with sparse melanin and a thin dermis allows NIR to penetrate deeper into tissue than skin with dense melanin and a thick dermis (Tanaka, 2011c; Tanaka, 2012a, b). The mean area of the facial surface that is covered with wrinkles is significantly larger in Caucasians than in African Americans, and characteristics of age-related periorbital changes seem to occur at a more accelerated rate in Caucasians (Odunze, 2008). In addition, fair skin is more sensitive to skin aging (Guinot, 2002; Nagashima, 1999).”

Researchers also found that sunscreen is ineffective on this type of ageing, as it does not block NIR, only UV. But anti-ageing glasses provide your eyes with real protection from these harmful rays.

It doesn’t get more watertight than that – and this isn’t the only study I’ve found referencing the anti-ageing capabilities of these fabulous lenses (I’ve included a handy link library at the bottom of this piece, if you’re interested in further reading). Pretty promising!