My New Ray Ban Glasses

This post was meant to be done last week but sadly I never got around to it. To be honest I’m glad I’m not writing it until now as I’ve had my glasses just over a week and I can write about them properly!

I got my eyes tested at the start of the year after almost three years of going without a test. That’s a very long time to go without one and although my old glasses were working for me, I did find myself squinting a lot at little things, which is never good. If anything it can make your eyes worse than they already are… Especially mine which aren’t exactly good anyway.

I was lucky enough to get a free eye test from Boots due to where I work which was handy! The staff were great there and very thorough and precise before, during and after the eye test. BUT the prices for frames and lenses was a complete joke. I had said I wanted a designer pair for ages, even though I was happy with my old frames. I wear glasses all the time so I always make sure to get a good pair that will keep me looking good. 😛

The one designer I had in mind was Ray Ban. I have a pair of Ray Ban wayfarer sunglasses which I love (although I now need to get new lenses in those as well…) and I’ve previously owned a pair of Ray Ban glasses so I knew I wanted another pair.

Boots of course do Ray Ban glasses but they are fucking expensive, and I MEAN expensive. £250 for a pair of frames? Erm no thank you. Not only do they charge a fortune for the frames, but they also charge a bomb for the lenses too! As I have a strong prescription I’m always advised to have the lenses thinned so that they fit the thick frames I wear. The lowest price that they wanted to thin my lenses was £60. So altogether it would have worked out to £310. Erm nope.

SO as I had my prescription I decided to look online to see if I could pick up any Ray Ban glasses cheaper than what Boots was going to charge me for them.

It took a month for me to decide what to do when I finally ordered my glasses. Jeez who would think that eh?

After lots of research I discovered Glasses Direct, a UK company who specialise in their own brand of frames as well as their “boutique” designer collection. I of course opted for the boutique collection.

They have all sorts of designer brands to chose from, but of course I opted for Ray Ban. I have always wanted a pair of wayfarer style glasses from them and now I finally have them and they are perfect!

The price of my frames were extremely affordable at £98 and although that may sound like a lot to some people, to me considering Boots and Specsavers (just to name a few…) do their own brand frames for the same price if not more. So to me these were a bargain!

They’re in a wayfarer style and come in all sorts of colours. I opted for tortoiseshell as I find this colour frame suits my hair and eye colour the best. Yes I am that into what glasses I buy and wear that I look into these things. 😛

The other colours these come in are black, brown (although currently sold out), black and white, grey and brown fade.

Here is the Glasses Direct description of my frames:

With a slightly slimmer frame, Ray-Ban’s iconic Wayfarer gets a fresh lick of paint and attitude. Tone down the bad boy image with a bicycle or rev it up with a motorbike, the choice is yours…

Something that Glasses Direct do with their own frames is a home trail, where they send out four pairs that you would like to try on to see which one(s) you think suit you and would like to buy. Sadly they don’t do this with the boutique pairs as they would cost too much to do if people didn’t return them. Which is a shame to be honest. They do however do a virtual try-on which you can do on a laptop or desktop if you have a webcam… But who doesn’t have a webcam these days?!

What I did to make sure the frames were the right shape for my face was to check the size of my old frames alongside the Ray Ban ones. This is fairly simple to do. If you take off your glasses and look on the left arm you’ll see a set of numbers such as 53, 17 and 140. When looking at frames on the Glasses Direct website they’ll have this on the frame information so you can compare. This is what I did for my Ray Ban frames. As far as I know only plastic style frames have these numbers. I just checked Dane’s frames which are metal and he didn’t have it… So I don’t know for other types of frames sadly.

Sorting out the frames is the easy side to ordering glasses online, it’s the lenses that can be tricky. Saying this though, Glasses Direct made it really easy, although it can be daunting at first. All you need is your prescription handy and even if you aren’t 100% sure how you should input it into the website then you can always disclose that you’ll send it later, take a picture of it and then email it later. Glasses Direct even tell you how to email it to them which is great! I did input all the information in myself but I worried it might be wrong and ended up emailing it over anyway, which was fine. All I needed was the picture.

When ordering your lenses you get asked about your vision, lenses, tints and of course prescription. These are all easy to fill out!

There are three options for the lenses being silver, gold and platinum and the price increases and what you get on each package. I opted for the platinum as it had the maximum thinness and it was just the best priced too at just £59.00. Well worth it considering Boots wanted £60 for just the minimum thinning.

Then after that you pop in your prescription or disclose you send it over email and you’re all done! I paid on PayPal and as I have mine set up to pay 2 weeks from the order date I didn’t have to pay for my frames straightaway. Of course you don’t have to pay via PayPal and if you do you don’t have to wait 2 weeks for payment to go out. I just prefer using PayPal myself to be honest.

My first pair of glasses arrived damaged which was really annoying. On the front of the frame by the lens you could see where they had put the lens in as it had scratched all of the frame (as you can see in the above image). Now I know it isn’t THAT obvious BUT it was obvious enough for me to notice it straightaway and for how much I paid for the frames it was frustrating as hell! I ended up sending the glasses back and needed to wait nearly 2 weeks to get my current pair in the post. I made a complaint about this as I wasn’t offered any compensation, obviously until I wrote an angry email. I was given £10 as an apology. To be honest in my mind this still wasn’t good enough but I couldn’t be arsed to argue anymore.

That was my only real issue with Glasses Direct to be honest. Considering I paid over £140 for these I expected them to arrive perfect the first time, not the second after making a complaint. I was very tempted to just ask for my money back, but alas I never and I love my glasses so damn much!

When the second pair arrived I was very pleased with how they looked and looking back on the first time they arrived they were packaged really well too. They came in a box inside that was another box (haha :P) and inside that of course were my glasses. The Ray Ban case they came in is sturdy and is now home to my old glasses.

Something you WILL have to do with any glasses from Glasses Direct is adjust them yourself. Well you could probably be cheeky and pop into an opticians and ask if they can help you, but it’s pretty easy to do yourself. All you’ll need is a hairdryer. With mine I warmed up the arms and just bent them to fit on my head properly. I did pop into an opticians to see if they looked okay and they said yes. Woop! There’s a guide on the Glasses Direct website of how to adjust both plastic and metal frames.

One thing that really bugs me about these glasses is how awkward the lenses are to clean. I clean mine everyday with a glasses cleaning wipe and they never seem to be clean. Even when I go over it with a tissue or a my t-shirt they seem smeared. I don’t know if this is due to them being new or what, but I never had a problem with my old glasses. Dane is also having the same issue with his glasses, his are from Boots though. I know I’ve winged about Boots quite a bit on this post, but his glasses are lovely. 😛

It has taken well over a week for my eyes to adapt to the new lenses due to how strong they are in comparison to my old lenses, but now I’m used to them it’s amazing! I just love how they look on my face and as daft as it may sound they make me feel so confident, especially when I wear my signature side braid.

Of course I’ve taken loads of pictures of me wearing these and I can’t help but scatter them throughout this post. The one above is my favourite of the bunch. ^_^

One of the things that I loved about Glasses Direct the most was how many amazing offers they do! They have vouchers for their own brands such as 2 for 1, 50% off, etc. They also recently introduced 2 for 1 on boutique frames which is annoying to be honest, until I discovered the offer isn’t actually valid on Ray Ban glasses… So I’m not as annoyed about it now. This being said I had a voucher that got me 15% off of my glasses, which was great as although it doesn’t sound like much it did get me a lot off of my glasses.

Another thing I loved about Glasses Direct was how easy it was to contact customer service about anything. I had to contact them quite a few times with my glasses order. The first time to make sure my prescription could go into the frames I wanted and then the other times was due to the damaged glasses.

Has this put me off ordering with them again? Not really no, but it has made me wary for the future. I of course suggest that if you order from them that you check the glasses all over for any damage. At the end of the day you’re paying a lot of money for something that should be perfect on arrival. Not sent damaged because someone clearly couldn’t be arsed to redo the job they bodged up.

I know that sounds very harsh, but it’s true and of course when I raised the issue with Glasses Direct they were honest about it, which was great! They could have easily said, “How do we know you didn’t do that?!” I was really happy about how they dealt with it, although they could have offered me compensation in the first place instead of me pretty much asking for it…

Either way I love my Ray Ban’s so damn much and I couldn’t be happier with them! I just can’t wait to update my sunglasses prescription now ready for when summer comes… If it comes… 😛

If you think you’ll be ordering some glasses from Glasses Direct in the future then please feel free to use this £30 discount code before you order! You may as well save yourself some money. 😛

What do you think about my new glasses? Do you think you’ll use Glasses Direct in the future? Make sure to let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Tartan, Hearts & Dr Martens – What I Wore (8th June 2014)

Wow I haven’t done a What I Wore post since October 2013, so almost a year ago! I’ve wanted to write-up one for ages but I either took awful pictures or I just never got around to getting any pictures taken.

Finally during mine and my boyfriends long weekend away in Bristol, we got pictures taken of two different outfits, but in the end the pictures for this outfit looked the best and plus the fact that the day we took these was our anniversary, just makes this post that little nicer (and soppier!).

To warn you this post is somewhat Dr Martens heavy seeing as two of the items I wore were from Dr Martens, one being the dress my boyfriend bought me as one of my anniversary presents (post about that here) and my boots which I bought myself previous to going away to Bristol.

Sunglasses – Ray Ban Wayfarers.

Lipstick – MAC’s Rebel (review here).

Tartan dress – Dr Martens.

Bracelet – Pandora.

Heart print tights – New Look.

Boots – Dr Martens 1460’s.

Green laces – Dr Martens.

Paper Plan satchel (in other pictures) – Disaster Designs (post about it here).

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy wearing this outfit as I loved it so damn much and for the duration  of our time in Bristol I pretty much lived in my Dr Martens boots, which I bought and received just before going to Bristol.

I mentioned on my wish list post in May how I wanted another pair of Dr Martens to wear during the spring and summer months when the weather is a little warmer and at the end of May I finally found these babies!

I decided that I couldn’t justify spending up to £100.00 on a new pair of the boots to end up crippling myself with blisters and cuts all over my feet and decided to go to eBay (oh how I love thee!) in search of a pair of second-hand boots in my size. I came across these patent leather 1460’s for the low starting price of £20.00 and at the last couple of seconds bid and won! Including my postage all these cost me was £27.00, can’t argue with that can you?

These did infact come with black laces mind but I decided to buy myself a new pair of black laces from the Dr Martens shop in Birmingham, as well as a green pair, which I now have on  my boots. The girl in the store told me how the green laces are new to the stores and that they’d proven popular so I decided to pick up a pair, I like the colour green!

Since buying my Disaster Designs back in February it’s been my go to handbag and I love it so much! It’s very roomy and hugs beautifully to the body whilst walking around and such and as the buckles do up quite tight I do feel quite safe when using it out and about. I picked this up on eBay too for I think around £30, including delivery which I thought was a good buy seeing as I use it so much now!

As you can see from the print on my Dr Martens dress it is a gorgeous green tartan, which is ideally more for the autumn and winter months but as someone who wears dark clothes all year round, I’d wear this throughout the year without any worries! The dress itself isn’t super short and isn’t super long, but longer than most of my dresses which is what I’ve been after lately, so I’m really happy with it.

I love my Dr Martens dress so much! It’s a gorgeous soft tartan dress that I know I’m going to wear lots throughout the year, especially teamed up with my Dr Martens boots, both these and my Dr Martens Triumph boots.

As I’ve mentioned this was one of my anniversary presents from my boyfriend, which he bought for me whilst we were down in Bristol and I love it so damn much! I saw this in the Dr Martens store down there and fell in love when I saw it, but sadly I didn’t fall in love with the price tag as whilst I was having a shopping day the day I saw this, it wasn’t going to THAT much of a shopping day. My boyfriend insisted I try this on and I’m so damn glad as I love it so much now. He bought it for me after we walked around Cabot Circus (shopping centre in Bristol town centre) and I’m so pleased with it now!

Clothes wise I intend to team this up with a lot of things for various different looks, although I think the look I’ll always gain with this will be very grunge looking. I can wear this with my Dr Martens boots, brothel creepers and my flats, as well as with a nice little studded biker jacket in the warmer weather and for nights out and as I discovered in Bristol in the colder weather I can wear this with my huge parka and look very much like an 80’s mod/skin head, minus the shaved head and tattoos.

In the Dr Martens store in Bristol they had one of their other tartan dresses (dark blue) on a mannequin with a studded belt around the middle and it looked awesome! Very grunge and rocky and I loved it, however said belt was £45 and as much as I loved it I couldn’t justify paying that money, however I have got it in mind as a very expensive treat to myself in the future, as I really do need a new belt.

On 8th June 2013 me and my boyfriend finally decided to make ourselves official and today we’ve now been together a year and two weeks.

I really want to bring the five days back that we spent in Bristol because I miss them so much, and the place even more! Bristol was such a lovely place for someone as creative as myself to go and visit and in five days I didn’t feel like I got to experience Bristol half as much as I really wanted to, so I know later on in the summer and even in the winter I plan to go back for another weekend.

For our anniversary my boyfriend and I walked around Bristol for a while and ventured to the harbour to go to Bristol Aquarium, which I really enjoyed! We took loads of photos and spent a good hour or two in there. After that we walked around some parts of the town centre for a while and ventured to one of the museums for a look around and a sit down. The weather was very hit and miss that day with dry patches and then buckets of rain! After a while we ventured back to our hotel to freshen up, have a rest and then we went out for a meal at Za Za Bazaar, which is an all you can eat buffet with loads of different types of food to choose from! It was lovely to say the least and we made sure to fill ourselves up.

In the evening we had a lovely slow walk back up to our hotel where we had a relaxing bath each with the Lush products I bought us both and went to sleep.

I had such an amazing day and I want to thank my boyfriend for putting up with me so much over the year we’ve been together. 😛

Now onto the soppyness!

Dane, every moment that I get to spend with you in my life is something that every young girl dreams to have when they get older with the person they fall in love with, you are a dream come true to me.

Thank you for who you are, what you have given me and I know will continue to give me and for being able to put up with me when I’m at the lowest of low.

You are the light in my life when everything is dark, you save me when I feel like I am going under and you don’t even have to do that much.

I hope and pray that we get to spend the rest of our lives together, because I really do think  I have found my soul mate and the person I am destined to be with for the rest of my life.

I can never find a perfect poem, film, story, a song or even put into my words how much I love you but I love you so much and I will forever.

Thank you for such an amazing time in Bristol and here is to many more years together. 🙂

I can’t wait to make a post now about what me and my boyfriend actually got up to in Bristol! But I want it to be a perfect post so it may take a while, but stay tuned!

So, that is the end of this What I Wore post, what did you think of it?

If you have any questions about what I wore please feel free to ask them in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you’ve all had a great week.

What I wore (13th July 2013)

I can’t believe it’s been nearly 4 months since my last what I wore post, it’s been ages hasn’t it? However, as regular readers will know I’ve been going through a rough patch since March, so the last of what I wore posts was to be expected.

But I’m back and I have someone else who can take my pictures now, my partner. He did an awesome job and I’m really pleased with how the pictures turned out!

On the hottest day of the year (so far anyway) we decided to go out into the countryside for a drive and a walk around. We didn’t have a clue to go and just went left or right at junctions, hoping to get ourselves somewhere random. We ended up in Leamington Spa and went to a lovely park there. We walked around for ages, even went through dark woods, stinging nettles and some nats to get to where we wanted to explore.

It was a lovely day and I’m excited at the aspect of doing it again, my partner is awesome when it comes to adventures.

Dress – Dorothy Perkins.

Spiked flats – Topshop.

Pink see through clutch – New Look.

Wayfarer sunglasses – Ray Ban.

Necklace – Present from my Mom.

I love this dress so much, I spoke about it briefly in this post after my Mom buying it me whilst we were out shopping. It’s light, looks cute for spring and summer and will compliment any figure, it also makes your bum and boobs look a little bigger than they actually are and your tummy smaller than it actually is. I couldn’t wait to wear this out, the first time was for my aunts birthday and second time for our little adventure.

I teamed this look up with my spiked flats, I love spikes and no matter what season it is, I’ll be wearing them. They were perfect walking shoes and looked great with the outfit, showed I’m not just dainty and innocent in my floral pink dress!

I bought my clutch bag on Wednesday and have been using it all weekend. I love this bag so much! I remember at the start of the year when fashion bloggers were going crazy for them and I was one of them. I scoured the internet for hours trying to find one but the only place I had luck with was eBay, but because everyone wanted one like myself they were mostly sold out, only coming in a clear black. Who wants clear black, I mean why does that even exist!? I’d spied the clear and see through pink clutches in New Look for a while now and thought, why not? For £9.99 it’s been worth every penny and a bag I know I’ll use throughout the summer for nights out, hell maybe even winter too!

Finally you can’t go wrong with a pair of Ray Bans. Every year like every garment and accessory you wear, sunglasses change to suit the trend of the season but Ray Bans NEVER go out of style! I’ve owned my Wayfarers just over a year now and I love them, they’ll look great year after year and because of this they were worth every penny I paid for them. If you have thought about getting a pair of Ray Bans whether they be Wayfarers, Aviators or Clubmasters, then I say go for it if you have the money because they’ll look amazing!

I really like what I wore out over the weekend and I know I would wear it out again!

Yesterday was so much fun, I haven’t been out like that for months so it was nice to get out and have a relaxing drive, walk and just to talk and relax and I couldn’t have chosen a better person to have done that with. 🙂

I’m just excited for more days out like this in the future! 😀

During out walk we stumbled across a little kids playground. The tire swing was broken, much to my distraught as I love tire swings! However we did find some weird sort of swing contraption that we both had a play on. It was really weird and if I had of been wearing jeans or a pair of shorts with my skate shoes, I’d have been more inclined to have stood up on it like my partner did. However as you can see I just sat on it, trying to look as ladylike as possible.

I’d love to go back to this park we visited, it was so beautiful and will be an amazing place to visit during the autumn season when everything is orange and red, oh beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed this what I wore post, I’ve missed doing them so much and with my partner being so willing (and better than my parents at taking the pictures may I add!) to take my pictures for them, I can see them popping up more often now.

What did you wear nice and cooling on the hottest day of the year? Let me know in the comments and tag a picture if you want to!

I’m off to go and sit outside in the sunshine before my partner gets back home, hope your week has gone off to a flying start, see you soon.