I painted my glasses red.

Alas, if you know me, you may have noticed my plastic “tortoise shell” glasses started peeling a while back. At first I thought I’d somehow developed hard water deposits and tried scraping them. That made it worse. So I tried coloring them with markers, even sanding the surface down — neither helped.

So on a whim, I decided to try painting them with nail polish. I had a purple bottle that I tried first. I hated it: the purple was too sheer, and only the bright glitter showed up with mottled brown plastic behind. But then… ah, then, I tried with opaque red nail polish. Much better. The coverage was smooth, bold, and actually made my glasses look intentional.

A few tips if you want to try this:

• Pick an opaque color — sheer polishes don’t hide much.
• Use short, overlapping brushstrokes for control.
• Take your time near the lenses, or mask it a bit.

Now if only I had deep purple nail polish, right? But for now, the red is a riot. And I can switch to purple whenever I feel like it.

2025 Update

These days I just use Zenni (here’s $15 off for both of us!) For less than $100 I have tried glasses in red, purple, and even a super bright pink. I loved them all! I tend to skip makeup and have stopped dying my grays, and I love how these colors brighten up my face. What do you think? Any faves?

I also briefly dated a guy who used Pair Eyewear. We happened to have similar prescriptions, so I tried his. Unfortunately the heavy lenses and a once-broken bridge had them sliding right off my face. But he loved them, and even had some custom styles made.

As for me: my eyes are changing more often now as I age. I’ve had to switch to bifocals. So I go for light weight glasses, the lightest lenses I can buy, and whatever color fits my mood.