Hello one, and hello all! It is Felix here; your trusty blog author at Niche Bazaar Studio. I feel I need to preface this by saying I do not follow a lot of eyewear trends. It didn't matter how many people told me they loved anti-fog coatings in 2020, I knew I would not follow the care instructions for it in the long run. I like my lenses to be simple, and getting Transitions took me a decade to build up to as well.
So you might be inclined to think that Eyezen lenses would not be something I'm interested in. After wearing Eyezen lenses for 9 months now, I don't think I could ever go back to normal lenses.
So what are Eyezen lenses? Eyezen is Essilor's new fancy name for a specific type of lens. You get Eyezen Start and Eyezen Boost. Eyezen Boost is a bit like a baby varifocal thanks to the boosted reader section in the lens that is scaled based on your age and prescription. Eyezen Start doesn't have that boosted section but does still take advantage of considering your reading/near vision zone in your lenses.
So how does this differ from a normal lens? Typically single vision lenses do not have separate near vision and distance vision zones. In order for a lens to have that, you would be looking for a varifocal. What this means for single vision wearers, is that their lenses are specifically designed for them to always be looking out the very centre of the lens. This is why you get your pupil distance measured, and your lenses made so the optical centre of the lens matches where your pupil sits when you look straight ahead.
This is fine on paper, but people don't always look through the centre of their lenses. People often check their peripheral, look up and down without moving their head, and generally focus on certain things around them and look through every part of their lens. This can lead to a lot of eye strain and fatigue. Because you are not looking through the optical centre of your lenses, your eyes have to work harder to get that perfect vision.
So what does Eyezen Start do differently? It takes your distance vision and near vision zone into account when making your lenses, and means your eyes don't have to strain nearly as much. This might sound like a lot of science, but the real world effects have been very noticeable for me.
I regularly suffer from headaches and eye fatigue. This is partly because my job involves a lot of reading, responding to emails on my phone, iPad, etc. which means my posture isn't always perfect and I certainly don't always look through the centre of my lenses. With me spending most of working day looking at screens and then coming home and looking at more screens, I often find my eyes feel almost sore when I finally take my glasses off for the day.
With all of this in mind, once I heard about Eyezen Start, I was very interested. Since February 2021 I have been wearing Eyezen in my Octagon frame from Rigards, and even within the first week I could notice a difference in comfort. I had updated my other frames to an AVA prescription just a month prior, and I noticed I needed a week or two in order to adjust to that type of prescription. This did make me worry I would need longer to adjust to Eyezen as well. I'm very pleased to report that I needed no adjustment period at all. Straight away I noticed my eyes didn't feel as tired in the evenings, and I even felt my vision was better when compared to my other lenses (although I think the latter is as a result of the lens itself being more comfortable, and having an amber transition).
Nine months on I still find my Eyezen lenses to be my most comfortable pair. And thanks to me regularly switching between non-Eyezen and Eyezen lenses on the daily, I can confirm I still notice a difference to this day. I fully intend to get Eyezen lenses for all of my future frames, and I will probably continue to get a light tint put in them too (personal preference, but I always find a light tint makes lenses more comfortable and stylish).
Any questions about Eyezen? Leave us a comment or an email and I'll be happy to help!