Aoolia

What to know about shopping at Aoolia

Aoolia sells prescription glasses and sunglasses direct, and the catalog is browsed by frame shape rather than by brand. Cat eye, round, square, rectangle, geometric and aviator are the main groupings, across metal, acetate and rimless constructions, with a designer range, a New In aisle and a standing sale section. Non-prescription sunglasses and reading glasses are carried alongside the prescription range.

Lenses are ordered with the frame rather than separately, and the options include single vision, progressive, photochromic lenses that darken outdoors, tinted driving lenses and blue-light filtering coatings. Aoolia describes what each coating is intended to do on its own product pages; which lens type is appropriate for you is a question for your optician, not a product listing, and any claim about what a coating does for your eyes is the brand's rather than ours.

The practical part of ordering online is the measurements. You supply an existing prescription and your pupillary distance at checkout, so have a current copy to hand — an optician provides both, and a prescription has an expiry date. Frame fit is the other half: the numbers printed on the arm of a pair you already own, giving lens width, bridge and temple length, are the fastest way to match a new frame to a face width that already works.

On cost, frame-and-lens bundles are how the range is priced, so compare the completed price with your lens options selected rather than the headline frame price — coatings and progressive lenses are where the total moves. The sale aisle and New In are the two places worth checking first, since the designer range rarely discounts.

— MoneySaverCodes Team