Mirror Lens Colours: Silver, Smoke, Red, Purple, Blue and Green

Mirror and tint are two different things

The tint is the colour built into a lens. It changes how much light reaches your eyes and how colours look. A mirror finish is an extra thin coating on the outside of the lens. It works a bit like a one-way mirror: from the front, people see a reflective colour, and from behind, you look through the tint.

Because the coating reflects part of the light away before it passes through the lens, a mirror finish reduces the light reaching your eyes. The mirror colour mostly affects how the lens looks. A blue mirror doesn't mean the world looks blue.

What tint colours do

The colour you see through comes from the tint. The US Federal Aviation Administration's guidance on sunglass tints is a useful general guide:

• Grey distorts colour the least, so colours look the most natural.
• Grey-green and brown are reported to make things look more vivid and to improve contrast in hazy conditions.
• Yellow, amber and orange distort colours, which can make some colours harder to tell apart.

Darkness is separate again. How much light a lens lets through is described by its lens category, from 0 to 4, not by its colour. Our guide to sunglasses lens categories explains each one.

The six Houser lens colours

All six Houser lenses are polarised and rated UV400. Five have a mirror finish and one doesn't.

• Silver Mirror: a bright chrome mirror finish that suits most outfits.
• Smoke: a dark grey tint with no mirror finish. Grey keeps colours looking natural, and from the outside the lens looks plain and dark rather than reflective.
• Red Mirror: an orange-to-red mirror finish.
• Purple Mirror: a violet mirror finish.
• Blue Mirror: a deep blue mirror finish.
• Green Mirror: a green mirror with a blue shift.

Lens colours can look slightly different depending on your screen.

How to choose a lens colour

By look

Mirror colour is mostly a style choice. Silver suits most outfits. Red, Purple, Blue and Green add more colour to the face. Smoke suits you if you'd rather not have a reflective lens at all.

By where you'll wear them

Mirror finishes are a common choice where there's a lot of bright, reflected light, such as on the water, on sand or in the snow, because the coating reflects part of that light away. On dull days, that extra light reduction can make the view darker than you'd like. Glare reflected off flat surfaces such as water is what polarised lenses target, and all six Houser lenses are polarised.

By what you want to see

If natural colour matters most to you, a grey tint such as Smoke changes colours the least. If you like a mirror look as well, remember that the mirror colour is what other people see, not what you see.

Caring for a mirror finish

A mirror coating sits on the outside of the lens, so it can scratch and needs a little more care than a plain lens. Rinse grit off before wiping, dry with a microfibre cloth, and keep the pair in a hard case. Our guide on how to clean metal sunglasses has the full routine.

Every pair comes with a zip-up hard case and a microfibre pouch. You can compare all six colours on the Houser Metal Sunglasses page or in metal sunglasses.

FAQ

Do mirror lenses block more UV?

A mirror finish reduces the visible light reaching your eyes, but UV protection comes from the lens material, not the colour or tint. Check the UV details and the AS/NZS 1067.1 label.

Does a blue mirror make everything look blue?

No. The mirror colour is mostly what other people see. The view through the lens depends mainly on the tint underneath.

Which Houser lens colour has no mirror finish?

Smoke. It's a dark grey tint without a mirror finish.

Are all the Houser colours polarised?

Yes. All six lens colours are polarised and rated UV400.