Warby Parker Home Try On: A Review of My Experience

Being the adult that I am now, I felt inclined to ask my parents to give me new glasses for my birthday. I already had glasses, but they made me look like a 16-year-old and that is approximately when I got them, so I thought something a little more profesh would be nice. I also tend to run a little short on cash myself, so my mom and dad were gracious enough to help out for my birthday. Thus begins the Warby Parker Home Try On experience.

I immediately put 6 items into my cart and ordered them for the free try-on:

   

My box showed up within a few days, though there were only five pairs instead of the six on my order confirmation. It's probably for the best, however, as the Winston likely would be too large for my face based on the size of the others. 

I quickly set myself to figuring out which pair I wanted. I stared in the mirror a lot, took lots of pictures of myself, and was generally vain and disgusting. This part is very fun. My only complaint is that one of the frames had arms bent so badly they wouldn't sit even remotely straight on my face. In the end I narrowed it down to two pairs from this box. 

The Finch in Violet Magnolia looks good on me because it has the slightly sloping brow-line and a gentler shape. I also appreciate that the tortoiseshell colour has flecks of purple in it. They're very unexpectedly what I like regardless of how large they are.

The Beckett in Revolver Black Matte is just enough dork-chic without being toooo dorky, which was the problem with several of the other pairs. They seem to make me look smart, which works in the professional world. I wish the brow-line was just a little more sloped, they might be perfect then.

I posted these pictures to instagram with the customary hashtag: #warbyhometryon. My friends weighed in an Warby Parker weighed in (how cool would it be to have that job? Just hanging out and commenting on peoples' glasses all day?) and the Finch style won overwhelmingly. I liked them but I wasn't quite ready to make up my mind about it yet. I am a generally indecisive person, and Warby Parker totally plays to me, as they'll send a new box of 5 for free! I packed up the original 5 and hauled them off to the post office. I made note of my favorites and placed an order for a 2nd home try-on. I decided to go with a few more colours and different styles this time, as the thick black frames don't seem ideal for me. I even threw a pair of actual cat-eye glasses into this try on, since the sloping brow-line actually does look quite nice.

It took a little bit longer for the second box to arrive, as they do have to wait for the first box to be returned and checked for all the pairs, so the anticipation was probably even higher with the second box. I was surprised by which pairs topped my list.

The Holcomb in Oak Barrel were my favorite. They were very librarian in a completely good way. This pair, however cost extra. They were $145 as opposed to the $95 of all the other pairs.

The Lyle in Hanalei Tortoise was another neat pair; green and yellow tortoise shell and actually pretty bright in colour. The green in the frames definitely brought out the green in my eyes. I wasn't 100% convinced that this particular nose-piece style looked best on me however.

I returned these pairs as well. It took a lot of deliberating (mostly between the Finch and the Holcomb) but I ended up following my pocketbook to the winner. Because I am so blind, I have to have high-index lenses so I don't go all Trelawney. These lenses are much more dense than typical and cost a completely reasonable 30$ extra (they often run much higher than that at brick and mortar vision stores). I picked the Finch in Violet Magnolia, measured my pupillary distance, and placed the order.

Here is where things went slightly awry! I waited patiently for my glasses only to open the box and be very confused about what was inside. I was convinced that the frames were not what I expected and that I must have messed up my pupillary distance, as I couldn't see at all! Luckily they print the name of the frame on the inside of the arm, and what a received was NOT the Finch. I emailed customer service and they provided a label for me to return this pair for my correct pair. I expected them to offer some kind of service gesture to apologize for the mix up, and once I submitted that as feedback, they offered 20% off my next pair of glasses. Not ideal, as I don't generally buy glasses that often, but it's better than a kick in the pants.

Since receiving the correct pair, however, I have not been dissatisfied for a moment. I wear my glasses far more frequently now that I don't feel like the president of my high school anime club (or something equally young and nerdy) when I wear them. I actually can kind of pull of a more professional creative-type glasses look which I'm very happy with.

All-in-all I would definitely recommend the Warby Parker Home Try On experience. I enjoyed it immensely, loved the variety of styles and colours, found it very convenient, and the price was totally reasonable even with my special lens needs. Even when they did mess up, they rectified the fumble as quickly as possible. 

Have any of you tried one the many online glasses retailers? How was your experience? Let me know in the comments!

Let's go upstairs and read my tarot cards,

Cait