How to Clean Sunglasses Without Damaging the Lens

When you love a pair or style of sunglasses, you want to wear them everywhere. Daily use quickly leads to smudged, dirty lenses, making it harder for them to see out of. It’s important to clean your sunglasses as soon as you notice smudges or buildup to avoid scratches or other types of permanent damage.

While you might be tempted to grab that generic household cleaner, stop: any harsh chemicals can ruin the elements on your sunglasses that make lenses polarized, compromise the structure of the frames, and destroy anti-glare coatings.

Instead, follow our instructions below on how to clean sunglasses safely.

How to Clean Sunglasses Without Damaging the Lens

To avoid damaging the lens, you need to clean it with the right solutions and wipe it with a microfiber cloth to prevent scratches.

Use the Correct Lens Cleaning Solution

The correct lens cleaning solution is gentle enough to not compromise the UV protection or any coatings so that your sunglasses offer maximum eye care. However, it should be capable enough to wipe away dirt and grime.

Worst Cleaning Solutions for Sunglasses Lenses

The internet can be a great place to find information on how to clean your sunglasses, but be wary of these harmful solutions. Some people say you can use the following cleaning solutions to clean your sunglasses, but in reality, they’ll end up damaging them beyond repair, and you’ll end up throwing your favorite pair of sunglasses away.

1. Windex for Cleaning Lenses

Sunglasses with an anti-glare coating are great for a sunny drive or picnic with friends. However, when cleaning sunglasses, you need to choose options that will ensure the anti-glare coating remains intact.

Windex is terrible for cleaning lenses because it’s too harsh and damages the anti-glare coating. Any glass cleaner also leaves a small film behind on the sunglass lenses, making them harder to see out of.

2. Dial Soap for Cleaning Lenses

You may be tempted to use Dial Soap for cleaning lenses because you wash your hands with it. If it’s safe enough for your hands, then surely it’s safe for your sunglasses.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Some of the variations of dial soap (or any hand soap) contains moisturizers that leave smudges behind on the lenses. This hazy residue makes it hard to see out of, and you can accidentally scrape your lenses trying to get it off later.

If you want to use Dial soap to clean your lenses make sure there is no vitamin E or other oils in the ingredients.

3. Alcohol Wipes for Cleaning Lenses

After the pandemic, it may seem logical to use alcohol wipes to sanitize sunglasses (after all, you can use them on your phone). However, alcohol is too strong to use with sunglasses and damages any protective coating on polarized lenses.

Alcohol affects the optical qualities of the lens so that the light won’t transmit as easily through it as well, making it harder for you to see.

Best Lens Cleaning Solutions

Avoid the harmful options and instead, use lens cleaning solutions that are safe for your sunglasses. Some of these you may already have at your house!

1. Mild Dish Soap

Dawn Dish Soap is famous for being so gentle that volunteers use it to clean up animals affected by oil spills. In particular, look for Dawn Ultra dish soap, which is gentle enough to clean fine china.

Dawn is safe to use on sunglass lenses because it’s made to clean fine dishes without scratches. Plus, it’s not made to use for washing your hands, so it doesn’t have moisturizing agents that leave behind a film.

2. Lens Cleaner

While it can be helpful to use something around your house to clean sunglasses and lenses, the best way to do so is to use a product specifically made for cleaning sunglasses. For the best results, clean sunglasses with a lens cleaner.

There are lots of lens cleaners out there but WMP Eyewear prioritizes affordable, quality eyecare, so they only charge $7 for one bottle. It promises to remove smudge and grime from glasses without tampering with the protective coating, leaving a streak-free shine every time.

It also comes in a 30mL bottle, so it’s the right size to bring on an airplane. Always use a microfiber cloth with this cleaning solution.

Use the Right Materials to Wipe Lens

The second step to cleaning sunglasses safely is to use the right material to wipe lenses. Don’t use an old t-shirt or dish towel because these fabrics are too rough and can scratch lenses. They also trap dust and debris, which can then transfer to your sunglasses and scratch them as well.

Microfiber Cloth

The only fabric you should be using on your eyeglasses or sunglasses is a microfiber cloth. Every pair of WMP Eyewear sunglasses comes with one, and most other quality brands include one as well.

A lint-free, clean microfiber cloth is perfect to wash sunglasses with because it won’t leave behind any small pieces of fabric on your sunglasses. They’re made to remove dust and debris, and also absorb body oils so that no smears remain on the eyeglasses.

To keep it in good shape, you need to clean your microfiber cloth once a month. You can either hand wash it with cold water and a few drops of gentle detergent, or throw it in a cold wash in the washer. Never use fabric softener or bleach. Hang it to dry or throw it in the dryer and it’s good as new.

If you wear sunglasses or glasses regularly, keep a microfiber with you in your car, office, or pocket so that you can gently clean off residue anywhere you go.

How to Clean Glasses Using Dish Soap

To safely clean polarized sunglasses, regular sunglasses, or glasses using dish soap, grab all your dirty sunglasses that need to be cleaned and some Dawn or other mild dish soap. Avoid any dish soap that’s heavily scented, uses fake coloring or includes lotion.

Wash your hands thoroughly (sing happy birthday to yourself twice) before cleaning your sunglasses. Then, add one pump of dish soap to each side of the lenses. Gently rub the soap across the lenses and frames with your fingertips.

If you see a bit of dirt you need to scrub off, use the soft pads of your fingers, not your fingernails (fingernails can scratch the lens). Rinse the sunglasses completely under lukewarm water and shake any excess water off. See the step by step process here.

Gently dry the clean sunglasses with a microfiber cloth to ensure no water marks appear from air drying on the lenses. Now, your sunglasses are ready for a day on the town! 

Other Tips for Keeping Your Sunglasses Clean

The best way to clean sunglasses is to keep them clean to begin with! Follow these tips to avoid scratching your lenses and keep them clean for daily use.

Use a Case or Pouch When in Your Pocket or Purse

Don’t just throw your sunglasses into the glove box or straight into your purse. This leaves sunglasses vulnerable to sharp objects like keys or sticky candy at the bottom of your bag.

Instead, use a small pouch or the case the sunglasses came in for storage. Find something lined with a gentle fabric to ensure the case itself doesn’t scratch the lenses. If your sunglasses didn’t come with a case, shop some of the low-priced cases from WMP Eyewear.

Watch Where You Leave Them

While sunglasses can be durable, they aren’t made for extreme temperatures. Never leave sunglasses in a super hot car because they can warp or crack, running them.

Also, when setting your sunglasses down, don’t put them face down on the lenses. Even if a surface looks clean, it can have small pieces of dirt or other residues that scratch the lenses. Always place your sunglasses lens side up on a table.

Keep lenses dry and out of the rain to avoid spotting. If you’re outside and it’s raining and you still want UV protection, then be sure to dry your sunglasses with a microfiber cloth once you get inside.