One of the most common complaints of people wearing eyeglasses and sunglasses is that they tend to leave red or pink marks on the sides of their noses. After wearing sunglasses for just a few short hours, most people develop indentations on their noses that can sometimes stay there for up to a few hours after the sunglasses have been removed. These marks are unsightly and can often be embarrassing if, for example, you wear your sunglasses while driving to work and you immediately walk into an important meeting. It might be hard for everyone else to keep a straight face if you have two very prominent pink dots near the bridge of your nose!
Will Lotion or Powder Work?
People often say that rubbing a bit of lotion onto your nose or dusting the bridge of your nose with baby powder can help to prevent the marks from forming. But does it work? The answer is, yes these tactics do help lessen the problem. Adding lotion reduces the friction and pressure against your skin when it comes in contact with the nose pads on your sunglasses. The same principle goes with applying baby powder. Whether you apply lotion or powder, either one will act as a barrier and decrease the friction on your skin.
While these solutions can indeed be helpful, I probably would not recommend them because they are just temporary fixes and could create a couple of residual issues. For example, the lotion might cause your sunglasses to skid down your nose, and if you use powder there is a chance that some will get into your eyes. Of course this begs the question; what exactly can be done to eliminate, or at least minimize, the occurrence of these ugly skin blemishes?
What the Experts Say
According to eyewear experts, if you are always getting discoloured marks on your nose after you take your sunglasses off, this most likely means that your sunglasses simply do not fit you well. Visit your optometrist and get an accurate fitting, and then look online or at the mall for a pair of sunglasses that match those exact measurements.
You could also have your optometrist affix padded nose pads to your sunglasses so that your nose does not come in direct contact with the plastic material associated with standard sunglass nose pads. This takes only a few minutes to do and does not cost much.
So there you have it, finally an answer to the burning question of how to reduce those unsightly marks that form on your nose after wearing sunglasses for an extended period of time. To sum it all up, the solution consists of two simple things: make sure that you have correctly-sized sunglasses for your face and nose, and affix padded nose pads on top of your sunglasses’ standard nose pads. It does not get much easier than that. Do these two simple things and say goodbye to nose blemishes forever!