IR Eyewear vs. Reflectacles: Which Privacy Glasses Fit You?

IR Eyewear and Reflectacles both make infrared-blocking glasses designed to combat facial recognition systems.

The main differences between the two brands are their lens colors, frame construction, appearance on camera, and the personal information customers are asked to disclose when making a purchase.

Reflectacles founder Scott Urban has been developing privacy eyewear since 2014. He deserves recognition for introducing a new use for glasses and bringing physical resistance to facial recognition to a wider audience.

We created IR Eyewear because we saw a gap in the privacy eyewear market that Scott helped establish. We wanted a high-quality option that combines infrared protection with Italian materials, craftsmanship, and style. The glasses needed to be suitable for daily wear across different settings, and they needed to protect the wearer’s biometric privacy without looking like a counter-surveillance accessory.

Note: This comparison is published by IR Eyewear. For testing, we purchased two Reflectacles models: the IR-Cloak with IR-dark lenses and the IR-Pair Turtles (Donatello frame color) with IR-light lenses. Our hands-on observations concern those two models, while information about each brand’s wider range comes from its published specifications.

Who Gets Your Data When You Buy the Glasses?

For us, the biggest difference showed up before the glasses even arrived.

Reflectacles’ privacy policy says that customer information will never be sold or shared. It also explains that the business uses Squarespace for its website and Stripe and PayPal for payment processing. Those companies handle browsing and purchase information under their own privacy policies, so customers must trust the platforms Reflectacles relies on.

Our website is built with Hugo and uses no JavaScript, analytics, or third-party tracking. You can read about the products and find everything needed to place an order without enabling scripts. That matters if you use Tor Browser’s Safest setting or uBlock Origin in hard or medium mode. During our tests, Reflectacles’ Squarespace website was unusable under those restrictions.

ireyewear.com works perfectly on Tor Browser (Safest)

reflectacles.com will not let you browse products or place an order on Tor Browser (Safest)

IR Eyewear handles orders directly. There is no customer account to create, no card details to enter, and no payment processor standing between us and the buyer.

Contact Options and Encryption

Reflectacles lists a Proton Mail address, which makes sending them an encrypted email easy enough if you already use Proton. If you have another provider, you will have to find Reflectacles’ PGP key and set up encryption yourself. Their contact page does not publish a PGP key or explain how to send encrypted email from another provider. We would prefer clearer instructions and more alternatives.

Proton has drawn sharp criticism from privacy advocates after it disclosed identifying information to authorities, including IP and device information linked to French activists in 2021. In a separate case reported by 404 Media in March 2026, payment data Proton supplied to Swiss authorities reached the FBI and helped identify the alleged operator of a Stop Cop City email account.

Our order page includes a PGP key, its fingerprint, and a link to the FSF’s guide to email encryption, so customers using other email providers have what they need to encrypt their first message. PGP doesn’t hide all email metadata, so we also offer Signal, SimpleX, and Threema for people who’d rather avoid email’s inherent privacy limitations.

Payment Options: Cards vs. Cryptocurrency

As checked on October 9, 2026, Reflectacles currently accepts cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. Its information page also mentions cash, checks, Monero, and Bitcoin, but says those alternatives are on hold due to time constraints.

IR Eyewear accepts cryptocurrency directly: Monero, Bitcoin (including Lightning), and Litecoin MWEB. These are our normal payment methods rather than an exception that needs a separate arrangement.

Monero is our preferred option because its transactions are private by default, whereas regular Bitcoin transactions are public. Even so, accepting cryptocurrency doesn’t automatically make a purchase anonymous because the way a customer acquires and uses cryptocurrency can expose information outside the purchase itself.

What we can do to help customers stay as private as possible is to avoid requiring a named card payment or routing the transaction through a big tech payment processor.

Delivery Without a Home Address

We use Bitpost with InPost lockers where supported. This gives customers an alternative to having a parcel addressed to their home.

For EU orders, our published shipping options include a Privacy service that requires a customer email address and a Full Privacy service that does not. Availability and requirements elsewhere depend on the destination, so we confirm those details when arranging the order.

A locker is still operated by a delivery company, and neither encrypted messages nor private payments make every aspect of a purchase untraceable. We do, however, aim to reduce the information needed to buy and receive the glasses to an absolute minimum.

For customers who already use privacy tools, this purchasing process is probably the strongest reason to choose IR Eyewear.

Why Green Lenses Didn’t Work for Us

The most noticeable difference when we started wearing the glasses was the lens color.

Reflectacles describes both its IR-light and IR-dark lenses as having a yellow-green tint. During longer periods of wear, we found that color cast tiring. We preferred a view that felt closer to what we were accustomed to through conventional sunglasses.

That’s a personal assessment, not a claim that green lenses are harmful or that everyone will dislike them. Some people may enjoy the Matrix-like tint, though none of us thought it was a good fit for glasses we intended to wear day-to-day.

Appearance matters too. To our eyes, the lighter IR-light lenses have more of a safety-eyewear look than an everyday sunglasses look. They are conspicuous in a way that most privacy-conscious buyers will want to avoid.

IR Eyewear uses gray and brown lenses. Gray lenses come with the IR-01 Black and IR-02 Transparent; brown lenses come with the IR-01 Turtle and IR-02 Honey.

We chose those colors because they are familiar and easy to wear with ordinary clothing. Someone looking for privacy glasses may also want to wear them to work, meet friends, or walk through town without being asked about their “equipment.”

Reflective Frames: More Coverage, More Attention

Reflectacles offers an approach that our glasses don’t: frames designed to reflect light back toward a camera.

The distinction between models is important. According to its frame information, Ghost reflects both visible and infrared light, while Phantom reflects infrared only. IR-Pair Turtles and IR-Cloak (the two models we bought) don’t have reflective frames.

Reflective models can interfere with a camera image beyond the area covered by the lenses. That may be precisely what a buyer wants, as it obscures a bigger part of their face. On the other hand, a bright white reflection can also be conspicuous to someone watching the footage. Phantom’s infrared reflection isn’t visible to the naked eye, but its appearance on an infrared camera is a separate consideration.

For someone attending a demonstration or simply trying to avoid attention, that distinction deserves thought. Obscuring biometric data and remaining inconspicuous are related goals, but they’re not always the same goal.

Reflectacles itself recognizes this by offering non-reflective models. Our preference is for a non-reflective frame combined with a conventional gray or brown tint. We think that combination is better suited to everyday wear, though no adversarial design can guarantee that it will go unnoticed.

Italian Manufacturing and a Comfortable Fit

Our glasses are made in Italy. The frames use a lightweight, plant-derived cellulose material sourced from cotton and wood fibers, with an internal metal core in the temples and three-barrel hinges.

We chose this construction because the glasses are intended to be worn regularly rather than kept for occasional use. Both frame shapes were developed through fit testing with more than 100 people.

Reflectacles also uses high-quality materials. Its IR-Pair Turtles are made from CNC-machined cellulose acetate, with adjustable frames and spring hinges. Acetate is an established eyewear material, and there’s no reason to dismiss it as poor quality.

Our IR-Pair Turtles are marked “Made in China.” We found no manufacturing-origin marking on our IR-Cloak, so we can’t draw the same conclusion about that model. For buyers specifically looking for Italian-made eyewear, our manufacturing origin is a clear distinction.

Fit produced a more immediate difference. Our IR-Pair Turtles felt tight enough that we did not want to wear them for long stretches. The IR-Cloak, on the other hand, was exceptionally comfortable. Its flexible temple ends and adjustable nose pads worked well, and we wouldn’t describe it as an inferior wearing experience simply because it uses a more utilitarian polycarbonate frame.

Our own priority is long-wear comfort in a frame that looks appropriate outside a sporting or specialist setting. Fit testing helps, but faces differ. We publish dimensions for every model and encourage customers to compare them with a pair they already find comfortable.

Ordering From Italy Simplifies EU Customs

IR Eyewear is an Italian business shipping from Italy. For ordinary deliveries within the EU customs territory, that avoids the import clearance associated with ordering from the United States.

Reflectacles states that international customers will need to pay import taxes. Depending on the destination and order, an overseas purchase can also involve carrier handling charges and additional customs steps.

For EU buyers, purchasing glasses shipped from Italy removes that particular complication.

The UK needs to be considered separately. It’s outside the EU, and our shipping policy states that customs duties for destinations outside the EU are the recipient’s responsibility. We arrange European and UK shipping by destination rather than promising identical conditions everywhere.

For US customers, Reflectacles has the corresponding advantage of domestic shipping.

How the Infrared Blocking Compares

Both companies make eyewear intended to obscure the wearer’s eyes from facial recognition cameras that use infrared. An infrared-blocking lens will appear dark to an infrared camera even when the wearer can see through it. This can interfere with systems that depend heavily on detail from that area to create a “faceprint.”

Our lenses are specified to block up to 91% of infrared across 780–2000 nm. Reflectacles publishes 75% for IR-light and 95% for IR-dark across 780–1400 nm. Compared with IR-light, we offer a higher maximum and a broader filtering range.

Reflectacles lists IR-dark for daytime outdoor use. We found it too dark for walking at night. In our informal tests, we could see well enough to walk under streetlights while wearing each IR Eyewear model, but this isn’t a safety assessment or a recommendation for use in low light or while driving.

Where Reflectacles May Be the Better Choice

Reflectacles has a broader range of specialist options.

Its Universal IR-Clip attaches to many existing prescription frames and sunglasses. That’s a practical option for someone who wants infrared filtering without giving up a well-fitting prescription pair.

The IR-Cloak offers wraparound coverage, was very comfortable in our experience, and is listed as conforming to ANSI Z87.1 safety standards. That stated conformity is a distinct feature, although it should not be mistaken for laser protection.

The reflective models offer capabilities our frames don’t. Reflectacles also has lower-priced entry points through its clip-ons and IR-Cloak, while conventional payment options will suit customers who don’t use cryptocurrency.

These are substantial reasons to consider Scott’s work. A useful comparison should acknowledge them.

Why We Built IR Eyewear This Way

We wanted glasses we would be happy to wear during an ordinary day, with lens colors we enjoyed looking through and a way of buying them consistent with our privacy habits.

That led us to Italian manufacturing, gray and brown lenses, a script-free website, direct cryptocurrency payments, and several encrypted contact options. Locker delivery gives customers in supported destinations another way to reduce the personal information involved.

Reflectacles helped establish the idea that eyewear could be a practical response to biometric surveillance. Our contribution is to make that approach fit more comfortably into everyday life, including the purchase itself.

If you already use PGP, end-to-end encrypted messaging, or Monero, you should not have to put those habits aside to buy a pair of privacy glasses.

Our order process is public, so you can decide whether it meets your needs before contacting us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are IR Eyewear glasses a Reflectacles alternative?

Yes. Both offer infrared-blocking eyewear. IR Eyewear focuses on Italian manufacturing, gray and brown lenses, fashion-oriented design, and private purchasing.

Do Reflectacles frames reflect during the day?

Some models can. Phantom reflects infrared, and Ghost reflects infrared and visible light. The effect depends on illumination and camera conditions, not simply whether it’s daytime or nighttime.

Can Reflectacles glasses be purchased with Monero?

As checked on October 9, 2026, Reflectacles’ website lists cryptocurrency payments as currently on hold. IR Eyewear will always accept Monero directly.

Where are Reflectacles glasses manufactured?

Our IR-Pair Turtles are marked “Made in China.” Our IR-Cloak glasses have no manufacturing-origin marking. IR Eyewear glasses are made in Italy.

What makes IR Eyewear’s lenses different?

IR Eyewear uses advanced optical lens materials selected for abrasion resistance, mechanical strength, durability, and optical clarity.

We chose gray and brown tints for everyday wear rather than the yellow-green tint of the Reflectacles lenses we tested. Their tint noticeably changes color perception, and we found the IR-dark lenses too dark for nighttime walking.

What certifications and standards apply to IR Eyewear?

IR Eyewear glasses carry CE marking. Our lens supplier’s information lists EN ISO 12312-1, AS/NZS 1067, ISO 12311, and ISO 8980-3, covering sunglasses requirements, optical transmission, and testing methods.

It also lists ISO 9001:2015 for quality management and REDcert² for sustainable-material certification. These concern manufacturing and material sourcing rather than certification of facial-recognition protection.

Reflectacles lists ANSI Z87.1 conformity for IR-Cloak, while our supplier lists a broader set of standards and certification references.

Do these glasses prevent every form of facial recognition?

No. They target infrared-based capture. Effectiveness depends on the device and recognition method; visible-light identification and other forms of tracking require separate consideration.

Which brand is more suitable for private purchasing?

IR Eyewear provides a script-free website, PGP and encrypted messaging contact options, direct Monero payments, and private locker-based shipping. Reflectacles’ standard purchase process uses big tech payment services.