The short answer: Never clean your glasses with paper towels, tissues, your shirt, household glass cleaner (Windex), alcohol, acetone, vinegar, or saliva. All of them either scratch the lens, strip the coating, or just smear dirt around. Use lukewarm water with lotion-free dish soap and a clean microfiber cloth — or an ultrasonic cleaner — instead.
Most people damage their glasses without realising it, simply by reaching for whatever’s nearby. Here’s what to keep away from your lenses, and why.
1. Paper towels, tissues, and napkins
They feel soft, but they’re made from wood fibres that are abrasive at a microscopic level. On a lens — especially a coated one — they leave fine scratches with every wipe. They also shed lint.
2. Your shirt or any random cloth
The classic move, and one of the worst. Clothing collects dust and grit all day. Wiping a dry lens with it grinds those hard particles across the surface. If the cloth isn’t clean and the lens isn’t wet, you’re sanding your glasses.
3. Household glass cleaner (Windex and similar)
These contain ammonia and other chemicals designed for windows, not optical coatings. They break down anti-reflective and UV coatings over time, leaving lenses cloudy and patchy.
4. Alcohol, acetone, and nail polish remover
Strong solvents strip coatings fast. A one-off wipe might look fine, but repeated use clouds the coating permanently. Avoid anything solvent-based unless a lens-care product is specifically labelled coating-safe.
5. Vinegar and DIY mixtures
Vinegar is acidic and can etch or dull coatings. Most homemade lens sprays do more harm than good on modern coated lenses.
6. Saliva and breath-and-wipe
Breathing on the lens and wiping with a sleeve cleans nothing — it spreads oil and bacteria around and dries to a smear. Your glasses already carry more bacteria than you’d expect; see are your glasses dirtier than a toilet seat?
7. Hot water
Not a tool, but worth flagging: hot water can warp frames and stress coatings until they crack. Always use lukewarm.
What to use instead
For a quick clean: lukewarm water, a drop of lotion-free dish soap, rinse, then dry with a genuinely clean microfiber cloth. For a deep, scratch-free clean that also reaches the frame and hinges, use an ultrasonic cleaner.
Lensio cleans your glasses without anything touching the lens — water and a tablet, three minutes, coating-safe tested. It’s the one method on this page that can’t scratch your glasses. See how to clean glasses without scratching them.
Frequently asked questions
Are alcohol lens wipes bad for glasses? Pure alcohol wipes can strip coatings with repeated use. Only use wipes explicitly labelled safe for coated lenses.
Can I use dish soap on my glasses? Yes — a small amount of lotion-free dish soap with lukewarm water is one of the safest hand-cleaning methods opticians recommend.
What’s the safest way to clean coated lenses? Ultrasonic cleaning, because nothing rubs against the coating. A wet wash with mild soap is the best no-equipment alternative.