About BE SEEN OPTICS
Be Seen Optics, established in 2017 in La Jolla, California, is a luxury eyewear boutique that exclusively features premium eyewear labels designed by small, independent artisans. The store offers a unique and personalized experience for discerning eyewear enthusiasts, with a selection that includes Theo Eyewear, Anne et Valentin, Mykita, Matsuda, and more. Customers praise the helpful and friendly staff, the comfortable atmosphere, and the ability to find one-of-a-kind frames that suit their individual style. The on-site optometry clinic provides thorough eye exams and customized prescriptions, with a professional and relaxed approach. Be Seen Optics is known for its commitment to improving the way customers see the world and how the world sees them.
I’m going to cut straight to the core of this review. Be Seen Optics is a must visit if you’re in the market for eyewear. If you want to know more about my path to leaving this review, please read on but I want you to know the most important part up front. I cannot recommend Be Seen Optics highly enough. My first visit was in 2021 at the La Jolla location where David introduced me to several brands of eyewear I had never heard of Matsuda being one of them. I still wear that frame to this day. It wasn’t just the selection of independent manufacturers in his inventory that impressed me, it was his depth of knowledge and years of experience in all things eyewear. What works, what doesn’t and most importantly, what would work for my particular situation. He has since added new locations and staff. If you are in the Palm Springs area, you must see Brian and Charles who have that same level of knowledge, expertise and passion for eyewear. LensCrafters and every eyewear outlet you are probably familiar with all sell the same low value, overpriced product and are staffed by people who mean well but just aren’t that knowledgeable. You owe it to yourself to at least drop in to one of their locations and talk to their staff, I promise you it will open your eyes (pun intended) to options in eyewear you never knew existed. TLDR: I have worn glasses since I was a kid and had always shopped at LensCrafters or something similar before they were a thing. Around 2021 after my third or fourth broken LensCrafters frame I was done. Somewhere along the way as Luxottica, LensCrafters' parent company devoured nearly every know eyeglass maker, I realized it didn't really matter what brand name was on the frame. If you bought it at LensCrafters or the like, it was all the same poor quality, made in the same factory, overpriced designs. With that said, I have a combination of issues that will always make my glasses more expensive than most. I'm old, so I need progressive lenses, metal frames need to be stainless steel or titanium as I have a nickel allergy so the cheap base metal frames from LensCrafters makes my skin breakout. I have a very low nose bridge so 99.5% of plastic/acetate frames don't fit me. Astigmatism, myopia, you get it. Why am I telling you all of this, simple. I needed an option outside of the LensCrafters/Luxottica/Essilor near monopoly in eyewear if I was ever going to find value for money and get a truly decent pair of glasses. Let me say upfront, I am NOT affiliated with the eyewear industry in any way. I'm just a regular customer who started doing as much reading as I could on lens design (what do those prescription numbers mean), frame materials, frame fitting, progressive lens configuration and fitting, lens coatings and materials, etc. Armed with my new knowledge I sought out as many independent shops as I could find and visited most. Without going into the gory details, I can say Be Seen Optics came out on top and I still use them to this day having purchased at least five pairs since my initial visit in 2021. I hope this review helps you in your journey to better eyewear.
I went into Be Seen Optics in El Paseo to get my moms sunglasses adjusted and to get a pair of nose bridges replaced and the owner was incredibly polite in offering water while I waited and fixed it all for free!! I am definitely returning to get my eye exams done here, great service and extremely friendly.
Jesse Camen is simply amazing, lovely, professional, patient, funny, kind, naturally pretty & very easy to work with.