Buying guide · eclipse of 12 August 2026

Where to buy certified eclipse glasses

You are looking for where to buy them and you want a useful answer, not a catalogue. The honest answer starts with what you need to know before paying anywhere: the only valid gear is a filter compliant with EN ISO 12312-2:2015, and that takes two minutes to check on the frame itself. Here is what to look for, what to reject without hesitating, how late you can still order online — and, with our cards on the table, ours.

If you buy them in a shop

We are not going to tell you that a particular chain or pharmacy has any left: we do not know. Nobody does except the specific shop down your road, because stock this week changes from one neighbourhood to the next and from one hour to the next, and sending you out in the car on a promise we cannot verify would be the worst thing we could do to you. What we can give you is the list to decide with AT THE COUNTER — it works the same in an optician, a supermarket or a market stall:

The frame itself must carry the literal text “EN ISO 12312-2:2015”, with the “-2” included. Not on the box, not on the sign: on the frame.
Next to the CE mark there must be a four-digit number, the notified body. Without that number, “certified” means nothing.
The manufacturer’s or importer’s name must appear. “Unknown brand, untraceable seller” is the exact pattern of the counterfeits found at every eclipse.
You must be able to ask for the EU declaration of conformity. A serious retailer has it or knows how to get it from their distributor.
And the filter must be intact: held up against a bright lamp, with no pinholes, scratches or creases.

If any of those five fail, do not buy them, however cheap and however close 12 August is. Glasses that do not comply are not “slightly worse”: they are a filter letting through the infrared that burns the retina without pain.

How to recognise a certified pair

An EN ISO 12312-2 filter passes roughly one hundred-thousandth of visible light and blocks ultraviolet and infrared down to levels safe for looking straight at the Sun. Any dark plastic can look sufficient and be nothing of the sort: apparent darkness says nothing about the UV and IR getting through. The criterion is never “it looks dark”, it is “it complies with the standard and I can prove it”. These are the four things that prove it:

The standard printed, with its year: The exact text “EN ISO 12312-2:2015” on the frame itself. Part 2 of the standard is the direct solar viewing one; a generic “ISO” or a bare “CE” proves nothing.
The notified body, four digits: Eclipse glasses are category II personal protective equipment, and certifying them requires a notified body identified by a four-digit number that anyone can look up in the European Commission’s NANDO database. That number is what separates “certified” from a word printed on a box.
The EU declaration of conformity: All PPE sold in the EU must have a declaration of conformity available, in which the manufacturer identifies the product, the standard applied and the body that certified it. Legitimate manufacturers publish it; counterfeits do not.
A manufacturer with a name and an address: Name and address of the manufacturer — and of the importer, if it comes from outside the EU — on the product or the packaging. It is the first thing missing from the imitations found at previous eclipses.

What never works, however dark it looks

None of these filters what needs filtering. It is not a matter of degree: they are unsafe for looking at the Sun, and the retina has no pain receptors to warn you while the damage is happening.

Sunglasses, however dark and however expensive, and however many pairs you stack.
X-ray film, photographic negatives and smoked glass.
Photographic filters (ND, polarisers) held in front of the eye, and any filter mounted on a camera if you then look through an optical viewfinder.
CDs, DVDs, crisp packets and the rest of the internet recipes.
Binoculars, telescopes or telephoto lenses without a solar filter in front of the objective: they concentrate the light and burn instantly, even while wearing eclipse glasses.

Already have a pair? Check it before the 12th

If someone lent you glasses, you kept them from another eclipse or you have just bought them, do not assume they are fine: the full check — six points, the known counterfeit patterns and what to do with a borderline pair — is in our guide, as a list to tick off.

How to check a pair of eclipse glasses in two minutes →

And if you order online, this is how long it takes

There is no longer time for a courier to deliver before 12 August 2026, and we would rather say so than take your money. If you are down to a few days, your options are a nearby shop — with the checklist above in hand — or a change of plan: pinhole projection (a small hole in a piece of card projecting the eclipsed Sun onto a second one) costs nothing, carries no risk and works better with children than glasses do.

Ours, with our cards on the table

We sell eclipse glasses, so this is advertising and we say so before starting. What you can do with it is exactly what we have asked you to do with any seller: run the list above against it. The paperwork is published as PDFs precisely for that.

The single glasses and their packs leave the manufacturer’s warehouse in Spain for all 27 European Union countries: from €4.50, plus €4.99 shipping per order. There is no free shipping, and the price on the button is the product — the shipping is stated right underneath, separately and with no surprises at checkout. See the glasses and packs →

The packs of 6 to 100 glasses from our second supplier arrive with shipping already included in the price you see, from €24.95: nothing is added at checkout. That supplier delivers to ES · FR · DE · GB · PT and nowhere else — we say it here rather than at the checkout. See the packs →

Both comply with EN ISO 12312-2:2015. The first is certified by notified body 0196 and the second by 2834: two four-digit numbers you can look up yourself in NANDO, with the EU type-examination certificates and the declarations of conformity published as PDFs on this very site. That is the difference between writing “certified” and being able to prove it.

If you are buying from outside the European Union

Neither of our glasses crosses that border, and we will not pretend otherwise: outside the Union there is customs and import VAT, and advertising a “final price” that turns out not to be final is exactly what this page criticises. For the United Kingdom there is a route — the packs whose certificate also declares conformity with the UK PPE Regulations 2018 and which ship with delivery included. From Switzerland, Morocco or anywhere else outside, what you can buy is the digital party kit (€5.95): PDFs downloaded on payment, with no parcel, no customs and no border.

See the digital kit →

Frequently asked questions

Do the shops on my street sell eclipse glasses?

We cannot tell you, and anyone who tells you without having phoned is making it up: stock this week depends on each individual shop and changes from one hour to the next. What does work is calling before you go and asking two things: whether they have any left, and whether they can show you the product’s EU declaration of conformity. Then, with the glasses in your hand, run the five-point list on this page.

How do I know a pair is genuinely certified?

By four checkable things: the literal text “EN ISO 12312-2:2015” printed on the frame, a four-digit notified body number next to the CE mark (searchable in the European Commission’s NANDO database), an available EU declaration of conformity, and the name and address of the manufacturer or importer. If any of them is missing, do not buy.

Are eclipse glasses from 2017 or another eclipse still usable?

If they comply with the standard and the filter is intact, yes. What expires is not the certification but the state of the filter: hold them up to a bright lamp and discard them at the slightest pinhole, scratch or crease. The full check is in our verification guide.

What if I cannot get glasses in time?

Do not lower the bar, change the plan. Pinhole projection — a small hole in a piece of card projecting the image of the eclipsed Sun onto a second one — costs nothing, carries no risk and shows the phases just as well. What you cannot do is look without a certified filter: not for a second, not with a low Sun, not with 99% of the disc covered.

The certification facts on this page are transcribed from the original certificates published as PDFs on this site, and the prices and delivery times come from the catalogue the checkout charges from. There are no reviews or star ratings because we have none to show, and there is no claim about any other shop’s stock because we have no way of knowing it.