This Wax Should Stop Your Glasses Slipping

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By Alex Magdaleno2014-04-11 08:18:05 UTC

Those of us who need glasses — and are too afraid to touch their eyes to wear contacts — have to put up with some annoying and frustrating things. Rain, smudges and 3D movies can be real pains, but you might soon be able to check one annoyance off the list: your glasses sliding down your nose.

Don Hejny created Nerdwax — a beeswax and coconut oil-based blend of all-natural and organic ingredients in a lip balm-sized tube that you apply to the pads or bridge of your glasses to prevent slippage.

See also: Google to Offer Ray-Ban and Oakley Versions of Glass

Hejny, an audio engineer from Nashville, Tenn., was inspired to create the wax four years ago when he was at a concert in Texas and saw a musician he was working with constantly have to push her glasses back up her nose. Out of sympathy, he wanted to walk on stage and hold her glasses in place so she could focus on playing her music.

"I remember after that show calling my wife and being like 'I just had the most amazing idea,'" Hejny told Mashable.

Similarly, when he would tour with musicians for summer music festivals, Hejny's glasses would always fall off when he had to move amps and other stage equipment due to the heat. The desire to find a simple solution to a simple problem compelled Hejny to create Nerdwax.

"I was frustrated and found a great solution," said Hejny. "I know that there are so many people just like me out there who feel the same frustration but have no solution."

But creating the right formula and combination of ingredients took a lot of trial and error to get it just right — so many tries that Hejny can't remember the exact number. Because the wax would be touching a user's face, Hejny, with sensitive skin himself, insisted on its all-natural composition. That meant hours crafting the correct formula.

Hejny creates the wax by hand and sources all the ingredients from the U.S. He's currently running a Kickstarter campaign, where he has raised more than $16,000 of an initial $5,000 goal with 27 days left.

"Kickstarter is amazing because it is really going to help us discover market value," Hejny said. "We reached out to a ton of people in our network and asked what they would expect to pay for a tube and the answer was always somewhere between $7 to $12."

At the moment, donating $10 to the campaign will net a backer one tube of Nerdwax. Hejny estimates a tube will provide six to eight months of not having to worry about your eyewear slipping or falling off — also known as nirvana for people who wear glasses.

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Topics: accessories, campaign, glasses, kickstarter, Lifestyle, Startups, Travel & Leisure