Lisa’s Meta glasses review: the smart glasses for girls who care about the details

Let’s be honest: when a celebrity puts her name on a product, it’s usually the name doing most of the work. A new colourway here, a signature there, and that’s about it.

So when Meta unveiled Meta Glasses by BLACKPINK’s Lisa in September 2026, it would have been easy to assume this was more of the same. Two frames, a pink lens and a few cute charms. How different could it be?

Very, as it turns out. Having seen the glasses up close in person, you’ll find small and thoughtful details like the stars tucked away on the temple tips, charms modelled after Lisa’s pets where no two are alike, and a nose pad that’s engineered with the precision of a watch. Most of these are details you’d only notice if you were looking for them, and that’s exactly the point. It’s tiny, but they make a world of difference, not just to your overall look, but to the experience in itself. 

To find out how it all came together, I flew to Seoul for the launch of the collection’s pop-up and sat down with Inès Le Bihan, Meta’s Industrial Design Director for Glasses, at the Meta office in Seoul. 

Stepping into Lisa’s world

Now, the pop-up, aptly named ‘Step Into Lisa’s World’, opened on 6 November at Layer 27 in Seongsu-dong – a neighbourhood famed for some of the best cafes, concept stores and, increasingly, brand pop-ups in town. 

I went on launch day, and knowing how big Lisa’s fandom is, it came as no surprise when I saw fans already queuing outside. And inside wasn’t any different. The space was packed from start to finish. 

That being said, upon entering the pop-up, you’re first greeted by a huge dog statue at the entrance (yes, the same one that was inspired by her charm from her collection). From there, there’s a photo booth and plenty of other photo spots, along with try-on stations throughout the space where you can test the glasses and experience Meta AI firsthand. After that, the experience continues as you head up to the second floor, where you can customise your own Meta charms. 

Two pairs, two sides

As for the glasses, Inès shared during our interview that it all started with a meeting in Paris, where Lisa showed up with a bunch of her own glasses.

“We want to make something that is personal. You don’t want to impose anything on anyone,” Inès tells me. “It has to be honest. It has to be what she would wear.”

Her collection fell into two camps. On one side, subtle prescription frames for everyday wear, plain from the front with interesting details tucked towards the tips. The other, is a pair of bold, expressive sunglasses. While Meta had originally planned to create just one special pair, the team decided to change its course after seeing those two categories.

“Initially, our idea wasn’t to have two pairs of glasses. We were just thinking, okay, we’re going to make one special thing for her,” says Inès. “But when she came up with that idea, it was like, okay, that makes sense.”

The result? Two frames that mirror her two sides. The Adventurer, a rectangular frame in a translucent Moonlit Sky finish with pink Blush lenses, and the Capri, a cat-eye in the darker Eclipse colourway with grey lenses.

The team did explore rounder shapes early on, but Lisa preferred a rectangular silhouette, which suited her perfectly. And the cat-eye? Inès calls the grey lenses “the rockstar approach”. Lisa liked the idea of covering her eyes completely, and of the reflection you get on a bold, statement pair.

As for the Blush lenses, they’re designed to cast a soft flush of colour onto your cheeks, which, as I’d later find out, is exactly what sold me on them.

“For a lot of people, it doesn’t feel good to be wearing transparent lenses without anything special to them,” Inès explains. “So we thought, let’s just add a little tint and get that nice feel on the cheeks.”

It’s all in the details

The collection took more than a year to develop, and a lot of that time went into things you’d never notice from a photo.

“It’s almost like a discovery,” says Inès. “You have this vague idea of the ideal product, and then you have to make it work along the way.” Take the pink lenses, for instance. Meta had never made them before, and the team had to colour-match them, keep them consistent and match the temple tips to the lens colour.

At one point, Lisa liked how one pair looked but not how it fit. So the team reworked it: the curve of the temple tips and the nose pads on these frames differ from those on other Meta glasses, and both were tested across hundreds of faces, digitally and on real people.

“You don’t want someone who’s like, ‘I like this product on the table,’” she says. “We’re not just dreaming. It has to actually work.”

The detail that impressed me most, though, is the adjustable nose pad. Most adjustable glasses rely on either a metal wire you bend yourself (which is never quite precise) or swappable pads in different sizes (which means lots of tiny parts to lose). And for Meta, they took it upon themselves to switch things up a bit.

Instead, the team built its own mechanism, inspired by the tiny parts in a watch, with teeth measuring just 0.1mm. That’s too small to see with the naked eye, and it took a couple of years to develop. It sounds like overkill until you wear them: it fits snugly, and it doesn’t hurt my nose bridge, even after hours.

The star on the temple tips, on the other hand, is Lisa’s icon, taken from her Alter Ego era and her concerts. But she didn’t want it plastered across the front. Instead, it sits on the tips, where only the wearer really knows it’s there.

“It’s there, and you know what it means, but you don’t need to show off to other people,” Inès explains. To make it feel part of the product rather than a sticker slapped on top, the team even changed how the temple tip is structured.

The stars also appear on the padded, pouch-like case, and they nearly didn’t make it. The pattern is made with an old technique, rolling texture onto soft foam, and getting the stars to line up properly was so hard to control that the team almost gave up. In fact, they went a couple of days past their deadline before cracking it. It’s also the one detail Inès hopes people notice.

“If my star ends up not aligned, then it’s not a star anymore,” Inès laughs. In the end, it came down to one last attempt. “We were like, okay, let’s try this. If it works, we have a product. If it doesn’t work, we’ll give up.”

The case is a favourite of mine, too. It folds flat, which is unlike anything I’ve seen before. It might not sound like much, but it makes a world of difference because it saves so much space in my handbag. There’s also a loop on the side for hanging charms as well, and you can clip the case itself onto your bag like a charm.

Speaking of charms, they’re one of the cutest parts of the collection. When asked what would feel personal, Lisa’s answer was simple: her pets. There’s a standing dog (modelled after Love, her Doberman), a standing cat and a sitting cat, made in acetate, the material traditionally used for eyewear. Because its pattern can’t be controlled, no two charms are the same, and they come in 14 colours.

Some rare versions even come with an accessory, such as the dog or cat charm wearing a cone.

“We thought it was kind of precious. It looks like a gem,” says Inès of the acetate charms. “It was a fun thing. It was like, let’s just play and see if we can figure out something that feels good and personal.”

On top of that, if you zoom in and look close enough, you’ll notice that the ring that attaches each charm is shaped like a tiny heart. You’ll only be able to see it on the transparent charms, though, and since the pattern is random, there’s no telling who’ll get one. As Inès puts it, “If the pattern wants to show it to you, you’ll see it.”

The experience

I brought home the Adventurer, mainly because I really find the Blush tinted lenses unique. Much like what Inès mentioned, they bring out the blush on your cheeks, and I found that they complemented my look a lot. I already have two pairs of Meta glasses at home (a clear pair from the first generation I bought about a year ago and a pair of shades from the second), so going for something that stood out from the rest felt natural to me.

In terms of comfort, they’re not as heavy as I expected, and I particularly like that the nose bridge is adjustable, which I didn’t see in previous iterations. It gives a better fit, and I felt comfortable wearing them throughout the day. It’s a minor detail, but it makes the glasses feel a lot more intentional.

Another feature worth noting is the new Meta button. It sits on the same side you press to take photos and videos, but there’s now a small button at the end that you can customise to operate a specific function. For instance, you can set it to activate Meta AI without having to say “Hey Meta”, which comes in handy when you’re out and about (or just don’t want everyone around you to hear).

The verdict

Before this, I’ll admit I thought it would be a typical celebrity collab with some cute charms added on. But after speaking to Inès, I was really impressed by how much thought went into the design.

What surprised me most was that some of these details were in the works for years, like the nose pad mechanism, which took a couple of years to develop on its own. Compared with the other pairs I have at home, these truly stand out.

It also helps that Lisa wasn’t just there to lend her name. According to Inès, her feedback made the team rethink how they make glasses altogether, and it gave more weight to the opinions of the younger designers on the team, who are closer to her generation. “It made us make a different product than we would have without her,” she says. “And it was very playful, very fun. Not everything has to be so serious.”

I would say they’re worth getting if you’re a Lisa fan, or if you’ve been eyeing a pair of Meta glasses but want something that feels a little more personal. And if you already own a pair, little touches like the hidden stars and one-of-a-kind charms make this a fun addition to what you already have.