Eye Glasses

I have just created my first satisfactory african head cartoon figure - though with a bit of realistic touch - and I have designed specs (glasses) for the xter.  :)

:( My problem is, I am not satisfied with the looks of the glazed area of the eye glasses....grossly unrealistic after several permutations on opacity settings and glossiness.  Is there a way of getting something real (with that intrinsic white specular efx) and proper refraction without heavily depending on raytrace (that thing takes time to render)? ::)