The question being asked is whether ski sunglasses are an essential part of the skiers armoury, or whether skiing goggles would do the job?
There is a lot of personal preference involved of course, but here are some tips which might sway your decision.
* If you wear contact lenses, then skiing goggles could be a good idea, because they are snugger around your face.
* Goggles are more likely to steam up, again because they are snug around your face. To experienced skiers this is not so much of a problem, but to novices, this can be an issue. If you keep falling over for example, then you are expending more energy to get up, and getting hotter at the same time. This can cause goggle fog.
* Peripheral vision is better with skiing goggles
* Goggles do a better job of keeping the wind out of your eyes. Again, this could be important if you wear contact lenses whilst skiing.
If you do wear goggles, make sure they are polarized and offer UV protection. I would imagine that all ski goggles would do this anyway, because anyone who skis knows about the intense glare of snow, but if you have a pair of goggles that do not have proper protection, then you could end up with problems.
If you wear tinted contact lenses, then you could get away with it. And if you wear tinted spectacles, and the goggles are large, then that might also be fine, as you can wear the goggles over your spectacles. Bear in mind the point about goggle fogging though. This will apply equally to you if you wear glasses.
One more thing to bear in mind, if you are new to skiing, is that this may not be something that you want to pursue; certainly not until you have tried it. That being the case, it might not be such a good idea to spend lots of money on expensive accessories that will not be used again. If you can hire equipment or use cheap accessories to begin with, so much the better.