How to Buy Colored Contact Lenses
From LoveToKnow Buy
Colored contact lenses are one of the hottest trends in celebrity and fashion-forward style. While colored lenses have been around for awhile, today they are more comfortable than ever, manufactured from state-of-the-art materials, and available in a wide range of styles and colors.
Styles of Fashion Colored Contacts
There are two basic types of colored contacts: opaque and translucent.
Opaque contacts contain a solid tint that completely changes the appearance of your natural eye color. You can go from brown to blue, for example, which in the past has been the hardest for dark-eyed people to achieve.
The contact itself consists of a colored portion and a clear area in the center for the pupil which allows you to see. Occasionally, if your colored contacts are not fitted properly, the contact can slide around your eye, and the colored portion of the contact obscures your vision. For this reason, it’s essential that you take an eye exam from a registered optometrist and be properly fitted for contacts, even if you have perfect vision.
Different brands such as Acuvue 2 Color Opaques, and FreshLook Colors (Opaques) offer various colors and intensities of solid color tints. You can find these colored contacts in shades of blue, violet, green, honey, gray and brown.
Translucent contacts contain a transparent tint that allows the natural eye color to show through. Often called enhancers, these types of contacts are best suited to light eyes. Popular brands include Acuvue 2 Enhancers, and FreshLook Dimensions. However, dark eyed people who want to bring a brightening or illuminating effect to their natural eye color can use enhancer contacts such as FreshLook Radiance.
Daily Disposable Colored Contacts
What’s also great about the new breed of colored contact lenses is the daily disposable colors. These contacts are inexpensive and so you can try out a color without huge cost. For example, FreshLook ONE-DAY are disposable color contacts that you wear once, and then throw away. If you’re going to a party, a night club, or just want to experiment with a different color, for less than $15 you can give it a try.
With daily disposables you also don’t have to worry about cleaning routines, losing lens cases, and cleaning solutions. The lenses come packaged in a sterile blister pack ready to go. You just discard the lens at the end of the night and you're done.
Choosing Colored Contacts
The best way to choose color contacts is to decide what kind of impression you’re after. Since colors are purely a cosmetic advantage over regular contacts, whether or not they are vision correcting, you should think about the look you want to achieve.
If you want a subtle change that enhances your face, hair, skin or makeup, then choose brands that either enhance the natural color of your eyes, or that blend several colors together for the most natural effect. Two popular brands that do this are: Acuvue 2 Enhancers and FreshLook Colorblends.
If you want to make a statement, like stop people in their tracks, then there are dramatic, color-intense contacts for you too. These types of lenses either intensify your color, change your color completely in a dramatic fashion, or brighten the eye color with sparkles or luminescence. Brands to try are: Acuvue 2 Colors Opaques, Clearly Colors by Marietta Vision and FreshLook Radiance.
Getting a Prescription for Colored Contacts
In the US, you must get contacts of all types by prescription. This means a visit to an eye doctor, an eye exam, and a proper fitting for contact lenses. Even if you have perfect vision, your eye doctor still needs to write a prescription for you with no vision correction (called “plano”) . Different contact lenses use different materials, and the diameters and base curves are different sizes and therefore should be fitted specifically for your eye.
For example, if your doctor prescribes Acuvue 2 Enhancers with a base curve of 8.3, it means you have been fitted for that brand and size. If you were to try a lens with a base curve of 8.6, it might not fit properly and could impair your vision.
Retailers who sell colored contacts are required by law to verify the prescription before filling your order. Beware of any online merchant or flea market vendor who claims they can sell you cheap colored contacts without a prescription. It’s illegal and not to mention dangerous for the health of your eye. You should also be wary of online merchants who sell contact lenses without telling you the brand or manufacturer, the lens parameters, and material they’re made from.
Related Links
This page has been accessed 1,006 times. This page was last modified 01:43, 2 May 2007.
© 2006-2008 LoveToKnow Corp.
