Color contacts have been on the market for the longest time, but I personally never got around trying them. ย I remembered back when I was a little girl and at my optometrist, seeing the sample brochures and wondered to myself why anyone would want to “change their eye color”. ย Even when I went to my optometrist, there were two little kids running around the office, which annoyed the crap out of everyone, but I was trying to be “pleasant”. ย The little girl asked me, “whats that? whats that?!?” I answered, “They are color contacts! You can change your eye color just like make up.” ย She gives me a long blank stare while I had a contact on the tip of my finger drying out, shortly then resuming back to chasing her little brother around.
For the longest time, I always wondered what it would be like to have lighter eyes. ย Eyes are one of those things which makes me stare, especially light eyes. ย I met this one guy years ago when I was in summer camp, he had sterling sliver eyes. ย I kid you not, it was the prettiest things ever. ย But sadly he was kind of a jerk HAHA, until the last week of summer camp that we could even bare talking to him. ย I’ve always wanted to see myself with green eyes, I don’t know why…. maybe because green is my favouriteย color and Hilary duff ,who I grew up watching on TV, also had green eyes. ย So jelly. ย Now I get to see if the grass is really greener on the other side.
I didn’t really expect any color contacts to be able to change my eye color since I have pretty dark eyes. ย I know there are those Korean color contacts, but I’m a little scared to try them since they are so cheap compared to these brands which you can find at your doctor’s office. ย To my surprise, these are actually quite nice! So this post is for all my brown eyed girls out there who needs a reference since I haven’t found any decent photos or videos on the internet that show these “trusted” brands.
I wish I had husky eyes haha. ย If my eyes were like this permanently, I’d be like HELL YEA!
Fun facts about eyes:
1) No one in the world has the exact same eye color as you, they are like fingerprints. ย Hence airport security and other security systems use your eye as another way to identify you.
2)ย Eye color change over time since they don’t produce pigment constantly, thus becoming lighter or darker overtime.
3) Brown eyes= high melanin , blue eyes= low melanin
Here are more fun facts about eyes!
Here are my normal eye color. ย Super dark brown, not much dimension. ย I wish I had my boyfriend’s eyes, they are on the lighter side of brown and when the sun hits them, it shimmers T_T. ย
ย I wore very minimal make up since I wanted the colors to shine through.
Here are the color contacts on a white surface for you to see what they are like. ย All these contacts are soft contacts and are quite comfortable to wear. ย But having said that, please make sure you go see your optometrist to see if your eyes are suitable to wear contacts.
Sorry in advance if some pictures are blurry. ย The color contacts had no prescription and the camera display was too far for me to see if it was in focus or not. ย I would retake these photos but sadly they were only one day wear and I threw them away before I could plug my camera into my computer to see the photos. ย Hope you guys don’t hate me, I’M SORRY!
Here is a little bit about my own eyes:
1) I have super dry eyes, pretty much I have eyes of a 40 year old (that’s what my doctor said). ย Normal people’s fat depose when they blink, they come out in strands. ย When I blink, my fat depose comes out in blobs. ย This is not good since it does not coat the surface of my eyes properly hence the dryness in my eyes.
2) I have slight astigmatism in my left eye.
3) The obvious one, I have brown eyes HAHA since I’m the typical asian with brown eyes and “black” hair.
These ones are from Freshlook one day color contacts which retail for$19.99ย per box with 10 lenses each box and one lens can only be wore for one day. ย One day contacts are preferred for those who have dry eyes like myself. ย I’m not sure if it is because of the written “demo” on the contact lense but when I wore them on my eyes, there was a little bit of the contact that was slightly blocking my vision. ย And these weren’t comfortable for me and my dry asssssss eyes. ย They were okay when I popped them on with the saline solution, but when the liquid went away, dry city baby. ย It wasn’t like desert dry, however, it felt like something was poking at my eyes. ย The color overall is nice, not the most natural in my opinion against my dark brown eyes.
I was super excited to try any blue, greens or gray colors since I personally really like light eyes. ย These freshlooks in blue looks quite natural against my brown eyes since it was more of a darker blue with a subtle light brown color on the inside near the pupil. It also works well since all the freshlook contacts has a black ring, making your eyes look bigger.
The freshlooks in green is definitely my second favourite out of the four since I was dead set on a green color. ย This is actually one color contact I could wear out and not just for picture taking, but sadly they are too dry. ย The green is a nice deep emerald shade with light brown running near the pupil which, again, works well with dark eyes.
Hazel is my least favourite even though it looks quite similar to the green. ย Just something about the warmth from the center light brown near the pupil didn’t look natural to me with my skintone.
The last one I got to try was the grey and thisย one has to be my favourite our of the four freshlook colors. ย It looks great for photos and gives a dramatic effect without it screaming FAKE! ย Sadly in my opinion the freshlook like doesn’t look natural enough for my taste. ย I know what your going to say…. On the other side of the screen you guys are saying “well you are wearing COLOR CONTACTS, it isn’t natural to change the color of your eyes.” ย What I mean by natural is, the pixilation on the actual color contact isn’t fine enough to create a believable color change. ย These I’d say are like the Window of the computer world. ย This is a a girl saying this after switching to an imac and has gotten use to the retina screen haha. ย Don’t shoot me, I know there are many android lovers out there. ย The airoptix color contacts are like the iMac with their retina display.ย 
I hope you guys can see the difference in what I said above with the “pixilation”. ย These airoptix color contacts look a lot more believable, even up close in person and that is what I want in my color contacts! ย Although they do run on the more pricey side at $75 a box with 6 contacts in it, they are monthly contact lenses which in the long run is cheaper then getting one day contacts. ย And guess what! They are more comfortable then the freshlooks!! ย They don’t feel like there is sand in my eyes, they fit nicely on the eyes and doesn’t move around and the colors are gorgeous. ย If you couldn’t seen the slight contours of the actual contact, you would really think these are my real eye color.
I was debating on which color contacts to order, and it is definitely between the blue ones, grey or gemstone green. ย But for the purpose of just photo taking, it would have to be these blue ones. ย They look so natural close up and far away and they give enough of a dramatic effect far away for me to be sold on them. ย The blue is a nice slightly deep cool blue, with hints of golden bronzey brown specks near my pupil. ย Close up, it doesn’t look that well blended with my brown eyes underneath, but far away it makes it seem as though my pupils are large (not on drugs kind of large HAHA) making my overall look more awake and more doe eyed. Love!
Don’t have much to say since the picture says it all. ย The grey is pretty, nice, natural, gives good coverage over my dark brown eyes. ย I also want to get these but I’m not rich HAHA. ย Going for $75 a box, I’d be broke if I got all the colors from air optix.
The shade honey is my least favourite since the color is too warm against my cool yellow undertone. ย It makes me look like a vampire. ย Just.. no.
I didn’t think I would like gemstone green since it looked super artificial on the little brochure but I was already in the doctors office so I might as well try it on. ย To my surprise, it actually looks really good! ย In the container it looks like I would have neon, glowing eyes but it looks so natural! ย This color I would actually ย buy in prescription and wear them out like normal and make people think I was blessed with these amazing jade colored eyes hehe. ย I’m gunning for this shade, I think this would be the first color I am going to get from airoptix.
The last contacts I tried where the new Acuvue defines which isn’t exactly color contacts. ย They are suppose to be the “no make up make up” kind of contact lense which enhances your natural eye color. ย I myself am already very familiar to this brand since I wear the one day moist contacts and am very pleased with the leave of moisture and comfortable they offer. ย These are the same type of contact with the moisture and comfort level but with a slight twist.
As you can see in the picture, they have these dark rings on the outside, and three different types called natural sparkle (which is made more for light eyes), natural shimmer and natural shine. ย I have the natural shine and I must say, it does really “define” the color of my eyes and I wouldn’t be too uncomfortable to wear these as my normal contact lenses. ย These are quite popular in the Asian market as they are very natural but give that extra little something something. ย It’s kind of like a push up bra, your boobs are already there, but that extra lift makes it something special. ย I know you know what I mean ;).
Overall my first time experience with color contacts is quite pleasant. ย I myself would purchase the Airoptix color contacts since they look the best, super comfortable and would also consider the Acuvue define for daily wear since it is natural enough for me to flaunt that “I woke up like this” bull sheep HAHA.
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What are your experiences with color contacts? Do you guys wear them, if so which brand and what colors are your favourite? ย Leave me a comment down below and tell me what you think.ย
This Post Has 40 Comments
Hi there! Thank you so much for the wonderful posting! I am asian (Korean) and I wonder which ones looks more natural – blue or grey and less ‘Alien-like’? Xx
Hello there :). Thank you for stopping by. I am also Asian (chinese to be exact) and I have dark brown, almost black eye color and I’d say blue looks more natural in person and on camera then grey. Grey gives a very dramatic effect and looks great in pictures but looks a little too harsh in person. I’d also suggest the gemstone green, it is very subtle in person but there is a definite change for everyday use.
Thanks for the great in-depth look at these lenses! As a fellow brown-eyed girl, it’s a whole new ballgame picking a color that makes a difference yet still looks natural. Glad I found your site!
I’m glad you found it helpful :D. I know the struggles when I went to pick color contacts but there was no pictures on the internet.
Hi there! Can I just say how awesome this review is? I already got a box of air optix lenses which are hazel but I love it so much that I’m looking into getting a 2nd color! I’m Asian too so your post definitely helped a lot. Love the photos! ๐
Lucky!!! I couldn’t pull the trigger to get myself a box of air optix since it was $70 for four pairs I believe? I ended up just getting some Korean color lens since I just wanted to take pictures with them. Glad you found the review helpful :).
Is the blue the regular blue or the brilliant blue??
It is regular blue. Brilliant blue is a lot brighter in person and looks quite fake in person, very alien like haha. Hope that helps.
Hi Christina, would u say the gray is good for everyday wear like natural enough
Hello Michelle,
If you are talking about Air optix, the gray one looks slightly more natural then the freshlooks one since the pixels seems to be finer then the freshlooks. In terms of if it looks natural enough to pass it off as your real eye color, definitely not, especially up close.
Just curious if you did (or will do) any comparison between the 1-Day and Original (2-3 week) versions of Freshloooks/Colorblends lenses.
Unfortunately I will not since I won’t be buying these anytime soon.
Just wanted to thank you for the post. You’ve definitely helped out this dark brown eyed guy ๐ I love the optic too, I’ve only tried the honey and brown because I’m like the male equivalent of girls that don’t wear makeup but the colour contact version lol
No problem! When I was looking to buy color contacts, there was little to no reviews online so I thought I would contribute haha. Glad I was of service to someone :). What color did you ended up getting?
Hi Christina. Thank you so much for the helpful review. I am also Asian with super dark brown to almost black eyes. I am currently wearing Pure Hazel from Air Optix as a daily contact but I am looking for something with a little more pop of color but still subtle. I love how Gemstone green looks on your eyes. Do you think Gemstone green would be ok for us to wear as a daily contact or would it be too fake and bright?
I think gemstone green would be a nice one for daily use. I personally was about to get either the blue or gemstone green but ended up not buying any because it as expensive and not really worth me paying $140 for 4 pairs since I have two different degrees. Gemstone green would be a good choice :). It is subtle enough to look natural from a distance. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the post, Christina! I’ve been trying to find someone with dark eyes and similar skin tone to give an honest review ๐
I want to delve into coloured contacts JUST to see how my eyes would look, nothing long term, maybe a few days at a time, and it seems (on you in the pics, at least!) that the 1-day Freshlooks look more “natural”, like more subtle for Asians who are usually expected to have darker eyes. But in terms of close-up, I can’t really tell from your photos, is the pixelation really that much more natural in the Air Optix?
Hello! Glad you found the post helpful.
For me, I think the Air optixs look a lot more natural close up and far away. The pixilation for the Air optics seems to be slightly finer and the color combinations look a lot more natural then Freshlooks. Freshlooks is definitely a close second and not a bad choice if you were looking for one day usage ones. I wouldn’t say it is THAT much more natural since close up, both make me look like I have alien eyes HAHA. So it really depends on what you are looking for. Are you looking for quick, one day use ones or one month ones if you were thinking of using them for long term.
In the end since I just wanted to be able to change my eye color for picture purposes, I bought couple of those Korean color contacts for fun. It was $30 for four pairs which isn’t half bad.
Hi, would you mind sharing what Korean site you purchased your contacts from? What brand were they? And how do you know they are safe? Thanks!
I actually didn’t buy any Korean contacts from any online store. I just bought them from the night market haha. But I know there are sites like pinkyparadiase that sell asian contacts. I don’t wear them for long periods of time nor have I wore them that many times since they dried up after I forgot about them in the cases haha.
Does your vision change when you put this color contacts??? I put a few times i see blurry, it’s really annoying since my vision is perfect.
Hmm that doesn’t happen to me at all. O_o
Hello,
I use to wear Freshlook Color Blends grey colour. I am thinking to change by Air Optic same colour. Do you know if Air Optix has limbal ring?. Which is more natural for the day?.
My natural eyes are dark brown
Hi, I’m going to try Freshlook contact lens, but I saw Freshlook colorblends has DIA 14.5mm , and the one day one has DIA 13.8mm, I don’t like wearing big size, so I wonder if the colorblends would fit on eyeballs or be bigger. I’m looking forward to your reply. Thanks alot
Unfortunately I’m not too familiar with colour contacts and the diameters but from what your telling me, I think the one day ones would be better for your needs. And plus, one day contacts would be more comfortable since it usually is thinner and you don’t have to clean it since you dispose of it after every use, something that is perfect for dry eyes like me. Hope that kind of helps? LOL
Great post! And you’re eyebrows are so nice!
Haha thank you :). I have to maintain them myself everyday or else I’ll go back to man eyebrows XD
hi ๐
i was just curious which you used “freshlook colors” or “freshlook color blends”
I believe these are the freshlook colorblends
Actually it looks to me like the Air Optix are more pixelated. Sure the pixels are smaller but there is clearer delineation between them and the spacing is so regular that your eye pickss out the pattern much more quickly than with the Freshlook, and that spoils the realism. Also you know they are made by the same company out of the same material right? In clinical trials the comfort level of the Air Optix started out higher but by the end of the study the participants couldn’t tell the difference in the way they felt.
I wish you would have tried the Freshlook Monocolors, those are actually designed for dark eyes and the transition on them looks more natural in the few vids I’ve seen. It seems like instead of using multiple colors they vary the density of the pixels so that your natural color provides the depth and a unifying undertone.
After testing out these color contacts, I didn’t end up getting them. Instead I’ve been loving color contacts from Korea from the brand O lense which is a lot better and way more realistic looking. I’m not too much of a color contact person and this post is actually the first time testing out color contacts, so your information is very welcomed so thank you for educating me. Unfortunately I didn’t have those as a tester when I went to my eye doctor but they all looked a little too unnatural in my opinion.
I know this is a few years late, but thank you for this post!
HAHA welcome back ๐
This has to be the best review I’ve seen so far! Thank you so much, I have very dark brown eyes and I can never be sure what the colors would look like on my eyes, but this is pretty spot on.,..Thanks again ๐
Glad it was helpful :). I will have another post on Korean contacts that I think look a lot better and also are cheaper.
Hi there! Thanks so much for this review it helped a lot! I’m planning on getting prescripted lenses fo the first time and I’m choosing between these two brands based on their level of comfort & visability. Can i ask if you got prescripted ones? If so, did any one of them make your vision more blurrier than the other? Another question is which one is more comfortable for daily use? I believe I plan on wearing contacts for about 10 hours a day every year and I think I would want ones that feel comfortable as if I’m not wearing any. So sorry for the long comment and thank you again!!
I actually got the demo ones for these. Color contacts shouldn’t make your vision blurry. I’m currently wearing O-lens color contacts (from Korea) and I think my max is about 6 hours before my get a little sore and just wants a break. I wouldn’t ever really recommend using color contacts everyday.
I like your post!
I’ve used Pinkyparadise once, but the lenses I ordered were too drying and looked very unnatural as it was was hard to pick from the colours via computer screen, and I must have picked a bad colour so it looked like cosplay. Before that, I used to wear FreshLook colours in purple and then green for a while (monthly), which were ok but the colour was subtle. I have dry, dark brown eyes as well. I’m considering trying Air Optix as they look really good on your eyes here and seem to have better reviews than Freshlook!
Just curious, which did you find more comfortable between the Freshlook and Air Optix for your dry eyes?
Also, I’m guessing the Korean lenses are only meant to be worn for short periods of time and I have a tendency to leave lenses in for hours, so not sure if they would suit that right?
Honey airoptix looked more natural on you. It suits your skintone and eye shape. The others looked unnatural, especially blue.
I totally agree but in the end, I didn’t buy any of the Airoptixs since I found Korean color contacts look way more natural. If you want to see the Olens ones from Korea, heres some links for you ;).
http://christinahello.com/o-lens-spanish-line-try-on-review/
http://christinahello.com/o-lens-color-contacts-review-try-on/