Coloured contact lenses and my first pair of circle lens: GEO Bella Green

Hello ^^
finally I got some lenses and I will share with you my experience :)

Inspired by other Asian Beauty blogger I started to dream about huge, green eyes. Initially I thought I'm just going to do it hardcore way and just buy some lenses, without consulting it with specialist, I can put eye drops in my eyes with no problems, so I would be probably fine with lenses as well. I downloaded from the Internet a little handbook of how to insert/remove and care for lenses and... I realised it may be not that simple to just do it. Besides, eyes are very sensitive, so I would be better of consulting it with optician. However I was afraid, that if I go to the opticians and tell them, that I don't have any sight problems I just want to wear coloured contacts for fun, they wouldn't treat me seriously. I've put the whole lens case aside for "some day in the future".

Recently when we were in town my fiance went to opticians, because the time of his 2-year check-up was coming. Since I was there anyway I decided to give it a go and ask about lenses. All my concerns turned out to be unjust - for optician it doesn't matter if you really have some sight problems or just want lenses for fun - they still have to carry out same tests. I was treated in very polite and professional way. Luckily, someone didn't show up for their appointment, so I could squeeze in and have some tests done after only 10 minutes waiting. Firstly, I got my sight tested (as I thought it's perfectly fine), then eyes themselves. During the eye test for contact lenses, optician applies some orange dye into our eyes and then tests them carefully to check for any irregularities or dry ares on surface of the eye. Mostly for this test it is important to see the specialist before wearing your first lenses - your eyes can have some defects that you won't feel and know about, that can make wearing lenses impossible. After the tests, when we knew there is no issues with my eyes, I could choose the colour of lenses and then I was shown how to correctly put on and take off my lenses, how to clean them, how to check if they are not inside out etc. I was doing quite well on the practise part :)
Now the best part: the lenses that I have chosen - monthly disposables - I received for free as a sample. All the test were free as well. The only thing I have paid for was contact lens solution.
The opticians I went to was Specsavers (British optician chain). The tests are free at every opticians in the UK, but I don't know about free lenses. I can definitely recommend this company - my fiance always have glasses from them and he is very happy with them. The customer service was excellent - nice & professional - I was handled by three people all together and all of them confirmed that it's a good idea to get your eyes tested before wearing contact lenses.

The lenses I tested are Expressions Colour Vision in Aqua (14mm diameter). Colour is nice and vivid, around the pupil you can see a bit of my natural eye colour (grey), but colour of the lens blends in nicely. They are comfortable for approx. 11 hours - in general they're not supposed to be worn longer than 12h, but even if I would like to wear them longer, I don;t think I would manage. After 11-12h my vision starts to be blurred, it's hard to focus sight on small objects, hard to read.
During the first couple of days I felt that I have something on my eyes, but it wasn't annoying or painful - i just felt something under my eyelids when I was blinking. For the first couple of days my vision was also blurred slightly on the edges, but after few days I stopped feeling the lenses and my vision became clear.

in bright natural light (facing the window)

in dim natural light (window on the right hand side)

These lenses look quite natural - they don't make eyes look bigger, just give them more vivid colour. If someone pays attention to our eyes (for example I know all my friend's eye's colour) will notice the change straight away, especially that this colour is too vivid to be natural. If someone doesn't pay too much attention to the eyes (I know some people that even though they know me for years, they wouldn't be able to tell my eye colour without looking in my eyes), won't notice the difference. So couple of my friends and colleagues noticed straight away that there was something different about my eyes, but some people didn't notice the difference and even when I told them I have contact lenses on, they thought I'm talking about plain corrective ones.

After two weeks of wearing "normal" coloured lenses, when I was fully comfortable with them I ordered my first pair of circle lenses form Pinky Paradise on-line store. The choice of products shocked me, so I spend good couple of hours before I could make my mind. Finally I have chosen GEO Bella Green - I knew I wanted to start with green lenses and I have chosen GEO as this company is well known form good quality. I also didn't want diameter to be bigger than 14/14.2mm as I am still a beginner.

size comparison: "normal" lens and circle lens

As you can see GEO Bella are just a little bit bigger than normal lenses, but the trick lays in the colour print - while normal lenses have clear "margin", the circle lens are printed almost to the edge. The circle lens have also bigger "whole" for the pupil, so the natural eye colour will be more visible.

left: normal coloured lens, right: GEO Bella Green

 The enlargement is noticeable, but not drastic. GEO Bella look semi-natural - again, if someone pays attention to our eyes, would notice straight away, but there were still some people that couldn't see the difference. Those circle lens look more natural from closer distance than from far away - from far away you can just see the black rim around the iris, so much that "pupil" is less noticeable - so you can just see the black rim and the bright colour inside, what looks a bit alien like :P from closer distance you can see better the green colour and the pupil, so eye looks more natural.

left: my natural eye, right: GEO Bella Green

 Green looks nice on my bright eyes. Around the pupil you can still see the natural eye colour, but it blends nicely with lens colour. GEO Bella are super comfortable - I kept them on my eyes for "as long as I can take" out of curiosity and they were comfortable for 13 hours. Since my eyes were already used to the lenses wear, I couldn't feel them at all on my eyes and my vision wasn't blurred. I am wearing them for two weeks now, but sometimes I still have to try few times to put them on. I have no idea how I would cope with 15mm diameter 0o so in my opinion circle lens are not good for the first lenses.

A huge plus of Korean lenses is their lifetime: they are yearly disposables, while the optician's coloured lenses are only daily or monthly disposables. In reviews of some circle lenses we can read, that they became uncomfortable after for example 3 months, but it's still a better lifetime than optician's ones, considering that they cost roughly the same.

Summing up: I think that circle lens are very interesting product, if we fancy enlarging our eyes or changing their colour. But it is important to consult with optician before starting any experiments with your eyes. Excited with my first pair of circle lens I already ordered some more: pair of brown and pair purple ones. So I plan to spend a bit less on the cosmetics just now and dive into the lenses :D