September 23, 2019

Lens review: ICK Adora Red

Hello in da house!

It's time to review a really red circle lens, namely the ICK Adora Red! Not gonna lie, these scream cosplay from the get-go and that's exactly why I originally wanted to try them. Now let's do this!



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm
Water content: 42%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)


You can tell already by looking at the lenses that they are gonna be bold as fuck! They look very anime and cartoony and that's exactly why I got them. There's not a huge stack of red lenses available so every time I find one that looks like it's gonna be amazing I really have to review them!

One lens in.
I'm not disappointed. At all. These are boss as hell, just look at that intensity! Like WOAH, perfect cosplay lens! I love how the red is not this fullblown crazy red and at least tries to be a more believable red instead of being that kind that lits up a dark room because it's so fake-looking lol.

These are on the bigger side and the design itself is rather dolly looking with a strong, vibrant color and a defined black limbal ring. The red shade in itself is really likable and I can definitely see these being used for a whole plethora of manga, anime and even video game character cosplays. Also, maybe it's just me but I feel like the pupil opening is smaller than average on what circle lenses tend to have, especially lenses of similar size. That's a good thing as it lessens the "clashing effect", especially on light-eyed individuals like me.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a September noon with a semi-cloudy sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.
Yellow room light indoors.
Bathroom light.
Unlit corridor, poor distant natural light.
Flash photo.
Facing window, not sun side. (weirdly blue for some reason)
Outdoors, back against sun. (facing wall)
Outdoors, facing sun.
Outdoors, backyard. (shadow side)
These lenses are unmistakably red, really colorful and visible in virtually any light conditions! I feel like I'm gushing a lot but these are really amazing in terms of design and color and I wish I hadn't forgotten that I had these so that I could have gotten actual use for them. :'( Oh well, will definitely repurchase later when needed.

Regarding comfort this is where the letdown came. Please bear in mind that these lenses had expired by the time I did this review, sadly, and so I immediately discarded them after taking these photos. This means that my comfort is solely based on like 10-30 minutes of first impressions and thus it's very likely not all that accurate nor fair. With all that said I felt that while the lenses were thin I did constantly feel them in my eyes, they were scratchy and stung a little. Estimated wearing time 2-3 hours on super dry and sensitive eyes, which is not a lot. I will likely repurchase these one day and once I do that I will update this review with a more accurate comfort grading.

Unless it wasn't very clear already then these lenses are a really solid cosplay lens that is well worth getting if you need something that really shows up and is visible from a distance as well. It's  a costuming lens, a lens for bold fashion styles and people who really wanna spice things up. As I mentioned earlier I wish I would have gotten around to these sooner as I would have absolutely loved to wear these to an anime convention!

Distance photo below.


Wanna see other Adora lenses?
I've reviewed a few: Violet
 
Short summary:

Color: 9/10
Amazing red lenses, very visible and great color!

Design: 8/10
It's simple but it's extremely versatile because of that.
Opacity: 9/10
Very good color coverage, I can't complain about anything. It's not mega-screamo-illuminating but it's perfect!
Enlargement: 8/10
Big and with a dolly, animated look. Did I say cosplay?
Comfort: 3/10
Thin but scratchy and I constantly feel them. Stings a little too. Likely because lenses had expired though, so this could very well be an inaccurate grade so don't take it as truth.
Naturalness: 1/10
Pffft.

Thank for checking this review out!
Shiro Samurai says bubai~

September 21, 2019

Lens review: I.Fairy Nova Green

Hello fellow unicorns!

It's time for yet another circle lens review as I'm slowly working through my massive backlog. ^^" Today's lens in the I.Fairy Nova Green, sometimes also known as Vassen Nova Green. This is a lens that I had wanted to try and been super curious about for years!

Let's roll~



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm
Water content: 55%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)


This is a rather anime looking lens, in my opinion, but when you look at the lenses in their glass bottles they don't seem to have a lot of color going on. I was a bit worried about how much these would actually show up when worn and if the green color would get muddled on my blue-gray eyes. Luckily my worries were mostly for nothing.

One lens in.
The green color is beautiful and it does this magical inbetween of blending and still being rather bold and vivid at the same time. I quite frankly love the effect as it creates a rather alluring look without overdoing anything. Actually, when one looks closer you'll notice that the design itself kinda has a swirly pattern to it and that the colored parts mostly are shaped like more or less overlapping triangles. This gives varying levels of transparency, which in turn makes the blending effect really smooth while still keeping an almost "teary eyed" look. I think it's a lovely, versatile lens.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during a September noon with a semi-cloudy sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.
Yellow room light indoors.
Bathroom light.
Unlit corridor, poor natural light in the distance.
Flash photo.
Facing a window, not sun side. (weirdly blue for some reason)
Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)
Outdoors, facing the sun.
The green color is like a grassy, summery and fresh green. I'm surprised by how vivid it is despite how "pale" the lenses look when not worn. It makes me think of forest elves and such!

Comfort is based on first impressions only (lenses had sadly expired so I took these photos and prompty discarded them after) but from what I could tell the Nova Greens were very comfortable! I didn't feel them at all as they were basically invisible to wear, thin and overall comfy. I did notice a slight blurring of my vision but it was really minor and not always present. I would estimate wearing time on super dry eyes to be around 4-5 hours, which is good. It would probably equal like 6-8 hours if you happen to be blessed with more "normal eyes" lol.

I would recommend these lenses if you like green lenses in general as the color payoff is surprisingly good and the overall effect of the lens is really pretty when worn. It lands somewhere between magical and semi-natural and I love it they are great for fantasy costuming, cosplay and j-fashion and anything else that you can think of! 

Distance photo!


Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Lovely fresh, summery green with a lot of life in it! Hard to not like.
Design: 7/10
Swirly, super pretty design that creates a "teary eyed", magical look. Youthful.
Opacity: 6/10
I wasn't expecting these to be as covering as they were. Definitely sufficient!
Enlargement: 8/10
Big and doll-like.
Comfort: 7/10
Very good. Thin and invisible to wear. Estimated 4-5 hours on super dry eyes. Might slightly blur vision?
Naturalness: 4/10
Excuse the size and these land somewhere along the lines of potentially semi-natural. Maybe.

 Thanks for checking out this review!

September 19, 2019

Lens review: ICK Premiere Wine

Hello pretties!

Continuing the circle lens reviews and today it's time for the ICK Premiere Wine! This is a dark red and I originally bought it because it was a red lens that appeared to be quite different from the rest.

Let's go!



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm
Water content: 42%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)



These have a sorta natural pattern for being a red lens but the pupil hole is really big. This means that the color is mainly gonna be at the edges once worn and that a lot of your natural eye color will be fully visible at the center. This effect generally looks more natural on dark eyes as opposed to light eyes like me, mainly because brown is closer to black and well, if you have really dark eyes then it will simply look more believable as the colors won't clash and instead you get a more realistic transition between eye and lens. It's hard to explain but it's very obvious when you see the difference and, as a light eyed reviewer, these lenses (along with all lenses with a huge center opening) will look a certain way on me and some like it and others are bothered by it. I'm rather neutral.

One lens in.
This is a fairly big lens and I think it looks pretty okay. The color turns out to be this kind of dark brownish red, almost a bit rusty in tone depending on the light conditions. On my eyes it doesn't look very natural for aforementioned reasons but I can't say that I would dislike it simply because of that. I don't know why but for some reason I think of monsters and zombies when I look at these, not because they look inherently creepy but because there is something with having such a concentrated color only at the edges and yeah, it is red after all.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a September noon with a semi-cloudy sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.
Yellow room light indoors.
Unlit corridor, poor natural light in the distance.
Flash photo.
Facing a window, not sun side.
Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)
Outdoors, facing the sun.
Outdoors, backyard. (shadow side)
In some lights these lenses look almost more brown than red! I don't personally feel like they are all that wine colored but I can see why they're named that.
Based on my first impressions wearing these lenses (they had expired so I took the photos and then immediately discarded them) they didn't seem very comfortable. Always remember that I have very very dry eyes naturally and so my comfort might differ a lot from your comfort because surprise, everyone's eyes are different! But yeah, for me these lenses were thin but still I could always feel that I had lenses on and on top of that they were scratchy. It could be because they had expired but as I only wore them once I can't tell. Regardless I estimate wearing time to be 2-3 hours for me, which is poor to average.
I can't really recommend these lenses for cosplay because the color doesn't cover much of your actual iris, unless of course you're dark eyed then maybe. They are not natural enough for daily looks either so I would say that these are mainly a fashion lens and first to mind comes darker styles like goths and such. It's not a bad lens but it's not one of my favorites and I would most likely not repurchase these, but at least I have now done the review so I can stop being curious about these and write them off my to-try list. xD

Distance photo!


Short summary:

Color: 6/10
Very dark, brownish red. Kinda rusty in color more than wine, in my opinion.
Design: 6/10
A rather simple design on which all color is packed on the outer edges of the lens.
Opacity: 7/10
The actually colored parts are super dense and covering but the huge pupil hole lowers the grade.
Enlargement: 7/10
Bigger than average for sure. Maybe it's the design but these don't feel that huge.
Comfort: 3/10
Thin but I constantly feel them ("plastic in the eye" feeling) and they were scratchy. Estimated 2-3 hours of wear on dry, sensitive eyes.
Naturalness: 2/10
Too big and too dark (too much contrast) to look passable on my eyes. Likely better outcome on brown eyes.

Thank for reading my blog, more reviews are coming soon!

September 17, 2019

Lens review: Vassen Bambi Pink

What's up peeps?

I'm trying to continue my reviewing roll while we still have plenty of daylight hours aaaand so here I present to you, a review of Vassen Bambi Pink! Sometimes these lenses might also be known under the name Vassen Bambi Queen Pink. They are also most likely identical to the Kimchi Bambi Pink as well, since Vassen is to my knowledge the company that manufactures the lenses that both Kimchi and I.Fairy sell. 

Let's roll~



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm
Water content: 42%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)


These lenses have an immensely similar design to the highly popular GEO Princess Mimi series, so if you recognize the print from somewhere then that's likely why. But I should mention that GEO's series doesn't come in pink so these are unique in that sense, haha.

Remember to always put your lenses to soak over the night before wearing them for the first time! The reason is that the solution in the little glass bottles is much stronger than ordinary lens solution that you buy from the pharmacy etc.

One lens in.
My first impression was that these don't pop quite as much as the other colors that I've already reviewed, especially when compared to the blue pair. I can still tell it's pink but it gets a bit overshadowed by the huge amount of orangeish brown that makes up the center of the lens. Sadly this orange tone clashes with my natural eye color quite much (especially because there's so much of it, it's almost half the lens!) and so it looks a bit weird to me. :/ I mean if you compare to the inner ring on the blue pair there's a huge difference in both color and intensity! I honestly want to like these lenses but I can't help but feel like they are not meant for light-eyed people because seriously, that orange really throws me off. Ugh.

It's a big and a somewhat anime looking lens. The limbal ring is really bold and creates the look of super dolly eyes. My natural eye color shines through a bit on the pink parts of the lens but not enough to make the color indistinguishable.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during a September noon with a clear sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.
Yellow room light indoors.
Facing a window, not sun side.
Poor distant natural light. Unlit corridor.
Flash photo indoors.
Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)
Outdoors, facing the sun.
Outdoors in the backyard. Shadow side.
Comfort seems good based on my quick run with these (lenses had expired so I only wore them for these photos and then they went into the trash) as I didn't feel them in my eyes and they felt pretty thin too. I would estimate wearing time anywhere between 3-5 hours, which is better than average on my super dry eyes. These lenses felt like they might potentially start drying a bit fast though, not sure.

Okay so, my summary of these lenses is that they are really big and provide a dolly effect but like, they are not the best choice for pink lenses and especially not if you have light eyes like me. Seriously only like half the lens is pink and the orange inner half shows up a lot more and it makes me think jokingly that maybe these should have been called Vassen Bambi Orange instead, lmao! But I guess that if you want this kind of unnatural looking obviously two-color lens for whatever wacky and bold fashion style you might have then why not? :D It's not a bad lens by any means but I personally ain't that thrilled by it. I do have to admit though that when seen from a distance it looks a lot better!

Distance photo below.


Wanna see more Vassen Bambi lenses?
I got you covered: Green, Blue

Short summary:

Color: 4/10
For being a pink lens these are very.. orange. The pink honestly feels more like a secondary color.

Design: 8/10
The design itself is beautiful and makes my eyes look young and lively.
Opacity: 7/10 

Nothing really wrong with the color coverage, my eyes don't look blue.
Enlargement: 8/10
Dolly and cutesy.
Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be above average. Thin and comfy but maybe drying? 3-5 hours estimated wear on super dry eyes.
Naturalness: 1/10
Maybe more believable on brown eyes but the size and design alone already gives them away.

Thanks for reading my blog!
Shiro Samurai says bye.