Lens review: I.Fairy Poppy Red

 Hello people!

It's been a bit quiet here on the blog, I've been quite busy with my work practice and haven't had anything to really write about. But now I've got a circle lens review to share so that's at least something, right? I will tell you all about this very pretty red lens called I.Fairy Poppy Red, let's go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm

Water content: 55%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

I really like that the lenses use poppy in the name – red poppies are famous as a symbol of remembrance for WW1 and how they grew on ravaged battlefields, most notably in Flanders Fields. Probably one of the reasons why I originally bought these to use for either costesting or photoshooting Prussia from Hetalia hehe, but then I think what happened was that Firith had lost pieces of the costume so I couldn't borrow it and then the plans fell through. :'D I borrowed that costume at Närcon many years ago but don't really have photos of it.

Anygays, this is a pretty big lens and it's a very vibrant and gorgeous red shade. It screams cosplay to me, it's no doubt a very good cosplay lens – perfect size, very visible color, versatile design! I absolutely adore the shade of red, it's so fresh and has such a lovely brightness to it. The design is rather simple with a classic burst-like print with darker red streaks mixed in with the lighter base color for depth.

One lens in.

As you can see the red color is super visible but still doesn't look like a crazy lens or over-the-top. The coverage is great and despite how different it is from my natural eye color (grayish blue) it doesn't clash and actually transitions surprisingly well! It's not the smoothest fade ever but it works! 

The design is semi-realistic if we look at how it vaguely resembles a real iris, except just a lot bigger. I.Fairy lenses are known for being big though so that's nothing new under the sun!

Lens photos incoming!
All photos taken by me during a May afternoon with a mostly 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.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo, indoors.

Unlit corridor, weak natural light in the distance.

Facing a window, not sun side. (backyard view)

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under the roof's shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

I forgot about the expiry date on these (time goes by so fast!) so I did not get to wear them for any cosplay photoshoot whatsoever, only this review. Boo. :[ Oh well, a review is better than nothing and I like to think that I'm helping some other geek or fashionista out there somewhere, someday. 

But what this means is that I can't really grade comfort properly and I'm thus basing my grade on my first (and only) impression of wearing these lenses, aka the time it took for me to get these photos taken. Please do not wear expired lenses for anime conventions or any prolonged time, preferably not at all to be safe. What little I can tell about these lenses was that they seemed very comfortable; I barely felt that I was wearing lenses except for that when I moved my eyes around I could feel like the corners of the lens on my iris, if that makes sense? It's a pretty common sensation so it's nothing that I personally find uncomfortable, it's almost the norm on a lot of circle lenses and in particular on those with bigger diameters. 

The lenses were otherwise thin and comfortable and didn't hinder my vision in any way, no red corners or such. I'm assuming that if these had been fresh I could most likely have gotten 3-5 hours of wear out of them on my dry af eyes, that's without using eyedrops. Might not sound like much as people with more "normal eyes" can wear circle lenses sometimes up to 8 hours in one go but yeah, I can't do those numbers. And with expired lenses I'm not gonna go and gauge wearable time, I'm just doing a very rough estimate.

I think that's about all I had to say about these colored peepers. It's an amazing cosplay lens in all fields, I can't recommend these enough if you need red contact lenses for a costume! The red color is fantastic in terms of both vibrancy and coverage and, while the size enlargement is clearly noticeable, it shouldn't be overpowering unless you have notably small eyes. I.Fairy is also a trustable and safe brand that has been around for many years, I'd say it's one of the staple brands in the market and very distinguishable. What more can I say? If you are on the lookout for awesome red lenses for your next costuming venture then don't sleep on the Poppy Reds!

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 9/10

Amazing bright red color performance, really vibrant and with great visibility even from distances.

Design: 9/10

Simple and classic burst-like print, mimicing a real iris to some degree. Gorgeous and high versatility!

Opacity: 9/10

Very solid coverage without looking tacky. High pigmentation and tasteful color transition at pupil opening.

Enlargement: 7/10

Very clearly big but due to the lack of a pronounced black rim it's not as obviously dolly.

Comfort: 7/10

Appears comfy and thin, barely feel them. Rough estimate is 3-5 hours on super dry eyes.

Naturalness: 3/10

They're red and big so that's already a no, but it's definitely not an obnoxious fake-looking red lens either.

Thanks for viewing, what do you think of these lenses? :D

Shiro Samurai out.