Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee White Galaxy

 Good morning everyone! 

I'm back with another colored contact lens review and this time we're checking out the ColourVue Phantasee White Galaxy! Yes, these are very similar in style to the Pure Galaxy crazy lenses I reviewed earlier, it's basically just a different color variant. And just like with the previous review the White Galaxy lenses have also seemingly disappeared from the market so this is also a review I'm doing just to remember that these lenses once existed and to be able to compare them to similar designs I might try in the future.

Now let's-a-go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm
Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

As I briefly mentioned above these lenses are almost identical to the Pure Galaxy ones I reviewed just before this one, the only difference is that the swirl design is in black instead of yellow. But for the rest of the specifics it's essentially the same – there's a pure white main color and the lenses lack any kind of limbal ring, which makes them nudge towards the creepy side when compared to more traditional cosmetic contacts. They look quite intense when worn and I would rank them as crazy lenses because they're very unnatural-looking, bold and have full color coverage.

One lens in.

You can see on the photo above that these look quite striking when worn and the white main color is a really bright, pure white – it's so white it's whiter than my scleras, which adds to the intensity (and creepiness, if you'd like). It looks a bit unnerving but not quite as ominous as the Pure Galaxy lenses do, in my opinion. I do personally like both circle lenses and more costume-y lenses meant for Halloween and such, both have their appeals and uses! This type of lenses can fit right in with certain alternative fashion styles that are more bold and unapologetic in their visual expression – like punk, goth and other dark styles.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during an October noon with sunny weather, although the sun was hidden by a veil of clouds at the moment the photos were taken. All close-up photos are free from color filters etc and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow-ish room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing a window. (not sun side)

Unlit corridor, only natural light in the distance.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun. (obscured by a cloud veil)

Just like with a majority of lenses I've been reviewing lately this pair was also a part of that infamous cardboard box, which I had stashed away so well that I literally forgot about it for years. Oops. By the time I found it all the unused lenses inside had expired and so I began my mission to review them; it was the least I could do to make the purchases not completely wasted. I mean, if I can turn my misfortune into at least something positive I'd gladly do it. Obviously I don't recommend wearing expired lenses and I'm only wearing these lenses for the sake of getting the necessary review photos taken, after that I immediately discard them.
This, unfortunately, means that I can't properly grade comfort and that my comfort grading is based on quite literal first (and only) impressions. But what I can say about these lenses is that, during my brief time wearing them, I didn't notice anything dramatically bad. They were a bit difficult to insert and by that I mean that the lens would not latch onto my eye properly but like "float" on top, which made them pop out when I blinked. I had to redo the insertion once per eye. It might not be their fault because this happens every now and then when putting in contact lenses, especially if your finger holding the lens is more moist than your eyeball and so your lens prefers to stay on the finger lol. But anyways, once I got the lenses in they settled normally and felt quite thin and okay to wear, save for some slight itchiness around the edges (possibly due to either expired status or perhaps got some debris between that didn't completely clean off before reinsertion). My eyes are naturally dry and sensitive so I'm not the best to judge comfort averages but yeah, if these had been non-expired I guess they would have been okay to wear for maybe 2-4 hours or something like that?
Oh, one thing that should maybe be noted is that these lenses, just like many other crazy lenses, have a somewhat narrower central opening than that of your typical circle lens, which means that in poorer light conditions when your pupils dilate to let in more light, you might experience slight blur or colored corners at the far edges of your vision field. In this case the intruding color would be perceived as white-ish due to the main body of the lenses being white. This is something that I'm used to, as a long-time colored lens user, and it's totally normal so it's nothing to freak out over. :)

All in all this is a fun, vibrant lens that could be cool for both alt fashion and costuming. It does draw my thoughts to fantasy and sci-fi realms but not necessarily to the bad guys – maybe more akin to morally gray nomads and rogues with superpowers, that kind of characters? But yeah, sadly these exact lenses have gone 'poof' from the market and we'll just have to wait along for a replacement.

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Pure white lens with a black spin print. Surprisingly fascinating and crisp-looking.

Design: 8/10 

Simple swirl design but powerful effect once worn. Not quite as creepy as one might expect.

Opacity: 10/10

Full coverage, my real eye color is completely blocked out by how opaque the pigmentation is.

Enlargement: 2/10 

Negligible enlargement, it's hardly noticeable on my eyes at least.

Comfort: 5/10 

Appears to be average comfort. Had some slight difficulties with insertion, followed by itchiness around the edges but I can't be sure if that was a one-time occurence or not. Thin and okay otherwise.

Naturalness: 1/10 

No chance, these are far from natural in any sense of the word.

Thanks for your time, there will be more reviews coming in a bit!

~ Shiro Samurai out.