Lens review: ColourVue Crazy Lens Blind White

 Yo ho, mateys!

 

 I have a few more colored contact lens reviews to throw at you all before this year ends and here's one of the cooler ones! You see, I've long been curious about these 'blind eye' special effect lenses because they look so intense and eye-catching. Yet, funnily enough, I've never even tried a mesh type lens first to ease myself into the experience and, well, instead I jumped straight into the deep end by going for the ColourVue Crazy Lens Blind Whites lol. And while this particular brand's sfx lenses are now discontinued from the market there still exists other brands with blind eye lenses so yeah, if you're curious about what the wearing experience is like then continue reading! :D

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

Okay so first let's make one thing abundantly clear – these lenses are an undeniably solid white through and through and it's very visible by just looking at the lenses in their little glass bottles. Yes, this means that there's zero opacity anywhere on the lenses and wearing them will effectively render you blind as a bat to the point you won't see fuckall of anything happening around you and I mean that in all serious seriousness; you won't have any functional vision of your own and if you plan to wear these lenses out to any event you _need_ someone to guide you around at all times or you will have a miserable time. So yeah, if the thought of having zero vision and fumbling around making your way forward by touch is uncomfortable to you then please don't buy these type of lenses and go for the mesh variants instead, which provide a similar look but retains some visibility, so that you can function independently.
This is the most extreme kind of cosmetic lenses along with scleras, it's not for everyone. Make sure that you can handle the loss of vision (also on a mental level) before purchase.

One lens in.

Wearing just one lens is a bit of a trippy feeling because it's equivalent to wearing an eyepatch or blocking out the other eye with your hand. The eye with the lens sees nothing but white and it feels a bit disorienting because you still have your other eye with full vision that's trying to compromise the shortfall of the blind eye. I want to note here that if you choose to only wear one lens to complete your look then you should be prepared for a headache at some point, due to the extra strain and compensation the seeing eye is being put through during the hours of wear. Just as a heads up. It's similar in principe to how people who wear correcting glasses daily get a headache if they don't wear them.

Lens photos below!

All close-up photos below are taken by Firith (for obvious reasons, aka I don't see shit) during noon with mostly sunny weather. All close-ups are free from color filters and the like and that's so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Flash photo.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

In all honesty the only thing I could see with both lenses on was like a solid milky white color that would slightly shift in shade to a warmer (yellowish) or colder (blueish/grayish) nuance depending on if I was indoors or outdoors, for example. So in essence the only visual information I retained was extremely vague at best, like when I stepped out of my apartment I could tell that I was outdoors because the white I was seeing got brighter. It's a bit hard to explain but trust me when I say that the only thing I could somewhat discern indoors was where a window was located – as in I would see the general outlines, which showed up as a blurry square (because my windows are rectangular) that was brighter than the rest of the white around it. I would also be able to tell if something, like waving my hand in front of my face, or someone passed in front of the window's light because I'd see a very simplified shadow being cast but I wouldn't be able to tell any features or even what it was, just that there was a fleeting shadow that obscured the light briefly. Oh and this shadow only appeared if the object in front was moving from one side to another, if it was stationary in front of the window then I wouldn't be able to tell that there was something there – as in no discernable shadow appears.

When I'm outdoors I'm 100% blind, I don't see anything whatsoever (except for the sun being an extra bright blob of white) and I wouldn't be able to tell if I was walking into someone before colliding or if someone's standing literally right in front of me. I can't stress it enough that you really need someone to act as your eyes because we sighted humans are so accustomed to being able to see, so that when you take that one sense we're taking for granted away, then suddenly it's a whole different world to navigate – and that can be really scary, and hazardous, if you're not prepared.

One thing I should maybe also mention, that is perhaps not so obvious, is that with both lenses on it's really hard for you to even know what direction you're facing. This also applies to what direction your eyes are looking at because, after all, you only see the same shade of white wherever you look so it's really difficult to even know if your eyes are physically looking in the direction you think you're looking at – after all there's no indicators. It's even harder if you have 'lazy eye' or strabismus (cross-eye) because without being able to see anything your eyes might just uncontrollably go wherever they want lol. So yeah, if you're trying to act as a model and get photographed it can be an additional challenge to even have your gaze being where it should be because you don't see anything that you can focus on and so your eyes might just aimlessly be somewhere else and not towards the camera at all – the prompt to "look at the camera!" doesn't work in this situation (you don't see the damn camera nor even the person holding it!) so you have to play it on habit and experience.

I didn't have the faintest idea at all times if I was looking left of right, up or down because all I saw was the same endless white regardless; there' no visual signals going to your brain that your eyes are even looking in the same direction because there's no information to be had so yeah, it can easily start to feel like you have no control and a sense of confusion can spread along with the disorientation. I don't know how many times I asked "are my eyes looking where they should be looking?" because I literally have no way to know.

If we ignore the obvious and intentionally self-imposed issue of not seeing anything, I'd like to say that in terms of comfort these lenses were surprisingly comfortable to wear. I didn't feel them at all and they were thin and went in without any issues. Yes, it can be a bit extra difficult to get them off because you don't see what you're doing until you get at least one lens out first (it helps to have a lot of prior experience with handling contact lenses to make it as hassle-free as possible). I can't really grade comfort properly though because these lenses were also a part of that box I forgot about, which means they had expired in their vials before I got around to do this review. I only wore these lenses for the duration it took to get all necessary photos and then I immediately discarded them regardless of how fine they felt to wear. Don't be reckless out there and please don't wear expired lenses or lenses that feel uncomfortable despite multiple cleansing attempts.

Another thing that I want to bring up is that when I removed both lenses it felt really weird to suddenly have full vision back after about 30 minutes of no vision. It was almost overwhelming in a way and I really mean that. I know it probably sounds a bit silly because I'm a sighted person all day every day normally and I only wore the lenses for a brief moment, but you'd be surprised how big of an impact those minutes of wear has on your psyche; like you suddenly have to go about your life in a completely different way than usual and you can't depend on the most crucial of all human senses to navigate. It puts you in a place of complete dependance on other senses to remain functional and that does things in your mind that are difficult to put into words, one of them being how quickly you adapt and kind of normalize it internally despite knowing that it's temporary, not permanent. It's quite an eye-opening experience (pun intended).
Oh and one little thing, immediately after removing the lenses I got this peculiar headache that stayed for a while and then just disappeared on its own after maybe an hour or two; I'm pretty confident it had something to do with the sudden return of sight and your body readjusting because I've had the same type of headaches before while wearing an eyepatch for a prolonged period of the day.

All in all blind lenses can be a great sfx addition to complete a costume but just make sure that you're aware of what you're getting yourself into before you take the leap. Do your research beforehand (like reading this review :3) and make sure you have a trusty friend at hand who's willing to help you navigate around, you'll need it. There are some characters out there from popular fiction works that would look really cool with blind white lenses to complete the costume – Toph Beifong from Avatar: the Last Airbender and Hinata and Neji Hyuga from the Naruto anime series immediately comes to mind. Of course blind lenses work great for other costuming ideas too like the ever-popular pirates and why not battle-damaged warriors and gladiators or creepier units like ghouls and the mythological Medusa etc. Point is that there's a lot of roleplaying and dress-up options where this kind of blind eye look or even partially blind look would really elevate a costume to its next level, even if you just wear one lens to keep yourself functioning without assistance. ;)

Distance photos!

(photo by Firith)

One-eye example look, pirate style!

Short summary:

Color: 10/10 

It's supposed to be an intense blind white and that's exactly what it delivers. Can't complain.

Design: 10/10 

It's hard to grade design because obviously it's a simple solid white and nothing else, but that's also exactly the only thing it's required and expected to be so it's perfect for what it is.

Opacity: 10/10

It's so opaque that you don't see anything, that's the point and for that full coverage is a must. This can't be anything but full points lol.

Enlargement: 1/10 

It's hardly enlarging, there might be a very tiny tiny increase but that's all.

Comfort: 8/10 

Without factoring in the blindness effect these lenses are a lot more comfortable than one might be inclined to think. I didn't feel them at all and they were surprisingly breathable and thin.

Naturalness: 3/10 

A bit hard to grade because real blind eyes can look quite different from case to case but usually they're not this strong and opaque of a white so yeah, I can't really claim that it's a very natural-looking blind look either but it's more believable than some colorful circle lens or other crazy-patterned lens.

Thanks for reading my blog, hope you found this interesting! If you have any further questions about these lenses you're welcome to leave a comment!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

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.

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Pure Galaxy

Hello folks!

It's time for another colored contact lens review, woop! I'm going to review the cool but sadly discontinued ColourVue Phantasee Pure Galaxy lenses. I bought these ages ago on a blowout sale – maybe they were already leaving the market back then? I can't know that, but what I do know is that I've been unable to locate these lenses since then; it appears that the Phantasee series, as I remember it, has been almost completely redone. It sucks that these lenses are gone but, regardless, I wanted to review them for posterity.

Let's go!

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

You just need one look at these lenses to be able to tell that they will be quite intense-looking when worn. I mean, they're pure white with no black limbal ring – that's already enough to know that these will be at least moderately freaky. But if you intentionally buy crazy lenses that's a look you're okay with, right?
Aside from the opaque white color there are these blocky swirl prints in a medium yellow tone. Overall the design is simplistic, it's literally just two colors, but it has a really strong effect on your appearance. As is expected from crazy lenses these lenses are very bold in style and have a flawless color coverage – my real eye color, a grayish blue, doesn't show through at all. The pupil hole is also a bit on the narrow side so that helps in not letting a lot of your eye color show through in the middle. The drawback to this though is that sometimes you might see colored corners at the edges of your vision or have a slight blur, especially in poorer light conditions when your pupils dilate to let in more light.

One lens in.

There's a very slight enlargement effect but honestly, for me at least, it's negligible. These lenses look quite rad to be honest, they give me sci-fi vibes and I'm very much digging it! Due to the white being the main color these can easily look creepy though, similar to how unnerving those "white zombie" lenses can look. Some people like this kind of style but it can be scary for others (when I was taking photos outside I made sure that my elderly neighbor didn't see me lol) so yeah, it doesn't hurt to be a bit extra considerate of people around you.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a sunny October noon. 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 room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing window. Not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. Facing the wall.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Since I already said at the beginning of this review that I bought these lenses a long time ago, well, some of you who've been reading my blog lately might already have guessed that these were also a part of "the box". Yes, that one doomed box that I accidentally forgot about which contained a lot of expired, unused lenses. I've been going through the contents of said box, doing one review at a time, for a while now and the Pure Galaxy lenses were a part of it.
I don't wear expired lenses longer than necessary to get the photos taken and that also means that I can't try out the comfort properly because I immediately discard the lenses afterwards. Please do not wear expired lenses to events and parties etc even if they seem comfortable and normal, like they very well might do. My comfort impressions of these lenses were that they seemed overall to be decent to wear and I didn't feel them much at all, except for the left lens being a bit itchy upon insertion before it settled. I'd wager that they'd be acceptable in terms of comfort, had they been fresh. Maybe 2-4 hours of wear on dry-ass eyes such as mine.

It's a bit of a bummer that these exact lenses don't seem to exist anymore but yeah, there might still be something similar out there if these swirly galaxy peepers tickle your fancy.

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Pure white lens with yellow spin detail. Despite being just two colors it's very visible and impactful.

Design: 8/10 

Simple in design but powerful in effect. Can even look frightening with the right accessories.

Opacity: 10/10

Perfect coverage, there's no risk of your real eye color shining through. The white is so bold!

Enlargement: 2/10 

Very minor enlargement, it's hardly noticeable on my eyes.

Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be quite standard comfort, I didn't feel them much after they settled. Might affect vision slightly in low light conditions.

Naturalness: 1/10 

These are far from natural unless you think looking like a science fiction anti-hero counts as natural, lol.

Thanks for your interest, more reviews will be up soon!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Autumn

 Hello hello!

It's been a while since I last did a colored contact lens review but I'm back now, for a while at least! Today I will be reviewing the ColourVue Phantasee Autumn lenses. I bought these lenses ages ago and it seems like they have since been discontinued, which is sad but yeah, it happens. I decided I still wanted to review these because they're cool and maybe someday something similar shows up that we can compare these lenses to. :)

Let's go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

I think it's kinda funny how, of all the seasons, autumn somehow is the bright green one? I mean you would be more inclined to think of summer or spring when you see green, right? xD But anyhows, this is the Phantasee Autumn and we just have to accept that autumn isn't brown, red or orange lol.

Just like the other season-themed lenses of the same series these have a spiky swirl design, a bright one-tone color and a notably large pupil opening so yeah, these don't completely change your natural eye color but rather give you intense colored borders at the edges of your eyes, which can be quite cool-looking if it's a look that you favor. I think that, generally speaking, this type of patterning style would likely look better on dark eyes as, on light eyes, it might end up looking like you have some crazy eye infection lol.

One lens in.

The size isn't much but the color pops quite well. I'm sorry but I can't think of any other way to describe the green shade except for saying it's like Shrek but slightly radioactive..? xD It is a a pretty intense color and one that is not commonly found even among crazy lenses. But as I said earlier it mostly just colors the edges of your iris so if you want all-encompassing evil eyes then these have too much transparency inbetween the printed design to really give you that look. Regardless it's a cool lens in its own right, especially for punk, cyberpop and other such colorful alt fashion styles where you want bright colors but don't necessarily want to look overly creepy or possessed lol.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a mostly sunny October noon. All close-up photos are free from color filters and such and that's so that the colors would appear as true to real life as possible.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, unlit corridor. Poor natural light in the distance only.

Indoors, facing window. Not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

As I already implied at earlier these lenses were also part of that one box that I accidentally forgot about for years. What I'm saying is that essentially all the lenses inside said doomed box were expired by the time I got around to reviewing them and that includes my review today. Because of this whoops-moment I can't grade comfort properly as I only wore these lenses for a very brief time – what I can say about the comfort though is that they were thin to the point I barely felt them and surprisingly comfortable. I would estimate, had they not been expired, I would have been able to wear these for 3-5 hours, which is my normal range for colored lenses because I have really dry eyes naturally.

Honestly I'm a bit bummed that these lenses, along with a majority of all the ColourVue crazy lenses I've reviewed prior, don't seem to exist anymore; it's like they nuked most of their unique designs and it kinda sucks. I mean, this might not have been my top pick or anything (originally bought them on a sale) but it's just depressing when you think about how many different lenses there used to exist that don't anymore – I mean everyone loves options, right? But anyways, I enjoyed reviewing these and I will be reviewing some other now-discontinued lenses in the coming months too so hey, let's reminiscence about what goodness we used to have~

Distance photo!

 

(even makeup can't hide my insomnia issues lmao rip)

Want to see the "season" series in another color?

Check this out: Summer, Winter

Short summary:

Color: 8/10 

Nuclear Shrek vibes, what more can I say? xD It's very vibrant up close in good light conditions!

Design: 9/10 

Jagged swirly print that is both artsy and crude at the same time. Can be really cool with the right oufit.

Opacity: 9/10

Opacity for the colored parts themselves is really solid, the transparent parts of the design will obviously be transparent.

Enlargement: 2/10 

Really minor enlargement, it's not really noticeable on my eyes.

Comfort: 8/10 

Thin and pleasant to wear, I don't really notice that I have lenses on. These don't obstruct my vision thanks to the print being located away from the pupil.

Naturalness: 1/10 

No, I can't call these natural at all.

Thanks for reading my blog, stay tuned for more reviews!

~ Shiro Samurai out.