Hello everyone!
I'm a bit late with this review but as we all know the time near Christmas is a very busy time! Today I will be reviewing a pair of colored contact lenses that
Coloured Contacts sent me for review purposes so this post also doubles as a store review! I received three pairs of lenses that I will review separately and today's review will feature the
Freshlook Colorblends Honey, a very natural hazel brown lens. :)
The lenses that I'm reviewing in this blog post were sponsored by Coloured Contacts,
meaning that I did not pay for the product(s) myself.
This does, however, not affect my honesty in any way. The words and
opinions in this review are my genuine opinion; I don't ever compromise my true thoughts and feelings.
Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm
Water content: 55%
Life span: 30 days
Before I start the actual lens review I first want to air out my thoughts and feelings about my sponsor
Coloured Contacts, the contact lens online store that made this post possible! Think of this as a store review. :)
When they first contacted me I was assuming it was another circle lens store based in Asia as, let's face it, a huge majority is. This can sometimes be a bit of an issue if you're in Europe or America etc as shipping might end up taking longer than you have time for and you might get your order stuck at customs and get extra fees slapped on, which no one likes lol. So you can guess my surprise when I saw that
Coloured Contacts is actually registered in the Netherlands! This is pretty huge as I only know of one other cosmetic lens store that operates in Europe.
The site itself is pretty straightforward (just like the name) and easy to use; you can search lenses by color, style, occasion, prescription and even sales. It's not the most aesthetically refined layout so there's no floaty extravagant pop-ups with beautiful models bombarding your senses and well, that's actually a pleasant change of pace from how over-embellished the ads tend to be on many other circle lens stores nowadays.
Browsing and navigating the site is fairly simple and there's everything from daily, natural lenses to Halloween and crazy lenses for parties. I hesitate to call them a circle lens store as they don't really carry what I consider to be "circle lenses" (enlarging lenses, popularized in Asia) but instead sell "western lenses" (color enhancing or sfx lenses, Western market). So this means that you won't find brands like GEO, I.Fairy, EOS etc over at
Coloured Contacts but what they carry instead is the just as renowned Chromaview, Air Optix and Freshlook brands.
As I mentioned earlier I got to choose three pairs for reviewing and I ended up picking one natural lens and two crazy lenses.
Coloured Contacts sells 1-day lenses, lenses for 30 days, lenses for 90 days and there might have been 1 year lenses too. Be aware though that the stock photos of the lenses are very clearly photoshopped (try layering two open tabs on top of each other with the images aligned and you'll see) and don't show how the lenses will truly look so yeah, I don't recommend trusting the stock photos blindly but rather with a big grain of salt and googling for reviews of any lenses you're interested in, to get a more accurate understanding of how the lenses appear. Or, if you're a contact lens veteran like me then you probably already have so much experience that just by looking at a design you can roughly tell how it will appear when worn.
I do want to note though that stock photos are provided from the manufacturers etc and thus not a reason to consider
Coloured Contacts as a shady or illegitimate business – it's just what they're provided with and many other sellers of the same brands use the same stock photos for illustration purposes.
I have not had any issues with the store and my contact person Amy has been quick to reply, patient and understands English well so I really have no complaints whatsoever with customer service.
Based on my experiences I would recommend
Coloured Contacts, they appear to be a legitimate and safe online business that sells reliable long-running Western world contact lens brands that are both FDA Approved and CE marked.
Once they shipped out my chosen lenses it took almost exactly two weeks
for the package to arrive. The package was in the shape of a common
white bubblewrap envelope and it arrived straight to my mailbox, which
is always preferred as the post office is a few kilometers away and I
don't have a driving license. And when it goes straight to my mailbox it
also means that it was sent within Europe and in my case I think my
package was sent from Germany. According to their site though they have
delivery options in USA, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada as well so
I think that, depending on where you live, they will send your products
from the nearest warehouse to make it as effective and hassle-free as
possible.
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Contents of my package. Lenses and a bottle of solution.
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I doubt the all-in-one solution would be included to a regular customer but it's a nice gesture from their side to make sure that I, as a reviewer, have lens solution at hand. :) All my three chosen lenses are in blister style packaging too, it appears as if this is the norm for Western brands so to say?
~~ Lens review ahead! ~~
This is my first time ever trying Freshlook Colorblends. I've known about this brand ever since I first dipped into the world of colored contact lenses as it's such a staple brand and probably the one you would get recommended by your local optician if you asked about colored lenses.
I also want to note that while handling these lenses I noticed that it's legit hard to tell which side is 'right' and which side is 'wrong', the print and color etc look exactly the same so you have to stare at if the edges flare out or not when the lens is on your finger to determine if it's inside out or not. And even then the difference is very slight and I had to double-take to make sure I wasn't just imagining things.
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Lens close-up. Notice how far off the edge the design is printed.
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I decided to go with the color Honey, which is a softer brown shade, as I have
naturally light gray-blue eyes and I wanted to see how big of a
difference it would make. I was half expecting perhaps a brown toning
effect at most but I was actually surprised by how impactful the color
coverage ended up being for such a natural lens!
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One lens in.
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As you can see the overall design of the lens quite closely mimics the shapes of a human iris and it features multiple different brown shades to avoid a fake look. There's hardly any enlargement effect and there's no distinct limbal ring either, aside from the edges being a darker brown than the center of course. It gives a natural brown-eyed appearance and is passable for a daily look and if you ever wanted to see how you'd appear with a different eye color than the one you were born with. Experimenting with looks is fun! But please remember that contact lenses need to be handled with proper care and hygiene measures!
Lens photos ahead!
All photos taken by me
during an afternoon with a clear sky. All close-up photos
are free from color filters and such and that's so that the colors
would be as true to real life as possible. .png) |
Natural room light, indoors.
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Bathroom light.
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Flash photo, indoors.
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Facing a window, backyard view. (not sun side)
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Unlit corridor, poor distant natural light.
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Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)
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Outdoors, facing the sun directly.
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Comfort appears to be pretty decent, the lenses feel thin and I mostly don't feel them much at all. Before insertion I noticed that the lenses don't keep their shape as well as some other brands I've tried over the years, they kinda wanted to flop on my fingers a bit but they were still rather easy to handle and insert and it provided no added difficulties for someone used to wearing lenses. I did notice a slight vision blur at first too but once my eyes adjusted it quickly went away and everything was normal. It's hard to gauge what would be an expected time of wear as it's so highly individual for every person and it depends a lot on factors such as how dry and sensitive your eyes are etc. I happen to have naturally very dry eyes which means that I spam eyedrops periodically like a junkie so for me wearing lenses above 3 hours without eyedrop intervention is already a pretty decent accomplishment. But I doubt these lenses would be hard to wear for most people as they have a rather good water content percentage of 55% so yeah, if you have normal eyes I don't really see why you couldn't wear them for at least half a day, maybe a full day out in town, at work or such. But of course I recommend carrying with you eyedrops (make sure they're suitable for contact lenses!) just in case too, sudden discomfort and dryness while on the move and living your most fabulous life is never fun.
So to sum it all up I'm quite impressed with how colorful these lenses actually ended up being – I didn't go in with particularly high expectations as the Freshlook Colorblends are known for more natural looks (and I'm a cosplayer who's a sucker for intense colors) but I was still very much surprised by how undoubtedly brown they make my eyes look! And it's a very gorgeous, light and lively shade too! It's a lovely lens if you're looking for something discreet and that you can pass off as natural in the eyes of most people passing by. For costumers it will entirely depend on what kind of effect you're looking for.
Distance photo!
Short summary:
Color: 6/10
Pleasant and invigorating hazel brown shade. Looks natural and instills a sense of warmth.
Design: 6/10
A simple design that mimics a real iris sufficiently. Works great as a daily lens.
Opacity: 7/10
I'm very surprised by how well these cover my light gray-blue eyes, I wasn't expecting a full color change! Very potent for a natural style lens.
Enlargement: 1/10
Very tiny, there's hardly any notable enlargement effect nor the illusion of any. Not a circle lens.
Comfort: 6/10
Thin and I don't feel them much. A slight blur at first but disappears quickly. Overall comfortable and easy to wear.
Naturalness: 8/10
Very natural-looking, I could probably wear these out to the streets and few would notice that I'm actually wearing lenses. Approved!
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