Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Yellow Artist

 Hi hi and hello!

I'm doing another special effects lens review, woop di doop! Today I'll show you all the ColourVue Phantasee Yellow Artist, a not so extreme crazy lens. This is ngl more of an artsy lens, if you may.

Let's-a go!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm 

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

 

On an unsuspecting quick glance these look quite normal for a sfx lens, as in that the print isn't that bold nor typically blocky and simple like it tends to be on crazy lenses. The print in fact is rather delicate and detailed and it's really pretty if you take a closer look! Another thing I noticed was that it seems like the yellow color appears a bit golden hued when light hits it a certain way, making it look almost reminiscent of a metallic glimmering color. Almost.

One lens in.

When worn and viewed from a slight distance these look almost semi-natural in terms of first impressions – if we disregard the yellow color, that is. It's a quite pretty design and the color payout is great too, it's not too bold and disruptive but the black detailing makes it look a bit more muted and.. respectable? I don't know why but these make me think of like baroque style and such dandy eras haha.

Overall it's a really pretty, somewhat toned down medium to dark yellow with an extravagant and fine artistic print.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during 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.

 

Natural room light, indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo, indoors.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Unlit corridor, weak distant natural light.

Outdoors, back against sun. (facing a wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

As with my other "backlog lenses" these were also part of that damned box I had stored away and forgotten about for years. By the time I found it all the unopened lenses inside had expired, sadly. So I'm doing these reviews purely in case it helps someone out there and yeah, due to the lenses being expired I'm not willing to play Russian roulette with my eye health so immediately upon getting the lens photos taken I threw them into the bin, which means I can't grade comfort properly. What little I can say though is that based on my first (and only) impressions these were somewhat thin and decent-ish but I felt them for some while after insertion and they seemed a bit drying too. I do have naturally dry and sensitive eyes so I can't fully rule out that it wasn't my eyes having a bad day but yeah, it's hard to tell.

Anyways, this is a very unique lens in terms of print design and it's fun yet sophisticated at the same time. It doesn't quite pack that same punch as sfx and crazy lenses tend to come with but honestly, we don't all need to be the same. I find these lenses charming in their own way and they would go well with steampunk attire and such.

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 6/10 

It's like a darkish yellow, doesn't show up all that well from a distance but retains a yellowish look.

Design: 8/10 

Very intricate and pretty artsy design, it looks magical up close although due to all the finer details it gets "lost" when viewed from afar.

Opacity: 9/10

Surprisingly opaque and covering when you consider how "fine" these are when compared to typical bold and wild crazy lenses. I was perhaps expecting more transparency but nope, these are covering!

Enlargement: 2/10 

The enlargement effect is negligible.

Comfort: 6/10 

Decent and somewhat thin. I felt them in my eyes for a while and they seemed somewhat dryish but it's hard to judge based on a one-time wear.

Naturalness: 3/10 

From a distance you might get a fleeting pass but otherwise these are too fancy and yellow isn't a naturally occuring eye color in humans anyway.

Thanks for reading my blog, see ya!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

[Sponsored] Lens review: Chromaview Werewolf Fire

Howdy!

Today I will be reviewing my third pair of colored contact lenses from the shop Coloured Contacts. The lenses today are some spicy special effects contacts called Chromaview Werewolf Fire. This lens has the classic 'werewolf' print design and it looks pretty awesome!

 

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 mm

Water content: 53%

Life span: 30 days

 

So as I said above these lenses feature what is known as the 'werewolf' print – it's one of the recognizable standard sfx lens designs and while the same design is made by several different brands (Princess Pinky, ColourVue etc) there are differences in color intensity and opacity, lens stats like diameter and so on. So even lenses with the same exact base design will look different depending on the maker! The reason I mention this is because I've actually reviewed a couple other 'werewolf' style lenses in the past and I can tell that Chromaview Werewolf Fire is not the same as Princess Pinky Orange Werewolf (old review is old omfg).

I chose these lenses because I wanted to see how different essentially the same lens could be and also because I really like vivid, animal-ish colored contacts. There's something really cool with having eyes of a really bright unnatural color like amber or yellow – makes one look supernatural and wild!

One lens in.

I gotta say that these look pretty rad. The main color of the lenses is a true orange with some yellow around the pupil opening for a two-tone effect and added depth. It doesn't have a very blended color transition but it doesn't clash jarringly either and well, at a slight distance it looks really damn good and alluring – great for social media vampire selfies lol. The edges are black with irregular, burst-like spikes reaching towards the center. There is a slight enlargement effect but it's nothing out of the ordinary and won't make nor break anything.

The overall impact of these lenses is that they look clearly supernatural but aren't so insanely bright that you'd look overly cartoony (in fact these are slightly less bright than the previously mentioned Princess Pinky version). I really like the balance that is struck here as I feel like these lenses are somehow more pleasant (read: less obnoxious) and better suited for certain looks in my opinion. The color is opaque and it clearly pops, don't get me wrong on that because these lenses will change your eye color and it will look like wolf eyes and yes, it's a badass look. It's vivid enough to immediately bring attention to your eyes and I would vouch for how fun these are any day of the week!

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during a March noon with a semi-clear sky. 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.

 

Natural room light, indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo, indoors.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Unlit corridor, weak natural light in the distance.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

I found these lenses thin and easy to insert, they kept their shape decently while held on my finger and didn't flop over as easily as the Chromaview Blackouts did. I hardly felt the Werewolf Fires in my eyes at all and they were overall comfortable to wear – I had no issues with vision blur, scratchy feelings or such. In fact I was very surprised to notice that, despite being a crazy lens, that these didn't block my vision at the corners in poorer light conditions (indoors with no lights on during daylight hours). It's so common that special effects lenses give you colored corners at the edges of your vision due to them having a slightly smaller pupil hole than your average circle lenses but nope, I didn't experience any funky orange tunnels with these baddies on!

Comfort is always a bit hard to estimate for me because my eyes are naturally very dry periodically and quite sensitive so yeah, it's so personal for every wearer how long you can wear lenses and that's because everyone's peepers are different. But as someone with dry eyes these lenses did not irritate me and I'm quite confident that I could wear these for roughly 4 hours at an event before I'd have to call in the eyedrops for some refueling lol.

All in all these lenses are lit as fuck and great for dressing up as supernatural beings be it werewolves, vampires, Medusa, cursed pirates, demons or some other imaginary creatures that lurk in the realms beyond our own. These also work great for cosplay if you need contacts for let's say Geralt of Rivia from the The Witcher games. I would definitely give two thumbs up for these lenses, they're really cool-looking and great fun for monster themed parties and photoshoots and heck, would complete alternative fashion outfits too like goths and post-apocalyptic stuff etc. Seriously, two thumbs up! 

Obviously I have nothing negative to say about these lenses and my collaboration with Coloured Contacts has been a wonderful experience – I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for cosmetic colored lenses and sfx needs. Click here for a full store review for more information about my experiences. :)

Distance photo!

 

Short summary:

Color: 10/10
Super alluring yellowish orange wolf-eye styled lens. Great color payout and looks simply amazing.

Design: 8/10

It looks like its namesake, 'werewolf'. Alluring and deceivingly simple but it all comes together nicely.

Opacity: 9/10

Very strong coverage and near miniscule transparency. These should change your eye color no matter what.

Enlargement: 3/10

There's a slight size boost but it's not that noticeable really, unless you're only wearing one lens for comparison.

Comfort: 8/10

Very comfortable, thin and a breeze to insert. No orange tunnel vision which was an unexpected surprise. I hardly felt that I had lenses.

Naturalness: 1/10

By style and color alone these are busted but yeah, they actually somehow look not-so-crazy at selfie distance lmao.

Thanks for reading and stay fabulous out there!
Thank you, Coloured Contacts! ♡

Shiro Samurai out~

Lens review: ColourVue Phantasee Blue Spin

Hello peeps!

I'm gonna continue on the contact lens review roll for a while longer as I still have some backlog to chew through. Today I'm going to review the ColourVue Phantasee Blue Spin, a special effects colored contact lens for fun occasions and parties.

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

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

These are quite a fun-looking lens with a stylized swirly pattern, makes me think of car tires or like ninja throwing stars or something lol. It's quite unique and the color opacity looks great when viewed in the vials.

There's only two colors, a blue for the main color and then black for the outer rim and the "spikes" around. One good thing with this kind of patterned lens is that due to the print being symmetrical all around one can't actually tell if the lenses are spinning in your eyes or not, so you don't run the risk of looking funny in a derpy sort of way lol.

 

One lens in.

 You can see that the color coverage is very solid and the print itself is rather intense and eye-catching. I somehow feel like it almost makes my eyes look, err, robotic somehow? Like it's a very unnatural look due to how bold the black parts makes it but it looks pretty cool regardless and would be quite sick for punk looks, rave parties and the like.

There's not a lot of enlargement although there's a slight size increase. The colors really pop (as is expected of crazy lenses) and there's no transparency in the pigmentation so whatever your natural eye color is it's very unlikely to shine through.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during partly cloudy 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.

Natural room light, indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo, indoors.

Facing a window, indoors. (not sun side)

Unlit corridor, weak distant natural light.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing a wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Comfort is pretty okay based on what I could tell. These lenses were part of the "already expired" batch that I had stashed away and forgot about for literal years so yeah, I only wore them for the review photos and then immediately discarded them. This of course means I can't really grade comfort properly nor fairly but what I can say is that, based on my first and only impression of wearing these lenses, they were thin and overall comfy and I didn't feel them in my eyes. If anything there were some slight colored corners at the edges of my vision when moving my gaze around but yeah, that's to be expected with sfx lenses as the pupil hole tends to be a lot smaller than on your average circle lens.

All in all these lenses are pretty rad in their own right, maybe a bit too extreme for daily wear unless you don some clearly alternative and funky looks (think like cyberpunk and such) as part of your everyday style. But they're fun, have a very distinct look and will surely get your peepers some attention!

 

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 9/10 

Very strong blue and black lens, shows from a distance and looks rather intimidating.

Design: 7/10 

Simplified swirly print that is bold and symmetrical. It's not the most artistic but it looks neat regardless.

Opacity: 10/10

The lenses are very opaque and covering. There should be no issues hiding your natural eye color.

Enlargement: 2/10 

Very slight enlargement effect, it's not really anything you notice much. If at all.

Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be thin and pleasant to wear. I didn't feel them except for colored corners at the edges of my vision field in poorer light conditions.

Naturalness: 1/10 

No no no, don't even try to entertain that absurd thought.

Thanks for reading my blog, woohaa!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

[Sponsored] Lens review: Chromaview Blackout

Hello everyone! 

Today I will be reviewing another pair of colored contact lenses that Coloured Contacts sent me for review purposes! This is more akin to a special effects lens and yes, it's the Chromaview Blackout. As the name suggests it's very much a black lens and I was curious to try these bad boys out as there's not a lot of black lenses out in the market today.  

 

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 mm

Water content: 53%

Life span: 30 days

 

 

I got these lenses from Coloured Contacts, a cosmetic contact lens store based in Europe (wow!). I have already reviewed their shop over on my previous lens review post here, so please click on that link and have a look if you're curious about whether Coloured Contacts is legit or not (spoiler alert: they are). ;)

Okay so, this is my first time trying Chromaview brand lenses so I went in with no prior experience, except for being familiar with the name. I noticed immediately how tiny the lens blisters are and I was worried if there could even be enough solution in the packaging lol. But once I tried them on they were perfectly fine and moist and there were no issues so yeah, my worries were for naught.

One lens in.

Damn these lenses are black! The color change is immense and convincing and I honestly really enjoy these lenses. Yet surprisingly, despite the name being Blackout, these are not so staggeringly solid black that they'd look 100% fake in a jarring way, get what I mean? It's like there's this ever so slight transparency between the super slight patterning (zoom in and you can just about make it out, it's very very faint) so it helps in keeping the lenses from going straight into uncanny valley. Although they still obviously don't look realistic. There's also some enlargement effect, although it's not that big and at least part of the illusion comes from the lenses being black in the first place.

I personally dig how these lenses are so covering and yet don't look creepy as it makes them somewhat more versatile in use and doesn't high-ball them straight into Halloween, freaks and monsters territory. Heck, these would be great for cosplaying characters with black eyes like say Ikkaku Madarame from Bleach, Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto, Goku and Vegeta from DragonBall or L from Death Note, to name a few.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during a January noon with a semi-clear sky. 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.

Bathroom light.

Indoors, flash photo.

Facing window, backyard view. (not sun side)

Unlit corridor with weak natural light in the distance.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

These lenses were very thin and easy to insert. They are not floppy but didn't keep their shape while held on my finger as well as some other brands I've tried over the years. I don't really feel them in my eyes and surprisingly enough, despite the small pupil hole, I didn't experience any black corners at the edges of my vision nor any blurring. I would rate these lenses as comfortable and would not hesitate to repurchase them. Comfort is always a bit hard to gauge tbh as it's so highly personal for every wearer and depends on a lot of factors like how sensitive and dry your eyes naturally are; I happen to have very dry eyes by default so for me wearing contact lenses for more than 4 hours without eyedrops is already quite a feat, but I definitely believe I could wear these out to an anime convention with little to no problems if I just bring eyedrops with me for the full day.

All in all I've had no problems with these lenses and my collaboration with Coloured Contacts has been smooth sailing – I would wholly recommend them for cosmetic colored lenses and sfx lenses, both for daily looks and for special events and costuming. Once again, click here for a full store review for more information about my experiences. ^_^

Distance photo!

 

Black-eyed like Blåhaj, peak fashion.

Short summary:

Color: 10/10
Black, black, black! It's so very black. Intense and beautiful despite being a sfx lens.

Design: 9/10

It delivers what the name says, "Blackout". Design is as expected but better. It's not too cartoony.

Opacity: 9/10

Very solid coverage but there's that ever so slight transparency which keeps them from looking super fake and unsettling.

Enlargement: 5/10

Moderate enlargement, mostly due to how black in itself creates the illusion of a bigger size.

Comfort: 8/10

More comfortable than I thought they would be, very thin and easy to insert. I barely feel them and there's no tunnel vision or colored corners either, which is surprising considering the narrow pupil hole.

Naturalness: 2/10

Might be passable if you already have dark brown eyes, otherwise I'm not convinced.

Thanks for reading and the third and final review will follow!
Thank you, Coloured Contacts! ♡

Shiro Samurai out~

Year of Cosplay 2022

 Hello everyone!

Another year is drawing to a close and I just sit here and wonder where it went, you know? We're still not free from covid and it sucks, but what sucks even more is the current global situation in many ways. It's no wonder my mental health has been a rollercoaster of mostly lows and I haven't had a lot of inspiration nor energy to cosplay or blog much, as can be seen from how this year has been the quietest to date. But of course this year is not all shit as some great things have happened too!

But anyways, as is tradition I have to continue this end-of-year post although it has felt mostly pointless as of late as I haven't been active in the cosplay scene. I do still want to get back on track at some point but I literally don't have the time, money nor energy for it right now and with the strained economical situation it's even worse. But alas, I managed to land at least one con trip under my belt.

Cons attended in 2021:

Kummacon - Oulu, Finland

 

And as I didn't attend any other cons this year I can just say that Kummacon was the best con for the year lol. It was a chaotic trip but it all ended well and I had a great time. I had plans to attend Matsucon as well but perhaps it was a bit too soon after Kummacon and I was too drained to really feel up to it, especially with all the Christmas stress and newly started job etc.

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Okay so yeah, still no cosplay compilation photo (for obvious reasons) so have a meme instead hehe. I've been really into Genshin Impact lately and it's dominating my current cosplay urges; I'm trying not to give in too much to it yet as I have a lot of unfinished cosplay projects lying around because yeah, I have a bad habit of starting to make something new in a sudden bout of inspiration and then I temporarily lose interest in favor of the next shiny thing (which I of course start making too) and well, in the end I have years worth of unfinished projects haunting me. Skeletons in my cosplay closet waiting for me to return to them, oof.

Who still remembers Masamune Date from Sengoku Basara? This cosplay has become an inside joke among my group of friends, my "eternity project" so to say. But guess what?! I still plan to finish this costume, I haven't actually dropped him. One day Masamune, one day... 

~~~

Anyways, I don't have a lot more to say about this year. It's been bad in many aspects but I've had quite a lot of self-reflection too, finding new sides of myself and mapping out the direction of my life. I'm still nowhere where I want to be but at least now I have some things to look forward to that will help me feel better. Some of it does impact my cosplaying hobby as well so I might get more inspired at some point when things get better, but for now cosplay is a bit on the backburner.

As for the blog.. next year will still feature more circle lens reviews (I'm seeing the end of my massive backlog, woop!) and perhaps a con summary or two. I might try to do some cosplay progress as well but we'll see about that. Regardless, point is that this blog isn't dying anytime soon although the activity has been less than ideal lately. So I hope you stick around with me and my ramblings!

Bye bye & Happy New Year 2023!