Lens review: Vassen Dolly Plus Red

Hello there!

As I promised earlier I would review the red lenses I used on the costest for Prussia and here it now is. This is a review for the Vassen Dolly Plus Red, a circle lens that used to be quite popular among cosplayers and I assume that such is the case even today.

Without further ramblings, let's do this!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 42% 

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

This is a large and very colorful lens with an 'anime eye' design, hence its popularity for cosplay purposes and j-fashion in general. There's a distinct, black limbal ring that adds to the big eye effect and makes you appear rather youthful. This is one of those lenses that is very easy to like as it simply just looks so good on most people!

One lens in.

This is not a lens that you wear if you wanna look natural, that's for sure. You wouldn't pick a red lens for that in the first place, right? :D The red color is very obvious, it's not an insanely bright lens (not crazy lens levels) but still vibrant enough to show up even when viewed from a moderate distance. The color coverage is superb but be prepared that some of your real eye color will show through the pupil hole – as is the norm on bigger circle lenses.

Lens photos ahead! All photos taken by me during an October 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.

 

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Indoors, facing a window. (backyard, not sun side)

Indoors, unlit corridor with weak natural light in the distance.

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

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun. (it was about to get blocked by a roof)

As per usual these lenses were also part of that box of unopened lenses I had forgotten about. I found it after pretty much every single pair in there had expired so I'm only wearing each pair I review until I get the necessary photos taken and then I immediately discard them. That means I wear a lens for approximately 10-20 minutes and that's what my comfort grade will be solely based around – obviously it's not optimal so take it with a big pinch of salt. Also, please don't wear expired lenses for any prolonged time – it's potentially dangerous and just not worth it. Just don't.

What I can say about the comfort is that these lenses appeared to be really comfortable; I barely felt them in my eyes and they were thin and easy to insert. I did not experience red corners in my vision field nor blurring. I would say they were comfortable and if these lenses had been fresh I could likely have worn them for 4-5 hours (I have dry and sensitive eyes naturally) which is good in my book.

I would definitely recommend these lenses if you fancy red lenses in general or if you need this style and color for cosplaying. Also great for alternative fashion, goths and basically anything that you want to have red eyes for when dressing up. I think it's a really beautiful lens with a great color that's intense without being overwhelming or excessively fake-looking. You can't really go wrong with these, in my opinion.

Distance photo!

Yup, this was from the Prussia cosplay test as well.

Looking for reviews of Dolly Plus lenses in other colors?
I got you covered: Green, Blue, Violet, Brown, Gray

Short summary:

Color: 8/10
Vibrant, clear red color that simply looks great. Eye-catching.
Design: 8/10 
Simple 'manga style' lens with a big black rim. Dolly in style but very flattering on most people.

Opacity: 8/10 

Color coverage is very solid, no doubt that your eyes will look red with these.
Enlargement: 8/10
The black limbal ring adds to the illusion of big eyes but yeah, these are notably enlarging.

Comfort: 8/10 

Thin and I didn't really feel that I was wearing lenses. Easy to insert.
Naturalness: 2/10

Red lenses will never be natural for obvious reasons and these are too cartoony as well.

Thanks for reading, stay safe~

Shiro Samurai out.

Prussia (Hetalia) cosplay makeup test

Hello guys!

I haven't done any cosplay content in forever and, while I can't call this one proper either, I did get a sudden urge today to do a makeup test just for fun and for practicing (it's been ages and I'm legit getting scared here that I'd forget how to do cosplay makeup at this rate lmao) and then I was like "is there anyone I can do that I already have a suitable wig for and also have lenses that I need to review?" and after a while it clicked – Prussia from Hetalia: Axis Powers. I mean, I have a lot of white and silver wigs so can't really go wrong with this one!

Some of you might remember that I did actually cosplay Prussia at Närcon several years ago; it was a very impromptu thing where I borrowed Firith's Teutonic Knight outfit. I might one day steal borrow this cosplay again just so that I can at least have a proper photoshoot...

I don't have his usual uniform or anything of the sort so yeah, the closest I could use –that had some resemblance to what the character actually wears– was basically a simple black dress shirt. I mean he does have a black shirt under the uniform lol. xD I'm not sure if I will cosplay him seriously at some point in the future, time will tell.

 

I.. umm, have a wig dilemma. If I do eventually end up cosplaying Prussia I can't decide on which wig I should use. On the two photos above I'm wearing a silver-white wig and, while I think that it might be better in color than the pure white wig on the photo below, I'm not sure about it because I feel like this silver wig is too thick, fluffy and layered on top. But then again, the pure white wig I like the cut and style of better and it's "thinner" and less top-heavy which I feel looks better but yeah, is it too white??
I was gravitating towards the silvery wig at first but the more I think the more I'm starting to doubt. Send help. >o< If you have a preference on which wig suits Prussia better please let me know!

That's all I have for now. I live alone and no photographer available so I'm limited to selfies (I do have a tripod... somewhere) for the time being. The lenses I'm wearing I will be reviewing later so stay tuned for that~

Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: RevoColour Meteor Blue

Hello folks!

It's been a while since the last post, I haven't really had the energy to blog and do reviews as there has been quite some stuff going on lately and yeah, it has been pretty damn heavy... #fuckcancer
But I'm not gonna go more into that, I came to write a circle lens review for the RevoColour Meteor Blue.

Shall we begin?

 

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm

Diameter: 14.5 mm

Water content: 45%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

I'm not usually fond of natural-looking lenses and the only reason I grabbed these in the first place was simple curiosity because the color looked pretty vivid. I remember buying these lenses from HoneyColor but they don't seem to carry them any longer. It's been some years, oops.
Oh well, as you can see on the photo above these lenses are single color and have a really simple pattern that lacks any kind of limbal ring or artistic spice to it. In a way one would easily think of it as boring but if you are looking for a daily lens that can be worn just fine, even without any makeup, then these are pretty okay. It doesn't always have to be big and fancy.

One lens in.

Please ignore my wound on the nose, it's really itchy and sensitive if anything touches it (including my glasses) so I really could not wear makeup for this review today. I'm waiting for it to heal but today was literally the first day in over a week when I even saw the sun properly so yeah, I had to make use of this opportunity to take some photos lol.

As you can see these lenses are really small, there's hardly any enlargement effect to even speak of (definitely doesn't feel like a 14,5 mm lens). The color blends surprisingly nicely into my gray-blue eyes which I wasn't really expecting due to how, umm, "rough" the lenses look in their vials? Dunno how to explain but the printing just looks a bit blocky to me in a way. I'm also surprised by how good the color coverage ended up being; I was half-way expecting these to kinda just disappear into my eyes without doing much lol.

Anyway, the blue color of the lenses is clean and albeit it's certainly bright it doesn't look very unnatural at all. I've seen some people who have really intense and eye-catching eyes naturally so it's not that far-fetched.

Lens photos ahead!

All photos taken by me during an October noon 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.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

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

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the direction of the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

 

And just like with all other colored contact lenses I've been reviewing for some time now (and will review in the near future) these had sadly expired by the time I got to do this review. I quite literally forgot about this one big box of lenses I had stashed away years ago and now I'm going through it whenever I've got the time, reviewing and then immediately discarding the lenses after I'm done taking photos. Maybe these reviews are helpful to someone out there someday, then my effort will be worth it haha.

What this also means is that I can't grade comfort properly as I'm only wearing a pair for approximately 10-20 minutes and then it's the trash bin. So any comfort grades or remarks that I dish out for expired lenses should be taken with that in consideration – that they are indeed expired and I only wore them once, for a very short time. Do note that all expired lenses I open for the review; I haven't had them lying around opened in lens cases for years, that would be gross.

About the comfort for this pair I can say that I constantly felt them in my eyes, especially when I blinked cuz it felt like they wouldn't really settle properly and kinda just drift around a bit? It didn't outright itch but it was quite uncomfortable nonetheless. Otherwise they were okay-ish but tbh it was a relief to take them off lmao.

I don't have so much more to say about these lenses. I have no idea where you can find them nowadays, if they still exist, but they're pretty fun for more casual looks while still packing something to get moderately excited over – namely a solid blue color.

Distance photo!

 

Short summary:

Color: 6/10  
Single-color medium blue that is quite bright while retaining a mostly natural look.
Design: 5/10
Very simple design as it's just... blue. There's nothing extraordinary about it.
Opacity: 6/10
Coverage is a lot better than I expected. These actually are vibrant (for being a natural lens) and notably change my perceived eye color.
Enlargement: 2/10
Really tiny. I hardly notice a difference, even without makeup.
Comfort: 4/10
Take my comfort grade with a pinch of salt, for abovementioned reasons, but I constantly felt these and they weren't the most pleasant to wear due to some lowkey itchy "drifting" when blinking. Wearing time 1-3 hours on sensitive eyes at best.
Naturalness: 7/10
The small size and lack of any extra 'oomph' design-wise makes these appear rather natural. The color might be a bit much for some but some people have really bright blue eyes so it's not completely off either.

Thank you for reading my reviews~

Shiro Samurai says bye.

Lens review: I-Codi Colors of the Wind Forest Green

Hello in the house!

 

Time for another Colors of the Wind circle lens review, namely the I-Codi Colors of the Wind Forest Green. And no, these are honestly not very green at all. xD

 

Let's go!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm

Water content: 38%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

So yeah, I swear to god these are not "forest green" by any stretch lmao. That's like a turquoise-ish base color with a green inner center at most. It's like one of those dual color lenses where the outer and inner colors are different. Just looking at the lenses in their vials tells you that these are gonna be some gorgeous motherfuckers.

One lens in.

I'm not kidding, the color is quite delicious! These go well with my natural eye color, there's no super awkward nor clashing transition at the pupil hole, despite how semi-vibrant the colors of the lens are. It is a pretty bright color, very appealing and magically youthful.
The design itself is quite eye-catching as well, it mimics a real iris somewhat but cranks it up a notch. There's a clear thin black rim at the edges which helps frame your eyes and bring attention in. As if the color alone wasn't enough to do that though. xD I honestly love these, I can't even be disappointed by the false marketing of "forest green" lolol – they should have called these "sea green" or "lagoon" instead, that would have been at least somewhat closer to the truth. Regardless, I stand firm that whatever the name claims to be this is a beautiful shade and shouldn't be passed on if you enjoy this type of color.

Lens photos below!

All photos taken by yours truly during an August evening 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.

Indoors, natural room light.

Indoors, yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Unlit corridor, poor distant natural light.

Facing a window, not sun side. (weirdly blue for some reason)

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

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Just like with the other colored contact lenses I've been reviewing recently these had sadly expired before I got around to do this review. That means I can't grade comfort properly as I literally only wore these long enough to take the photos and then I immediately discarded them, which means I wore them only once and for about 10 minutes. But what I can say is that they seemed to be thin and comfortable overall, I barely felt that I had lenses on. Maybe they have a tendendy to be a bit dryish but that's impossible to say as my eyes are naturally very dry and sensitive as well. But oh well, I would guess the wearing range would be in the 3-5 hours mark, as per usual for me; it might not sound like much for someone with more "normal eyes" but my eyes are dry and shit so yeah, I can't really wear lenses 8 hours straight without being addicted to eyedrops lol.

 

Okay so, in case it wasn't obvious by now this is an alluring colored lens in my humble opinion and it's definitely worth checking out. The main color is this kind of turquoise shade, with a nudge of green mixed in, but the inner center of the lens is clearly green and does a great job at blending in with my natural eye color. These lenses have quite a big impact with the black accents and seem somewhat more intense than some of the other Colors of the Wind lenses I've reviewed, despite them all having more or less the same base design.

I would recommend these for cosplay, parties, alternative fashion and anything else you can think of. It's definitely a fun color and should look great whatever your real eye color happens to be. Also, I feel like these lenses look better in real life than on photos?

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 8/10
Really lovely turquoise lens with a green inner center. Great pigmentation.
Design: 8/10
Mimics a real iris with added black streaks and limbal ring for extra effect.

Opacity: 7/10 

Color coverage is solid and the lens transitions nicely into my actual iris.
Enlargement: 4/10
Not particularly big but there's still enough size to make it clear you wear lenses.

Comfort: 7/10 

These are the usual thin, comfy lenses that you hardly feel in your eyes. Maybe drying a bit?
Naturalness: 5/10

The color itself isn't all that natural but these are nowhere near crazy lens levels.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this review helpful~

Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: I-Codi Colors of the Wind Yellow Green

Hi there peeps!

It's time for another I-Codi's Colors of the Wind series review, I have several colors left to review but today I'll show you the I-Codi Colors of the Wind Yellow Green and yes, it really is that weird shade between green and yellow.

Let's go!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm

Water content: 38%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

Not gonna lie, I bought these out of curiosity. You pretty much never really find yellow-green lenses out there so of course I had to try them! 

But yeah, on first impression they look mostly yellow, although you can tell it's not a pure yellow so to say. But once I put them on I could definitely tell there's green hues – I'm not sure how much my natural eye color (gray-blue) affects the outcome, but the opacity and color output is good regardless. So good in fact that if you need this very specific color for cosplay then I could recommend considering these lenses.

One lens in.

It's not a crazy vibrant lens but the color change is very obvious and it looks pretty great. I really like the Colors of the Wind series as there's soooo many colors to choose from, even rare ones like this. 

There's a thin limbal ring at the edges but it's not black –more like a watered-down gray– so your eyes won't end up looking super uguu moe. There is a notable enlargement effect though.

And yes, the color truly is a yellow green, green-yellow or whatever you wanna call it. It's not a bright lens but it's not dull either, the color opacity is exactly where it needs to be to not look fake despite being a highly unnatural color.

 

Lens photos below!

All photos taken by yours truly during an August evening 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 indoors.

Yellow room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Unlit corridor, poor natural light in the distance.

Indoors facing a window. (backyard view, not sun side)

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

Outdoors, facing the sun while standing under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

These lenses had expired by the time I got around to do this review so I can't really grade comfort properly. If you've been reading my other circle lens reviews since a while back you know the deal but it's basically just that I had a bunch of colored lenses that I stored in a cardboard box which I ended up forgetting about... for years. When I found it here, not so long ago, I noticed that almost everything had expired and well, now I'm racing to at least get reviews out so I didn't completely waste my money. It's good if these reviews can help someone out there, chuu~

Regarding comfort I can't say much except that these lenses appeared to be thin, overall comfortable and I didn't feel them much. They were perhaps a bit dryish but that might just as well be my eyes since my eyes are naturally very dry. I'd guess wearing time would be somewhere in the 3-5 hour range, which is pretty much the norm for me, but then again this is just an estimate as I'm definitely not willing to wear expired lenses for any longer than necessary – aka the time it takes to snap the review photos. After I got the photos taken I immediately discarded the lenses so any words on comfort are based on my first and only impression, which lasted for approximately 10 minutes.

This is a weird color, I like it for its rarity but it's not the most appealing you know? xD It's cool for dressing up as bad guys, reptile-inspired costumes, cosplaying, funky rebel styles, cyberpunk and the like. If you need this particular color then definitely check these out though!

 

Distance photo!

 

 

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
It is what it promises to be, a yellow green. Or more like a green yellow.
Design: 8/10
Mimics a real iris. Sports a light limbal ring that is quite tasteful and dignified.
Opacity: 7/10 

Color coverage is a lot better than one might expect of a green-yellow lens. Nice pigmentation.
Enlargement: 4/10
No super big enlargement but the size difference is still visible.

Comfort: 7/10 

Appears to be nice. They are the usual thin, comfy lenses that you barely feel in your eyes.
Naturalness: 5/10

For being such an unnatural color these don't even look half bad.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this review useful. Another one coming soon!

Shiro Samurai out.