April 23, 2018

[Sponsored] Lens review: GEO Crazy SF-01

Hello in the house!

The snow has finally started melting up here in the north but it's still a pretty long way to spring, lmao. Half the year is winter, where's the lie? Good thing is that we're done with polar night and that in turn gives me plenty of sunlight hours to do circle lens reviews on (when I have the free time, that is). And yes, of course today's post is nothing less than a lens review! 
I'll show you guys the super rad GEO Crazy SF-01 lenses, sent to me by the lovely Sweden-based circle lens shop CirclelensesEurope, also known as Cirkellinser. ^.- These lenses go under a lot of different names like Flame Eyes, Burning Flame, Bloody Wolf Eyes and several variations of those and possibly more – so if you're unsure if you're looking at the same lens, just check that it says SF-01 and you know it's the right one.

The lenses I'm reviewing in this post were kindly sponsored by CirclelensesEurope, aka Cirkellinser. Rest assured knowing that all my reviews are purely 100% my honest opinion. I never compromise the truth nor my real opinions.

The discount code "SAMURAI" gives you 10% off on any order placed on both CircleLensesEurope and Cirkellinser – feel free to use it! ♥



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm
Water content: 40±2
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)





Note: To all my Swedish readers, please scroll to the end of this post for a summary in Swedish. // Till alla mina svenska läsare, bläddra gärna till slutet av detta inlägg för en sammanfattning på svenska. :)


Before I get to talk about the lenses themselves I want to tell you guys a little about CirclelensesEurope, also known as Cirkellinser. You might wonder why I'm mentioning two stores but the thing is that it's actually the same store, just for two different markets – CirclelensesEurope is catering for the whole Europe while Cirkellinser is especially for the Swedes. Both sites have the same people behind it, the same products for sale, ship from the same place etc so yeah, the only difference is basically that the other one is for people living in Sweden. Neither of them is a copycat or a scam site so no worries there – you can buy from either of them with confidence!

Both of their sites are stylish, fresh, inviting and easy to use. There is not a whole sea of circle lenses to choose from since they seem to focus on just a couple lens brands – GEO and EOS, respectively. But what CirclelensesEurope lack in options they make up for with incredibly high-speed and cheap shipping – it's a flat price of 3€ for anywhere in Europe. The fast shipping puts CirclelensesEurope at an advantage over Asia-based lens stores because yeah, if you're a cosplayer and need lenses urgently (let's say, a week before the con) then they might very well save your ass before the con gets it. xD

Regarding the shipping and handling time I want to say that I've always received my orders extremely fast – most commonly already on the next working day. Shipping to Sweden is usually 1-2 days and to the rest of Europe it's 3-7 days and it also says on their site that they ship out within 24 hours.

If you wonder to what European countries (note: they do NOT ship outside of Europe!!) they ship to then this is what it says on their site:
We deliver to following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom and Austria.
Their customer service is top-notch and reliable; they seem to often answer within 24 hours, even during weekends! Customer service is also really kind and easy to approach while still having that professional touch to it. All in all CirclelensesEurope is a very easy and smooth shop to deal with, safe to buy from and I would eagerly recommend them to all fellow European (and Swedish) cosplayers and circle lens fans! They are a really good store, I promise.


 ~***~ Lens review continues ~***~

The lenses arrived in a small regular white bubblewrap envelope that comfortably fits into your average mailbox. They seem to always add some kind of cute stickers on the envelope, which is a really nice bonus – it makes it feel all the more personal and also shows that they care about each customer!



Inside the white envelope the lenses are packed in a small cute drawstring bag in varying colors. With the order also comes a free lens case, a business card with a hand-written 'thank you' note on the back, a GEO Medical information sheet (because I received GEO lenses) and, of course, the shop's own leaflet with information about their guarantees, wear & care etc – it's a good piece of advice for all the first-time contact lens users, so don't throw it away if this is your first contact lens purchase.

~***~

Before wearing the lenses for the first time, be sure to take them out of their little glass bottles and put them to soak in lens solution over the night. I do not recommend using the lenses straight out of their vials as the solution they are stored in is stronger than ordinary lens solution and thus might damage your eyes. Better be safe than sorry.

 I had no trouble inserting these lenses, except for that the lenses didn't want to center themselves onto my eyes without some additional help from my side, which quite literally means moving them with my finger (you can use your eyelid as a cover too, if you don't want to touch with your finger directly) until I see that my pupil is in the middle of the lens. It's a bit hard to explain what I mean but I just basically ease the lens into its right position as it seemed to get "stuck" off-center. ^^" This was not troublesome in any way as, once the lenses were positioned right, they did not seem to slide away from the center anymore.

One lens in.
As you can see I have naturally light blue-gray eyes and these lenses turn into these freaking cool monster eyes! You can guess already from seeing how bright the lenses are in their vials that there's gonna be some badass coverage going on. Also, if you look very closely at the vial photos you can see that one of the lenses has its print slightly off-center, I've never seen that on a lens before! It's not really noticeable when worn and doesn't affect wearing but yeah, thought I'd mention it anyway.

It's a really nifty design with a flame print in two colors, red and yellow, but when viewed from a distance the colors blend into each other and makes your eyes look an intense orange – the cosplay game is strong with these.

There is some enlargement to be found but it's not gonna make or break anything. This is not the kind of design (also applies to crazy lenses in general) that greatly benefits from huge sizes so I think it's a good thing that it's a neutral average in terms of size increase. I don't think most people want to be a moe moe kyun kyun flesh-eating being from the depths of hell... or something else that would rock flaming eyes. Unless you have a really twisted imagination and in that case, I love you.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during an April 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.


Natural room light in my apartment.
Yellow room light in my apartment.
Standing in an unlit corridor, indoors. (natural light only)
Facing a window.
Flash photo.
Outdoors, with my back against the sun.
Outdoors, facing the sun.
The comfort is decent. These give me notable orange/yellow corners in my vision field whenever I move my gaze but yeah, that's to be expected with crazy lenses and especially those that have a smaller pupil hole. You get used to having your vision slightly blocked by the orange quickly (especially in poorer lights) and it's not really bothersome. Comfort is otherwise fine, except for that I did experience a lot of sudden dry bouts/stinginess that would last 10 minutes or less on approximate and then disappear. It was uncomfortable whenever it happened but if I persisted past that part then the lenses would return to feeling perfectly fine again – it was weird. My guess is that it could just as well be caused by my eyes being exceptionally dry and sensitive but I can't know for sure.

Despite the comfort not being the best possible I must honestly say that I still dig these lenses. It's a really vibrant and eye-catching lens and works great for cosplay, LARP and anything else you can think of that would require unnaturally bold orange eyes. I can see a lot of use for these fancy peepers too – vampire, wolf or werewolf, monster, Sith lord (from Star Wars), dragon, evil being, orc, witch, possessed human, mutant and a lot more. Your limits are your imagination – go wild!

Distance photo time ~
 I went for an anime look, drawing inspiration from the whole "youngsters with multi-colored hair who save the world with superpowers" trope – this guy looks like the street fighter anti-hero type who transforms into a dragon when shit gets real on the battlefield. :DD


Regarding CircleLensesEurope I need to mention that they and their Swedish counterpart sadly don't carry prescription lenses for the time being. I can't tell if they plan to start selling those anytime soon but I keep my hopes up since a lot of people have vision defects, me included, and need prescription lenses to see. My own vision defects are minor enough (-0,50 on my weaker eye) that I can get around just fine with plano lenses but yeah, if you can't wear lenses without power I'm really sorry to say that, sadly, CircleLensesEurope doesn't have what you need. :'(

Remember, if you make a purchase at CircleLensesEurope or Cirkellinser you can get 10% off any order if you use the discount code "SAMURAI" during checkout – enjoy! ♡

Short summary:

Color: 9/10 
Intense yellow and red crazy lens that's really out there. Stellar choice for cosplay and fantasy creatures.
Design: 8/10 
Flame design that makes you look otherwordly and superpowered. A badass lens.
Opacity: 10/10
Covers my real eye color completely, just like a good crazy lens should.
Enlargement: 4/10 
Modest enlargement. It's there but it's not gonna do a big difference either way.
Comfort: 5/10 
Lenses settle off-center on my eyes (I need to move them in place) and I experience multiple dry bouts every now and then, otherwise pretty good. Orange-ish corners in my vision field in poorer light. Estimated wearing time anywhere between 2-5 hours, depending on if you have dry eyes or not.
Naturalness: 0/10 
Pfffffft, fuck no. :D


• Sammanfattning på svenska

Vad är cirkellinser? 

Cirkellinser är kosmetiska linser som till en början mest användes i Asien av idoler, modeller och liknande men som har, på sistone, blivit alltmer populära även i västvärlden – särskilt bland ungdomar som har ett intresse för asiatisk populärkultur. Det som skiljer cirkellinser från vanliga färgade linser är att dom kommer i otroligt många olika designs och färger (även onaturliga färger så som röd, rosa och lila är vanliga) samt att dom får dina ögon att se större och vackrare ut! Cirkellinser finns att köpa både med och utan styrka. Det är flest unga kvinnor som använder cirkellinser men även män, transpersoner, ickebinära och andra har insett hur roligt det kan vara att byta ögonfärg lite nu och då för att uppleva en ny look och leka med sitt yttre.

~~~~~~~~~

Cirkellinser är en svensk online-affär –förmodligen den första och enda i Svealand som säljer äkta "circle lenses", numera även kända på svenska som cirkellinser. Tyvärr så säljer inte Cirkellinser linser med styrka i dagens läge.

Denna gång valde jag att recensera ett linspar som heter GEO Crazy SF-01 (bilder ovanför!) då dem verkade rejält grymma och tilltalande med sin flammiga design. Linserna anlände inom nån enstaka arbetsdag i ett vadderat kuvert snabbare än jag förväntade mig! I kuvertet fanns även ett visitkort med en handskriven hälsning på baksidan, ett gratis linsetui samt linserna själv som var förpackade i en fin liten snörpåse. Linsvätska får man köpa till själv, det finns på apoteket.

Linserna är helballa, heltäckande och urläckra! Passar utmärkt till det mesta inom fantasy-väg, däribland varulver, vampyrer, mutanter, orcer och allt vad det heter. Dessa gör sig även bra till cosplay och varför inte Sithlords från Star Wars? :) I vilket fall är det ju en extremt täckande lins med en färg som är så kraftig att den syns på riktigt långt avstånd – faktum är ju att dessa ser orangea ut när åskådaren står en bit bort, vilket är riktigt häftigt då orangea linser överlag är ganska sällsynta.

Dessa linser har en helt okej bekvämlighet. Jag har naturligt löligt torra ögon (hej på dig, Saharaöknen) och dessa gav mig upprepade känslor av torrhet som kom och gick slumpmässigt; oftast var det kortvarigt men i några fall så tog det uppemot 10 minuter innan linserna återvände till det normalbekväma. Jag märkte även att dessa linser inte justerade sig automatiskt till att sitta centrerat på mina ögon, vilket betydde att jag fick hjälpa dom lite på traven och putta dit dom själv – det tar inte många sekunder och såvida du inte är känslig för att peta dig själv i ögat så är det inga problem (man kan även flytta linserna genom att använda sitt ögonlock emellan fingret och ögat, så slipper man röra med fingret direkt). Min gissning är att jag kan nog bära dessa från allt mellan 2-5 timmar, vilket är rätt bra i min bok trots allt; om du har normala ögon så kan du säkert lägga på några timmar för mina ögon är som sagt ökentorra. :D Jag använder ögondroppar nästan dagligen.
Dessa linser gör även så att hörnen i mitt synfält blir orangea, främst inomhus. Detta sker då linsernas pupillöppning är mindre än på din typiska icke-crazy cirkellins, vilket gör så att när du vistas i ett utrymme med sämre ljusförhållanden så blir din pupill naturligt större och "krockar" därmed med linsen. Man vänjer sig rätt fort vid det dock.

Linserna fick jag från Cirkellinser, en av mina sponsorer, i recensionssyfte. ^_^ Men fast jag inte själv betalat för just detta par så påverkar det inte min ärlighet ett dugg. Jag kan helhjärtat säga att Cirkellinser är en professionell och pålitlig hemsida som jag lätt hade köpt från även om jag inte var sponsrad. De säljer endast äkta cirkellinser som är tillverkade i Korea. De innehar även en äkthetsgaranti samt öppet köp i 30 dagar – allt för att du ska känna att du är i trygga händer. Beställningar som gjorts före klockan 14:00 skickas samma vardag och frakttiden inom Sverige ligger på 1-2 dagar och kostar endast 19 kr per beställning. Jag kan varmt rekommendera deras onlinebutik till alla som har ett intresse i färgade kosmetiska linser!

Min kod "SAMURAI" ger dig dessutom 10% rabattdin beställning hos dem, glöm inte det!


Thank you so much for reading!
Major kudos to CircleLensesEurope and Cirkellinser for making this review possible!

April 18, 2018

[Sponsored] Lens review: EOS Super Neon Green

Hello people!

I thought I would review another pair of circle lenses today and it's gonna feature EOS Super Neon Green, a quite lovely emerald green cosplay-friendly lens. LoveShoppingholics sent me these beautiful eyes for review purposes, hehe. ;u; I hope you will find this review useful, now let's do it!

The lenses that I'm reviewing in this blog post were sponsored by LoveShoppingholics, meaning that I did not pay for the product(s) out of my own pocket. This does, however, not affect my honesty in any way. The words and opinions in this review are mine and mine alone, I don't ever compromise the truth.



Base curve: 8.8 mm
Diameter: 14.8 mm
Water content: 38%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)



For more about LoveShoppingholics and their online shop, be sure to check out my previous lens review where I talk about their store, my impressions and so on. ^_^ This time I'll get straight to the lens talk!

Before wearing any circle lenses for the first time, make sure to let them soak in lens solution over the night. Do not attempt to wear them straight out of the vials as the liquid they are stored in is stronger than ordinary solution and is not the best for your eyes. Just don't do it.

The EOS Super Neon series of lenses have a really wide and bold black limbal ring, a generally dark color and a design that appear as striking to me. I like how there's multiple different shades in the lens and how it kinda "flares" around the pupil hole – it's really cool-looking and gives a youthful appearance to it.

One lens in.
The massive limbal ring really creates the illusion of big eyes! It's super cute and mesmerizing. I love the color, it's this really rich emerald green tone that you don't run into too often – I wish more green lenses had this color as it's absolutely gorgeous.
Oh and yeah, as you can see I have blue-gray eyes and the color coverage is great and does what it should. The lenses don't look weird on my eyes and the blending/fading effect looks good, it's not ultra realistic but it is satisfying nonetheless. Then again, if you buy these lenses and expect them to be natural then you are doing it wrong. xD

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during an April 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.


Natural room light in my apartment.
Yellow room light in my apartment.
Bathroom light.
Facing a window.
Flash photo.
Outdoors, back against sun. (facing wall)
Outdoors, facing sun.
When it comes to comfort I was a bit let down. I'm sure these would be comfortable for people with normal eyes but I have these ridiculously dry and sensitive peepers and so I had some trouble with these lenses. I struggled with inserting them as they irritated my eyes upon contact and it took several tries to get them on but, luckily, once in my eyes the irritation and stingyness disappeared quickly. I do feel them when I move my gaze etc but otherwise they were pretty okay. I experienced no major discomforts, except for that they started to feel drying early on – after about 1 hour of wear, actually. But yeah, as I said I have some hardcore dry eyes and so my comfort grading is what it is; I'm sure that most people can wear any lenses for double the time than what I can, with ease. My eyes are just so horribly dry that I can barely get through a single day without eyedrops nowadays, at least not on winter months (yes, April kinda still counts as winter here, lmao).

What can I say? I think this is a beautiful lens and I'm happy I got to review these, all thanks to LoveShoppingholics. o/ The color is vibrant enough to make these a decent choice for cosplay and, even better, because of the big size and notable limbal ring these lenses do look 'anime'. Just note that if your eyes are distant cousins to Sahara (like mine) then comfort just might be iffy – otherwise you'll probably rock these lenses.

Distance photo!


Want to see more of EOS Super Neon lenses?
Check out my other reviews: Blue, Violet, Brown, Gray

Short summary: 

Color: 8/10
Gorgeous, dreamy and rich emerald green. Wonderfully deep.
Design: 8/10
Simple yet neat design with a prominent black limbal ring and an interesting pattern.
Opacity: 8/10

Very good color coverage.

Enlargement: 6/10
Not as humongous as one might first think but still big.
Comfort: 3/10
I had trouble inserting these lenses as my eyes reacted to the feel of the them on multiple tries (irritation). Pretty okay to wear otherwise but dry quickly for me. I suspect wearing time on dry eyes is anywhere between 1-3 hours.
Naturalness: 2/10

Too cute and magical to look anywhere near realistic. Get these for rad fashion, not office rounds.

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it. ^.^
Kudos to LoveShoppingholics for being my sponsor~

April 8, 2018

Lens review: Beaucon Shimmer Green

Hello sweeties!

I'm back and I'm still clinging on to the hope that I'll eventually find a Beaucon lens that my eyes will grant their seal of approval to. ;_; I really like their lenses and how they cater to smaller diameters but I swear I have some sort of Beaucon curse on me, lmao. But hey, I'll review the wonderfully natural Beaucon Shimmer Green today, let's go!



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



I usually jump straight for the vibrant and artsy circle lenses but every once in a blue moon I feel the itch to try a more natural pair. I wasn't expecting much from these in the color department but, much to my surprise, I feel compelled to say that I think these lenses are the most natural green lens that I've tried! Something about their look and color is luminous and really eye-catching, yet somehow retaining the image of a natural green.

One lens in.
The size increase is very minor and I honestly don't notice the difference unless I'm just wearing a single lens. When looking at the lenses in the vials I was expecting a rather bland, possibly muddy green but what I got was this bright and lively green that actually is really pretty. I'm surprised that it manages to look so natural while still being eye-catching – green lenses tend to either turn into this bland ugly color or completely disappear on my light blue-gray eyes. Beaucon knows how to get the colors right!


Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during an April 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.

Apartment, natural room light.
Apartment, yellow room light.
Bathroom light.
Flash photo.
Facing the window.
Outdoors, facing the sun.
Outdoors, back against the sun.
In terms of naturalness this is the most beautiful green lens I've tried so far. There is a really slight 'halo effect' and the colors blend well with my real eyes, giving a really realistic yet enhanced look. This lens is for those who wish to subtly change their appearance – it's a soft, delicate green that puts one dreaming.

I wish these lenses (just like all other Beaucon lenses) would be more comfortable as I'd love to wear them out. One of the lenses felt a bit scratchy and overall comfort was sub-par. I could wear them for about 1 hour before they started drying so yeah, I'd estimate anything between 1-3 hours on my dry and sensitive eyes. I've said it many times but my eyes just don't like Beaucon brand lenses, much to my sadness, and although this is the case for me it might just as well be that you would have no problems with them; everyone's eyes are different and thus comfort is always highly individual.
I think the Shimmer Green would be great for LARP, movie character cosplay and fantasy creations. I could also see them work for some video game characters, depending on how realistically the characters are designed. For anime eyes and such these would be too small and not bold enough but, then again, I would totally wear these for portraying elves and other fairytale figures!

Distance photos!




Want to see Beaucon Shimmer lenses in other colors?
Check these out: Blue, Gray

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
Beautiful natural green at its finest.
Design: 6/10
Realistic design with a thin dark limbal ring. Simple but effectful.
Opacity: 6/10
Wonderful blending while still turning my eyes undeniably green.
Enlargement: 2/10 

Size increase is there but it's so discreet that you don't notice it much.
Comfort: 3/10
One of the lenses felt a bit scratchy but otherwise okay-ish. Wearing time around 1-3 hours on really dry eyes. Not the best I've had but not the worst either.
Naturalness: 8/10
Alluring green that manages to look natural while keeping it interesting.


Shiro Samurai says bye bye and thanks for reading!

March 30, 2018

Lens review: GEO Princess Mimi Starmish Brown

Hello fabulous folks out there!

Today is a circle lens day and I'm finally gonna review a pair that I've had in my possession for years – the super popular GEO Princess Mimi Starmish Brown (sometimes just simply called GEO Starmish Brown), designed by Japanese fashion model Mai Hirose. I've heard these sell like hotcakes in Japan but today I'll show you what they look like on a light-eyed person. ^_- Also, these lenses can be identified by their code thingy XKP-304.

Let's go!



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.5 mm
Water content: 42%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)


As with any legitimate GEO lenses these came with authenticity stickers; you can find a serial number code on each sticker that you can enter online to make sure that your lenses are safe to wear. Never buy cosmetic lenses from markets and other shady places where you can't verify their origin!

I think I originally bought these lenses because I was curious about their light orange-ish brown color, which is not all that common. I remember thinking that these could be that perfect match for cosplaying characters who have those kind of honey or caramel-ish brown eyes that the ordinary brown lenses would be way too dark for. Also, who doesn't want to try a lens that everyone else is raving about? :D

One lens in.
These lenses are on the bigger scale but not overwhelming – I suspect that the thick limbal ring adds to the illusion. The color does indeed turn into this kind of caramel color on my eyes and it actually matches quite well; I was half-way expecting the lenses to clash more as my eyes are light blue-gray and the only thing close to brown on my eyes is a golden ring around the pupil. You can tell where the lens ends and my real eye color begins but the pupil hole is not as glaringly large as on most other big lenses so yeah, it actually doesn't even look bad on my eyes!

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by yours truly during a March 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. 


Natural room light in my apartment.
Yellow light in my apartment.
Bathroom light.
Flash photo.
Facing the window in my apartment.
Outdoors, back against the sun.
Outdoors, facing the sun.
It's a really cute, alluring and charming lens that makes your eyes look youthful and awake. Definitely suitable for both cosplay and fashion because of its generous color, which also happens to be good on the coverage front. The enlargement effect is there and, although I suspect these might look the best on dark eyes, they still look helluva good on my peepers as well!

Regarding comfort I'd say that the Starmish Brown are pretty good. I can easily wear them for 2 hours and I have naturally dry eyes. These do, for some reason, give me a slight vision blur but it's nothing that really bothers me. Overall they are comfortable and I feel pretty safe to say that I believe I could wear these for anywhere between 3-5 hours. There is no itchiness or anything of the sort, although my eyes were a bit red after I took them out.

I would recommend these lenses if you are looking for this kind of specific brown shade that borders on orange territory. The design is pretty ordinary (in the sense that there's no fancy patterns etc) but it does its intended job well and these lenses are thus a great addition to any fans arsenal.

Distance photo!


Short summary:

Color: 7/10
Vivid orange-ish brown color that you don't come across too often. Innocent and full of life.
Design: 7/10
Simple yet striking design that ups your eye game to eleven!

Opacity: 7/10
These do notably change my eye color to brown but the pigmentation appears irregularly printed, which gives a more natural appearance rather than solid, unrealistic coverage.

Enlargement: 7/10
Definitely enlarges your eyes.
Comfort: 6/10
Pretty good. No itchiness or anything but slightly blurs my vision. Wearing time anywhere between 3-5 hours on dry eyes.
Naturalness: 4/10

If we ignore the size and the black rim these do at least make some sort of effort to not look too fake. 


Thanks for reading! ^-^