"Magic Eye" colour contact lenses from Watsons

Gosh.  I haven't written in so long (for me) and so much has happened!

Okay so I finally tried contact lenses for the first time ever -- purely for cosmetic purposes, of course.

I did a little research online and couldn't find the brand sold at Watsons, Magic Eye.  So I think it deserves a little review.

Magic Eye is made by Polytouch, a Korean company.  The lenses are 14.2 mm in diameter so they make your pupils look slightly bigger, although there is about a millimeter (maybe) of clear lens left around the edge of the coloured part.  The lenses are coated in such a way that the colour pigments won't come off and go into your eyes.  The water content is 42%.  As far as I know they have no power, so they're purely cosmetic.  And the Base Curve is 8.6.  Oh and they are one-month disposables.

They have the usual range of colours -- Aqua, Gray [sic], Hazel, Green, and Violet, all of which have a dark ring around the edge.  They also have two special designs: Twister, which is a sort of black swirl, and Bluestar, which is a black edged lens with tiny blue stars on top of the black.

At first I was interested in the Gray, but I was afraid I'd end up looking like I have cataracts.  I could tell from the demo ones in little glass bottles at Watsons that the Gray was very light.  So I picked the Aqua instead, hoping my eyes would look bright instead of, well, blind.

The box contains the two lenses.  Instructions for use and care are printed on the inside of the box -- but in English only.

A close-up of the colour and detail.  You can clearly see the black rings here but they aren't obvious when I'm actually wearing the lenses.  And you can sort of see how soft the lenses are.  They are so soft that they get stuck to the foil lid of their containers, so I had to be very careful as I opened the lids in case I tore the lenses along with the lids!  As a first-timer with contact lenses, I found it hard to get these soft lenses to stand up the right way, ready to be put on.  It just takes practice.  And I think the easiest way to tell which is the right side is by looking at the black rings -- the rings should be darker on the side facing outwards, so on the side that sticks to your eye, the blue should overlap the black rings.

You can see on the right eye that the lenses are a little bit bigger than my actual pupils.  The little white crescent at the bottom is a telltale sign.  And you can see my natural colour through the clear spaces in the middle, which are a tiny bit too small for me to be able to see perfectly clearly.

The samples above are detailed close-ups of my eyes so they might look a bit scary.  These next ones were taken as self-portraits and I later cropped them so you can only see my eyes in different lighting.

My camera-phone's night portrait mode gives pictures a sort of warm, yellowish glow:

Now for another detailed close-up:

Cropped portrait:

More cropped portraits with no make-up on:

Auto mode and normal portrait mode look quite similar to me so I'm not sure which is which :-s

After only about three full days of blue-eyed enjoyment, I dropped one of the lenses as I was trying to put them on!  Well, actually, I'd already put them both on, but I took one out because it was kind of irritating me so I wanted to see if there was any dust or something else on it ... and I dropped it as I was trying to put it back on :-(

Sadly, I had to throw out both lenses.  I went and got Magic Eye in Gray instead.

No-make-up versions:

Not sure which ones I like better.  My other half prefers the aqua ones although he likes the grey ones too.  I can see from the photos that the aqua ones change colours more in different lighting.  But their vividness contrasts a bit too much with my yellow skin.  The grey looks more natural in comparison (my future mother-in-law agrees).

Magic Eye contact lenses are very comfortable.  As a first time contact lens wearer, I needed a little time adjusting, but I never felt that they hurt, apart from when a bit of fibre or hair from a towel got on one of my lenses and made my eyes water!  This was easily fixed by removing the lens and washing it with cleaning solution.

I've now given in to temptation and bought Seeshell in Blue too.  These are bigger -- 14.5 mm in diameter -- and have a higher water content of 45%.  I haven't transferred pictures yet so I'll publish them later.  They certainly look bigger, even if there is still a small one- or two-millimeter bit of clear lens around the edges.  They are a subtle dark blue too, which is what I wanted.  Compared to Magic Eye Aqua, Seeshell Blue is darker and less vivid.  I kind of wonder whether the Gray would look nicer though.  Oh, and they are one-year ones so they're better value for money.  They are quite as soft though.  My eyes are slightly irritated by the bigger size but I think I'll get used to it -- plus I'd already been wearing the Magic Eye Gray ones for over eight hours before I put the Seeshell Blue ones on.  Oh and Seeshell has a Base Curve of 8.6 -- the ones I got, anyway.  And Seeshell contact lenses look very natural with their dark rings around the edges and subtle colouring -- so natural, in fact, that one of the contact lens outlets that I visited today is actually not going to be importing them any more!  The clear bits in the centre of Seeshell contact lenses are bigger than the ones on the Magic Eye lenses too so it's easier to see through them.

I gotta leave it there for now.  There is still much updating to do but all this photo editing eats up so much time!

Edit:  These Magic Eye lenses are so soft that they start to fold when I drip cleaning solution onto them a little too vigorously.