I'm no longer an avid circle lens wearer so these kinds of posts will be far and few between, but I had a special occasion for which I want to wear them (see related:
Liz Lisa photoshoot with Rei and Taka) so I had to purchase a new pair. I used to have quite a few pairs but they have long since expired.
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| old circle lenses - now all expired and thrown out |
I knew exactly which lens I wanted. It's the bottom pair from the picture above which I think I remember as "Sugar Candy brown" but I don't think there was a brand listed when I purchased them. There's a lot of other similar lenses so it didn't matter to me whether I got that exact pair or not, but I knew that's the design I was looking for because I had liked it a lot. I basically wanted something with a strong limbal ring and light brown color that created a nice effect with a diameter of around 14.5mm.
I've been out of the circle lens game for so long that I didn't know where to start. The blog "store" I used to buy from now seems like an odd choice to me, and I no longer want to deal with that kind of informal website where you have to copy and paste some text into an email and blah blah blah.
PinkyParadise is a site that I have purchased from before, and I know they sponsor a number of people. A site sponsoring such a huge volume of bloggers usually turns me off but since I have ordered from them before, I knew I wasn't basing my decision purely on sponsored reviews, but rather just using them as a small assurance that they were still in business and doing rather well. Due to their large selection, I had a feeling that they would undoubtedly have something similar to what I wanted.
I was browsing through all the brown lenses and found
Vassen Sakura Candy Brown.
The main stock photo had me second guessing myself a bit because the inner brown color seemed too "hard" and opaque, but the pictures of a model/customer wearing them assured me that this was reasonably the same lens as what I had previous owned. They were having a free shipping promotion, so I decided it wasn't worth my time to research around for the best price to save $2-3 max and just went ahead with my purchase. I like to buy my lenses with prescription because...I need it. My eyes are actually at quarter steps, but I just round down to the nearest option. (Better to round down than round up.) I know some people like to wear their lenses under their prescription glasses, but I'm not one of those people lol.
Purchased and paid on Jan 16. Received email alert for shipping on Jan 26. Package was delivered on Feb 7 from Germany. Why is this post so late? Well I received them in early February, but I didn't bother taking them out of the vials until like late March when I wanted to wear them for a photoshoot lol. And I didn't have time to take any lens-specific photos that day, so I had to set aside some time for them later. And it turned out to be much later lol.
Close-ups of my eyes lol -
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| Lenses in with flash |
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| Lenses in with natural lighting |
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| Lenses in with natural lighting looking up to the right |
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| Without lens --> with lens |
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| No lenses |
And one shot from a bit farther away -
I'm also wearing the lenses in all the photos from my
Liz Lisa x My Melody 6th collab vol. 2 items post if you want to see them worn from much, much farther away lol. For comparison purposes, my "regular" make up with no circle lenses is on the left (from my
TKL order 19 post), and the same make up but with circle lenses in on the right.
Lol I'm even wearing the same shoes wtf. There isn't a huge difference from this far away, but I think you can tell that my eyes are definitely "darker" lol.
I'm no longer a really big circle lenses wearer/fan, so this isn't going to be much of a "review". It's really just kind of...sharing lol. I purchased these lenses hoping that they were really similar to my old Sugar Candy lenses, but they're really ...not lol. These do have a similar limbal ring but it seems much wider, but at the same time, not as strong/bold from far away. The Sugar Candy ones had a noticeable but very
black and confined limbal ring with a contrasting
light brown inside even from a distance. The brown in this Vassen pair blend a lot better with my eye, I think? So the effect they give is different. It's not bad necessarily, but it just wasn't what I was expecting based on the stock photos.
Enlargement: 5/5; definitely great enlargement. I think most circle lenses over 14.2mm enlargement makes the iris look a lot larger and the dark limbal ring definitely helps. Enlargement is even obvious from a distance away.
Comfort: 3.5/5; I guess I would say that these are about average comfort most of the time. The first time I wore them, I didn't have many issues but there is a little difference than my regular (non enlarging) contacts which in comparison is a 5/5. I don't know if it's just me, but these weren't extremely comfortable the second time I put them on, so I couldn't give it a 4/5. I wore them for about 6 hours the first time and maybe 4 hours max the second time.
Color: 3/5; I'm very meh with the color personally. On my dark brown eyes, it just makes them seem even more dark brown to black rather than just a medium brown that the pictures seem to promise. I would prefer for this to give a slightly lighter brown effect like the Sugar Candy series does.
Design: 3/5; The design is nothing special imo (compared to the plethora of lenses that are out now) and it doesn't even show up well on dark brown eyes.
Overall: 3.5/5; I wouldn't order these again but mostly because these are not what I was looking for (since I wanted an identical Sugar Candy replacement). They're fine/OK lenses, but nothing extraordinary and I feel like there are probably better ones out there. So, there's nothing essentially WRONG with them, I just don't feel they're really special and worth a real recommendation lol.
Since I am writing this blog post, I feel compelled to add this note about circle lens/eye safety:
If you’re considering purchasing a pair for the first time, please please put your eye health FIRST. Fashion is great, but please don’t put
your health at risk for it. Or at the very least, don’t give advice
about it if you’re not a professional or if you didn’t get the advice
straight from a professional (that you personally know and have
consulted about circle lenses specifically). [Yes, I'm basically saying don't take my own word about circle lenses as 1000% fact either. But please do take my advice about seeking professional advice.] “The internet” or
personal experience is not the same thing as an optometrist or
ophthalmologist and should not take precedent because you “personally
didn’t have any problems”. That does NOT mean that will be the case for
others. Please do not give potentially harmful advice.
I know that not *everyone* can afford to go to a doctor regularly, but I
think when it comes to sticking a foreign object in your eye, you
should please consider at least one visit where you can get your
questions answered or receive recommendations or basic care instructions
and your base curve measurement.
If you’re new to circle lenses or lens wearing in general, I would suggest you start with something with a smaller diameter (maybe 14.2) no matter what brand you pick. Usually discomfort occurs because your eye isn’t getting enough oxygen. Circle lenses are larger and often thicker than prescription lenses, so you shouldn’t think that because you wear your regular lenses for 20+ hours, it would be okay for circle lenses. That’s absolutely not the case and I cannot tell you how much it horrifies me to see others openly advocating extended (over 8 hour) use. What might also come into play is just the general quality of the lenses. I’m not sure about the regulations for some of these manufacturers (none are regulated by the FDA obviously) but I’ve seen people receive warped lenses or try to wear lenses with tears. DO NOT stick these defective lenses in your eye no matter how bad you want to wear them. If it’s uncomfortable, stop wearing them.
When I was into circle lenses, I found that soompi’s Circle Lens thread was really helpful. There’s like 2000 pages and not everything is great, but there’s lots of reviews in one place. You might want to start with the more recent stuff for the most up-to-date reviews and stuff. Like maybe read the first few pages and then skip to page 1500 and forward. Depends how much time you have. You need to know what’s right for *your eyes* despite what so-and-so said works for them.
Oh, just small pointers - be sure to soak your lenses after you take them out of the vials. If you stick them straight in your eye, it may hurt like a bitch or it may NOT hurt (people have all sorts of experiences) but that solution that it comes in should ideally be soaked off for at least 8 hours.
Also don’t try and use your lenses beyond the expiration date. It doesn’t matter if you’ve only used them 3 times. 1 year lenses shouldn’t be used beyond one year. Seriously. They’re marked as yearlies for a reason.
And of course, check with your optometrist.
