Adeline's Colored Contact Lenses Insight

Colored vs Special Effects Lenses

Which type of lens is better?

I don't think there is a "right" answer to this question that suits everyone. Like the lenses themselves, wearers' reasons for choosing their type or brand of lens is unique to their personality and circumstances.

Since soft tinted contact lenses first became mainstream in the early eighties, the variety and choice of lenses has been slowly increasing as demand for unique shades and designs has gone up. Today, there is a lens design for just about any color you can imagine, and there are those you would never have thought would have anything to do with the human eye in the first place.

Another area that began to get popular with the drop in price was special effect contact lenses (SFX for short). SFX lenses have been used in movies, television and theatre for years, but for a long time they were expensive and required special care to avoid damage or fading.

The two types of lenses share a few things in common: both are tinted lenses and both need regular cleaning to preserve their appearance and comfort level when worn.

The differences between the two is that colored lenses tend more often to be soft, while special effects lenses are likely to be of the hard or rigid variety. This is because the colors used in an SFX lens are more vulnerable to bleaching and the effects of time, so the materials of a hard lens, makes a better platform to build upon.

If you find rigid lenses hard to tolerate, you may decide to stick with tinting your eyes instead of a wild SFX effect. The important thing is to get a result that you like with a comfortable fit and no eye irritation.

Another deciding factor is what purpose you are wearing the lenses for. If you are looking to wear the lenses to an office job, you'll likely want to stay with a simple tinting (excluding Halloween parties and such.) For a night out where you intend to do some serious attention getting at a bar or industrial club, the sky is the limit.