Adeline's Colored Contact Lenses Insight

Tints

Contact lenses aren't just for seeing better. They're for looking better too. In fact, some people who don't even need vision correction wear tinted contact lenses as a way to change their look.

Are you having trouble choosing the right contact lens color? Well today's tinted lenses allow you to enhance your natural eye color -- making the blue bluer or the green greener -- or change it altogether. There are four types of colored contact lenses: visibility tints, enhancement tints, opaque color tints and light-filtering tints to help you choose the best contact lens color.

Visibility Tints
These are usually tinted a light blue or green. The tint does not affect eye color however; it's to help people see their lenses better in case they misplace or drop them.

Enhancement Tints
Enhancement tints are solid yet translucent and are a darker than visibility tints. As the name suggests, they're meant to enhance existing eye color. These types of tints are ideal for people with light colored eyes who wish to make their eye color more intense.

Opaque Color Tints
Opaque color tints are used to dramatically change a person's iris color. These are deeper, opaque tints usually made of patterns of solid colors. They are the perfect solution for those fed up with their regular eye color, whether it be baby blues or "Betty Davis" eyes. Opaque color tints come in a wide variety of colors, including hazel, green, blue, violet and gray.

Color tints are also available for theatrical, novelty or costume purposes. Thinking about dressing up as an alien or vampire this Halloween? Novelty lenses can greatly enhance your costume.

Light-Filtering Tints
These tints were developed only recently for sports use. They enhance certain colors (such as optic yellow, the color of many tennis balls, softballs and golf balls), while muting other colors. As a result, the ball stands out against the background and is easier to hit. These lenses can also be used by spectators of course. More are being developed especially for golfers, trap-shooters, skiers, and other sports enthusiasts.

With tinted lenses you accomplish two goals at once: Seeing better and looking better.