Theatrical contact lenses are favorites for costume parties. And for a good reason – nothing can make your costume seem more real than a pare of bright inhuman eyes. However, with so many special effect contacts available it is important to know how to select good ones.

All special effect contacts are soft contact lenses. This means that, with proper care and cleaning, you will hardly notice there is anything in your eyes. Most people can wear costume contact lenses without any problems.

What types of special effect contact lenses are on offer?

Theatrical lenses come in hundreds of exciting designs. You can get cat’s eye contacts, red or black spirals, wolf eyes, bloodshot eyes, vampire, white-out, black-out or even an American flag design. The most popular and trustworthy brands of special effect contact lenses are Crazy Lenses from Cooper Vision and Wild Eyes from Ciba Vision.

See photos of people wearing costume special effect contact lenses

As all color contact lenses, costume lenses can be produced digitally (printed by a computer) or hand-painted. As you would expect, the price of hand-painted contacts is much higher than mass produced, digital ones – usually upwards from $150. Hand-painted lenses are the most beautiful, and every detail is very clear.

However, don’t assume that mass produced lenses are no good. They make an excellent addition to your costume for a Halloween party, or just for a fun night out at a club. On the other hand, if you plan to shoot a home movie, where your face will be seen large and clear, a pair of more expensive, hand-painted theatrical lenses would be better.

You can also order custom special effect lenses – an artist will paint any design you like. Naturally, though, custom theatrical lenses are the most expensive.

What effect would you like – just to change the color portion of your eye to something exotic, or to cover the whites of your eyes as well and make them look completely inhuman?

Most theatrical contact lenses only cover your iris, this way you can get an effect of cat eyes, wolf eyes, red-hot eyes or spirals. But there’s another type of costume contact called scleral lenses. As the name suggests, this lens covers your entire sclera (the visible portion of your eye, including the white). Scleral lenses are more flexible in design, because they are not restricted by the circular shape of the lens and whites around. The effects that you have seen in Predator or Dune are achieved with scleral lenses.

However, scleral costume lenses are harder to manufacture, so they are always more expensive than the circular ones – but the effect is well worth it.

Can I wear costume contacts if I need vision correction?

The most popular brands, like Wild Eyes and Crazy lenses, come with or without visual correction. Crazy lenses also come in the most common size – diameter 14.2 and base curve 8.6. This means that they would suit the majority of people.

Most other costume contacts can be only be ordered in plano. However some companies, allow you to specify your prescription, especially when the lenses are custom made.

Make your costume really stand out with a pair of scary theatrical lenses. You will have great fun and be the center of everybody’s attention

Tanya Turner
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/special-effect-contacts-be-the-center-of-attention-at-costume-parties-1236.html

Contact lenses are from 4 types: single vision, bifocal, trifocal and progressive. Lenses can have many shapes, but the most common of them are convex-concave for myopia and biconvex for presbyopia.You can choose cosmetic lenses, for changing your eyes color, and you even can have lenses with different effects. Those kinds of lenses are used especially on Halloween, in theaters, or in movies, and they do not need any special attention. You just have to ask the ophtholmologists advice and clean them regularly.The most common contact lenses are the disposable ones. They must be replaced at 2 weeks, or even sooner with a new pair of lenses, so that your eyes be healthier, and because lipids, and proteins and calcium that are found in tears can harm your lenses.Depending on schedules, lenses are with daily wearing and that means that you have to remove them before going to sleep, and lenses with extended wearing, that means you can wear them overnight. Lenses from silicone hydrogel are the ones with the most advanced wearing, till 30 days, day and night carrying.The only cause that you can make an infection is the improper cleaning. You must respect the doctors’ advices, and you mustn’t ignore any aspect of his prescription. Even if contact lenses are much more useful than glasses, you are not allowed to wear them in environments with smoke, dust, paint vapors, and you can’t swim either, during their wearing.Some signs that should make you to visit an ophthalmologist are: red and painful eyes, a feeling that always is something in your eyes, your eyes are dry, you can’t see well, or you had got some allergies. If you do not consult an ophthalmologist, your problems can get worst. There are remedies for all these problems, such as: artificial tears, nutritional supplements, punctual occlusion, or contact lenses for dry eyes.In these days there millions and million of people who are wearing contact lenses from different reasons, for correcting sight problems, or for changing their eyes color, getting a new look. If you respect all the doctors’ conditions, you won’t have any problems in wearing contact lenses. Lenses can give you self-confidence, can make you look better, so there is no reason why you cannot wear them. Besides that, you will feel much more comfortable with lenses, than with glasses.

Ron Avigad
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/let-your-eyes-speak-about-you-89075.html

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you have to go get ur eyes checked at an eye doctor and tell her u want cosmetic contact lenses… she’ll have samples for you to try for free (they last like 2 weeks) and she’ll wanna check you after a week of wearing them to make sure ur cleaning them right and no damage is happening to ur eye and then u can buy them from her office

good luck

Recently my friend purchased a pair from a contact lense store which ships contact lenses from Korea. It is not an optometrist store although they do go through correct usage and maintenance of the lenses.

My question is, are all the contact lenses suitable for everyone or does everyone need a specific pair which is suited to their eye’s optical power?

First of all- if you are in the USA, you will be required by law to get a contact lens exam from your eye doctor in order to be able to buy the contacts. Reason for this is many people try to buy contacts black market- and this is VERY DANGEROUS- because I worked with a Doctor friend of mine that kept this article in his office about a 16 yrs old that lost one eye and nearly went blind in the other- because she didnt want to do the right thing- and get fitted correctly. Need I say more?

You also have a progressive disease of the cornea. You are already going to be suffering from some degree of ectasia (corneal thinning), you don’t want to get an infection which could potentially damage even more of the cornea.

I’d strongly suggest that you don’t fiddle with your eyes health at this stage and perhaps see what you can do about arresting the progression of the keratoconus with Corneal C3R Crosslinking.

Mail me if you want further detail on C3R crosslinking

I wouldn’t. Not even because it was so long ago but just because they are your eyes. and the contacts could be really dangerous now. with chemical and bacterias and who knows what. You don’t want an eye infection or worse right? So i would try and get some cheap ones on EBay or something cause these are just waaaay too old.

good luck. hope it all works out.