A Visible Difference – How to Save Money With Discount Contact Lenses

Until fairly recently, if you wanted to wear contact lenses you would see your eye care professional. They would give you a sight test and measure the shape of your eye and then supply the lenses.

The internet has revolutionized how we buy – and contact lenses are no exception. As online competition grows, lenses are becoming cheaper so large discounts are available. It really pays to shop around!

How Can Online Providers Sell Contact Lenses At A Discount?

Many people are tempted by the lower prices on offer but still wary about buying cheaper lenses online.  ‘Cheaper’ doesn’t mean that you’ll be buying lower quality lenses. These online companies sell exactly the same lenses as your High Street provider. You just pay less for them online. There are only a few main contact lens manufacturers and they just repackage the same lenses for their different ‘own brand’ outlets. It’s as simple as that!

If you’re already a lens wearer and you get your lenses from the High Street or mall, do a search online and you will discover what brand your lenses actually are. Once you know, you can shop around to find the best deal! Buying ‘multipacks’ works out the cheapest and is also useful as it means you always have spare pairs of lenses.

Online providers don’t have to pay fees on expensive premises, eye doctor salaries or other overheads.  They also buy in bulk directly from the manufacturer.  All of these savings mean that they can afford to sell them more cheaply – and still make a profit!  This method of selling has proved so successful that supermarkets and High Street eye doctors are now offering their own discounts. It’s a buyers market!

How Do I Buy Discount Lenses From The Internet?

You must have a prescription that is no older than a year. If you are buying colored lenses as a cosmetic feature and not a sight correction, you still need to have your eyes measured for the lenses to fit properly.

How Do I Get A Prescription?

If you are already a contact lens wearer:

If your prescription is over a year old, you will need a sight test and to have your eyes checked to make sure they are healthy.  Measurements will be taken to see if there has been any change in your eye shape. If you’ve lost your prescription and it is under a year old, your provider is legally bound to issue you with a duplicate, free of charge.

If you’ve never worn lenses:

You will need to see an eye care doctor for a sight test and to have your eyes measured.  If your sight is normal – just ask for measurements for contacts. Your contact lens prescription is legally your property and you should be given a copy of it at each appointment.

Won’t My Eye Care Provider Be Annoyed If I Don’t Want To Buy Their Lenses?

They might have been, a few years ago.  But it’s becoming more acceptable now. In fact, some High Street providers offer discounts off other providers if you shop with them! They will still get business from you as you will need aftercare – usually a six monthly check of sight and eye measurements.

Can I Use My Spectacles Prescription To Buy Discount Contact Lenses Online?

Unfortunately, you can’t.  Lenses and spectacles have different prescriptions. A prescription for spectacles will include sphere, cylinder and axis measurements. One for lenses covers power, base curve, and diameter among other measurements.

Although contact lenses look the same, they are manufactured to different shapes. It’s important to buy the lens that will fit your eye properly. Contact lens wearers know that if a lens doesn’t fit it can be annoying!  The lens can slip about on your eye and feel like it is going to fall out every time you blink.  Having the correct measurements ensures a proper fit and maximum comfort.

When lenses fit correctly, you can put them in and just forget about them!

In the early days of contact lenses, anyone with astigmatism was deemed unsuitable to wear them.  Now – technology has advanced and unless your prescription is particularly complicated, your astigmatism may be corrected with multifocus contact lenses.

Hang on – you’ve lost me…what is astigmatism?

Astigmatism is a condition of the cornea of the eye.  The cornea is the clear ‘layer’ of the eye that covers the iris (the colored part) and the pupil (the black dot in the middle).  The function of the cornea is to let light into the eye, which allows you to see.

A ‘normal’ cornea is shaped like a tennis ball.  Light enters it and is focused on a single point of the retina. The retina is a membrane lining the eye. It gets images via the lens of the eye which are changed into signals and sent to the brain via the optic nerve.

If you have astigmatism, your cornea is shaped more like an egg. This means that the light is focused on more than one point on the retina and this gives you blurry vision. It can also cause you to see shadows on letters when you’re reading, make you squint and cause double vision.
Toric Contact Lenses May Be The Answer…

A toric contact lens has two different strengths of prescription. These are at right angles to each other which corrects the astigmatism.  Torics are available in soft lenses, rigid gas permeable ones and also multifocals.

In order to correct the astigmatism, the contact lens must stay in one position in the eye.  There are two ways to achieve this.

1.  The lenses have a ‘ballast’ – the bottom edge of the lens is thicker than the top edge, which prevents it moving around or

2.  The middle of the lens is thicker than the top and bottom edges.

What Sort Of Torics Are Available?

* Daily disposable
* Monthly Disposable
* Frequent replacement
* Silicone hydrogel for 30 day wear
* Eye color changers
* Eye color enhancers

What Other Multifocal Contact Lenses Are There?

Aspheric contacts have different prescriptions blended across them.  They are known as ‘simultaneous vision’ or ‘progressive’ lenses as your eyes have to learn how to choose to see through the appropriate prescription for what you are doing.

This sounds very complicated but aspherics are the most popular type of multifocal contact lens so it can’t be that difficult!

Many people can and do. There may be a period of trial and error while you work with your eye care professional to find what’s best.

Most multi-focal contact lens manufacturers are aware that not everyone will be able to wear them.  For this reason, they offer a warranty on their lenses so that if you’re unlucky and can’t get on with them, you can get a different pair of lenses or a pair of spectacles.  However, part of the money that you pay to have contact lenses fitted is for the professional time taken during that fitting and subsequent follow-ups.  So you may not get back the whole amount that you paid to try the multi-focals. However, you should leave the eye doctor with some form of eyewear that corrects your vision.

Disposable contact lenses make sense for the type of lifestyle most people lead these days. Busy, active folk don’t have time to mess with cleaning solutions and disinfecting every day. Disposable contact lenses are meant to be worn once and then thrown away to be replaced with a new, clean pair. They come in a wide variety of prescription strengths, and in varieties that can be worn for as little as a few hours or as long as a month.

If you are considering disposable contact lenses, but haven’t yet made up your mind, then comparing the pros and cons will help you to decide if they’re right for you.

Pro: Convenience

Wear-once disposables never have to be cleaned, disinfected or stored. You wear them once, and then throw them away. No messy solutions, no spending half an hour disinfecting them – just open the package, wear them – and when it’s time to take them out, toss them in the trash.

Pro: More sanitary

Because you wear the contacts only once, there’s less chance of eye infections and irritation caused by improperly cleaned lenses. There’s less chance for the buildup of proteins and lipids (a natural consequence of wearing contact lenses) to breed bacteria and transfer it back to your eyes.

Pro: Less Expensive

We tend to think of disposable anything being more expensive – but in the case of disposable contact lenses, the expense of buying a new pair is offset by not having to buy cleaning solutions, storage cases and disinfectant. Your only expense is the disposable lenses themselves. You can wear disposable contact lenses for only a few cents a day.

Con: They may not be right for you.

About 90% of contact lens wearers can wear disposables. The simpler your prescription is, the better the chance that a manufacturer makes contact lenses that come in your prescription. Because manufacturers only stock standard sizes and prescriptions, you may be out of luck if your prescription is unusual or uncommon.

If you’ve never tried wearing contact lenses – or if you’ve tried but couldn’t because you got frequent eye infections or were sensitive to the contact lens cleaning solutions, disposable contact lenses may let you lose the glasses for good. Check with your doctor to see if disposable contact lenses may be a solution for you.

For many years, Acuvue contact lenses have been a leader in the eyewear industry.  Acuvue is a subdivision of Johnson and Johnson, a trusted household name known for safe, high-quality products, and has lived up to that excellent reputation.

Acuvue was a pioneer in the disposable soft contact lens market, creating the first extended-wear contacts that could be left in the eyes even while the wearer is sleeping.  Their  innovative disposable design allowed lens wearers to leave their contacts in for up to a week at a time, ensuring perfect vision at any time, day or night.

The highly popular Acuvue Oasys brand is a great choice offering a moist contact lens providing great relief. It definitely is an oasis for those suffering from  tired dry eyes.

The Acuvue Advanced brand is according to the company a contact lens that will stay comfortable and  moist all day. Other brands include Acuvue 2 available in a variety of colors and 1-Day Acuvue 30 pack Contact Lenses .

The introduction of disposable contact lenses into the market were a huge success, mainly because they eliminated the need for tedious daily cleanings and vastly reduced the cost of replacing lost or broken contact lenses.  Disposable contact lenses also meant an end to the annoying factor of having to remove contact lenses before dozing off for a nap.

The construction of these contact lenses is a marvel of technology.  The lenses are made from a soft, permeable material, which allows the eyes to receive the oxygen that they need to continue to function well.  The special mix of materials that make up Acuvue’s lenses keeps them feeling moist and smooth against the eye, preventing scratchiness and redness.  The result is a comfortable, long-lasting, and healthy set of contact lenses.

Throughout their illustrious history, Accuvue lenses have continued to innovate, coming up with advances such as contact lenses that are specially designed for people with astigmatisms and bifocal contacts.  These innovations make Acuvue lenses available to people who were formerly  unable wear contacts successfully.

Acuvue colored contacts are available in a variety of colors, for both prescription and non-prescription uses.  Acuvue offers two types of colored contacts, one nearly transparent line that enhances light-colored eye colors, and one that completely transforms the colors of the eyes.  Acuvue 2 Colours is the brand  to pick here.

With their strong safety record and their wide variety of vision correction options, Acuvue contact lenses are a popular choice for comfortable, attractive eyewear.

Theatrical contact lenses – they can be the perfect finishing touch for your Halloween costume or a theatrical event – or they can be something you wear just for fun.

While colored contact lenses are generally thought of as a cosmetic accessory to make your eyes prettier (bright blue, emerald green, that deep soulful brown), there’s a whole range of contact lenses that are designed just for fun.

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR MORE STYLES

Generally referred to as theatrical contacts, crazy or special fx contact lenses, or Halloween contact lenses, they offer all sorts of wild special effects that will have everyone that sees you asking “Where’d you get those eyes???”

You don’t have to wear corrective lenses in order to wear theatricals – but you do need a prescription. Because they’re worn in the eye, theatrical contact lenses are considered to be medical devices, and you must present a valid prescription in order to buy a pair. It’s also important to treat them as you would ‘real’ contact lenses.

They’ll need to be cleaned and disinfected between wear, and should never be lent out to someone else. But as long as you follow safety and medical precautions, they’re as safe as any colored or clear contact lens.

The two major brands of theatrical lenses are WildEyes from CIBAVision and Crazy Eyes from Coopervision, but there are many other brands on the market as well. The most popular lens styles in each of the companies’ lines are a variation of cat eyes – yellow lenses with a vertical black pupil slit.

Second on the list? Red vampire eyes come in second with both manufacturers. Other popular styles include stars and stripes, official NFL team logs and fire – yellow flames on a red background and glow in the dark contact lenses. Not surprisingly, both companies also offer plain black and plain white lenses, and variations of pinwheels and spirals on different colored backgrounds.

Other popular crazy contacts include:

• cat eye contact lenses
• red contact lenses
• glow in the dark lenses
• vampire contact lenses
• mirrored contacts
• black lenses

Doctors advise that you avoid any costume store that will sell you a pair of theatrical contact lenses without a prescription. Aside from non-prescription sales being illegal in every state, the lenses could scratch or otherwise harm your eyes. If you’d like to sport some of the wildest, craziest eye styles, start with a visit to your eye care professional to be properly fitted for contact lenses.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW FOR PRICING AND MORE INFO

Green Reptile	Creepers	Purple Kitty
Froggy	Moony	Sparkles Gold
Angelic	Smiley	Rock Star
Darth	Gargoyle	Tempest
Black Sclera	Psycho	Machine Head
Manson	Sunburst	Shamrock
Gremlin	Roach	White Out
Black Out	Dark Elf	Temptress
S Uchiha	Black Wolf Eyes	Spidey
Vampire Red	Target	Spider Web
Crazy Daisy	Red Cat Eyes	White Cat Eyes
Infinity	Moon and Star	Vader

Have you ever wished that you could change the color of your eyes?  Now you can, with colored contact lenses. Contacts aren’t just for people who need their sight correcting. Colored contact lenses are also available with no sight correction – these are called Plano lenses.

As the words of the song say “don’t it make your brown eyes blue’, Well if you always wished that your brown eyes were blue or indeed if you have ever dreamed of having Liz Taylor’s violet eyes, or envisioned yourself with eyes of sparkling emerald; now, thanks to the magic of colored or tinted contact lenses, you can have eyes of virtually any color that you want – you can even have a different color every day and for even the very popular black contact lenses.

Looking for crazy  contact lenses? Then head on over to our theatrical contact lens page.

Show your true colors with Freshlook Colorblends colored contact lenses

Colored contacts have been used in the theater and in certain professions for decades to change or intensify eye colors. And while colored lenses have been available to the general public with a prescription for quite some time, the cost was prohibitive for most. Often, a person who opted for colored contact lenses was choosing them as their only pair of corrective lenses.

The advent of inexpensive disposable contact lenses has made colored contact lenses available to the mainstream population as a viable choice for once-in-a-while wear. In fact, many of the most popular brands of soft lenses are made with no prescription strength whatsoever – strictly as an enhancement to eye color.

Colored or tinted lenses from major manufacturers are available in standard eye colors, including bare tints that will deepen and enhance the eye’s natural color. They’re best suited for people with light-colored eyes who just want to add a little sparkle. If you want to change your eyes from brown to blue or green, you’ll need to opt for a stronger tint, but those are available, too.

Change The Way People See You!

Blue eyes are the most desired eye colour, followed by green.  But changing the color of your eyes doesn’t just change how you look.  It appears that people associate eye colors with different personality traits.

Expressions Contact Lenses by CooperVision

A contact lens company in England carried out a survey of over 3,000 men and women aged 18 – 24.  They were shown photographs of people and asked to rate them.  What they didn’t know was that many of the people in the photographs had changed the color of their eyes with contact lenses.  The results were intriguing.

• People with blue eyes were thought of as firstly flirtatious and secondly, sexy.
• People with brown or hazel eyes were considered to be affectionate and kind.
• Green eyed people were thought to be the most creative, mysterious and intriguing.
• People with grey eyes were considered the most intelligent and also the most shy.

So bear this in mind when choosing your colored contacts!

How Do Colored Contact Lenses Work?

Most contact lenses have a slight tint, so that you can see them in their cleaning solution and find them easily if you drop them.  It’s called a visibility tint and is very faint so it doesn’t change your eye color at all.

Colored contacts that change the color of your eye use many different colored dots on the lens.  This mimics the natural pattern of an iris (the colored part of your eye) so that the color isn’t just flat.  Some lenses use a combination of three differently colored iris patterns to give an entirely natural overall look.  In some brands, you can choose your own two colour combinations for a custom made look!

The middle part of the lens which covers the pupil is left clear so that your vision is not affected in any way.

Enhance Your Own Eye Color

If you’re quite happy with your own eye color but would just like to brighten it, lenses are available which feature pearlescent effects.  These add sparkle and shine to any color of eye.

How Do I Get Some?

If you’re not a current contact lens wearer, you need to make an appointment with your nearest eye care professional for a contact lens fitting.  This involves taking simple measurements of the shape of your eyes so that any lenses that you buy fit your eye properly.  It only takes a few minutes and doesn’t hurt.  Nothing touches your eye.

You may wish for him/her to provide the colored lenses for you, or you can take your prescription and buy the lenses over the internet. Even if you don’t need sight correction, you will need to have your eyes measured.

Once you have your prescription you can then hop online and shop in the comfort of your own home. Its the easiest way to get the best deal on your contact lenses. Make your way to  The World’s Largest Contact Lens Store – 1800CONTACTS.com for the best range of contacts.

Your Eyes Are Precious! – Safety issues associated with colored contacts

Eye professionals caution, though, that colored contact lenses are not just another fashion or cosmetic accessory. They require proper fitting, even if you don’t need prescriptive lenses, and you’ll have to go back for measurements again after you get your lenses to be sure that they’re properly sized. In addition, it’s vital to remember that they are a medical appliance that fits in your eye. NEVER lend them to friends or borrow a friend’s colored or theatrical contact lenses. That’s an almost sure prescription for spreading infection.

Because of those cautions, most eyewear professionals recommend that children should be in their mid-teens before being fitted for color lenses, or any other contact lenses. If you’ve got a yen for green eyes and yours are gray, check with your eye care professional to see if colored contact lenses are an option for you.

Colored contact lenses used to be classed as cosmetic items and that is why they were available without prescription. It is still possible to
buy Plano lenses over the internet and in specialty shops without a prescription but it’s now illegal in America and unacceptable to reputable sellers worldwide.

Even the sites that do still sell without a prescription have a disclaimer tucked away in their small print.  It usually says something like ‘All sales are under the understanding that the customer is responsible and holds a valid contact lens prescription.”  You may do – but these sites are purely ‘Add To Basket’ and have no facility for ordering different strengths or sizes!

Colored lenses have now been classified as medical items in an effort to ensure safe regulations – so if you do choose to buy without a prescription, be aware that it is at your own risk.

There really is no need to risk comfort and safety – as so much is available.  Shop around.

How Do I Choose A Color That’s Right For Me?

To get a natural look, the color that you choose should be based on your own natural eye color, the color of your hair and your skin tone.  If you need help choosing, visit an eye care professional for advice.

Of course, you may wish to choose a color that looks startling and dramatic, like violet or very bright green or blue.  It all depends on what sort of look you are going for.

What Else Do You Need To Know?

• Very dark brown eyes can have their color changed with specially designed opaque lenses – in all colors.
• If your eyes are very light, colored lenses can brighten or deepen your natural color.  Or you can change it altogether!
• If you have astigmatism, you can still wear colored lenses – look for colored torics.
• You can even get colored bifocal contacts.
• You can try before you buy – see an eye care professional in your area.
• You can choose from disposable or non-disposable colored lenses.  The choice depends on how often you are going to wear them – full time, or just for a night out.
• If you choose non-disposable, you will need to care for them just like ordinary contacts.  So add cleaning solution to your budget.
• The color of the lenses doesn’t fade.