A pair of special effect contacts is a must for any decent Halloween costume. But there are so many on offer - which lenses are truly spectacular and which are a waste of money? Find out what costume contact lenses are available and how to select the brand that is best for you.

There are two major types of Halloween special effect contact lenses - round (traditional shape for contact lenses that only cover the colored area of your eye) and scleral costume lenses (covers the entire visible portion of your eye, leaving no white visible). There are also semi-scleral lenses - they are larger than the ordinary ones, but some white is still visible at the corners of your eyes.

If you are not very experienced with color contact lenses, it is best to go with ordinary (round) lenses. Scleral Halloween contacts create a great effect, but they are more difficult to insert and remove, and sometimes not very comfortable to wear. Also, scleral lenses are very expensive - usually upwards from $200 per lens. Semi-scleral lenses, on the other hand, can be a good compromise, because they are reasonably easy to put in and take out and they don't cost that much.

All special effect lenses are completely opaque. Unlike some color contact lenses, costume lenses are equally suitable for light eyes and dark eyes - they completely mask your natural color anyway. The center of the lens is usually clear, so you can see. If you need vision correction, you should be pleased to know that some Halloween special effect contact lenses,

like Wild Eyes and Crazy Lenses, come with corrective powers. If your vision is perfect, you can just get plano (zero powers) lenses.

What Halloween special effect lenses are on offer?

The variety of special effects lenses designs is amazing. You can find anything you want, from classic hot red or cat eyes to frost, Dune or Alien designs. The most popular and exciting looking lenses are Banshee, Cat Eyes (which you can get in yellow, red or white) Vader, Wolf Eyes, Black-outs and White-outs. You can also get lenses with the logo of your favorite sports team or symbolic prints like smiley face or stars and stripes.

See designs of Halloween contact lenses

And if you have your own design in mind you can order custom-made contact lenses. There are many companies online that employ contact lens artists to create individually painted lenses. Of course, this type would cost a lot and you will have to place your order in advance.

Halloween contacts collections and manufacturers

Two collections dominate the special effect Halloween contacts market - Crazy Lenses, produced by Cooper Vision, and Wild Eyes, produced by Ciba Vision.

Crazy Lenses offers white-out lenses, black, red and white spiral, wolf eyes, fire and bloodshot. Crazy Lenses come as monthly disposable contacts as well as traditional (annual replacement lenses). Actually, if you won't wear your Crazy Lenses every day and care for them

properly, annual lenses can last up to 18 months. If you are looking for the cheapest option for this Halloween - monthly disposable Crazy Lenses is usually the cheapest high quality contact lens you can get. Crazy Lenses are available with or without prescription.

Wild Eyes are annual replacement special effect lenses. You can get Cat Eye, Hypnotica, Black-out and White-out, Icefire, Zoomin, Zebra, Jaguar and Wildfire. Wild Eyes colors are bright and vivid and the lenses are very comfortable. You can get Wild Eyes with or without corrective powers.

9mmSFX lenses - the company that created special effect lenses for movies such as Hellraiser, Blair Witch Project 2, The Adventures of Pluto Nash and many other famous movies. They offer hundreds of designs, all of their lenses are hand-painted, and they create unbelievable effects. The only draw-back is that 9mmSFX lenses are not mass produced - so they cost a lot.

Compare Halloween costume contacts by different brands and have great scary fun!
About the Author

Tanya Turner is a colored contact lens expert and a publisher of Contact Lenses Consumer Guide which provides you with consumer information about color contact lenses Contact lenses for Halloween, and costume contact lenses reviews and photos

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