You probably have experimented with all kinds of contact lenses by now, even the theatrical lenses that make you look like a zombie. Perhaps you have finally settled on soft, clear lenses instead of hard or gas permeable lenses. If you have not kept up to date with the world of contacts, then you are missing out. The latest lenses put highlights in your eyes, similar to putting highlights in your hair. Here is how these new lenses work.

The Colored Portion of the Lens

This part of these new lenses has lighter and darker streaks of color that allow your own eye color to intersperse with the lense colors. Brown eyes can wear the brown, green, amber or hazel variations, which produce a startling effect of gold and white, light green and white, light brown and white or light brown/light green and white highlights. Blue eyes can wear the blue, indigo or green options, while green eyes can wear the blue, green or hazel options. Not all of the highlighting lenses can be worn with all eye colors because they are designed to brighten and reflect bits of your own eye color and the wrong highlighting lens looks very awkward.

The "Iris" of Each Lens

Much like most other colored contacts, there is a very large, clear opening in the center of the colored portion. This allows your eyes' natural abilities to let in more light in the dark and less light in bright sunlight, all without hampering your vision or blocking the corrective properties of the lenses. Since these new highlighting lenses are designed with your natural eye color in mind, when your iris contracts to shut out light, the open areas of the lens reveals more of your natural eye color and creates a fascinating chromatic ring towards the inner part of the contact lenses. (You may find that more people are drawn in closer to you just to see this phenomenon.)

Prescription or Non-Prescription Variations on a "Eye-Lighting" Theme

Just like the other colored contacts you may have tried in the past, these new highlighting, or "eye-lighting," lenses are available with or without a prescription. You will still need to see an optometrist to buy them and have them fitted, but if you are an experienced lense wearer, you may not have to make an appointment for the insertion and wearing tutorial. Your optometrist may even be able to provide you with a free, non-prescription trial pair of these new lenses so you can see if you like the results before you invest in a regular pair or a particular highlighting color.

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