The decision to change your look of your eyes for just a few hours, for a day, or even every day is one that more and more people are finding easy to make. The wide range of brands, colors and improvements in contact lens comfort and materials means that colored contacts are “really no big deal”, fun to try, and update your look instantly.
Like regular contact lenses, colored contacts come in several wear and replacement schedules. Daily lenses are thrown away after one use, weekly lenses are replaced usually after two weeks of day wear only. Some brands, such as Acuvue, allow one week of day AND night wear. Monthly lenses are replaced every month.
To help you decide which ones are right for you, here are the pros and cons of each.
Daily Colored Contacts
PROS: The biggest advantage of daily colored contacts is convenience. You don’t have to worry about contact lens solution, lens cases and the hassle of cleaning your lenses every night. These lenses come in a convenient blister pack. Each day just pop out a brand new sterile pair.
These lenses are perfect for you if:
-You want to change your eye color from time to time, but not on a regular basis.
-You don’t want to be bothered with cleaning and disinfecting your lenses.
-You are traveling and need the convenience of daily disposable or you know you’ll be in an area that makes it difficult to store or keep your lenses clean.
CONS: There are not as many brand or color options with dailies as there are with other types of color contacts. FreshLook One-Day from CibaVision comes in four colors: blue, green, hazel, and grey. The cost works out to around $3 per day so if you are wearing them EVERY day (and not from time to time), it can get expensive.
Weekly Colored Contacts
PROS: By far this category gives you the most options in terms of brands and colors and the most flexibility in your wear and replacement schedule. Weeklies are replaced after about two weeks of day wear only (you remove and clean them at night). Following your eye care professional and manufacturer instructions, some weeklies can be worn both day and night for one week and then discarded. Weekly lenses can be opaque for completely changing the eye color, or translucent for enhancing natural eye color (best suited to light colored eyes).
Weekly colored contacts cost less than dailies, working out to $0.79 to $1.50 per day.
These lenses are perfect for you if:
-You want to change your eye color from time to time or more regularly, such as during the workweek.
-You want more color choices than what’s offered with dailies.
-You have dark eyes and want to change your eye color completely.
CONS: You have to clean your lenses each night if you are on the two-week replacement schedule.
Monthly Colored Contacts
PROS: One of the main advantages of monthly colored contacts compared with dailies and weeklies are cost savings. For example, Focus Monthly Softcolors from CibaVision cost around 52 cents per day. The other advantage is that you don’t have to worry about always renewing your supply of lenses. Every thirty days, you replace your lenses with a new pair and each box of six lenses lasts you six months.
These lenses are perfect for you:
-If you don’t mind the cleaning your lenses daily.
-You don’t want the hassle of constantly re-ordering your contact lenses.
CONS: Unfortunately, there aren’t as many color choices in this category. Focus Monthly Softcolors come in Aqua, Evergreen and Royal Blue.
Leanne Tremblay is a successful freelance technical writer and publisher of several successful web sites. She also writes numerous articles on gardening, outdoor living, and work-at-home topics, and publishes a site on colored contact lenses that features Halloween contacts in all kinds of scary, sexy, and crazy designs, and luscious colors from top brand names like Acuvue colored contacts.