Color Contact Lenses

By Nancy Del Pizzo; reviewed by Joseph T. Barr, OD

Colored contact lenses come in four kinds: visibility tints, enhancement tints, opaque color tints and light-filtering tints.

Many of these colored contact lenses are available in plano form (meaning they don't provide visual correction), as well as in designs for people who have astigmatism, who need bifocal correction, or who want a disposable or frequent replacement contact lens.

A visibility tint is usually a light blue or green tint added to a lens, just to help you see it better during insertion and removal, or if you drop it. Since it's a very light tint, it does not affect your eye color.

An enhancement tint is a solid but translucent (see-through) tint that is a little darker than a visibility tint. An enhancement tint does change your eye color. As the name implies, it's meant to enhance the existing color of your eyes. These types of tints are usually best for people who have light colored eyes and want to make their eye color more intense.

Color tints are deeper, opaque tints that can change your eye color completely. Usually they are made of patterns of solid colors. If you have dark eyes, you'll need this type of color contact lens to change your eye color. Color contacts come in a wide variety of colors, including hazel, green, blue, violet, amethyst and gray.

The companies that make colored contact lenses have gone all out to mimic the natural look of the colored portion of the eye. Since this area is made up of colorful shapes and lines, some color contacts feature a series of tiny colored dots on the lens to make them look more natural on the eye.

But the center of the lens, the part that lies over your pupil, is clear so you can see.

Costume or theatrical lenses also fall into the category of opaque color tints. Long used in the movies (one example is The Man Who Fell to Earth), these special-effect contact lenses are now widely available for novelty use and can temporarily transform the wearer into an alien or jaguar, among others.

Light-filtering tints are a more recent development. These contact lenses are designed for sports use, because they enhance certain colors (such as optic yellow, the color of tennis balls and some softballs and golf balls), as a result of muting other colors. The benefit is that the ball stands out against the background and is easier to target. The lenses can also be used by spectators.

One type of light-filtering contact lens has been developed especially for golfers, so they can better distinguish between the various greens on a golf course. Amber-tinted ones have been worn by some professional baseball players, to help filter out the blue light that reduces their ability to see the baseball clearly. Other color contacts are being developed for trap-shooters, skiers and other sports enthusiasts.

Some Disadvantages of Color Contact Lenses

You need to be aware that while manufacturers have made different sized lenses to fit most wearers, there will be some occasions (such as during blinking) where the colored portion may slide somewhat over the pupil.

Also, the size of your pupil is constantly changing to accommodate varying light conditions — so sometimes, like at night, your pupil may be larger than the clear center of the lens. In these instances, your vision may be slightly affected.

If you have a persistent problem with your contacts, it's important to see your eye doctor.

Sharing Contacts: A Bad Idea

While color contacts can be fun, doctors warn wearers not to share their colored lenses — or any contact lenses, for that matter — with friends, and not to swap colors with friends.

Contact lenses are medical devices and are fitted to the specifications of each individual's eyes. Exchanging lenses can also transmit harmful bacteria, which can lead to an eye infection or other potentially dangerous eye conditions.

Color contacts, like clear contact lenses, must be properly cleaned and disinfected with appropriate cleaning products. Ask your doctor which cleaning products are best for your particular lenses.

Do You Need a Prescription for Colored Contact Lenses?

Yes, under U.S. law you need a prescription. This is true even if your lenses don't have any vision correction in them (called "plano" lenses) and are used solely for cosmetic purposes.

For a two-and-a-half-year period the government classified plano decorative contact lenses as cosmetic devices rather than medical devices. But in November 2005 that all changed.

The FDA has issued a consumer alert regarding such lenses, saying that they "present significant risks of blindness and other eye injury if they are distributed without a prescription or without proper fitting by a qualified eye care professional." In late 2004, it was reported that the FDA seized shipments of plano colored lenses, intended for sale without prescription, as they were being imported into the United States.

And in January 2005, optometrist and U.S. Representative John Boozman of Arkansas, concerned about eye problems that consumers have experienced due to poor labeling and packaging of some noncorrective cosmetic lenses sold over the counter, introduced bill H.R. 371 (the Senate version was S. 172).

The bills sought to reclassify noncorrective color contact lenses as medical devices and allow the FDA to regulate the sale of these contact lenses again as it did in the past.

The bills passed, and President Bush signed them into law in November 2005. (Please click here for the wording of the bills.)

By the way, if you see color contact lenses being sold in a flea market, it is likely that the vendors are breaking the law. Recently flea market vendors in Jacksonville, Fla., were warned to stop selling color contact lenses and were, pending investigation, subject to being charged with a misdemeanor for selling them without a state license.

Other illegal sales of cosmetic contact lenses have been discovered in gas stations, beauty salons, and novelty shops.

How Do You Choose the Right Color?

This is usually the most difficult question for a first-time wearer! And it all boils down to this: What kind of person are you as described below: 1 or 2?

 I want people to notice my new eye color and ask me about it. If you are bold, dramatic, and comfortable being the center of attention, then you want eye color that everyone notices immediately. So, for instance:

• If your skin is dark, you might choose bright-colored lenses.
• Do you wear eye makeup? Choose a contact lens color that will stand out from the shadow and mascara colors you like to wear.
• If your skin, hair, and natural eye colors have cool, blue-red undertones, you might choose a warm-toned contact lens such as light brown.
• If your natural eye color is brown, you might choose contact lenses in violet, green, or blue.

 I want people to notice that I look different but not know exactly why. If you are shy and retiring or just want a natural look, you may be happier with a more subtle change:

• Another option is an enhancer lens in blue, which would define the edges of your iris and deepen your natural color, but not change it dramatically.
• If your natural eye color is blue, you might choose contact lenses in gray or green.
• If your skin, hair, makeup and natural eye colors are warm-toned, you might choose a warm color contact lens such as hazel to match and blend in.

Also, will you be wearing your color contact lenses every day? Or just for special occasions? If it's the latter, then you might want a color that's very different from your normal color.

Special-occasion wearers will also like daily disposable color contacts, introduced in the United States in spring 2006. They're designed — and priced — to be worn once, and then discarded.

Think about this before you get to your eyecare practitioner's office, but if you can't decide, don't worry: he or she can help you decide which color best suits your personality and appearance. Remember, if you wear disposable color contacts, you can always switch to a different color at little cost.

[Page updated April 2008]