Guide: Everything about Circle Lenses ♥ Safety, Choosing, Buying, Caring, Wearing

Hey sweethearts!

As you all probably already know, I own by far too many pairs of circle lenses. By far. And it never seems to stop ;^; It all started about four or three years ago when I just discovered japanese fashion and fell in love with frilly dresses and huge dolly eyes. Makeup is great, it was always a hobby of mine, but for doll eyes you just need circle lenses - or at least for the looks I wanted to create. So I wanted to buy a pair really badly, finally saying goodbye to my big glasses which make me look like the nerd I am (and I still wear those when I play video games and nerd around). But it was so so so hard... Where to buy circle lenses? Can you trust retailers from foreign countries? Which is the best brand? Can I wear contacts at all? Is it safe to wear them? There are just reviews for lenses on dark eyes, but how do they look like on light eyes? What do I have to consider when I want to wear them? How expensive are they and what do I have to buy besides of the lenses?

So as you can see, a hundred questions but there was no one to answer them for me. To that time I wasn't active on any social media or didn't know any blogs which actually replied, so I had to figure it all out by myself. When I got a blogger myself though, I wanted to help people in this situation. I want to help you so you get some good informations and don't have to be scared buying lenses and actually have fun wearing them. For me, wearing circle lenses is lots of fun and it gives me a lot of 

confidence, and I just love creating new looks and playing around with them. 

But before we get started, I wanted to say again that all the stuff I write in here are just based on my past experience with circle lenses and normal contacts... but I am not an expert! Please take always care of yourself and listen to what you think, and do more research yourself! If you have more questions you can also always message me on my Instagram (@sugar.mew). But let's read through all of this information first!

First off: What are Circle Lenses?

I usually have a short description for them in all of my reviews, but I'll write it in here too again! 

Circle lenses are like regular soft contact lenses, but instead of having a diameter of around 13,8 mm, they come in various sizes. Most of the circle lenses I own are around 14 mm to 16 mm. This gives this huge, dolly eye looking effect! It's not less comfortable to wear them because of that, nor is it dangerous or harder to put them in (at least after you get used to them a little bit)... But you'll see all the details in the topics underneath!

Geo Super Nudy Brown

Is it safe to wear them?

I already got quite some questions regarding the safety of wearing circle lenses. Your eyes are a super sensitive part of your body, and you should always take good care of them! Of course, nothing you stick to your eyeballs and wear all day is always 100% super safe. But in my opinion circle lenses aren't really different from normal contact lenses, they're just a little bigger. In over three years of wearing them 5 days out of 7 days a week, I've never had any issue! It's just super important that you take care of them. How to properly take care of them, I'll tell you that in another topic (Which is apparently called "How to wear and care for circle lenses", so you can't overlook it xD). I personally only know of one issue where you're not able to wear normal circle lenses, or at least it's harder: astigmatism. I believe (but I am NOT sure since I don't have it myself) your vision is a little blurry then, so at least eye doctors in Germany check on that all the time anyways, at least mine did. Then you'd need special circle lenses, which are called "Toric Lenses". They're a lot more expensive but have pretty cute designs too.

I ALWAYS, ALWAYS recommend going to your eye doctor first to check if you are able to wear contacts though! I don't know if there are any other issues where you're not able to wear contacts, so I think it's always a safer bet. I know a lot of people with good eyes who didn't got checked beforehand, they never had any issue at all, but I just would not feel safe recommending that to you. I went to the eye doctor first too because I have dioptres anyways and my vision always gets worse the older I get, and I spoke with them and they told me I'm fine to wear contacts. I wore normal contacts for a month first too, just to practise taking them in and out safely. Oh, and my experience with eye doctors is by the way that they always tell you not to buy contacts online (Buying contacts and glasses online was kind of a little boom in Germany), but I just guess it's because they want to get money from their affiliated contacts. It's absolutely fine to buy contacts online :D

What I didn't mention yet is that you can buy circle lenses in diopters. Diopters is really simply said the stuff that makes you see when you'd need glasses usually. You can buy circle lenses in the prescription 0.00 (which means: you don't need glasses usually, your eye sight is perfect the way it is), or up to -10.00 (which means you're almost blind, really). I have -3.00 on both eyes currently, which means I can't walk around without a glasses or lenses ;;^;; I've never seen circle lenses for farsighted people, so with positive diopters, only negative diopters for shortsighted people like me.

It can always happen that you get a bad pair of lenses, even though it's really rare. It happened to me once, I felt lots of discomfort, had blurry vision, my eyes got red, dry and irritated. I simply stopped wearing them, contaced Uniqso (the place I buy my lenses from) and they sent me replacements, which were perfectly fine. For a detailed list on how to see if your lenses are bad, check this out: click me ♥. I also noticed that sometimes lenses from the same brand and even series are different in their comfortability. For example, the I-Codi Colors of the Wind No. 24 Blue Sky were super comfortable, but the I-Codi Colors of the Wind No. 20 Melon Green were not as comfortable. Sometimes it's just a little luck I guess. 

EOS Fay Green

Where to buy Circle Lenses

As I've already mentioned, I buy them from Uniqso. I always bought them there, even before I started to get a promoter for them, and they never let me down - which is why I really trust them. 

They are a retailer for a lot of different brands, like Geo, I.Fairy, EOS, ICK and many more, based in Malaysia. I have an endless number of reviews for them, so I simply recommend checking them out! A list to where you can find all of these reviews is HERE, you can just click through them, read more about Uniqso or circle lenses in general. 

I'm not really sure if I should write a description on how to navigate through their website, even though I already got a couple of questions regarding that. You can find all the links in the reviews though and if I find that I get more questions on how to buy from them, I'll make a special post only with this topic.

Geolica Euro Pearl Grey

How to choose the perfect Circle Lenses for your needs

Of course there's no magical book which tells you which pair is perfect, nor can I predict what exactly you're looking for xD But since I have quite some experience with all the various designs and effects, here are some things I noticed through trying all the different kinds! Just a little helper: click on the names of the Circle Lenses to go to the detailed review ♥

1. Look at the diameter. The larger the diameter, the more noticeable the dolly eye effect, but also the risk of looking like an alien! Personally, I don't like wearing 16 mm circle lenses without any makeup on, because this makes me just look really, really weird. If you are looking for a pair which compliments your dolly makeup, perfect, if you're looking for a pair to wear everyday, I'd rather choose something within the range of 14 mm to 15 mm. Want something huge and dolly? Look at the Super Nudy Brown!
   
   
2. Look at the water content. The higher the water content, the more likely it is that they're really comfortable and easy to wear every day. I've had a couple of 38% lenses which were still comfy (like the I-Codi Blue Sky).The most comfortable lenses I own are the Sweety Nudy Ice Green with a water content of 40%.
   
   
3. Black bold outer ring = even larger eyes. I feel like black outer rings make the dolly eye effect even more extreme. Even 15 mm or 16 mm lenses can look rather tiny without any darker color at the outer sides. If you want natural looking lenses, choose a pair without or with only a slightly darker outer ring. Here's a list of some natural looking lenses: Geolica Euro Pearl Grey or the Geo Berry Cessy Blue! An example for the black-outer-ring effect would be the Barbie Nudy Pink.
   
   
4. Circle Lenses are great for cosplaying. Of course, you can cosplay without any lenses, which is perfectly fine too... But if you have a character with colorful eyes, I'd buy a pair to make it more authentic. I reviewed purple ones (ICK Elegant Violet), pink ones (Barbie Nudy Pink) and red ones (Lens Story Dolly+ Red) for all the unnatural colors so far. But also a character with blue, green or brown eyes - Circle Lenses make your eyes look more like anime eyes, so I'd still wear them!

Geo Fresh Color Grey

How to wear and care for your Circle Lenses

1. Lifetime: The life of an unopened pair in the bottle is three years, after opening they're good as long as the description or packaging states. Most of the lenses are good for 1 year though! 
2. What else do you have to buy: Uniqso gives you a free lens case with your order, so you don't have to worry about that. You just have to buy regular contact lens solution for soft lenses from a drugstore, supermarket or eye specialist, but they're not expensive. If you have sensitive eyes, you can also buy some eye drops to soothe your eyes after a long day. 
3. Before you wear them for the first time: Open the bottle, rinse the lenses with contact lens solution (NEVER water, it damages the lenses), put them in your lens case with a good amount of solution and let them soak in for at least 6-8 hours! Make ALWAYS sure that they're completely covered in the solution or they will dry out.
4. Putting them in and out: I guess it would be the best to watch some Youtube videos on how to insert contacts. I learned it from an eye doctor who showed it to me when I wore regular contacts for the first time. I'd recommend doing that rather than watching videos about it though xD I persoanlly don't find it really harder to put them in than regular contacts, I got used to the size really quickly. If you are unsure if they might be too much for you, there are also Circle Lenses with a diameter of 14 mm .. which is pretty much the same size as regular contacts, just that they have pretty designs. Very important: Wash your hands thoroughly with water and soap when you put them in. Your eyes are sensitive for germs! If they accidentally fall in the sink or on the ground, clean them with lots of contact lens solution again. 
5. How do I put them in and out: Well, I have a little trick on how to put them in and out because I'm afraid to touch my iris. What I do is that I look to the side (I focus on the mirror, but there's lots of white showing because my head is facing in another direction, if you know what I mean?)... Then I use two fingers for my upper and lower lid and pull it up/down, just like you do with regular contacts. After that I carefully place the contact on the white of my eye and let it gently slide on my iris. This way I don't directly see my finger coming towards it, since I focus on the mirror and my finger only touches the white indirectly! To remove them, I have the same tactics: Sliding the lens carefully to the white part of my eye while my head faces far to the left/right, and I look straight in the mirror. Then I carefully remove the lens, using two fingers. I hope everyone understood this, but it was requested that I describe it... I tried my best xD 
6. Any instructions on how long to wear them? Yes!!! At first your eyes need to get used to them anyways, so I'd just wear them for one hour, then two hours, four hours and so on and on, but generally avoid wearing them over 8-10 hours. Don't wear them every day too, give your eyes a little rest. I don't wear them more often than 5 times a week!
7. After wearing them, clean them! Simple as it is. Just use your contact lens solution again. It's your best friend from now on :D
8. Always dispose used contact solution. Even when your lenses are in your lens case, sitting in the solution, and you accidentally touched the solution with your hands - it could be contaminated by germs now. You need to dispose the solution and put new in to be safe.
9. Wash your lens case every once in a while. I simply throw them in a dishwasher, while I have all my circle lenses in a little bowl filled with lots of solution. However, it's recommended that you really disinfect them. How? Take a look at uniqsos instructions here.

!! Important Safety Stuff !!

1. Do not sleep, nap, shower or swim with them on!!! It irritates your eyes so much and it increases your risk of getting an eye infection. 
2. Put your lenses in before you put on makeup, and remove the lenses before you take it off again.
3. Again: don't wear lenses longer than 8-10 hours a day and not every single day. Try your best that it really doesn't get longer! On uni days I just put them in at around 7 am, and remove them directly when I come home at 4 pm. That's already 9 hours. My eyes are used to wearing lenses for such a long time, which is why I don't have problems with that, but if you have more sensitive eyes or don't feel good doing that, just don't! If I am really sleepy and my eyes are dry, I rather choose my glasses over my lenses too.
4. Never wear them past the expiration date. The risk for an eye infection increases then. If your lenses are already a little older, like 8 months, and you wore them every day and they start to get itchy and/or dry... throw them away! Every day means over four hours a day.
5. Always check that you wear your lenses correctly, not accidentally inside out. They are shaped like a bowl and bend easily when you push the sides a little in when they're correct. If they're inside out, if you try to bend them you'll notice that the outsides don't bend towards the middle! Also, the colors aren't as vibrant on the inside. 

ICK Petal Blue

Okay, that's it I think!

Do you have any more questions, or things I forgot? Feel free to contact me via comments or a direct message through my Instagram (@sugar.mew), because I'm on there all the time and will see what you have to say, and reply as well of course :3 

I want to emphasize again: I'm not an expert, I can only speak from my past experience. Listen to yourself, if you want to you can research more on your own too - there's not something like too much knowledge xD I hope it helped you though and it'll clear some things up for you. 

I will always update the blog post as soon as I notice that I forgot something or I got a question where the answer could be interesting for everyone. 

Circle Lenses aren't really hard to wear or to maintain, and you can have lots of fun with them! This description and guide seems huge and like lots to read, but it's not a struggle in my daily life. It might take me around 5 minutes to clean my hands, clean the lenses, put them in my eyes and then to clean my hands, remove the lenses, clean them and let them soak in the lens case with the solution. And besides of cleaning the lens case every once in a while, there's not much more magic required than that to look super dolly and cute for your makeup and/or cosplay looks! 

So, do you like to wear Circle Lenses? Was there something new for you or did I help you out? I'd be happy if you tell me! (Note: Instagraaam, my love xD)

As always: I hope you have a great day! ♥♥♥

My other social media:

Instagram: @sugar.mew

ask.fm: sugarmew (inactive)

Facebook: sugarmewx (inactive)

Mail: sugar.mew@web.de