Desio Coloured Contact Lenses - First Impressions & Review
Saturday, October 08, 2016
If you've googled "best coloured contact lenses for brown eyes" in the last three years or so you've probably stumbled upon 50 bazillion reviews of the famous Italian brand Desio and their 3 month Sensual Beauty cosmetic lenses, most likely in Creamy Beige.
So like the rest of the world, I thought I'd be fashionably late to the bandwagon and give them a try. But being in Australia and not in a huge need of coloured lenses (I outgrew the ugh-my-brown-eyes-are-boring-I-wish-they-were-anime-purple phase in my late teens/early 20s, after trying every shade of Freshlook's Natural Blends and a bunch of others lol) I applied via their web form for a sample pair.
And never received a reply....on to plan b!
Plan b was creating a Desio site account, signing up to their newsletter and patiently wait for the next promotional sale. Which happened around June this year, about 6 months after I signed up and subsequently missed since I never received an email about it....on to plan c!
This time I managed to luck out and noticed their "buy 2 get 2 free" sale in September about 12 hours before it ended and after some nifty quick funds transferring/credit card overdrawing I managed to get my purchase in place.
Unfortunately the 2 shades I wanted most were already sold out...yay >.<
 |
| the four consolation shades I chose, Forest Green, Innocent White, Mint Touch and Smoky Grey in standard Plano size |
Side Note: during the checkout process you do have to tick an agreement box to one of two statement options, essentially confirming that you've seen an optometrist in the last 12 months and have been cleared to wear cosmetic lenses. Not only is this a legal requirement but a smart safety one. Incorrectly sized lenses can lead to a bunch of awful complications, like damaging the cornea of your eye which can lead to serious infections and possible permanent damage. Considering you've only got the one pair, looking after them is paramount so make sure you get your peepers checked out before shoving anything in them.
Overall once the PayPal transaction cleared I was out $120 AUD and the proud owner of some shiny new eyeball colours, albeit not the ones I originally wanted but hey beggars can't be choosers. They arrived safe and sound, packaged inside an A4 sized bubblewrap envelope after approximately 3.5 weeks, which for free international shipping is pretty decent.
 |
| hardest goddamn packaging to get into, these babies were sealed up tight! |
 |
| super pretty on the inside too :D |
 |
| nicely tucked inside were my new shinies |
 |
| here it is all laid out, two sealed foil pods with lenses, instruction booklet and colour chart |
 |
| material listing and content listing on the side and back of the packaging |
To compliment my new goodies I picked up some contact lens necessities, a multipurpose solution (MPS) that gets rid of proteins and a saline solution. The first thing I did
 |
| Bausch & Lomb Saline Solution $2.50, Multipurpose Solution $11.99 |
 |
| tiny pods! |
 |
| these lil suckers were a bitch to open and tricky to get the lenses out without scratching or tearing them on the edges |
 |
| half filling the cases |
 |
| safely tucked into their new home |
 |
| all four pairs put away and ready to soak |
 |
| and then I realised I couldn't tell them apart just looking through the lids, so labels |
 |
| and the destruction left after prepping the lenses in my studio |
The next morning I woke excited as all get out to give these puppies a whirl. Here I used the saline solution to rinse the lenses before carefully putting them in. I wanted to see how realistic/effective they were so I'm not wearing any makeup in the below photos.
 |
| mint touch lens on right eye, nothing on left |
 |
| mint touch lenses on small, medium brown eyes |
 |
| forest green lens on right eye, nothing on left |
 |
| forest green lenses on small, medium brown eyes |
 |
| innocent white lens on right eye, nothing on left |
 |
| innocent white lenses on small, medium brown eyes |
 |
| smoky grey lens on right eye, nothing on left |
 |
| smoky grey lenses on small, medium brown eyes |
Meh.
That's how I felt.
After all the build up all I felt was a big, fat, resounding "meh".
Of the four shades I bought, only the Smoky Grey's appeared the most natural/I'm not a dead fish or zombie in person. The Forest Green look decent in the photos thanks to my studio lights but aren't anywhere near as bright in person, they seem to float on top of my eye colour instead of blending in or completely obscuring it.
Physically the lenses were comfortable to wear and I had a normal amount of eye strain as I haven't worn contacts in forever - I would have to work up to wearing these for longer periods although not too long as cosmetic lenses aren't designed to be worn for large stretches of time.
Unfortunately as is the case with almost all cosmetic lenses I've tried, the actual size of these lenses were too large for my irises. With the pupil hole being fixed and too large a circumference for my eye, I ended up with an off-centred brown ring that destroys the entire illusion, making it obvious that I'm wearing contacts. Add how opaque these lenses are, which is a great in theory for covering dark eyes, I look like a creepy dead-eyed demon child.
I was really hoping these would have smaller pupil holes or amazing faded central edges to seamlessly blend with my eyes. In the past if the lens colour has been a great blend/match with my natural eye colour I can get away with the oversized iris issue (looking at you Freshlook turquoise, grey and amethyst). This was clearly not the case with these lenses, they felt the same as your everyday coloured lenses and nothing particularly special. Which considering the price is kinda frustrating.
The icing on the cake to this entire experiment was when I checked the Desio site a few days ago to see if the Creamy Beige or Desert Green lenses were back in stock. Only to realise Desio had released ALL NEW SHADES replacing not only the ones I bought, but the ones I originally wanted hence the sale I guess - effectively fucking me twice by making my blog post irrelevant for those wanting to buy these particular shades and leaving me wondering if the ones I originally wanted would have been a perfect match.
Sigh.
TL;DR bought spendy lenses, eyes still brown :/
Unsatisfied,
Bambi xox
0 comments