Solotica Coloured Contact Lenses Review & Swatches (#CreepyEyes)

My first post of the year turned out to be pretty vain, as I took so many photos of my eyes for this. It was kinda embarrassing because workers were chilling (#LookingDodgy) on the roof directly opposite our apartment the whole time I was taking photos!

Anyway, I decided to do this for my own record as well. I'm looking for some new coloured contacts and want to find out if they'll be too similar to what I already have. It's always a good idea to know what your eyes actually look like under different lighting as a guide when comparing, since all advertising photos are photoshopped with crazy bright lighting, alas, FAKE af!

The contacts I'm interested in are from a Korean brand called O-lens, and the colours are Russian Velvet Blue and Brown. My first impression of these lenses from looking at the webpages is that they are the Korean Solotica Hidrocor dupes. Since I'm already late on this bandwagon, you can find some youtube videos featuring swatches under those strong fluorescent halo lighting for the 'live' effect. What's with that lighting, don't people get blinded while filming in their bedroom?! Anyway, the Brown is to Ocre, the Grey is to Cristal and the Blue is a bit different but probably close to Graphite.

I have 4 pairs of Solotica lenses purchased from Parana Lentes, their prices are good and shipping is reasonable. I have 3 pairs of Hidrocors in Ice, Mel and Verde, and 1 pair of Natural Colors in Cristal. I personally think the Hidrocor range looks most natural, as it blends very well with the natural eye colour. They are single coloured lenses; the more colour on the lens, the thicker the lens, the more it pops out on your eyes, and the more obvious/fake they look. I'm not saying that bright blue eyes look natural on Asians, lol! It's just that some look like you have a thick piece of plastic stuck to your eyeball, while the Hidrocors look a bit more subtle. The colour payoff also changes with your natural eye colour, which is really inconvenient for comparison purposes!

Left to Right: Hidrocor Verde, Mel, Ice, NC Cristal

Close up of the lenses: Verde is green but on the slightest blue side, Mel is yellow, Ice is white, Cristal has a faint creamy yellow tint.

Again, my posts are heavily photo based, but what better way is there? I have taken the photos indoor (duh!), but the natural lighting is quite pitiful in this miserable cloudy Dutch winter. I have comparisons with incandescent lighting and camera flash, and contacts on one eye and both eyes to see the effect. 

For reference, I have normal medium-dark brown eyes, not super dark that look almost black, but not light enough to see the difference under normal lighting. Also, the lighting will vary a little as the sun sets early in this part of the world. Hopefully you'll get used to or confused after seeing all those photos anyway. :P

Indoor daylight taken in front of the window, not sunny but strong enough lighting, hence the reflections. My double eyelids are #real, not taped! I don't know why they look so fake in these photos! >.<

Comparison with contact only on the left. Top to bottom order: window daylight, back of the room with flash and Dutch style low incandescent lighting.

Hidrocor Mel

Hidrocor Ice

Hidrocor Verde

Natural Colors Cristal

Comparison with contacts on both eyes under window daylight. Top to bottom order: Verde, Mel, Ice, Cristal and Left Cristal + Right Ice.

As you can see, the lenses don't always sit perfectly on my eyes, probably because I have mild astigmatism. They do tend to move around a little when I move my eyes, and the lighter coloured ones shows up more obviously of course. I find that the Hidrocors fit better than the Natural Colors. 

Ice and Cristal are very similar, Cristal is more grey and Ice is a pretty spot-on ice blue. I like Ice more, it's quite stunning especially with makeup. Verde actually comes off a bit darker in person and is the least obvious. My favourite colour is Mel, it matches my husband's eyes when I wear them. ^^

I'm discarding Mel and Ice because they're old prescriptions, hope their replacements will be just as nice! I always find photos more helpful than videos for contact lenses, so hopefully this post will help whoever is having the same difficult first-world-problem of contact lens colour choices. Lol!