Review: 1-Day Acuvue Define Contact Lens (Vivid style)

Yes, you read correctly, these are contact lenses. A bit of a stretch from my usual posts on this blog since this isn't exactly skincare, but these contact lenses are cosmetic in that they enlarge the appearance of your iris. Before I purchased these, I read some reviews and all said that these contact lenses felt the same as usual contact lenses, like you had nothing in your eye. But I had a slightly different experience so I thought I'd write a review.

Description (taken from acuvue.com.sg):

• One-day contact lenses to enhance the beauty of your eyes naturally
• Get brighter eyes with 1 DAY ACUVUE DEFINE Contact Lenses. It’s so subtle and natural that nobody will know your beauty secret.
• 1 DAY ACUVUE DEFINE contact lenses are ideal if you:
  - Want to enhance the beauty of your eyes
  - Desire the natural effect of bigger, brighter, more defined eyes
  - Consider eye health to be as important as beauty
  - Want a beauty lens suitable for everyday wear

My impression:

These lenses are only available in Asia, so you have to order it online. There are 3 styles: Vivid, Natural Shine and Accent. This post is about Vivid. I also bought Natural Shine and will be writing a review of that when I get a chance. Acuvue Define are daily contacts but I know Japan has bi-weeklies available in Vivid style (this style). The dailies only come with an 8.5 curve and the bi-weeklies only come with an 8.3 curve.

A picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to let this table below explain the different styles and what they look like.

taken from acuvue.com.sg

Reviewers have said that Vivid gives you the most iris enlargement, even though Natural Shine is only 0.1mm less in "Dark Ring Outer Diameter" at 12.7mm.

Here's a photo of my right eye with Acuvue Define Vivid, and my left eye without.

Right eye with Acuvue Define Vivid; Left eye without

Many reviewers have said that these contacts feel extremely comfortable, like you're not wearing anything in your eyes. I did not have the same experience. I have been wearing 1-Day Acuvue Moist contact lenses, and those really feel like there is nothing in my eyes. 1-Day Acuvue Moist looks like a thin sheet of jello, in fact it's so fragile it's hard to put it in my eye because it just flops and doesn't maintain its shape. With Acuvue Define, even though it's also 1-Day, I can definitely see that these lens are harder than Acuvue Moist. And as a result, I do feel something in my eye when I'm wearing Acuvue Define. It's not super uncomfortable, but you know you have contacts on, whereas with Acuvue Moist I once almost slept with it on because I couldn't feel it and forgot about it.

Many reviewers have also said that they don't get blurry vision from this. And that the lenses don't move. I unfortunately have blurry vision in the perimeter of my vision and these lenses do move. The blurry vision is basically from the colored part of the lens. I guess the "Dark Ring Inner Diameter" (look at table above) isn't big enough for my pupil? As for the lens moving, when I'm staring off to the side the lens like to suddenly move and the colored part obstructs my vision because it partially covered my iris. Not good for the wearer, probably even more freaky for the person looking at you.

At first I wondered if it was because the Acuvue Define curve didn't match mine, but the Acuvue Define curve is 8.5 and I don't have this problem with Acuvue Moist where I also have with curve 8.5.

Now, I understand that many reviewers of Acuvue Define are regular or previously regular circle lens wearers, so it makes more sense that they think Acuvue Define lenses are really comfortable because I'm sure compared to circle lens, they probably are. And maybe circle lens always give you blurry vision, so relatively speaking Acuvue Define gives you less? In any case, I just wanted to make this review for those who were like me, considering on buying these lenses but are NOT circle lens veterans.

On the bright side, I do agree that these give an enlargement that is subtle enough that nobody will really notice when you have these contacts on both eyes.

Summary:

Not as comfortable as 1-Day Acuvue Moist i.e. I could feel that there were contacts in my eyes
Blurriness along the perimeter of your vision from the colored part of the lens
The lens do move around every now and then
$35 for a pack of 30 lens (15 days worth) on various websites

Grade: 4/5 because it enlarges your eyes subtly but with a bit of blurry vision and lens movement

Value: 4/5 because it's not much more expensive than your regular non-cosmetic 1-day contact lenses

Repurchase? Just as girls are willing to overcome different levels of pain if it makes them look pretty, I'm willing to wear these when I go out. But I don't see myself using this at school or everyday because it's just not comfortable enough for me and I don't want to have clouded vision in the corners of my eye everyday!