Colored contacts review - Solotica Hidrocor Ice

After waiting for 3 weeks, I finally received my Solotica Hidrocor Ice in the mail. These are the first non-circle-lens colored contacts I have bought for almost 5 years, and even though I think they are kind of blah when I first put them on, I think they have really grown on me. :)

Solotica produces three types of colored contacts, namely Hidrocor, Hidrocharme and Natural Colors. Hidrocors are the most opaque among the three, and does not have a dark limbal ring, while the other two has the ring. I have very dark brown, almost black eyes (see below) so I decided to get Hidrocors to get the lightest color possible.

The contacts also comes in a good selection of colors, ranging from natural blues and greens to a sort of amber-lime and light blue-grey, which is what I selected. Here is an official picture of the contacts from the company, worn by a model with light hazel-ish eyes:

The contacts in glass vials and a free case are packaged neatly in this box:
And here is a closeup of the vial:

When I first looked into the vials I was like "What is that white stuff floating around, is it mold?" Then I realized that that is the contact!

I thought people were not being serious when they said Hidrocor Ice were white, but look at it floating in the case. It almost completely blends in! XD

Here is the lens on my finger and palm, where you can see it a bit better. The color does not go all the way to the edge of the lens (since these are not circle lenses) and has a distinct pixel-y design.

I used one of my contact cases' dark blue lid as a backdrop here:

You would have thought that WHITE contacts would look ridiculously freaky in person, but these are actually surprisingly natural when I put them on. Apparently mixing white and dark brown makes blue-grey? I have no idea! XD

Direct sunlight

Next to sunlit window:

Indoor lighting:Flash:

As you can tell especially from the direct sunlight photo, these contacts looks very natural from a distance, and blends very well with my natural dark brown eyes. In fact, they are so natural I think they are a bit boring looking!
Also, I don't know if you noticed, but the lens in my left eye (your right) is slightly more pigmented than the right. It is not extremely obvious at conversational distance, but it bugs me just a little bit.

Here are a few closeups on one eye. The pixelation is very obvious at that close a distance.

Direct sunlight

Sunlit room

Indoor light

I took off one of the lenses and got a few comparison photos. As I mentioned earlier, I have dark dark brown eyes, and these lenses successfully turned them into a natural light-to-medium grey

Two pics taken in different areas of a sunlit room:

Indoor light:

The Hidrocors are completely non-enlarging, and the extremely light color of the Ice lenses almost has a negative enlarging effect on my eyes. Some people might be turned off from the lenses by this factor, but since I bought these lenses to wear with heavy gothic-style makeup, I think this will actually work to my advantage by providing intense contrast.

FINAL VERDICT:
Design: 9/10 - The white color freaked me out initially, but they look very natural once I put them on. Some people may find these contacts kind of boring to look at though, but they are supposed to look natural so I like them quite a lot.
Enlargement: N/A - Since these are not circle lenses, this score is ignored. If I have to give a score it would be negative. :p
Comfort: 7/10 - They are obviously thicker than my EOS lenses, but they are not outright uncomfortable. I will have to wear them out for a day (or night) to see how quick they become dry or irritating, but for the 15-ish minutes I wore them for the photos they are fine.
TOTAL: 8/10 - I am scoring these by themselves (natural colored contacts), and not comparing them with my circle lenses. These lenses are not for those looking for the dolly-eyed look, but if you want very natural color and design these are the lenses for you. I can totally pretend to be Sayuri (from Memoirs of a Geisha) with these!

Bayonetta Makeup Tutorial (+closet cosplay!)

To celebrate the US release of Bayonetta, one of the best action games to come out recently, I decided to do a makeup tutorial of the titular character. In case you don't know what she looks like, here's a pic:
Here's my interpretation of her makeup, which is made up of shades of purple:

I think I could have done a better job, but here are my steps for this look anyway. First, I applied a violet shade to my lids up to my crease, winging it up slightly at the outer corner.

I then added a royal purple shadow above the violet all the way to just below my browbone.

A light fuchsia shadow is blended onto the browbone as well as near the bridge of my nose.

I lined my upper lashline and the outer half of my lower lashline with black, and my waterline and inner corners of my eyes with silvery-white.

Finally, I filled in my eyebrows with a grey-brown brow pencil and put on some false lashes.

Finally, I contoured my face, put on some light purple-pink blush, a plum lipstick and drew on a beauty mark.

I threw on a shirt and gloves and did a closet cosplay of Bayonetta; I am so lucky to have glasses that look vaguely like something she would wear too! :D
Go play Bayonetta, it's frigging awesome! :D