REVIEW | Gemini Mint Colored Contacts

Hi everyone

Sorry I haven't really posted in a while, I recently moved and have been busy organizing

I purchased the Gemini contacts after seeing Jenn Im wear them in one of her tutorials, and of course I couldn't resist the "mint" name tag.

Photo on the website

Description:

The way the green in this lens mixes in with the wearer’s natural eye color is simply beautiful. Strong, yet soothing and comforting. Lighter than The GREEN. *Lens color may almost look yellow at first glance, but put them in your eyes. Ahhh MINT GREEN.

Diameter: 14.3mm
Base Curve (BC): 8.8mm
Water Content: 40%

In real life

I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Solotica lenses, but these remind me of photos I've seen of the Solotica Mel lenses.

When I got these in the mail I was like. ???
I had ordered two and it was a long package, then I opened it and was like. Oh it's so fancy
However, the case doesn't seem super high quality compared to the ones included in the Alcon (Opti-Free) solutions

Lenses on brown eyes

Full face photo

Pros
More comfortable than Solotica
Iris enlarging
Nice packaging

Cons
Recommended 3 months use
Website doesn't have photo of lenses on different eye colors

Verdict

Gemini lenses are A LOT more comfortable than the Solotica ones. The base curve seemed a little curvy for my eyes, but they fit fine.

If you're interested in any of the colors, I highly recommend these as they are a lot more comfortable than the Solotica ones without being overly unnatural. I always love green eye colors, but I bought the grey ones too, can't wait to blog about it when I open them 

I bought mine here, with free shipping :)

Repurchase?

Yes!

Would I recommend it?

Definitely. But I know some colors might look less natural due to the enlarging effect.

Fun photo

Hello Kitty filter on Snapchat! I am wearing the lenses here, you can't see the green as much but you can tell my eyes are lighter

Solotica Hidrocor Amber/Ambar colored lenses (my experience with WRLens)

Left: Natural light | Right: Florescent light

Natural light under the shade (very hazel looking)

Maybe 4-5 years ago, Michelle Phan first showed Solotica lenses in her videos. Since I was still in college back then, these were a bit out of my price range, especially compared to the Korean circle lenses that are only $20-30 including shipping. Recently, I saw a girl at Sephora wearing these lenses - they look really natural on her despite being a somewhat unnatural color, so I was very intrigued.

I originally wanted to get Mel (a honey yellowish color that looks green on brown eyes), but saw Ambar and thought it might be a bit more unique. However, the models they have on the WRLens website is very misleading, this only looks green on her eyes because her eyes are green. The real lenses themselves are a light yellow (as you can see).

On my brown eyes it can look green-ish but mostly a yellow-ish hazel. It definitely lightens my eyes so at least it looks different. (A lot of my friends who are used to my brown eyes think my eyes look really different but I've gotten mostly compliments, except one who said he feels like he's watching the The Devil Inside. LOL)

In case anyone was interested, there are three types of Solotica lenses:

Hidrocor - no limbal ring, most opaque color

Natural Colors - natural limbal ring, least opaque

Hidrocharme - thickest limbal ring, medium opacity

Wish I did more research before purchasing my Hidrocor Ambar lenses, but you live and learn

They say Natural Colors may not look good on dark eyes depending on what color your eyes are, but I think it's cool how Solotica blends into your natural eye color rather than all being one color, but you might get a different color than what you expect (I hear the grey color can come out blue?)

I got mine for $109 at WRLens ($81 + 27 shipping). I ordered them on 12/18 and got them on 1/29 - took them 6 weeks basically. They do say on the website that prescriptioned lenses may take up to 30 days to manufacture, I'm guessing Ambar isn't one of the most popular colors so I had to wait longer.

Pros

Very natural looking colors

Farsighted and nearsighted prescription

Yearly lenses

Cons

Not super comfortable

Expensive ($80+) as opposed to Korean lenses that are like $20-30

Expensive shipping from Brazil

Takes a while to ship (from WRLens anyway, which is the least expensive website I've found so far)

Verdict

If you want to wear these for a party or something, plan WAY ahead of time, because you might not get them for 1-2 months

Slight problem with Hidrocor that I noticed, sometimes the lenses shift and you get little dots in your vision, since it's a sheer yellow it doesn't obstruct your vision but it is noticeable

Edit (05/2016):

There is a solotica.us website that ships from the US now if you want your lenses more quickly, and they're $99 including shipping (cheaper than what I paid but you probably have to pay tax. As of May 2016 they're out of a lot of colors, but I'll check back in a few months to see if they restock

Edit (09/2016):

I keep getting questions about Mel vs. Ambar. If you happened to miss the previous section when I compared the two, please read this one: AMBAR is more yellow and produces a hazel-green on brown eyes. MEL has a greener tone and looks more green on brown eyes. I can't tell you which one to buy bc it's personal preference, but I like green eyes so I will probably try Mel next.

Would I recommend it?

Yes. 

But only if you're willing to sacrifice comfort for the exotic color these lenses provide.

Repurchase?

Probably after 6 months or so, I can afford to purchase a few pairs at once now that I have a big girl job, but you're supposed to toss them after a year, so I shouldn't waste money. Maybe the next time I order I'll order two pairs, so the shipping isn't so hefty at $27 for ONE pair.

My wishlist for now:

Natural Colors Mel

Natural Colors Ice

 I definitely want to try Hidrocharme just to see, athough I saw Natural Colors Mel on an Asian girl on Youtube (photo below) and it looks good on her. I've been really into green or grey colored eyes, I think it looks very exotic on Asian features.

Do you like colored lenses?

Let me know what your favorites are below :)