#TFCBeautyTalk: Contact Lenses

Hello!

I am introducing a new series on my blog called The Fruit Compote’s Beauty Talk (#TFCBeautyTalk) where I’ll choose a topic and tell you what I think about it. It’s going to be more of a story-telling, chit-chatty, an opinion type of post. So yes, expect something long and be ready to spend the extra minutes.

I haven’t figured out where this is going yet, but I think it’d be nice to share some of my thoughts about certain things 🙂

The first topic for this series is Contact Lenses, the colored one specifically.

Screenshot from Google.com

This is a trend that has been going on for the past few years. It’s very popular among Asians. The lenses can give an illusion of bigger eyes, or ultimately to achieve that dolly look. To the extreme, some of the designs are quite outrageous; things like cat’s eyes, alien eyes, and others that look downright creepy.

Many of them come with a prescription, so I can see the appeal why it’s easy to put these on a daily basis.

On the other hand, I can’t wear these anymore.

I have been wearing prescription glasses since I was in elementary school. Although as time passed by, I don’t wear them all the time, only when I need them e.g. while driving, watching movies, or anything that needs clear vision.

Long time ago, when I was in high school, I decided to try contact lenses, a colored one. To be honest, it was very hard from the beginning. Inserting a strange object into my eyes wasn’t an easy thing to do. I teared up many, many times before I get used to it. Even so, the process of putting them on and taking them out was always a nerve-wracking moment for me.

I remember my eyes being extremely uncomfortable as days went by. I knew it was because of the contacts, but I thought it was normal to feel like such. “I’ll get used to it“, I used to say to myself. My eyes became really dry and blurry. People had recommended me to use eye drops to add hydration. And I became that person who carried eye drops everywhere, reapplying in every few hours. I also took really good care of the contacts. I followed every instruction about proper cleansing, care and storage as well as never forget to take them off when I go to sleep. It was seared to my brain when one of my teachers told me a story about someone underwent a surgery because he/she forgot to take the contacts off when sleeping, they slide to the back of the eyeballs and the rest is history (a.k.a. surgery). So yes, with that in mind, I was very diligent about them. After all of these efforts, still, it wasn’t enough.

My eyes started to turn red and irritated. I didn’t exactly remember the time frame, but it was quite progressive, so I had to go to the optometrist. By the time I got there, the doctor didn’t say much. He just observed my eyes and knew right away what was the problem. He said it could’ve been worse had I not come sooner. The diagnosis was evident, I had an eye infection. Because of the contacts.

After some medications, he advised me not to wear contacts again at least until I’m 17 years old. But by then, I knew I’d probably never wear them again.

The whole fiasco had left me with a permanent scar. By scar, I mean, a dark spot on the white of my left eye:

Wait for it.

See it there?

There you go.

For some people who noticed and asked about it, they thought it was a birthmark. They cringed when they hear the grim story behind that spot. So what happened? Apparently one of the blood vessels in my left eye ruptured and bleed. As my eyes were treated and got better, I noticed that there’s this spot that turned out never fade away. It is there, forever.

Fast forward today, more than 10 years later, there were several times where I was tempted in trying them out again. The technology has improved, I thought. There are so many cute designs, colors and sizes. I thought it might be fun to experiment with them. Or even just the plain one with a larger diameter, to give the illusion of bigger eyes. I’ve seen magical results these contacts can do to one’s eyes. You can really fool someone with these, like you’re some exotic human being. In short, I was tempted. I wanted to look pretty too, who doesn’t?

But every time, every damn time I reminisce that horrific incident and that SPOT, I chickened out. I close up that thought immediately and sometimes beat myself to it for having the slightest bit of temptation. Why on earth would I risk it? Because I want to look pretty, or different? At the cost of losing my eyes in the process? HELL NAW.

I do believe I was lucky that day. And I’m not about to test that luck again. Once is enough. So yeah, I’m just going to stick to my glasses and my eye makeup. And more over, accept the fact that my eyes are not big and they’re just plain. So be it.

At least I still have my vision, and that’s already a blessing on its own 🙂