Like I said in my Kummacon post I have quite a few circle lens reviews waiting to be posted. The pictures for all of them were taken a few months ago (summer 2021) but because of lack of time etc. I couldn't make these posts earlier.
However, now we're going to roll in a few (non-sponsored) reviews, first of them being Geo Mimi Cafe Macchiato Brown!
Note: unlike the other lenses I'm about to review these ones didn't have prescription and they weren't expired, thus I'm able to rate the comfort too. Never wear lenses that are expired, have wrong prescription or feel uncomfortable in your eye(s), they might cause serious damage to your eyes. I have experienced that years ago and suffered from 'fog' hindering my vision for quite a while but by some miracle my eyesight wasn't damaged for good. Don't learn your lesson the hard way. Don't wear expired/uncomfortable lenses. Thank you.
I had bought these lenses a few years ago for a steampunk photoshoot which, obviously, didn't happen. When I visited Shiro Samurai a few months ago he asked if I had any circle lenses I'd like to have review photos taken of and... Well... Let's just say that I had, these beauties being one pair.
All photos are taken by Shiro Samurai.
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| The vials of the lenses. |
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| Lenses in their vials, another one showing the wrong side of the lenses. |
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| Lenses in their vials. |
Base curve: 8,8 mm
Diameter: 14.8 mm
Water content: 38 %
Life span: 1 year
Inserting these was fairly easy (if you don't take into consideration the fact that I hadn't worn circle lenses in over a year before taking these photos so yeah, inserting these was a bit of a circus); they tried to curl around my finger a bit but to be honest I've reviewed lenses that do it so much that inserting them is almost impossible - for example these ones I reviewed a couple of years ago - that I didn't really let this bother me. I didn't feel the left lens almost at all after the insertion, the right one every now and then but it didn't feel too irritating, at least not at first.
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| One lens in. |
The enlargement effect is quite noticeable. However, I noticed almost immediately that because of their design they're not very suitable for cosplay lenses (except if a character has specifically eyes like this). I would wear these for fantasy-themed photoshoots/alternative fashions, for example steampunk goth for which I originally intended to wear these to.
The comfort was quite good for 3-4 hours; I didn't feel the left lens at all and the right lens every now and then like I mentioned earlier. However, after approximately 4 hours it felt like these suddenly dried in my eyes or something - the feeling was awful and I immediately took off the lenses. It felt like I'd have had my eyes full of dirt and my vision became foggy quite fast. This isn't the first time I've had problems with lenses from this series though; years ago when I reviewed these beauties I faced pretty much the same problem. I suppose it might be because of the base curve of these lenses; with 8,6 mm base curve I usually don't have any problems at all, 8,7 mm is okay-ish but 8,8 mm has always caused some troubles. If your eyes were fine with the latter base curve I'd say that these lenses could be quite comfortable and wearable even for several hours!
I love the design of these lenses; it's like a magical whirlwind that for some reason reminds me of fairies - don't ask why but they're the first thing that come to my mind when I look at these lenses. The many shades of brown bring depth to the color scheme of these lenses making them look pretty mystical. There are also small black dots which break the whirlwind-like pattern in a way that only boosts the beauty of the lens design. Had these been more comfortable I would've ordered a new pair immediately - these are probably one of the most beautiful lenses I've ever worn. Not very natural though; I got quite a few stares when we visited a grocery store.
Because I'm apparently at loss of words when I try to describe how they look like, let's speed up the pace and move to the lens photos!
The pictures were taken on a rather cloudy day in June 2021. These aren't filtered in any way, only their size has been changed since the original photos were quite big.
(Note: we took pictures of quite many lenses on the same day so the light conditions are going to be the same in the next few reviews too.)
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| Natural roomlight. |
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| Bathroom light. |
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| Flash photo. |
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| Facing window. |
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| Outdoors, standing in the shadow. |
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| Facing the (clouded) sun. |
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| From the distance. |
- The color is 9/10. There are many beautiful shades of brown; however I feel like these lenses would be better for dark-eyed people - the color clashes quite a lot with my grey/blue/green eye color which you can see shining through the pupil hole.
- I would rate the design 10/10. Fell in love with it.
- I'd say that the opacity is 7/10. Fairly good yet you can clearly see my own eye color peeking from behind the lenses - might be because of the design and the light brown color used in the lens.
- The comfort was 6,5/10. Okay for the while it was okay, outright awful when these started acting up. I still think that it's because of the base curve.
- The naturalness is 4/10. The pattern is far from natural and these are way too big to pass as my natural eyes. However, the brown color gives them some naturalness points.
- The enlargement is 8,5/10. I've worn lenses that are even more enlarging but well, these aren't from the least enlarging end either.
So, this is the first one of quite many circle lens reviews I'm about to write in the near future. This was also the only one in which I was able to grade the comfort; the other pairs were expired and had a wrong prescription so don't look forward to seeing a comfort grade in the upcoming reviews. :'D
Until next time.
- Firith
