Almost every costume can benefit from the perfect pair of contacts, but if you need a little inspiration to get started, look no further! Here are a few ideas for styling your next Halloween look with just the right contact lenses.
* Animal Costumes
One of the most common uses of Halloween eye contacts is for animal costumes. This ranges from traditional animal look, like classic yellow Halloween cat eye contacts, all the way to impossible creatures like werewolves with green or golden eyes. When creating your look for an animalistic costume, keep in mind that shape and pattern are as distinctive as color.
A green lens with scale patterning is perfect for reptilian looks, while cat-eye lenses in a range of colors can help create looks ranging from regal lion to adorable kawaii kittens.
* Monsters and Grotesques
Whether your character is an undead vampire, a pallid ghost, or a shambling corpse, contacts are an absolute must for these horrifying characters. There are so many options to choose from! Opt for white-out scleral lenses for a long-dead zombie, or choose eerie, vivid green for a swamp creature fresh from the Black Lagoon.
If you're not afraid of gore, there are lenses printed with blood spatter or vivid bloodshot veins, but not every monster needs gore to look terrifying. For a Frankenstein's monster costume, all you need are two different naturalistic lenses to indicate that each eye came from a different body—paired with some creative makeup to denote slightly different skin tones and the "seams" that hold him together, this is a look that's every bit as unsettling as your average zombie.
* Cosplay
Got a particular character in mind? Contacts are a great way to get into character, especially with lots of options designed particularly to suit animated and illustrated characters. For these kinds of looks, choose flat, bright colors rather than more naturalistic printed lenses with variations in shade and hue. This will more closely emulate the look of 2-D animation or comic book-style printing.
Got a character in mind with particularly distinctive eyes? Not a problem. From bright red demon eyes to eerie white blind lenses, there's a pair of contacts for that.
* Subtle Changes
You don't need to get too wild with your costume look for contacts to tie it all together. For example, a pair of naturalistic green Halloween contacts might be all you need to provide the finishing touch on an elfin character, or a faint golden shimmer can hint at a supernatural element to your pre-transformation werewolf character without giving everything away immediately.
These looks are especially good if you require prescription Halloween contacts, since corrective lenses work best with subtle colors and patterns.
* Anything but Subtle!
Of course, on the opposite end of the spectrum, contacts can also put your costume right over the top. Full black-out lenses, bright red with star-shaped pupils, rainbow patterns, lenses with stripes and swirls, and all kinds of unexpected shapes and colors.
If your motto is "go big or go home," you can't go wrong with this kind of attention-grabbing lens. Some of these styles might impede your vision, as they cover not only the iris (or colorful part of your eye) but also the pupil. Make sure to try them on and practice wearing them before their big debut, and keep a case with fresh contact solution handy in case you need to remove them.