Less than 1% of people have naturally violet eyes. If you weren't lucky enough to be born among them, you may have found yourself wondering, "Are there purple contacts that can change my eye color?" And the answer, of course, is a resounding yes!
Today, purple contact lenses come in a variety of styles. Options are available that provide both prescription vision correction and purple coloring, while other styles are "plano" lenses, which means they're purely cosmetic and don't provide any vision correction.
In the past, translucent purple lenses often did not show up well on dark colored irises. However, improvements in lens printing techniques in recent years have made it possible to craft translucent, natural-looking purple contacts for brown eyes, blue eyes, and every color in between. While translucent lenses will look different depending on the shade of your eyes, these modern lenses provide just enough opacity, especially at the edges of the iris, to give your eyes a beautiful purple hue.
Of the two varieties of contacts (prescription or plano), plano lenses tend to be more vibrantly colored, since prescription lenses must be translucent and the most vivid colors and patterns are opaque. These lenses, particularly special effects lenses that cover the pupil or scleral lenses that cover the white as well as the iris of your eye, may impede your vision to varying degrees. Make sure to take time to practice with your contacts before you plan to debut them, especially if your plans involve a lot of moving around!
Despite that possible drawback, if the look you're going for calls for something more spectacular than natural purple, plano lenses are the way to go. They're available in a wide range of colors, patterns, and styles, with options from light purple contacts perfect for portraying animated characters to purple scleral lenses that give your eyes a positively eerie appearance. These lenses are especially useful in cosplay, since purple eyes are commonly used in media. Often violet eyes represent rare beauty (think Elizabeth Taylor's famous violet eyes), while dark purple contacts can be used to denote supernatural or otherworldly powers.
