The Best Green Contacts for Brown Eyes

Want to trade your brown eyes for something more exotic? Green eyes, which add to the allure of celebrities like Tyra Banks, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Connelly, and Scarlett Johansson, are a relative rarity, reaching their highest prevalence among Northern European populations. What if you want jade-colored eyes but were born with coffee-colored ones?

Fortunately, technology has the answer: colored contact lenses. Once only possible to darken or change the color of light-colored eyes, advances in technology have enabled even dark eyes to take on a convincing lighter hue, even green. These contact lenses will obscure the eyes' dark brown irises and reflect a color embedded in the pigment of the contact lens. The best quality lenses will have subtle striations and natural color variations normally seen in eyes to create a natural look.

Note that in the case of dark brown eyes, you should look for opaque tints, not enhancement tints. Enhancement tints are only for light-colored eyes looking for a subtle change. Opaque tints can completely transform the color of your eyes.

CibaVision's FreshLook contact lenses make two green colors that work even for people with dark brown eyes. The series is called ColorBlends, and the lenses use two variants to make brown eyes green: Gemstone, which gives your eyes a rich emerald green color, and Sea Green, which gives brown eyes a bluish-green, almost aquamarine color. Which color you choose depends on the type of green you're looking for.

One criticism of ColorBlends is that the colors they give eyes aren't very realistic. Your eyes might be brilliantly colored, but no one will think they are your natural eye color. You can see the pictures above to see what I mean.

If that doesn't matter to you, then I think ColorBlends' two green options are worth evaluating. They are readily available and very popular.

A bit more difficult to procure in the United States, but with a considerably more realistic look, are lenses made by Europa, Solotica, and Tutti. These companies typically serve the Latin American market, where dark brown eyes dominate, but you can still find them in the United States, most easily by looking online.

What makes these lenses a bit more realistic looking:

• More subdued colors: Green eyes aren't typically deeply-hued. They tend to have a color that's not so pronounced. They won't "glow" like the more brilliantly-colored lenses like FreshLook ColorBlends.
• Natural striations: With a variety of related colors radiating from the pupil, these naturally-occurring color patterns make your colored iris look more natural.
• Non-uniform color: Even green eyes naturally have a bit of either blue, brown, or hazel highlights. These types of lenses try to replicate that with a more natural-appearing mix of colors.

If you're willing to wait a bit longer and shell out quite a bit more money, then you can have a custom-made set of colored lenses made for you. The benefit is that you have complete control over how bright or subdued the color is, as well as any other effects you'd like. See the pictures above: Some opt for bright-green eyes, some for subtly green ones. The color of the naturally-occurring iris flecks, as well as the limbal ring (the usually dark ring on the outside of your iris) and corona (starburst of color along the inside perimeter of your iris), can have an enormous impact on the look of your eyes when you wear colored lenses.

The pictures above, all from Custom Colored Contacts, demonstrate the use of a laminated lens process that can lighten even the darkest brown eyes. Here's how it works: A pigmented layer is sandwiched between two layers of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (the plastic used to make soft contact lenses) so that your eye and eyelid only touch non-pigmented materials. They can not apply their pigment to your current lenses, but they can, like all of the other options on this page, create custom lenses with a correction factor if you're near- or far-sighted.

Pricing

Keep in mind that these lenses come at a cost of up to $800 per lens. Compare that to $15–40 for one FreshLook ColorBlends lens and about $45+ (per lens) for Solotica.