Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Looking for Nonprescription Colored Contacts?

It's fun to do things to change your appearance. Many people are searching to find ideas to do this and one thing that comes to mind is changing the color of your eyes. It's pretty easy to do now and there are a lot of great colors and styles to choose from.

Another reason people are looking for colored contacts is either for their Halloween costume or for a theatrical performance. Doing that can really finish off the look and create a very dramatic appearance, too. People will notice and will be talking about your costume. Most people don't know this can be done, so they actually are shocked when they see it for the first time.

To get colored contacts, you should check out which styles are available. There are a number of manufacturers but you're best off going with a name brand manufacturer so that you know they are using quality materials. Even though you may just wear these special, colored contact lenses for a short time if it's for a Halloween costume, you want to make sure they are good quality and will not hurt your eyes from a cheap manufacturing process.

Get a lot more helpful tips including information about getting non-prescription colored contacts at our main website.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

How to Get Contact Lenses for Free


You maybe have seen the offers and are wondering how people are getting contact lenses for free. Let me take a minute and briefly explain how you can also take advantage of offers for free contacts.

The way it works is, the manufacturers of different brands of contact lenses do not frequently advertise nationally on places like TV or the radio. You do see some ads in magazines and sometimes commercials on TV but they've chosen to instead put that advertising into offering free, trials of their product for you to sample. This works well in a number of ways. First, they get their product into your hands (or into your eyes - depending on how you want to look at it - sorry for the puns). Secondly, you get to try out various contact lenses and see which ones you like the best. You may be using one particular brand now but after trying a different brand, you may find that they fit better and are easier to take in and out. You don't know until you try, right?

So offers for free, trial contact lenses benefit both you and the manufacturers of contact lenses. It's a win-win situation and you get to save money on contacts while you are sampling the trial pairs. So find all the offers that you can - for sure. In doing that, you're sure to find the best ones for you.

If your contact lens prescription isn't up to date, you'll need to go see your eye doctor. It's good to do that anyway, so no big deal. You're not going to be able to get free contacts unless you have a current prescription because it does cost money for the manufacturers to make and send them to you. They're going to need to know that the ones they're sending are ones that are right for you and ones that you will need in the future. So make sure you do that.

You can, and probably should, first find offers for free, trial contacts before you go see your eye doctor. Find offers online and fill out whatever information they need so that you get the information on how to order them. Once you've had your eye exam, you'll then be ready and will know how to order your free contact lenses. Go ahead and order all the trial pairs at once. You can keep them all around until you're ready to try the next brand.

As you evaluate each brand, you will want to take notes on how each one feels to you. This will help you make your final decision later.

Also, if any of the trial contacts don't feel right, you should stop wearing them. Trust what your eyes are telling you.

Get loads more information about free contact lenses along with a download to help you keep good notes on all of the brands of contact lenses you try out at the Free Contact Lenses Guide.

Contact Lens Care Information


If you're new to wearing contact lenses or just want a refresher course on using them, then here are some tips on good contact lens care to help you.

First and foremost, remember that you're sticking your contacts into your eye. It hurts when small particles get into your eye, right? So if your lenses are not clean and have small particles on them, then putting them in will hurt. It's interesting how your eyes work. They're sensitive to small things but don't mind bigger things like contact lenses. This is probably because they're used to bigger things on them all the time - your eyelids!

You always want to use contact lens cleaning solution or saline solution to wash or rinse your contacts. Don't use plain water, bottled water or, worse yet, saliva (yeah... spit) to wash your contacts - even if it falls out. There are tiny organisms that can get into your eyes, which can cause pretty serious irritation or even an eye infection. I had an eye infection once when flying and it was not fun. I had to get anti-biotic eyedrops and I could not wear my contacts for a week or two.

When you clean your contacts, you should rub them with your finger. Do this even if the solution says "no rub" on it. This will get more bacteria off of your contacts and clean them better.

Always put fresh contact lens cleaning solution in your case. The old stuff was used to clean them last night and it needs to be changed. Get a new case every month or so to keep it germ free as well.

I've had friends tell me they do it but you should not wear your contacts when you go in a pool. It's just like rinsing your contacts with chlorine - which you would not do, right? And the same goes for hot tubs and lakes. If you need to see underwater, then get some prescription swimming goggles ordered.

You, of course, do not want to share contact lenses with anyone else. That goes without saying but I said it anyway.

Don't wear your contacts longer than you're supposed to. If you have daily wear contacts that are just for a month, then only wear them for a month. The same with daily disposable contacts.

Basically, if you take good care of your contact lenses, then you won't have any problems and it'll be easy. Don't neglect things like cleaning them well and your eyes will thank you.

Get more good tips on contact lens care along with information on how to get contact lenses for free. Yes, when you go for your next prescription, you can order several pairs of free contacts, which can save you money.

Halloween and Special Effect Contacts


If you're working on your Halloween costume or a costume for a performance, then you might want to consider getting special effect contact lenses to add the finishing touch. Depending on the ones you go with, special effect contact lenses can make quite the impact since there's a wide variety of these contacts out there. They're pretty creative.

Let me give you a few tips before you head out and find the special effect contacts you're looking for.

If you normally don't wear contact lenses, you can still get non-prescription special effect contacts but only do this if you are going to wear them for a short amount of time, like just a few hours. Your eyes will not be used to wearing contacts, so that alone may cause some discomfort. Also, when people go to an optometrist to get their prescription, the eye doctor is also taking measurements of their pupil to ensure the right fit. People's eyes are shaped differently, so getting contacts without a prescription means they will not fit perfectly but hopefully not to the point where they're too uncomfortable.

Also check out the pricing. You do not want to go with cheap special effect contact lenses. No way. These will be made out of a cheaper material that could actually do damage to your eyes if worn for a longer period of time. Don't put cheap contacts into your eyes - it's just not worth it. Go with a brand that is well known so that you know they are made out of quality materials.

If you do normally wear contacts and you want to get special effect ones, then you should see your eye doctor if you do not have an up to date prescription (within a few months of your last visit). If your prescription is current, then use that when ordering your lenses so that you get contacts that you can see clearly out of and ones that fit your eyes well. Here, too, remember to go with a name brand to ensure quality.

When you go to select special effect contacts, check out all the kinds that there are. There are many. Some are actually pretty cool and some are even a bit freaky. Some are just meant for photo shoots - like the all white ones, which sort of white out your eyes. You can't actually see out of them, so for one you don't need a prescription and secondly, you are just going to wear them for the photos and that's it since you're basically blind when you have them in.

Find out more about special effects contact lenses and how to order them.

Save Money on Contact Lenses


If you're like me and you wear contacts, you know that wearing them can get expensive. When you factor in the appointment with the optometrist, the lenses themselves, all the contact cleaning solution, cases, eye glasses and so on, the bill really adds up. So here are a number of ways to save money on contacts.

First, when you go for your next appointment, check out the prices of other places. If you normally see a doctor at his office, find out if going to a clinic inside a department store is cheaper. Places like Sears and JC Penny have optical departments that do a great job and have licensed eye doctors on staff. You may be able to save money by going there.

Next, when you get your prescription and order your contacts, you should first order free, trial pairs of contact lenses. When you do this, you can try different brands to see which ones you like the best. You can order many sets from different manufacturers, so you will be saving money on the lenses themselves just by ordering these free contact lenses.

Then instead of paying for your appointment, contact lenses, cleaning solution and cases yourself, see if you can use tax free money in the form of a Health Savings Account (HSA). With your HSA, the money for this account is put there before taxes, so you do not pay income tax on it and you get to use it for a variety of health related expenses - not just for your eye care.

And then you want to look for sales that happen from time to time. Many national chains and department store optical departments will run sales every few months. With those sales, you can either find discounts on eye care, a free eye doctor appointment, free eyeglass frames or other deals and discounts. Look for email newsletter lists that you can sign up for and they may send you special offers for doing that.

Conclusion

To review, you can search for the best prices on eye doctor / optometrist appointments. You can get free, sample pairs of contact lenses to save money there. You can use your HSA to pay for all your eye related expenses and then you can watch for sales and special offers. All of these things together could save you literally a few hundred dollars a year, which is money in your pocket!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Get Trial Contact Lenses


For most people who have to require some type of prescription from their optometrist, they are probably not going to want to wear overly bulky glasses, or may be completely afraid of or even not have the money for the more expensive LASIK based surgeries to help clear up your eyesight. For you guys that are in the middle group, you are going to be the ones wearing contacts and probably be receiving more than your fair share of trial contact lenses from the eye doctor to help you decide which manufacturer you want to use. Because there is such a high volume of contact lens wearers, the companies that produce these have to go to incredible lengths to ensure they are going to receive business.

Before you go out and try getting a bunch of trial contact lens offers going - which are free contact lenses, you want to stop by and see your optometrist or eye doctor so they can properly determine the prescription and give you the best suggestions for what companies to start with. Once you have this prescription, you are going to want to keep it with you at all times in case you are out and have lost your last set of contacts, you can easily stop by any eye doctor or optometry office and have them replace the set for you. You may not be able to quickly get your exact prescription, but the eye doctor is going to know what can be used by your eyes and is going to help you to avoid any type of contacts that could possibly be out of the range of your prescription, or you may have problems using.

Once you've gotten the prescription from the doctor, and have probably already placed your first order for a set of contact lenses, you are going to be receiving offers through the mail from other contact manufacturers. You will be lucky if you don't want out of the eye doctors office with a hand full trial contact lenses for you to try in the weeks to come. Once you've gone through these though, start sending in the offers from all of the manufacturers stating that they want to give you free trial contact lenses to help you determine if you want to switch to their company. As always, make sure you have a pair of glasses for backup in case you lose a contact lens.