Contact lenses for Halloween – experts warn about their dangers

Eye health specialists are warning people on Halloween to think twice before purchasing cheap contacts to complete their costumes.

With more and more people visiting their GPs with bacterial infections, eye ulcers and discharge at this time of year as a result of low-cost lenses, experts advise doing your research if you must have a set of coloured lenses.

Cheap contact lenses

Google Trends data shows that searches for “cheap contact lenses” have increased on average by more than a third in October alone compared to the rest of the year for the past three years in a row and this trend is expected to continue.

Contact lenses will dry out

It’s perfectly fine to be inspired by the incredible make-up looks you see on Instagram at this time of year, of course. But the likelihood is, most of these looks were created, photographed and then taken off, rather than worn for ten hours to a party.

Even ‘normal’, regular contact lenses are only supposed to be worn for eight hours per day, disposable ones in particular. And as a former lens wearer I can confirm – no one, absolutely no one, wants to have to pick a crusted-up contact from their eye at 4am.

So heed the good advice of the experts, and avoid buying cheap contacts. This is the advice the crew at Feed Good Contacts is great:

• Buy your lenses from a reputable supplier
• Don’t buy cheap lenses to save money
• Practice good hand hygiene
• Store them properly
• Remember to take them out before you go to sleep

And seriously, once the pictures are taken, take the lenses out and enjoy your Halloween – a trip to the Eye & Ear Hospital is scarier than anything you’ll see on October 31st.

Here’s a handy YouTube tutorial for beginner contact lens wearers, to help you apply and remove them without harming your eyes.

Photo from Jason Lloyd Evans

This article was originally published in 2020.