She stood in front of the mirror, lips pursed, eyes wide open, hesitancy flitting through her onyx eyes, dreaming of a day where green eyes would peer back at her. She would be a cat, narrowed slits, green eyes, irises dilated in sensual desire, purring in satisfaction. Framed by heavy thick mascara, slightly cloying, she would pace up and down her bedroom floor, a no longer nervous glance into the mirror perched on her wardrobe door, she smiled slightly. For this would be the start of something new, no longer would she be a sheep afraid of the unknown, cowering in the corner while life passed her by. Oh no, she would become someone else, not her alter ego Jasmine, the character she clung onto when she needed to feign confidence, but Ana 2.0, who stopped caring what other people thought of her, who didn’t think twice about trying something new, and who most of all embraced being different, a mermaid in a monochromatic world. She dreamed of green eyes against tanned skin, teeth blazing white, a perfect smile, red lips that tasted like cherries. They would be eyes that were reminiscent of an ethereal experience, a spiritual journey across the tranquil green seas, a sail boat drifting nonchalantly by. But she didn’t want to be just one character; there would be blue and gray coloured contact lenses waiting for her to try, assuming different identities for one day only.
*Blue Wig is from Hot Hair
She had a hankering for something new and 2018 would be the year that would help her face all her fears. She went on holiday for the first time in five years, she co-hosted her first blog event and she spoke on a panel for 400 people, hands on elbows eagerly looking forward. And she would try new eyes, see how they made her feel, she wanted to shake things up, she wanted to escape her own identity.That was why she was writer, always in her head, an imaginative child who was conjuring up stories before she was even born. With blue eyes she imagined she was a mermaid who had lost her tail and ended up on land, she grew legs encased in alien flesh, it felt surreal. But with gray eyes she was an Ice Queen, her heart hidden in a block of frozen ice, preserved in time. She was a cat, a queen and a mermaid, with three different eye colours but who was she when she was that brown eyed girl with the goofy smile? With brown eyes she was a goofball, a Rick and Morty Enthusiast, who loved nothing more than being as uncool as possible, she was a nerd at heart. The coloured contact lenses called to her, three boxes at a time, Vision Direct delivered them through the Postman Fairies, they arrived promptly.
A cardboard box thrown into her hands, she juggled it with excitement, slipping into the quiet tranquility of her room, it was her haven. A bundle of products lay on her bed, begging to be played with, four boxes of coloured contact lenses- green, blue, two gray- with a hayfever kit, they knew that she, the brown eyed girl suffered when the pollen count was high, she had hayfever you see. Herbal Tea and vegan candy kittens, a box of signed tissues, Vaseline too, nestled inside its cardboard cave, she opened it, fingers fumbling frantically. She clasped the coloured contact lenses in her hands, thumbing between them with an equal mixture of trepidation and excitement, almost dropping them in her clumsiness. The green came first, she wanted to become a cat, coloured contact lenses on the tip of her finger in a bowl like shape, they melded into her brown eyes, brazen bronze into grassy green. Brown mixed with green, her eyes were almost hazel, shifting as she turned her face upwards towards the light, she went outside.
Heads turned as she walked, hips swaying like the cat who had got the cream, she clasped her cards close to her chest, could they tell it was coloured contact lenses? She wasn’t so sure. She thought the lenses wouldn’t show up on her dark brown eyes, melted like chocolate, but the glimmer of green poked through, it went well with the new persona she had picked out, half mermaid, half cat, all in blue with a feline’s sensibilities. She went dancing, green eyes flashing in the dark, neon lights criss crossing over her feet as she danced, the rhythm snaked through her like a cobra. She danced until sundown, oblivious to the world around her , she drowned them out. She saw them looking, she paid them no heed. She was just another girl out on the town, she was no easy picking, no cherry to be plucked from the nearest tree. A precious commodity, a green eyed girl, she knew her worth, she wouldn’t be won over that easily. But he sprung from the shadows, cloaked in the dark, smart black jacket, tailored trousers, he pointed to her blue hair, paid her a compliment. She smiled and turned away, walking back into the night, until she fell asleep, a brown eyed girl, green coloured contact lenses tucked away by the cabinet next to her bed.
She was ready for her next adventure, the cat was long in slumber and the mermaid who had lost her tail had crawled into her imagination, unreal blue eyes, blue lips, a mermaid dressed in human clothing. She would stand out from the rest with her blazing blue eyes, they called it the ‘blue steel stare’, accentuated by teal kohl liner, she liked looking different. She remembered as a kid hating standing out from the crowd, the anxiety being seen as different to her peers would make her feel. And now look at her, blue contact lenses slotted neatly in, striped off the shoulder top, black hat, a mermaid who had assumed a human’s identity. She was a character that lived inside of her head brought to life, the version of her that was more confident, more self-assured, less hesitant, less anxious. The anxiety faded away until it was but a distant buzz, she felt more at ease now than ever before. There were white streaks in her hair, she had her first one at birth and they multiplied ever since, but against the metallic cobalt blue lips and the teal with reddish pink hooded eyes, she felt like a mermaid with an alien heart, an ethereal presence in a world where normcore is normality. But what was normal anyway? For she was the girl with blue coloured contact lenses, whose stare turned men into stone, frozen in time, when she was long gone, dust and bones underground.
She crept into the mermaid kingdom where her ancestors lay waiting, enshrouded in a water tomb, underneath her new human world. She paid her respects and swam through the corals into a brighter world, where the rainbow fish were swimming in perfect harmony, a splash of colour against the dank sea bed. The colours came alive, red, blue, green and her eyes flashed once more, blue against green, blue against tanned skin. She lost herself in oblivion, she had come home once more, but as the hours crawled by, she knew that she should come back to the surface. It was her time after all. Back into the light she went, the rainbow fish squabbling in the distance, until at last day two had come to an end and she was a human once more, the mermaid who had lost her tail asleep in perfect slumber, curled up in furled ball of limbs.
It was her last day to assume someone else’s identity, today she was an Ice Queen masquerading in holiday clothes, dark grey eyes and a plastered cherry smile. She flounced around in a floral green satin jumpsuit with an Ice Queen’s heart, a winning pearly white smile, concealing the darkness that lay within. This was the her which lurked beneath the positive, bubbly exterior, that hid the facade of happiness, the mask that she showed to others. She let it all out in a cathartic release, eyes glossed over with a lick of gray. Her irises almost disappeared when they dilated, she could feel the darkness leaving her body, as the demons rode out on the cloud of gray, she watched them leave with her newly appointed eyes. It was time to walk over to her kingdom and tell them that it was all over, that the war would be a thing of past and she would be a changed woman, no longer a woman at war. For she was the gray eyed woman who forged a new heart, made out of sweetness and light, a replacement for the ice heart that had not beaten for several centuries. But she no longer wanted to be immortal, she wanted true happiness and she craved the old her, the brown eyed girl, with the goofy smile.
It was all just a dream.
Have You Ever Tried Coloured Contact Lenses Before? How Do They Make You Feel?
Disclaimer
Please note I was provided with PR samples and compensated for this review in collaboration with Vision Direct but all thoughts are my own and are not affected by monetary compensation. Please note that the colour of the contact lenses look slightly different in the photos than they do in person, because when you shoot with street art, the colours often mix with the background. The gray is slightly lighter, the green a similar colour and the blue is a bit darker. What colour it appears like on your own eyes is often dependent on what colour your eyes are originally. Mine are dark brown so contact lenses will appear darker. Please note Vision Direct also offers next day delivery and is better value than high street optician direct debits, which gives you the freedom to order the amount you need, at a convenient time for you.
Leave a Reply