Lyin’ eyes: Eye-catching costume contact lenses popular for Halloween

Kirk Baird

Monday, Oct. 28, 2002 | 8:23 a.m.

WildEyes is one of those products where you scratch your head and mutter to yourself, "Why didn't I think of that?"

WildEyes are colored contact lenses with patterns. Novelty lenses, in other words.

There's the lemon-yellow Cat Eye, with a thick black stripe for the pupil. The Alien, a swamp-green cornea complete with black blood vessels a Saturn-like pupil. There's the Wild Fire, a flaming-red oval with a centered yellow supernova. The Zebra, thick black stripes on a white background. And the Knockout, which is nothing more than a white lense with a large black X over the pupil.

All of these, of course, are perfect for Halloween, whether as part of a costume or even on their own.

Of course, a WildEye sans costume accompaniment reeks of minimal effort especially when compared to showy Halloween costumes but the overall effect is striking nonetheless.

"You get the looks, even without wearing the clothes," said Amanda Cancel, spokeswoman for CIBA Vision, maker of WildEyes.

The novelty lenses were developed as a means for Hollywood makeup effect artists to spruce up creature costumes.

In 1998 Wesley Jessen became the first company to market the novelty contact lenses to the public. CIBA Vision acquired the company in 2000.

Since then, CIBA Vision has expanded the WildEyes line to 19 designs. And other companies have followed suit with their own brands of novelty contact lenses.

The market for the lenses varies although it's primarily popular among the younger crowd, Cancel said.

"About 80 percent of wearers are in their early teens up to age 24," she said. "The other 20 percent is primarily adults."

The novelty lenses are also slightly more popular among males.

"I'm not really sure why that is," Cancel said. "It could be when they're going to a costume party they don't want to do all out. But with (WildEyes), you don't have to go all out. You can wear jeans and still be the talk of the town."

Though Cancel declined to provide sales numbers, she said CIBA Vision is the No. 1 maker of the novelty lenses, selling "a whole bunch" of WildEyes in the process.

The novelty lenses have proven to be so popular, in fact, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discussed deregulating the products because it doesn't consider them to be medical devices, since they are not marketed to correct vision.

If deregulated, the novelty lenses would have been treated as a cosmetic, and become just as easily available as, say, makeup. Instead of having to go through an eye-care practitioner, the lenses could have been sold at flea markets, grocery stores, convenience stores -- even gas stations.

But the FDA recently reversed its course, however, and will begin to crack down on the illegal sale of the novelty lenses, after receiving dozens of reports of corneal ulcers -- abrasions that can lead to vision-threatening infections -- and other eye injuries related to the products.

In a warning to the public, the FDA said consumers should not wear decorative contact lenses unless prescribed and fitted by a qualified eye-care practitioner.

"Can you imagine buying these lenses at a 7-Eleven and having problems? Are you going to ask the clerk to help you after he's had his hands on the hot dogs?" asked Dr. Thomas Kroll, a Las Vegas optometrist who sells WildEyes. "The lenses have to be sterilized and cleaned thoroughly. You can get an allergic reaction to dirty contact lenses."

Kroll charges $99 for a pair of WildEyes, and anywhere from $115 to $150 for a comprehensive eye exam and contact-lens evaluation, during which he shows the patient how to use and care for the lenses.

If cared for, he said WildEyes and other novelty lenses can last up to a year.

If not handled properly, though, the lenses can cause problems, such as eye irritation, cornea scratches, infection and, in extreme cases, blindness.

"People overwear them," Kroll said. "They go to sleep with them in, which drops the oxygen level in tissue and the tissue becomes compromised."

Once the tissue is compromised, bacterial infection can set in and creep past the top layer of the cornea where, if left untreated, can eventually lead to loss of vision.

By not knowing how to handle and clean the novelty lenses, a wearer could scratch a pupil or risk infection by not sterilizing the lenses properly before use.

But those are risks faced with any type of contact lenses, Kroll said.

"One of the big problems is that people don't take care of them," he said. "But the risk is about the same as a contact lens."