Colored contact lenses will usually come in three different styles.
The first type of lens is simply to make it easier for you to see the contact lens when you are taking it out or putting it in.
If you’ve ever been around someone who has lost their contact, you can realize how much this little tint can help in finding it. It won’t actually affect your eye color when it is in, so it is strictly for practical purposes only.
The second kind of colored contact lenses is where the purple starts coming into play. It’s known as an enhancement tint and will be slightly darker than the visibility tint and is designed to color your eyes whichever tint or color you’ve chosen. (This specific blog focuses on purple contacts) It will change the eye color, but not completely.
Common sense would dictact that the lighter your eyes to begin with, the more affect it will have on their color. If you have blue or green colored eyes, the purple will make a bigger difference opposed to someone with brown or dark brown eyes.
The third kind, the colored tints are the deep, fully colored contact lenses designed to change the color of your eye as much as possible. If you have dark eyes, the darker purple you can get, the better.
The contacts might be solid purple, or might be dark purple but have slight specks of lighter purple in them to help more closely resemble natural eye colors. It depends on why you are purchasing the purple contacts in the first place.
If you are wearing them for a costume or for “show” then the solid purple would probably be a better selection.
If you are trying to go with the more natural look (Is that possible with purple?), then you should choose the contacts with light spots in them.
Keep in mind that the center of the purple contact lens will be clear because you don’t want your vision to be affected by the purple, you just want it to appear that everything but your pupil is colored.