Gone are the days when the runway was setting fashion trends in the world. Today, it’s
Instagram. Leave it to social media to help inspire your outfits deets and makeup game. And while other
social media apps have their bits to contribute to driving an individual’s fashion choice, Instagram takes the center stage. A study even notes that nearly 50 per cent of Instagram users follow fashion and makeup accounts to seek inspiration.
The former photo-sharing app has transitioned into a paradigm offering access to businesses and users alike to sell and showcase. Today, it serves as one of the biggest platforms for tell- tale of makeup as an art and its persistent evolution.
Color contact lenses have been an unavoidable part of these evolutions. How did that happen?
It’s a story worth heeding.
A peek into the history of cosmetic lenses
Color contact lenses, aka cosmetic lenses, are nothing but eye lenses that are pigmented to achieve a different eye color. They are soft and tiny lenses intended to change the color of an individual’s eye and hence their overall appearance.
They have become a huge hit with millennials and Gen Z because they require zero commitment, are instant, and have minimal risks.
Traditionally, contact lenses were strictly considered a medical device used to correct vision problems. Thanks to the digital age and Hollywood, contact lenses have shifted from being a mere alternative to vision correction to a fashionable, likable accessory.
Color contact lenses were birthed when a makeup artist associated with Metro Goldwyn Meyer (MGM), a leading American film production company, approached an eye doctor in the 1930s. He was pressed on finding if the eye color of the lead actress, Henry Hull, could be altered to suit her character in the movie Miracle for Sale.
Since then, color contact lenses have been the metamorphosis for instant makeovers. More than 10 years ago, when social media was still on the uprise, the hype of color contact lenses took over the world of fashion. Despite the surge in popularity, there was an evident lack of access and availability of color contact lenses to the common user.
Color contact lenses were still a thing of high prestige fashion that only a handful of celebrities
could use. The said hype, too, slowly rested its pace only to spring up again on our social feeds.
The Instagram Game, Today Like everything else, the eye makeup segment and thereby the usage of cosmetic lenses have also been largely impacted by Instagram’s influence.
Today, unlike a decade ago, the attention span of an average social media user has shortened to a mere 15 seconds (reels, right). Thereby, this age of spontaneity has paved the way for eye makeup trends to change in minutes, let alone days. A quick perusal of mindless scrolling for a few minutes on your screen and you would want to switch your eye colors and jump on the bandwagon.
Color contact lens is a godsend accessory for these fleeting yet impactful eye makeup trends. It is no more an ornament for the elite. Each individual, today, has a collection of art, still lifes, and selfies to share. Color lenses just make the process easier and more fascinating.
Nonetheless, beauty influencers and content creators are to be credited for the ascent in admiration of color lenses. They have pushed us all in the direction of colored lenses and wisely so. These lenses, due to their noticeable and instant enhancement benefit, have become an unskippable part of a person’s beauty routine - much like eyeliners and Kajal.
But with Instagram, it is never really possible to settle on a signature look. Eye makeup trends
are all about experimentation and contact lenses are your go-to accessory. Colored eye lenses with their subtle style and minimal effort help you make an I-was-born-with-it look. Be it fun, chirpy, monochromatic, and everything in between. Eye makeup with colored lenses helps not just contribute to but start trends.
Don’t take our word for it. Look at the top Instagram eye makeup trends and their marriage with
color contact lenses.
Anime eyes
Graphic liners
Embellished eyes
Euphoric washes of glitter
The Road Ahead
Needless to say, Instagram has bagged the award for changing how the world perceives eye makeup and beauty. It has distinctly shaped how a product (color lenses) and an art (eye makeup) in the guise of fashion is disclosed, shared, and consumed by users.
For how long, though, Instagram will continue to evolve eye makeup trends is debatable. There
is a potential drawback of the fast-paced nuances that the app produces. With every hard refresh of the algorithm, a question of sustainable fashion is raised.
With inputs from Lenskart.
