Eyes And Contact Lenses

Edit: made a mistake on the pricing. 

Not sure if you played this game when you were young, but we used to close our eyes and try to walk around without banging into things. Sure, it felt exciting initially, with other heightened senses, but it is really not funny when you really go blind. 

So initially I wanted to write this post after finishing my very long overdue Taiwan travelogue, but I realised I have like 3 more days to write about, so I shall procrastinate once more bahahaha. 

My Contact Lens Journey

It started when I was in JC, I guess that was when Acuvue Define was first launched. 

My sister was in dance club back then, so she needed to wear lenses for performances. I got curious and went to the optical shop to try out lenses as well. OF COURSE I WAS SCARED initially lol, like I was afraid that I would poke my eyes blind or something, but anyway I survived. 

Coloured lenses were obviously mine (and many people's) favourite choice. I can wear black today and  grey another day. So fun! So it started with Geo lenses, followed by EOS lenses. I was never at risk of wearing fake lenses because I was in direct contact with the manufacturers. 

The key reason why I chose to wear these brands apart from the colours was also because of the price. 

Most people should know how shit expensive Acuvue, Freshkon etc are compared to these brands. I never believed in the high cost for lenses in general. To put it bluntly, they are plastic (how much can 2 pieces of plastic cost seriously), sure some technology is involved, but surely companies would have earned the $ back within 5 years? Honestly, I believe much of these high cost is due to their branding and I never like to pay for bullshits like that. 

So I was a happy kid for quite a number of years until HSA decided to warn the public about online sale of lenses, and how even as individuals, I can't simply import lenses for MY OWN USE. 

Of course I was furious. I was penalised because some idiots don't know how to wear lenses properly, and some despicable sellers chose to import poor quality stuff from China causing adverse reactions. 

*random insertion of me being happy*

I guess that's when the trend moved to Luxury lenses and some other random new brand because people can't hit the MOQ for GEO etc due to the tightened rules. Of course I went and try anyway, all good except... 

One fine day my right eye started to get red and itchy after I took out the lens. 

This is of course not my eye, but roughly how it looked like. 

Of course I was scared right. 

But still, foolishly brave, I decided to do an experiment on my eye (!) 

switching lenses (both my eye degrees are the same), using another pair.

I concluded that my eye was the problem because my left eye has no such issues.  

This experiment finally landed brought me to a specialist (that cost a whooping $251, thank you insurance).

A waste of time because I knew exactly what was going on. Although he mentioned my eye shape would have probably changed after years of lens wearing, and this particular brand just don't fit me nicely anymore. 

Despite this though, I was still not very keen to wear those branded lenses.

By branded I mean Johnson and Johnson's Acuvue, Oculus's Freshkon, Novartis' (Alcon/Ciba) AirOptix blah blah blah. So like any bio student, I asked if there are generic brands in SG. You know like GSK's Panadol versus Watson's paracetamol. 

The clinic replied something along the lines that the branded ones are costly because they are safe. 

I really wanted to say WTF .

Like seriously?!

You mean like, HSA don't check on generic brands?

This one statement effectively tarnished the reputation of both HSA and generic makers. Some things I really cannot tolerate. This lacked logic on so so so many levels. 

Anyway, this post is kinda linked to the Taiwan trip, because I found my cheap, yes generic and safe lens in Taiwan. 

There are 2 branches at Taipei Main Station, the underground malls so you can't really miss them. 

http://www.pegavision.com.tw/en_index.html

this is the website.

To let you understand how cheap it is, here's a picture of their pricing. 

see the poster on the left?

if you are a member (and you can be a member after spending NT1000, if I remember correctly), you will be able to purchase 1 month (60pieces) worth of daily disposable clear lenses at NT500 (less than SGD25). If you like coloured lenses, the cheapest you can get them is NT500 for 40 pieces (20pairs). 

*note, please have your numbers ready i.e. degree, curvature etc although yes they can do a check for you as well*

Note that this brand may not necessary be for you because of the curvature, BC. The BC for this brand is 8.5 (fixed) so if your BC is different, please do not get it. For me, I am ok (as in my eyes are okay) with wearing BC8.5-8.7. 

To realise how cheap that is, the promotional price for 1 box of Acuvue (1 month use) is SGD56. 

Ok I am using Acuvue Moist here, might not be fair comparison, but most definitely it cannot cost SGD25 for 1 month. Not in SG at least. 

Here is their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pegavision

That's approximately 2X times more expensive than what I have gotten in Taiwan. Best part? Their coloured lenses didn't cause any inflammation! Double yay!

I guess what I really wanted to say is don't discount generic version so quickly. Things are sometimes expensive for stupid reasons, don't fall for them. Of course people can argue and say, hey you know the optical shops etc need to earn money to pay rental, pay taxes. 

GUESS WHAT?

As a consumer I really don't give two hoots about it. That's retailers' challenge not mine. My aim/challenge is to get my things at a cost I am comfortable with. This is partially the reason why online shopping is so  popular nowadays no?

But but but more importantly, if you know that you are not a very careful consumer, then please don't risk your eyes. There's loads of things you can risk, but going blind is no joke. 

Anyway, I hope this post can help educate you guys a little and please do take care of your eyes!