Remember when Halloween costumes just involved your clothing, and maybe a mask and some props? No more. Now you can dress up your eyes for Halloween, theater productions, or just to freak people out. Costume or special effect contact lenses are often used in movie making these days, and have appeared in movies like Interview with the Vampire and

Colored contact lenses, allowing people to either change or intensify their eye color, have been around for quite a while now, but when they started out, they were available in shades of natural eye colors, like blue, green, and brown. Now other solid colors are available, including white, black, and red. You can also get contact lenses in neon blue, green and pink that glow when exposed to black (UV) lights.

If you are dressing up like an animal, there are contacts that will make your eyes look the part. Animal eye contacts currently available include cat, jaguar, reptile, and wolf. You can show your pride for your country or your team with American flag contact lenses, or lenses with the logo of your favorite NFL team. Or you can just wish everyone a nice day with smiley face contact lenses. Some companies will create custom designs for you if you like.

Most of the time, your vision will not be impaired by costume contact lenses, as the pupil is left uncovered. While these contact lenses can be fun, and are available even for those who don't need vision correction (in fact some come only in non-correction models), they can cause infection or other eye health problems just as easily as regular contact lenses if you don't take care of them. For starters, you will need to get a prescription for them from an eye care professional. If you don't need vision correction, your prescription will have the dimensions of your eye necessary for proper fitting. Second, you need to take care of them the same way you take care of other contact lenses, which means cleaning them and storing them properly. They should be cleaned with contact lens solution (not tap water or in your mouth), rubbed to remove debris, and then rinsed with clean solution. When not in use, store them in a clean case (clean it weekly with soap and water and make sure it dries completely) with clean solution. Special effects contact lenses are generally not suggested for wear overnight.