Consumer Alert
Halloween know-how: Cosmetic contacts require an Rx
Dressing up for Halloween can be fun. Revelers often use make-up, wigs and cosmetic contact lenses to complete their look.
Cosmetic contacts lenses – also known as costume or decorative contact lenses – can change the way your eye looks without correcting your vision. While they may seem like just another fashion accessory, the fact is all contacts require a prescription.
Anyone who sells you lenses without getting a copy of your prescription or verifying your prescription information with your prescriber is selling them illegally. That’s important because contacts that don’t fit can have serious consequences, including conjunctivitis (pink eye), scratches and sores on the cornea. Even blindness.
The FTC enforces the Contact Lens Rule, which requires your eye doctor to give you your prescription – whether you ask for it or not – at no extra charge. That lets you shop around for the best deal.
So if you’re in the market for cosmetic contacts, see an eye care professional for an eye exam and prescription. And only buy costume contacts from retailers who require a prescription or your eye doctor’s information, and who only sell FDA-approved contact lenses. If you come across someone selling cosmetic contact lenses without a prescription, let us know.
For a more in-depth look at your prescription rights for contacts – and glasses – read Prescription Glasses and Contact Lenses. It includes a list of what you should see in your prescription.
For advice about healthy cosmetic contact lens wear, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Topics
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.