# The Viral Eye Colour Trend Exposed

An episode of [Vain-ish](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1824105551), 14 Apr 2026, 45 min.

Audio: https://enrichment.soundstack.com/4vjqq8/episode.flightcast.com/lxkndggywmwuuddnsjx2m177.mp3

We’re diving into the viral and controversial trend of eye colour-changing procedures. Ophthalmologist Dr Lana Del Porto breaks down how they’re done, the risks involved, and why they aren’t approved in Australia. Plus, unregulated eye drops (Jess puts them to the test), the risks of overseas surgery, and what happens if things go wrong. Seen this trend online? Here’s the truth behind it. Find us on Instagram: @vainishpodcast and thanks to our guest Dr Lana Del Porto. Hosts: @becjudd and @jessierobertsx Producer: Liza Altarejos Audio Imager: Chris Marsh Video Producer: Justin Hill Find more great podcasts at www.listnr.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] a listener production.
[0:05] I'm Bec Judd.
[0:06] And I'm Jess Roberts.
[0:07] And we're done with the smoke and mirrors.
[0:09] Fainish shares honest stories about what it takes to look amazing because we did not wake up like this.
[0:15] And you should know the stuff that we chat about on this podcast is based on our personal experiences.
[0:21] We're sharing it for your entertainment.
[0:23] It's definitely not medical advice.
[0:26] And we'll always be clear with you when something is a paid endorsement.
[0:29] Please always chat with your qualified healthcare team before making any decisions about your health.
[0:49] Hi, everyone.
[0:50] Welcome to Veineers.
[0:52] It's Bekjad.
[0:53] And I'm Jess Roberts.
[0:54] How are you going, babe?
[0:55] I'm good.
[0:56] How are you?
[0:57] So good.
[0:58] I'm up today.
[0:59] You are.
[0:59] I'm up.
[1:00] You're up and happy.
[1:01] You know why, but we can't talk about it.
[1:05] We can't talk about it.
[1:05] Mate, we would have the best R-rated podcast, but we'd get cancelled and our husbands would leave us.
[1:10] I know.
[1:11] Yeah.
[1:11] I'm so scared if I ever lost my phone and someone could break into it.
[1:16] I just saw Beck and Jess's thread.
[1:18] Our text back and forth.
[1:20] Oh, my God.
[1:21] Anyway.
[1:22] Anyway, maybe, yeah, maybe in the future.
[1:25] Just delete as we go.
[1:28] It's nothing like, it's nothing bad.
[1:30] It's just like, it's just so funny.
[1:33] It's so funny.
[1:35] And every time I'm like laughing at your text message, I was like, what are you laughing at?
[1:39] And I'm like, oh, just a funny reel.
[1:42] We're just horny bitches.
[1:44] Let's be honest.
[1:46] And that's all we will say about that.
[1:48] That is all we'll say.
[1:49] Hello, Chris.
[1:49] Hello, Val.
[1:52] But other than that.
[1:53] For our husbands.
[1:54] Yeah, for our husbands.
[1:55] Of course.
[1:55] Of course.
[1:56] Other than that, we are on a.
[1:58] Exercise bender.
[1:59] Oh, exercise bender.
[2:02] And I don't do exercise benders, but I'm now on one.
[2:05] You are.
[2:06] I am.
[2:06] And this is so funny because as you guys know, Jess is peak ADHD.
[2:13] And right now, her hyper focus is exercise, which is so good.
[2:18] And I love it because I do a lot of exercise.
[2:21] Yeah, yeah.
[2:21] And because I've said it now on a national, maybe global podcast, I reckon it's going to hold you accountable.
[2:29] I know.
[2:29] And you're going to do it all year.
[2:30] This isn't going to be an ADHD hyper focus for two weeks.
[2:33] You are in.
[2:34] I'm in.
[2:35] I'm in.
[2:36] In.
[2:36] Because I do.
[2:37] Like I start something and then I do it for about three weeks.
[2:39] I'm like, all right, finish, done.
[2:41] Like I just get over things very quickly.
[2:43] That's how your brain is.
[2:44] Like that's not a personality flaw.
[2:46] That's just how you're wired.
[2:47] Yeah, I'm just bored.
[2:47] I get bored.
[2:48] You've done it.
[2:48] Tick the box.
[2:49] Move on.
[2:49] Try everything in life.
[2:51] Yeah, I think it just needs to be a dangled trophy at the end of everything.
[2:54] That's 100% it.
[2:56] And then I'll be fine.
[2:56] If it's a competition and there's a prize, all of a sudden your tail starts wagging.
[3:02] It does.
[3:03] Your ears prick up and you are on.
[3:05] I've seen it.
[3:06] Yeah.
[3:06] And you know what is kind of annoying for someone like me who trains all the time and plays all the time is when your tinny ass joins a game and all of a sudden there's a prize and you lift and you beat everyone else on the court because you go to another level when there's a prize to be won and you beat us all and we're there, you know, for years, training, playing, training, playing.
[3:29] You just waltz on in and dominate.
[3:31] I'm just like...
[3:33] I don't, I don't, I honestly, I'm so competitive.
[3:36] I don't know what it is, but you know, I think it's like when it comes to like tennis or running or whatever, I think having that dance background for so long.
[3:45] Because you danced your whole life.
[3:46] My whole life.
[3:47] So it's, when I'm on the court, it's just like, it's almost like a dance.
[3:50] You kind of play like you're dancing.
[3:52] Yeah.
[3:53] Yeah.
[3:53] So I've started cardio tennis.
[3:55] I have also...
[3:56] Which is the best, by the way, because you don't have to serve.
[3:58] You just run and hit and run and hit.
[4:00] Because we hate running.
[4:01] We hate running.
[4:03] But with cardio tennis, they just play the music and the coach just feeds the balls the whole time.
[4:07] We checked after a cardio session once.
[4:09] We'd run 6Ks.
[4:11] I couldn't run 6Ks on a treadmill.
[4:13] I'd die of boredom.
[4:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[4:14] Right?
[4:15] But in a cardio tennis, you just run and run and run.
[4:17] And it's the biggest endorphin rush after.
[4:19] Oh, it is.
[4:20] I nearly vomited today.
[4:21] Yeah.
[4:21] That's getting in the crazy zone.
[4:22] That's where you want to be.
[4:23] Because how good does it feel after?
[4:24] Oh, no.
[4:25] You feel so good.
[4:26] You're like floating.
[4:27] I'm floating now.
[4:28] But like there I was like on the court.
[4:29] And then it's like I was doing like American doubles.
[4:32] Yeah.
[4:33] And I was just like, you know, first to four, that kind of thing.
[4:36] Anyway, but I kept winning.
[4:37] I'm not.
[4:37] Of course you did because it was a competition.
[4:39] It was a competition.
[4:40] But then I'm like, I'm feeling really sick now.
[4:42] I feel like I'm going to vomit.
[4:43] I haven't eaten breakfast and I'm just like, no.
[4:45] And then all of a sudden I just keep going.
[4:46] I'm like, I was literally trying to miss the ball, but I couldn't because my head was in the zone.
[4:52] You were in the zone.
[4:53] Anyway, I just walked off the court and go, I've got to go to work.
[4:55] Bye.
[4:56] Do you know one of the funniest things with you was like, you've never played a game of netball in your life, right?
[5:02] No.
[5:03] And so I coach our girls' team.
[5:05] I used to coach our girls' team.
[5:06] netball team, they're like under 11s.
[5:08] And at training, every now and again, we do a scratch match and I'd get the mums watching to join in so we could make up two teams.
[5:16] And I said, Jess, you got to jump in, you're playing.
[5:19] And I put her in wing defense, the most underappreciated, but very important position.
[5:24] And she's like, what's that?
[5:25] And I said, all you need to do
[5:28] is stick like glue to the person who's got WA on their bib.
[5:33] Do not let her out of your sight.
[5:36] I don't care if you don't touch the ball, but I don't want your WA to touch the ball, right?
[5:41] So we play, oh my God, I've uncovered a future diamond.
[5:46] She was so good.
[5:48] She was best on ground and she's just there, she's flitting around.
[5:51] The wing attack didn't get a ball at all.
[5:53] And I'm like, do you want to come up?
[5:55] play in my team on the Wednesdays.
[5:58] These guys were 10 year old kids.
[6:01] I was towering over them.
[6:04] And I also, it's like when I play tag with my kids, you know how like when you play tag, you let your kids win.
[6:08] Oh, hell no.
[6:09] I did not let them win.
[6:11] I will make sure I win.
[6:13] Like there's just no, I just, yeah, competitive sport.
[6:16] Maybe I shouldn't do it.
[6:18] So you've started your cardio tennis.
[6:20] Your husband's finally built your sauna.
[6:22] So you're in your wellness era.
[6:23] Yes.
[6:24] You're going to do your hot Pilates.
[6:25] And then you sent around a group text the other night.
[6:27] And I just couldn't because I'm just maxed out.
[6:30] But it was, hey, girls, who wants to join a dance class?
[6:37] And two other mums opted in.
[6:40] Yeah.
[6:40] What the hell?
[6:41] Oh, no, I've got another three that have opted in.
[6:43] There's five of us now.
[6:43] There's five of you.
[6:44] Yeah.
[6:45] How many nights a week?
[6:46] Just one night a week.
[6:47] And what is it?
[6:48] So it's called Commercial in Heels.
[6:50] Commercial in Heels.
[6:51] Yeah.
[6:51] So we're wearing heels.
[6:52] Oh, my God.
[6:53] My hip, my back.
[6:56] Oh.
[6:56] No, so it's called commercial.
[6:58] It's kind of like jazz and hip hop.
[6:59] It's like what all the pop stars do, like Britney Spears on music videos, like your Lady Gaga.
[7:04] So it's called commercial dancing.
[7:05] It's just, yeah, commercial dancing.
[7:06] So we've got, there's a class that now runs, and it's through my children's dance class.
[7:11] They saw you coming.
[7:12] Yeah, yeah.
[7:12] It says over 18.
[7:13] I was like, oop, done, I'm in.
[7:15] And yeah, we get to dance in heels.
[7:18] I won't be doing the concert though because I do think my children will disown me.
[7:22] But how good would the concert be?
[7:25] So the concerts at the end of the year that you see them kind of, the mum's posting, they're like,
[7:29] And the daughters, they're all dressed up and they get the flowers given to them.
[7:31] It's like a full cult.
[7:33] Yeah.
[7:33] The makeup, the hair.
[7:34] Like it's, it is full dance mums.
[7:36] Yeah.
[7:37] It is.
[7:37] You need to do it.
[7:38] I know.
[7:39] You need to do it.
[7:39] I want to.
[7:40] You and the other mums.
[7:41] I want to, but my kids will just send me.
[7:42] They have it on a separate day to the kids.
[7:44] Nah, fuck it.
[7:44] I'm just going to do it.
[7:45] They're like, um.
[7:47] And then you know what?
[7:48] You're going to win.
[7:49] I'm going to get the trophy at the end.
[7:51] I'm going to get a scholarship.
[7:52] Make sure your daughters don't get it.
[7:53] That trophy's mine, bitch.
[7:55] There's a trophy.
[7:56] I'll be at that trophy
[7:58] Oh, God.
[8:06] Okay, Jess, we've been wanting to talk about this for such a long time.
[8:10] So long.
[8:11] It's eye colour change surgery.
[8:14] Yes.
[8:15] And how did it all come about?
[8:16] Oh, like TikTok and Instagram and... Well, you actually tried some colour change eye drops.
[8:23] Yeah, no, but the whole discussion around it was you got gifted these...
[8:28] What are they called?
[8:29] Oh, the contact lenses.
[8:30] Contact lenses.
[8:31] That's right.
[8:32] And you're like, I'd be so much hotter and better if they were blue or a bit lighter.
[8:37] And I put the blue in and I looked ridiculous.
[8:38] Yeah.
[8:39] I put the green in and I didn't look like Megan Gale, unfortunately.
[8:42] But do you know what actually did look really good?
[8:44] The hazel.
[8:44] The hazel.
[8:45] Yeah.
[8:46] Like just the toffee, like your daughter Scarlett's eye color.
[8:48] Yeah.
[8:48] Just a lighter brown actually looked really good and natural and not fake.
[8:52] Yeah.
[8:53] And then I was like, hmm.
[8:55] Instagram algorithm must have been listening.
[8:57] And I started, well, we both started getting served permanent eye color change, drops, surgery.
[9:04] Yeah.
[9:04] You bought the drops to test them, trial them for vanish.
[9:08] Because my eyes were really bad at that time.
[9:10] I couldn't see.
[9:10] She's so blurred.
[9:11] So I thought, let's just make them even worse and just throw some shit in my eyes.
[9:16] Yeah.
[9:16] So you got the ones that are meant to make your eyes like bright blue.
[9:20] And then...
[9:21] We were getting served all these reels from, I think, Turkey, where these people who naturally had quite dark hair and really dark eyes and dark skin were going in and getting this surgery and coming out looking like White Walkers.
[9:37] Yes.
[9:37] Yes.
[9:38] Yes.
[9:38] Yes.
[9:39] Zombies.
[9:39] Zombies.
[9:40] Bright blue and bright green.
[9:42] And they kind of looked...
[9:44] Like magical, but it was quite full on.
[9:46] Yeah.
[9:47] But then we also then sat there and had a discussion like, should we do it?
[9:51] I would love to do it.
[9:51] But one thing I noticed in all the patients in their afters were how red the whites of their eyes were.
[9:59] And me naturally having dry eye and kind of eye damage from the thing we spoke about last time when we did an eye ebb.
[10:04] When she was a mermaid.
[10:05] When I was a mermaid in a whiskey bottle.
[10:07] If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, go back and listen to that laser eye surgery potty.
[10:11] But my eyes are a bit cooked and I thought, gosh, I'd love to permanently change my eye color.
[10:16] But doing that would, I think, ruin my eyes for life because I'm already on the verge.
[10:20] Yeah.
[10:21] But it still looks insane.
[10:24] Yeah.
[10:24] And we're still so interested in the surgeries you can have for this.
[10:29] I mean, never say never.
[10:31] Never say never.
[10:31] You know, who knows what we'll do.
[10:33] We'll do anything.
[10:34] So today we have got Dr. Lana Di Porto to come on and actually break down all the surgeries and all the things that you can do to change your eye color.
[10:45] Yeah.
[10:45] And if it's good or bad.
[10:47] She's back.
[10:48] She is back.
[10:49] Laser expert.
[10:50] Yes, yes.
[10:51] Is back.
[10:52] Dr. Lana, tell us again about your qualifications.
[10:56] So I am an ophthalmologist.
[10:57] Yes.
[10:58] That makes me an eye surgeon.
[10:59] And I trained here in Australia and then I did some training in London as well to subspecialise.
[11:05] So I did cataracts and laser refractive surgery as well as squint surgery and a few other things like to reduce.
[11:11] What's squint surgery?
[11:13] Yeah.
[11:13] In a nutshell.
[11:14] Oh, mate.
[11:15] In 10 seconds.
[11:16] Tell you what.
[11:16] Makes us not squint.
[11:17] Yeah.
[11:18] Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
[11:20] No, it's when your eyes are turning in or out or down.
[11:23] So that's what I was doing this morning.
[11:25] Oh, I love that you've been scrubbed in.
[11:27] She's in here looking bougie, got a red lip and a wing.
[11:31] It's all for you guys.
[11:32] I think she's got a day after.
[11:33] I think she's got a day after too.
[11:37] Okay, so squint is when I do see it in a lot of kids.
[11:40] Yes, exactly.
[11:41] So you do it for kids but also for adults.
[11:43] Actually, one of my dogs has got it.
[11:46] I'm not doing your dog.
[11:47] It does.
[11:50] Yes, that's it.
[11:51] Send me a pic.
[11:52] I'll diagnose it for you.
[11:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[11:57] Done.
[11:57] Send me the pic.
[11:58] So Jess and I are a little bit obsessed with this.
[12:01] It's one of those things that you look at and you go, oh, my God, that is that –
[12:05] unreal but and we have these fantasies like how cool would it be to change your eye color and then we're like no fuck no yeah yeah yeah so I want to know what is the official medical name for procedures that change eye color there isn't one all-encompassing medical name for changing your eye color rather there are three different names for the three different ways that it can be done
[12:27] Three different ways.
[12:28] Okay.
[12:29] So there's keratopigmentation, which is the one that you're getting surfed up from Turkey where the people look like zombies or white walkers afterwards.
[12:38] It's kind of cool though.
[12:39] Yeah.
[12:40] For Game of Thrones.
[12:42] I find it creepy.
[12:42] Yeah.
[12:43] Then there's laser depigmentation or there's iris implants.
[12:47] Yeah.
[12:48] Ooh.
[12:48] Can you explain how each one works in really simple terms?
[12:52] Okay.
[12:52] So keratopigmentation is relatively new.
[12:55] So it's done using a femtosecond laser, which is the same laser that you have for laser eye surgery.
[13:01] Okay.
[13:02] But instead of creating like a flap to do LASIK, it's actually used to make tunnels.
[13:09] So they make tunnels in your cornea, about 50% depth in your cornea, and then they inject dye into the tunnels.
[13:18] So it's like a tattoo.
[13:19] It is corneal tattooing.
[13:22] Okay.
[13:23] However, they spare the central five millimetres so you can see.
[13:27] Otherwise, your pupil won't get lice.
[13:30] That sounds like super dangerous and like really wrecking your eye.
[13:34] And really invasive.
[13:36] But it's also like with the tattooing, like the paint leak.
[13:39] And fade?
[13:40] Yes and yes.
[13:41] So I've got all of that for you as we go through it.
[13:44] Oh, gosh.
[13:44] And this is not legal in Australia.
[13:46] It's not legal anywhere.
[13:47] Oh.
[13:48] Yeah.
[13:49] It's not legal anywhere.
[13:49] It's just rogue over in Turkey.
[13:51] Well, it's not just rogue in Turkey.
[13:52] There's a couple guys in Manhattan.
[13:54] There's people in Europe that are doing it.
[13:56] So they inject dye into the tunnel and then, you know, in the short term the eye's really, really bright in colour but then it slowly fades with time.
[14:07] And then there's a whole bunch of aftercare that's required as well.
[14:10] There's a whole bunch of complications that can occur.
[14:12] So it's not TGA approved, which is our governing body, which is Therapeutic Goods Association.
[14:19] But in the US, it's called the FDA, Food and Drug Administration.
[14:24] But people get the two confused.
[14:26] And then Europe has their own governing body.
[14:27] So it's not approved by anyone.
[14:29] So patients that are getting this done are signing waivers.
[14:32] Right.
[14:32] Yeah.
[14:33] Like, I will not sue you even though I know that this could cause blindness.
[14:36] Right.
[14:36] Right.
[14:36] Yeah.
[14:37] Oh, yeah.
[14:37] That is so full on.
[14:38] Like, I'm vain, but I am not that vain.
[14:40] Exactly.
[14:41] That's a little bit ish.
[14:42] Yeah.
[14:43] Vision is so important.
[14:44] Like, obviously, I've had eye surgery done last year and I got my vision back.
[14:49] And now I feel comfortable driving with her because before, I was like, thank God she's in a Tesla.
[14:54] Yes.
[14:54] Because that will save her driving if she's blind.
[14:56] I'm like, she's driving.
[14:58] Yeah.
[14:58] I mean, these cars drive themselves right, Jess.
[15:00] Yeah, yeah.
[15:00] We're not going to crash in this car, right?
[15:02] Right.
[15:03] And also I can play tennis now because I can see a ball coming at me.
[15:06] Exactly.
[15:07] But it's like it'd be so hard.
[15:08] And people are actually risking this.
[15:10] I haven't even told you all the complications yet.
[15:12] I wonder what vision impaired people actually think about these surgeries.
[15:16] They would be like, you privileged idiots who don't understand how lucky you are.
[15:22] Yeah.
[15:23] Very good point.
[15:23] So that keratopigmentation, which is the tattooing.
[15:26] Yes.
[15:27] That's one.
[15:27] All right.
[15:28] What's next?
[15:28] Next, you've got laser depigmentation.
[15:30] So...
[15:32] This is done with a YAG laser.
[15:34] Like every ophthalmologist has a YAG laser in their general ophthalmologic
[15:38] Normally, the YAG laser is used to shoot little holes in a person's iris to prevent or treat anglicologic glaucoma.
[15:48] It can also be used to clean up the lens capsule after cataract surgery because that can get opacifications on it and various other things.
[15:56] Now, they started using laser depimitation for certain things on the iris.
[16:02] So let's say you've got a big freckle on your iris.
[16:05] You've got blue iris with a big...
[16:08] Brown, freckle, you don't like it.
[16:09] Yeah.
[16:09] So they started depigmenting those and then realised, oh, hang on, this can be expanded to changing people's eye colour.
[16:17] By lightening it.
[16:18] Absolutely.
[16:19] So you're shooting off the pigment.
[16:21] So it takes a lot of sessions though.
[16:23] So you do four treatments in a row, four days in a row, then you have a few months off and then repeat and then repeat.
[16:29] You've got to keep going until you get to the desired eye colour.
[16:33] A couple of caveats though.
[16:34] So if you've got really dark brown eyes, they're probably not going to go blue.
[16:38] They'll go grey.
[16:39] Yeah.
[16:40] Okay.
[16:40] Well, they don't go like a toffee sunset.
[16:42] They can.
[16:43] They can.
[16:43] Ask him for a friend.
[16:44] LAUGHTER
[16:48] But the thing is you're shooting off a lot of pigment.
[16:50] You can't shoot it all off at once, right, because then you have an eye full of pigment.
[16:53] Your pressure will be sky high.
[16:54] Sorry to interrupt.
[16:55] Is this like when you get IPL on your face when you shoot off the pigment on your sun damage, I've got a big patch on my forehead now that I'm going to get zapped off?
[17:02] Similar idea.
[17:03] It just gets rid of the pigment.
[17:04] Similar idea.
[17:05] So it's like IPL for your eyes.
[17:06] Similar idea.
[17:07] Yep.
[17:07] Okay.
[17:07] But you can't do it all at once.
[17:08] You do get a pressure rise because you've got all this loose pigment that then blocks up the drainage pathway of your eye.
[17:13] So you can get glaucoma.
[17:15] You can get acute glaucoma.
[17:17] And then you get inflammation.
[17:18] So the iris doesn't like being shot at.
[17:20] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[17:21] So the iris will get inflamed.
[17:23] Your eye will go red.
[17:24] You'll be light sensitive.
[17:25] You have to use lots and lots of anti-inflammatory drops like what you were on.
[17:28] Yeah, forever or just acutely?
[17:30] No, for weeks.
[17:30] For weeks, yeah.
[17:31] And then you've got to repeat, repeat, repeat.
[17:33] So that's...
[17:34] That one.
[17:35] I haven't told you the complications yet, but that's just kind of... Yeah, in a nutshell.
[17:39] In a nutshell.
[17:40] And then there's iris implant surgery, which I'm just going to give it away, is the absolute worst of the three by far.
[17:47] Right.
[17:48] And is this approved?
[17:49] Is this TGA approved?
[17:50] No.
[17:50] And this is so banned that it's like illegal in basically every country.
[17:54] Yeah.
[17:55] People still do it?
[17:56] Well, yes.
[17:57] In dodgy, dodgy places, people still do it.
[17:59] Yeah.
[17:59] But this is the one that makes young people blind fast.
[18:03] Oh.
[18:04] So in this one, you are inserting a prosthetic iris on top of your existing iris.
[18:12] So they take a brown iris and put a pretend blue one on top.
[18:16] Like an ear case.
[18:17] And there's no space for it, right?
[18:18] Yeah.
[18:19] So the problems that you get are enormous and fast.
[18:23] Right.
[18:24] It's scary how bad it is.
[18:25] Right.
[18:25] So, yeah.
[18:27] So I've got an ICL, which is, if no one heard the first episode we did on my eyes and laser and stuff, I've got, it's like a permanent contact that's been placed into my eye for vision.
[18:39] Can you do like coloured contacts and like kind of do what I've done and put it into the eye, but with a colour?
[18:44] That's kind of what they're doing, except that your contact is behind your iris on top of your human lens.
[18:50] Okay.
[18:51] These are on top of the iris.
[18:52] Right.
[18:53] So this is like a permanent contact.
[18:54] Yeah.
[18:55] No.
[18:56] Which one?
[18:56] Hers is a permanent contact.
[18:57] Mine's permanent.
[18:58] The new implant.
[18:59] But it's a permanent contact that goes on top of the iris.
[19:02] And the problem with that is that the edges of the iris are your drainage system for the eye.
[19:08] There's like a spongy system on the edges of the iris that absorb the fluid because your eye is constantly making fluid and absorbing it.
[19:14] And it blocks it off.
[19:16] Right.
[19:16] It blocks it off.
[19:17] It permanently scars it and leaves you with debilitating glaucoma and blindness.
[19:21] Right.
[19:22] What is a glaucoma?
[19:23] Elevated eye pressure that then damages the optic nerve.
[19:26] Okay.
[19:26] And causes visual field loss and tunnel vision.
[19:28] When you see someone's eyes, can you go, you've got a glaucoma?
[19:31] It's always... Not from the front.
[19:32] Yeah.
[19:33] So when I examine a patient on the slit lamp microscope and I take a lens, I can use that lens to look at the back of their eye in real time and look at their optic nerve.
[19:42] So when they have glaucoma, the optic nerve looks terrible.
[19:45] There's all this loss of nerve fibers.
[19:46] Okay.
[19:47] So, and the other way you can look for glaucoma is to actually put... We're getting very...
[19:51] you know, science-y now, you put a mirrored contact lens on the patient's eye to look into those angles of the iris, to look at that spongy system called the trabecular meshwork to see if it's blocked, to see if it's scarred.
[20:04] That's how you examine someone for glaucoma in your rooms.
[20:06] Okay.
[20:07] But you as just a person looking at me, you couldn't tell I have glaucoma.
[20:11] Okay.
[20:12] So who originally developed these procedures and was it for medical or for cosmetic use?
[20:17] So I'm not going to give you the who's because I don't know.
[20:20] But I can tell you the why's and how.
[20:22] Yeah, exactly.
[20:23] So in terms of the keratopigmentation, this is corneal tattooing and this was originally devised to mask scars.
[20:31] So you've got an ugly corneal scar, you've got an ugly
[20:34] they tattoo it blue over the top so that you don't look like a white walker with a white cornea.
[20:38] Yeah.
[20:39] And it used to be done with little needles, like an actual tattoo on your skin, which some people still do.
[20:45] They still do that on the eye, which is a bad idea.
[20:46] You can get a penetrating eye injury.
[20:48] Anyway, I'm off topic.
[20:49] So these days they use the tunnels using the femtosecond laser.
[20:54] But the tunnel setting on the femtosecond laser is not designed for this.
[20:58] The tunnel setting was designed to treat keratoconus.
[21:03] Okay.
[21:04] So to create a tunnel and then you insert a plastic ring in that tunnel to like level up the cornea when it's not round anymore.
[21:14] Right.
[21:15] And so now they're using the tunnels off-label for this business.
[21:17] Yeah.
[21:18] And how do they put the dye in?
[21:20] Like just drop it in with a dropper or?
[21:22] No, no, with a cannula.
[21:23] So first they have to, a little bit like what I do with the lenticular surgery, you have to go into the, well, I don't make tunnels, I make lenticulars, but into the space created and dissected to create the space.
[21:38] Mm-hmm.
[21:38] And you inject the dye and you have to inject the dye multiple times to get the desired color.
[21:43] Yeah, well, you do that to put a permanent contact in so people can see.
[21:47] Well, it's a different thing, isn't it?
[21:49] Yeah, yeah.
[21:50] So now the laser depimitation, I've kind of alluded to this.
[21:54] So everyone has a YAG machine in their rooms and usually it's used to treat problems with the eye like glaucoma.
[22:01] Mm-hmm.
[22:02] But as I said before, it can also be used to change your eye colour and lighten.
[22:07] And that was just like a coincidental finding.
[22:09] Well, they just kind of thought about it.
[22:10] So they were treating it for an unsightly iris freckle.
[22:14] And then they thought, hang on, what about those people that are born with multicoloured eyes, so heterochromia?
[22:20] So my brother has that.
[22:21] I love that.
[22:22] He's got one blue eye and one eye that's half blue and half brown.
[22:26] That's the, what's her name?
[22:28] Kate Bosworth.
[22:28] Bosworth, yes.
[22:30] Yes.
[22:30] And so you can treat it, it was used for that.
[22:32] So some people are like, well, I don't like that half of my iris is brown, turn it blue.
[22:36] So it was used for that.
[22:37] And then they thought, well, hang on, if we can use it for an iris freckle or iris heterochromia or multicoloured iris,
[22:43] Why can't we use it for cosmetic reasons?
[22:45] And so that – it kind of was a more natural progression than some of these other things.
[22:49] I mean, is that popular?
[22:50] No.
[22:51] No, and they're not doing it here.
[22:52] Yeah.
[22:52] Where do they do it, like commercially and approved?
[22:55] Anywhere or not?
[22:56] Well, I'm sure you'd find it in Turkey.
[22:57] Everything's in Turkey.
[22:58] Yeah.
[22:59] And then there's the iris implants, which you can kind of guess.
[23:02] Those were created for people that don't have an iris.
[23:05] So some people have terrible injuries to their eyes and their iris gets destroyed.
[23:11] Or they're born with an iris, which is called aniridia.
[23:14] And so these poor people are so light sensitive because basically there's no iris, so everything's pupil.
[23:19] So they're taking too much light.
[23:20] So...
[23:21] That's different though because you're putting in an iris implant into someone that doesn't have an iris.
[23:24] Yeah.
[23:25] There is space for it.
[23:26] Yeah.
[23:26] Yes.
[23:27] Yeah.
[23:27] You're not putting an iris on top of an iris.
[23:29] Yeah.
[23:29] Wow.
[23:30] Yeah.
[23:30] Yeah.
[23:31] And so those are the reasons.
[23:33] Just the thought that people actually perform that surgery makes me feel a bit ill.
[23:39] It's sickening, isn't it?
[23:40] It is.
[23:40] It's like you know that you're going to cause this able-bodied young person to go blind and you're doing it anyways.
[23:47] It's disgusting.
[23:47] Yeah.
[23:47] Wow.
[23:47] It's disgusting.
[23:49] Wow.
[23:50] Yeah.
[23:50] We've touched on a little bit of what can go wrong.
[23:53] Have we missed anything?
[23:55] And also after that, can we reverse it?
[23:58] There is obviously a lot of things that can go wrong.
[24:01] And so you kind of need to break it up for each procedure into short-term and long-term complications.
[24:07] Yeah.
[24:08] So for keratopigmentation, the short-term complications are inflammation, which is the most common, foreign body sensation, pain and light sensitivity.
[24:20] You can also, which is really interesting, end up reducing the person's eye pressure, which is concerning.
[24:26] You can get bacterial infections, swelling of the cornea, itching, tearing, and those are the short-term.
[24:32] And then long-term are similar.
[24:34] You can get like constant foreign body sensation,
[24:37] constant light sensitivity, and then these can persist.
[24:42] But the most significant long-term complication is that you can get vessels growing into your cornea, rust formation in your cornea.
[24:51] Rust.
[24:52] Thinning of the cornea and a regular steepening of the cornea or induced astigmatism.
[24:59] Yeah.
[24:59] So you're giving people astigmatism.
[25:00] Okay.
[25:01] Oh, gosh.
[25:01] So it's like, no.
[25:02] Oh, gosh.
[25:03] If you see this on TikTok, guys.
[25:04] Don't do it.
[25:05] That is a long list of complications.
[25:08] Do you know what I find so, so irritating?
[25:11] And I don't know if people are as bad as me, but you said something about foreign body feeling.
[25:16] Sensation, yeah.
[25:16] Sensation.
[25:17] Yeah.
[25:17] If I have like one tiny little fluff or little strand or anything in my eye, it takes over my whole body and my whole feeling and it does my head in until I can find it and remove it.
[25:29] That was my tennis the other week.
[25:30] And usually it's like when you wear like something fluffy and it's one tiny strand that you can't even see and you're there and you're trying to get it out of your eyelashes but you can't see it and you're trying and trying again.
[25:40] That just drives me mad.
[25:42] Imagine having something injected and having that feeling all the time like something stuck in your eye.
[25:47] Okay.
[25:47] I would lose my mind.
[25:48] I'd be in a mental institution.
[25:49] I'd go crazy.
[25:50] I'd actually lose my freaking mind.
[25:52] Do you know what the worst is?
[25:53] Sometimes when you've got an eyelash that's pointing the wrong way and it's stabbing you in the eye, you need to rip it out.
[25:58] No, that was my tennis.
[25:58] They turn into styes those months.
[25:59] I know.
[25:59] I was literally at tennis the other week and I literally sat there with this feeling and I was just at my eye trying to get whatever I – What was it?
[26:07] It was an eyelash that was going in.
[26:09] Going the wrong way.
[26:10] So I couldn't get it out –
[26:11] Bloody eyelash.
[26:11] Imagine having that permanently.
[26:13] As I said, I'd go crazy.
[26:14] Could not.
[26:15] Crazy.
[26:16] Okay, so laser deprecitation.
[26:18] So look, you can kind of guess at this one.
[26:20] So you're going to get an inflamed iris.
[26:22] We know that's going to happen because you're shooting at it and loosening all this pigment.
[26:26] You're going to get an elevation in your eye pressure because you've loosened all this pigment, which is now blocking off the drainage pathway.
[26:32] But those are kind of temporary and you can treat them with drops.
[26:35] So the patients get pressure controlling drops like glaucoma drops and they get anti-inflammatory drops after those four consecutive days and then you keep repeating them.
[26:44] So in terms of longer-term problems, you can end up with pupil deformities if someone's shooting it really, you know, too much.
[26:53] Because the iris is what forms your pupil.
[26:55] Yeah, yeah.
[26:56] And that's the thing, unsatisfactory colour.
[26:59] So, you know, you may end up with just a grey eye.
[27:02] Yeah.
[27:03] You know, it might not have any actual colour anymore.
[27:05] It doesn't look like much of anything.
[27:07] And you can't put the pigment back.
[27:08] Like, it's permanent.
[27:09] You definitely can't.
[27:10] No, just don't.
[27:10] Yeah.
[27:11] So, obviously, like, the laser depigmentation, you do that for, obviously, other medical reasons.
[27:18] Is this TGA approved at all?
[27:20] No.
[27:20] Not really.
[27:21] No, and no one really has asked for it.
[27:23] Yeah.
[27:24] Because it's like no one knows about it until now.
[27:26] But as you're probably picking up what I'm putting down, of the three, it's probably the least damaging.
[27:32] Damaging.
[27:32] Still damaging.
[27:33] Still pretty bad.
[27:35] Yeah.
[27:35] But if I had to have one or die, if someone had a gun to my hand and said, do one of these three, I'd say, laser depigmentation.
[27:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[27:43] Yeah.
[27:43] So this here is like...
[27:44] you might not get the colour that you want.
[27:47] So many times going in and, you know, doing the little holes.
[27:49] Over and over and over again.
[27:50] Over and over again.
[27:50] Like surely with that cause.
[27:51] You can end up shooting like and creating a cataract.
[27:54] So you can end up, because right behind the iris is the lens.
[27:56] Yeah.
[27:57] So you're going too deep, you're shooting holes in the person's lens.
[27:58] And if you shot mine, I probably went out to see again.
[28:01] Yeah.
[28:01] Because it would ruin my...
[28:02] I'd be shooting your ICL.
[28:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[28:05] And you spoke about the iris implants, blindness.
[28:09] Oh, that is so... Oh, but let me hit you with it because it is brutal.
[28:13] 60% of people get iris inflammation, 60%.
[28:16] Wow.
[28:17] A third of people end up getting glaucoma so bad they need glaucoma surgery.
[28:21] Wow.
[28:22] And 20% of people end up needing a corneal transplant.
[28:26] Oh.
[28:26] What's that?
[28:27] When the cornea decompensates so badly that it's no longer clear enough to look through.
[28:32] So do you get that from somebody else or is it like a... From a dead person.
[28:35] Like, yeah, so it's actually like a new eye.
[28:37] Okay, stop.
[28:38] Yeah, White Walker.
[28:39] Whoa.
[28:40] Whoa.
[28:40] Whoa.
[28:40] Whoa.
[28:49] So these are all a hard no.
[28:52] If someone's wanting to change their eye colour, what do you think about the drops that Jess tried?
[28:58] When you were in Bali.
[29:00] Okay, so.
[29:02] Explain to us what they looked like.
[29:04] So I actually went online to go find them again because I bought them online.
[29:09] Timu, she got it from Timu.
[29:10] It was a TikTok trend and they were called
[29:13] Fancy eye drops.
[29:14] Fancy eye drops.
[29:16] I mean, red flags.
[29:17] I know, right?
[29:18] I know them.
[29:18] I've seen them.
[29:19] I get served them as well.
[29:20] Yeah, I did.
[29:21] That was like in my algorithm.
[29:23] I got ad targeted, bought them.
[29:25] And then when I got it, there was no recipe.
[29:29] Like there was no instructions.
[29:31] No, no, no.
[29:31] I didn't know what was in it.
[29:33] Oh, ingredients.
[29:34] There's no ingredients.
[29:35] There's no ingredients.
[29:36] Yeah.
[29:36] So I had no idea what was in it.
[29:39] And I still did it.
[29:41] I was like, when I commit to something, I'm like, yep, I'm doing it.
[29:45] So anyway, so I got them and I looked at the box.
[29:47] There was no ingredients on the packet, not on the thing.
[29:50] Anyway, it couldn't change your eye color.
[29:52] It kind of just made it lighter.
[29:54] I did want to go from blue to brown.
[29:57] I want it to be just like a real light blue.
[29:59] Brighter blue.
[29:59] So I started doing them and I actually did take some before and afters and we'll prop it up onto my Instagram.
[30:07] Not much should have changed.
[30:08] Let's be honest.
[30:09] Probably my vision.
[30:10] You're just half blind.
[30:12] And then my – You were blind anyway.
[30:13] I was blind anyway at this point.
[30:14] And then – Did you notice them go bluer?
[30:16] Did they go brighter?
[30:17] Mm-hmm.
[30:20] Yes.
[30:21] Really?
[30:21] Yeah.
[30:22] Get out of here.
[30:23] They did.
[30:25] I don't know if I'm allowed to say that.
[30:27] It's an objective question.
[30:28] When you use these eye drops that I'm guessing, Lana, are not approved.
[30:32] Not approved.
[30:33] Definitely not approved.
[30:34] You got on the internet with no ingredients.
[30:36] No ingredients.
[30:36] And you put them in your eyes.
[30:37] Yeah.
[30:38] And what else did you notice?
[30:39] So I did it over a course of seven days and – because I didn't even know the instructions.
[30:44] I didn't have any instructions either.
[30:45] Yeah.
[30:45] So I just was like, oh, seven days.
[30:47] I just did it every day and I did take some before and afters.
[30:49] But then I noticed that they were going lighter.
[30:52] But then when I kind of stopped, my eye colour was back to the same.
[30:56] That's exactly right.
[30:57] Yeah.
[30:57] So they're just like a stain type thing.
[31:00] Yeah.
[31:01] It's very interesting.
[31:02] Do you know what's in them?
[31:02] Have you guys studied them?
[31:03] So when you look at the ingredients, so because, you know, no, I mean, no.
[31:07] We are not taught this at ophthalmology school.
[31:11] Yeah.
[31:11] But when you look at the ingredients, none of them really are anything special.
[31:14] A lot of them are ingredients in other eye drops.
[31:17] But essentially I think mostly they're mostly a gimmick and a scam.
[31:22] Yeah.
[31:22] And marketing.
[31:23] And marketing.
[31:23] And they essentially say that the effects last seven days.
[31:28] Right.
[31:28] So if you want them to be lighter, you have to use them forever.
[31:30] Right.
[31:30] Right.
[31:31] Okay.
[31:31] So I did it, tried it, don't recommend it.
[31:34] Ophthalmologists, you guys must hate this.
[31:36] So actually, I get random questions about this, like random DMs about this from people.
[31:42] Because people get targeted on TikTok and Instagram and I guess we actually don't know the long-term damage it can cause.
[31:50] Well, we know that a lot of people get allergy to these.
[31:53] Okay.
[31:54] So they end up with very red eyes, swollen eyes, all of this type of stuff.
[31:58] There's also a cream now.
[31:59] Have you been served that one yet?
[32:00] No.
[32:01] I've been getting it, right?
[32:02] So instead of putting it in your eye, you put this white cream under your eye.
[32:07] And it's meant to make change your eye colour.
[32:09] You got it.
[32:10] What the hell?
[32:11] And what are they saying the ingredient is?
[32:13] They won't tell you.
[32:14] Oh.
[32:15] But what they say is that these drugs edit the genes that express pigment in your iris.
[32:22] I'm like, really?
[32:24] Yeah.
[32:24] And it gets absorbed through your tear trough skin.
[32:26] None of this is making any, you know, medical sense to me.
[32:30] Yeah.
[32:30] And the eye cream I put under my eyes doesn't end up in my eyeball.
[32:35] No.
[32:35] Through my skin.
[32:36] I'll happily use it if it's going to make my eyes lighter and get rid of wrinkles.
[32:40] No.
[32:42] If it's not doing any of those, then just stuff it.
[32:44] Oh, my God, that's a high cream.
[32:46] You'll get it tomorrow.
[32:47] Genetically, now that we've spoken about it and our phones are handy, we're going to get served this.
[32:52] So that's a hard no as well.
[32:54] So with all these surgeries that you can get for eye color change, how long do they actually last for?
[33:01] So for keratopigmentation, we know that the color fades with time.
[33:06] Like any tattoo.
[33:07] Exactly.
[33:08] But what's even worse than that is that,
[33:11] As the colour fades, you don't return to a cornea that's clear.
[33:16] The cornea that remains and slowly depigments is cloudy.
[33:20] Yeah, a bit murky.
[33:22] Yes.
[33:23] And so they say that about 10% of people require more pigment at about five years.
[33:30] But, you know, these are the people that are doing it.
[33:32] So who knows if that's true.
[33:33] I don't know if I believe anything they say.
[33:34] Yeah.
[33:35] They're cowboys.
[33:36] It's kind of a new thing.
[33:37] It probably hasn't even been around for five years.
[33:40] Yeah.
[33:40] We don't have any long-term data.
[33:42] Yeah.
[33:42] So laser depigmentation is basically lifelong.
[33:45] The pigment ain't going to come back.
[33:47] The iris implants, well, they last for as long as the implant can be tolerated.
[33:52] And the studies basically show that the longer it is in there, the more damage it does.
[33:58] And so I looked at it and the time to explantate, so a lot of these are explanted at the hospital where I used to work in London.
[34:08] So you've seen a lot of these?
[34:10] Some of them.
[34:10] Yeah.
[34:11] And so the explantations, the average time to explantation is just under four years.
[34:16] By then, the damage is so great that although you can reverse the eye colour, you can't reverse the damage done to the eye.
[34:24] The irreversible damage to the cornea, irreversible damage to the drainage pathway, the glaucoma, everything that happens, the cataracts.
[34:30] They last as long as you can tolerate them.
[34:32] Do you know what's really interesting?
[34:34] Looking at all these, like the names of all these different types of surgeries,
[34:38] The one that I thought would be the safest would have been the RS implant.
[34:42] Like just thinking of a contact, but it's the worst.
[34:44] Because it's going over the top.
[34:45] And that's why they're like illegal.
[34:47] Yeah.
[34:47] Not just here, everywhere.
[34:49] They're like, don't do it.
[34:50] But these people who are doing it, are they actual ophthalmologists or like what's their background that we don't know?
[34:57] Because it's highly unethical.
[34:59] Highly, highly unethical.
[35:00] Yes, they are.
[35:01] They're ophthalmologists.
[35:02] Yes, they are.
[35:03] Gone rogue.
[35:04] Well, this is it.
[35:05] Like are they even board certified?
[35:07] Yeah.
[35:07] Are they even, you know, part of their college?
[35:10] Have they been deregistered by their college?
[35:13] So, Dr. Lana, if an Australian patient still chooses after listening to this and still decides...
[35:19] which would be crazy, that they were going to get their eyes permanently changed in colour and they're going to travel overseas to do this.
[35:27] What general safety markets or red flags should they be aware of, purely from a harm minimisation perspective?
[35:32] I'm going to divide this up into provider red flags.
[35:35] And marketing red flags.
[35:37] So if you go to the US and the ophthalmologist doing the surgery is not board certified, that's a massive red flag.
[35:48] Here we would say… Any surgery really, right?
[35:51] Oh, yeah.
[35:51] But we don't use the words board certified in Australia or New Zealand.
[35:54] We say a fellow of the college.
[35:56] Okay.
[35:56] Okay.
[35:57] Of the College of Ophthalmologists.
[35:58] So I'm a fellow of the College of Ophthalmologists.
[36:00] But in America, you'd be board certified.
[36:02] Board certified.
[36:02] What about in Europe?
[36:04] In the UK, it's fellow of the college.
[36:06] Mm-hmm.
[36:07] Each particular European country, I don't know what they have.
[36:09] Yeah, yeah.
[36:10] I'm not sure.
[36:10] But look for the kind of a membership to the governing body, I guess.
[36:13] Correct.
[36:14] You know, some of these people might not even be performing these surgeries in an actual medical setting.
[36:19] So have a look at that.
[36:20] And if they can't give you any details on their complication rates or details on what those complications are...
[36:28] if there's no long-term follow-up plan, you know, it's like, okay, I'll see you in two days and then goodbye and good luck.
[36:34] That's bad.
[36:34] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[36:36] And if they're unwilling to discuss alternatives.
[36:39] And similarly, if they are pressuring you to hurry up and sign a consent form,
[36:44] That not good.
[36:45] Right.
[36:45] That not good.
[36:46] Yeah.
[36:46] There's been no time to think about it, right?
[36:48] Yeah.
[36:48] And then marketing red flags.
[36:50] So testimonials without any verifiable medical outcomes, guarantees of 100% safety, very heavy social media marketing where it's just before and afters.
[37:01] So those types of things as well.
[37:04] Do you know anyone in Australia that's doing it?
[37:06] No.
[37:06] That's good.
[37:07] They would be booted.
[37:08] Yeah, absolutely.
[37:10] So what happens if someone does go overseas, gets this done, has horrific complications?
[37:15] You said you saw some when you were working in London.
[37:18] Where do they go for help and what is the process?
[37:21] Here in Australia, there are several pathways.
[37:24] So you could get a referral to your local ophthalmologist from your GP, or you could walk into your optometrist in your local shopping centre without a referral, say, this is what's happened.
[37:35] They would then refer you on.
[37:36] To you.
[37:37] To me or maybe directly to a hospital to have it removed immediately, depending.
[37:42] Yeah, what's the hospital in Melbourne?
[37:45] The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
[37:47] And is there a similar one in each state?
[37:50] There is the Sydney Eye Hospital.
[37:52] Mm-hmm.
[37:53] But also just about every tertiary hospital, so every big hospital has ophthalmology.
[37:59] Yeah.
[37:59] So the Alfred or Royal Melbourne or in Sydney RPA or Royal Perth or whatever.
[38:06] So you can walk in any of them, you know, don't need a referral, just walk in.
[38:09] Yeah.
[38:09] So, you know, don't sit around on it.
[38:11] How do you help?
[38:12] Like depending on what it is, I guess it's so different.
[38:16] Like if it's an implant removal or if you see someone with the eye tattooing, I guess you treat in different ways.
[38:22] But it's irreversible, right?
[38:24] Mostly, yeah.
[38:25] So, I mean, like the iris implants should be removed immediately if you find them.
[38:29] and then treat the complications.
[38:31] So if they need glaucoma surgery, do that.
[38:32] Cataract surgery, do that.
[38:34] Corneal transplant, do that.
[38:35] But it has to be staged.
[38:37] Yes.
[38:37] And what's the worst you've seen?
[38:39] Well, devastating glaucoma and blindness in a young woman.
[38:43] From an implant?
[38:44] From bilateral implants.
[38:45] How old was she?
[38:46] In her 20s or 30s.
[38:47] I don't know exactly.
[38:47] And where had she got it done?
[38:48] Yeah.
[38:49] Somewhere in Asia she was Asian.
[38:51] She had blue, yeah.
[38:52] And she got blue.
[38:53] Yeah.
[38:54] The poor honey.
[38:55] God, that is crazy.
[38:57] That is crazy.
[38:57] So what do we take from this, guys?
[39:01] Don't get iris implants.
[39:03] Coloured contact lenses are probably the only way to go, right?
[39:09] Yeah.
[39:10] It's safe-ish if they're the right material.
[39:13] If you're going to try them,
[39:16] What's your opinion on, your medical opinion on these?
[39:19] So firstly, look at the material.
[39:21] So you want silicon hydrogel or hydrogel.
[39:24] What has the most proven safety?
[39:27] The ones that are silicon hydrogel.
[39:29] They breathe better.
[39:30] In terms of safety, you want daily contact lenses.
[39:34] Yeah.
[39:34] So if you're putting it in and throwing it out at the end of the day, you should be all good.
[39:39] Yeah.
[39:39] There's little time for fungus and bacteria to get on into that corny.
[39:43] I don't want to ever tell you how I kept my contact lenses.
[39:46] I believe it.
[39:47] I've seen you do some grotty things.
[39:48] I hope it wasn't in tap water.
[39:49] Was it in tap water?
[39:51] No, I've done that a few times.
[39:52] No, mine's more and that burns.
[39:54] Tap water is terrible.
[39:56] Yeah.
[39:56] It's actually not clean.
[39:58] I know.
[39:59] It's full of acanthamoeba.
[40:00] So it's full of like little tiny little parasites.
[40:04] Yeah, well, that burned when I did that.
[40:06] But like, no, it was just like the solution in the actual thing.
[40:08] Yeah.
[40:09] I would leave that there for four weeks and just take it out, put it in, put it back in.
[40:13] Gross.
[40:14] Didn't get any eye infections, thank you, guys.
[40:15] Yes.
[40:16] Wow.
[40:17] You got lucky.
[40:17] I got lucky.
[40:19] Probably made me worse in terms of vision.
[40:21] No wonder you were so blind, Vane.
[40:23] You were lucky.
[40:24] I was so blind.
[40:25] I was so blind.
[40:26] This is what we call de-influencing.
[40:28] This is a de-influencing episode of Vanish.
[40:30] Yeah.
[40:31] Be happy with your eye colour.
[40:33] And if you're not, breed with someone with...
[40:35] Blue eyes.
[40:36] You and I both did that and all our kids ended up with bloody brown eyes.
[40:40] I know.
[40:41] My husband's got the brightest bluest eyes.
[40:44] And my half-brother and half-sister have blue eyes.
[40:48] And on my mum's side, she's mouldy, but her brother's got the best green eyes.
[40:52] And I thought surely, surely out of four, I'm going to have one with light eyes.
[40:57] None.
[40:58] Yeah, you know what I really hate?
[40:59] Boring.
[41:00] Brown is boring.
[41:01] It's not boring.
[41:01] Brown is beautiful.
[41:03] I like your brown eyes.
[41:05] Brown is beautiful.
[41:07] Brown-eyed girl.
[41:07] What's that song?
[41:08] Blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl.
[41:11] No, I didn't know that song.
[41:12] That was pretty much written about me and my husband.
[41:15] You know, you too.
[41:17] The sweetest thing.
[41:18] Yes, that's what it is.
[41:19] Yeah.
[41:19] The sweetest thing.
[41:20] And then the other thing I was going to say is, you know what really makes me so angry?
[41:24] It's when I see two brown-eyed people.
[41:26] With a blue-eyed child.
[41:28] With blue-eyed children.
[41:29] I sit there just going like.
[41:31] The rage, the jealousy, the envy.
[41:33] The envy.
[41:34] I literally said to Val, we are going to keep having kids until I get a blue-eyed baby.
[41:39] Because Val's parents are both brown eyes.
[41:42] And they've got four kids and they've got two blue and two brown.
[41:47] And they're dark eyes.
[41:48] And then my grandmother and grandfather, so my mum and her siblings, so my grandparents had brown eyes and they all had two blue eyes and two brown eyes, same thing.
[41:58] So you've got blue-eyed jeans on both sides, same as me.
[42:02] And then...
[42:03] Time for another.
[42:04] Yep.
[42:05] Time for another.
[42:06] Let's go, Val.
[42:07] I'm too busy now.
[42:08] I get so jealous.
[42:09] I get so jealous.
[42:10] Yeah.
[42:11] When those like... And they're like, yeah, it's so weird.
[42:14] The kid got born with these blue eyes.
[42:15] I know.
[42:16] And it was just like, oh, I want a surprise.
[42:17] And I'm like, oh, I yearn for that.
[42:19] I don't know.
[42:20] It's so weird.
[42:21] But they may not stay blue, you know.
[42:23] The pigment increases in childhood, so...
[42:26] If you're born blue, like my eyes are green, but I was born blue.
[42:29] These are ones where their kids are older with blue eyes.
[42:31] Oh, okay.
[42:31] Right blue.
[42:32] Fair.
[42:33] So jealous.
[42:33] I don't get jealous about anything in my life.
[42:35] I actually don't.
[42:36] I'm not a jealous person.
[42:37] But that really pisses me off.
[42:39] Yeah, yeah.
[42:39] I'd fully lie to my kids with their eye colour.
[42:42] You've got the blue eyes.
[42:43] My husband's got the blue eyes.
[42:44] Like these brown-eyed, b-wabbing.
[42:45] It's not fair.
[42:46] It's not fair.
[42:47] I'm clearly not over it.
[42:49] I never will be.
[42:49] I know.
[42:49] Gen X is so weird.
[42:51] It is so weird.
[42:51] But anyway, everyone needs to be happy with their eye colour, guys.
[42:55] Eye health is everything.
[42:56] Yeah.
[42:56] If you don't like your eye color.
[42:58] Get some contact lenses.
[42:59] Get some contact lenses.
[43:01] Silicone, hydrogen, and then throw them in the bin.
[43:03] Thanks, Dr. Lana, so much for coming in.
[43:05] That was awesome.
[43:06] Thanks for having me.
[43:06] It was always fun.
[43:07] And you answered so many questions.
[43:08] And now I'm like, I'm not even going to, you know, think about, contemplate what it would be like to do any of these because that is a hard bloody no.
[43:17] Actually, I have got a question before we sign off because since I've had my eyes done.
[43:23] Can I wear coloured contacts in now?
[43:25] Yeah, of course.
[43:26] I can now.
[43:27] Just make sure there's silicone hydrogel and dailies.
[43:29] Because I've always been like... What are you going to go for?
[43:32] Green.
[43:32] Brown.
[43:32] Oh, Borey.
[43:34] I got that.
[43:34] What's going on here?
[43:35] Borey, you are twisted.
[43:37] I'm a twisted sister.
[43:39] Because when we were in Korea, we were looking at all the contacts and you bought some.
[43:42] Yeah, I'm going to buy some when I go to Korea.
[43:43] Yeah, yeah.
[43:44] And I didn't... You can get all the colours.
[43:45] All the colours.
[43:46] The purple one.
[43:47] The purple one.
[43:48] There's stores just dedicated just to different coloured contacts.
[43:51] I need that in my life.
[43:51] I need that.
[43:52] With all different shapes and sizes.
[43:54] Like it's very unique and boutique and very special.
[43:57] I need that.
[43:58] It's very niche.
[43:58] It's very special.
[43:59] So I bought some.
[44:00] Oh, I'm going to wear them.
[44:01] Do it.
[44:01] I'm going to wear them to our next event.
[44:02] Yeah, wear them.
[44:03] Do it.
[44:04] But I wanted to buy something.
[44:05] I was like, oh, I don't want to put them in my eyes because my eyes are new.
[44:08] Oh, no, you know they're okay.
[44:09] They're okay now.
[44:09] Okay, cool.
[44:10] Yeah, yeah.
[44:10] Guess what, guys?
[44:11] I'm going out in every different color at every event now.
[44:15] Claire.
[44:16] Just don't sleep in them.
[44:17] That was epic.
[44:18] Don't sleep in them.
[44:19] Don't sleep.
[44:20] Ever.
[44:20] Thank you.
[44:21] We'll see you next time.
[44:21] Okay.
[44:22] Bye.
[44:22] Bye.
[44:22] Bye.
[44:22] Thank you.

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