Seeing Eye to Eye about Make-Up: An Ophthalmologistâs View
August 2008
By Barbara Erny, M.D., Ophthalmology, PAMF Vision Care Center
Many times each day, I look through an eyepiece and see swirls of glitter and color, with little black specs dancing about. Unfortunately, I am not looking through a kaleidoscope. Iâm seeing the surface of my patients' magnified eyes.
Our eyes are exposed to air pollution, pollen, wind, indoor heating and air conditioning, much of which is unavoidable. The eye irritant I'm seeing, however, is much more easily avoided â make-up. Eye make up doesn't stay on lids and lashes; it gets into the tear film of the eyes.
My patients explain to me that they didnât put on any eye make-up that day. What they don't realize is that make-up can be so difficult to remove completely that, even days later, debris remains on the surface of the eye. Even facial powder gets into the eyes just from applying it to the face.
Patients regularly tell me, "I tried not wearing make-up for a couple of days and my eyes still feel gritty." I explain to them that once eyes are irritated by particles scratching the surface, they can take weeks to recover. Eyes need a chance to heal after make-up has been discontinued.
People also ask me which eye make-ups and removers are safest, and I wish I had an easy answer. First of all, any particulate matter, even the most "natural," will irritate the eyes. Finding personal products that are least toxic to your general health, though, is a very important endeavor.
In recent months, there have been frightening reports of cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics, lead in lipstick and mercury in mascara. Major gaps in public health laws allow cosmetics companies to use almost any ingredient with no restrictions and little or no requirement for safety testing. Donât let labels fool you with claims of "natural" or "herbal." Just because there's some green tea thrown in doesn't mean the product doesn't contain toxic chemicals. My general rule is that the more ingredients I can't pronounce, the more harmful the product might be. The average adult uses nine personal care products a day, containing roughly 120 chemicals, many of which are incompletely tested for toxicity.
Ladies, I know it is unrealistic to expect that we completely quit using make-up, but we can educate ourselves, scrutinize labels and buy less harmful products. Regardless of the safety and non-toxic profile of your facial products, be sure to use eye make-up remover each day. Avoid oils, petroleum jelly, cold cream or soap on the eyelids. Clean around your eyes until there is not another speck on your cotton pad!
Where to Learn More about Safe Make-Up:
- National Geographic offers an online Green Guide for cosmetics, house and pet products, and much more. You can print out their wallet-sized guide to the "Dirty Dozen" ingredients in make-up and other products: www.thegreenguide.com/products
- Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: www.safecosmetics.org
- Skin Deep: www.cosmeticdatabase.com
- National Library of Medicine's Household Products Database: www.hpd.nlm.nih.gov
