What does Make Up do to Contact Lens and Dry Eyes

Make Up Impact on Contact Lenses and Dry Eyes

Application of mascara to eye lashes has been a concern for contact lens wearers for years.¹  This blog describes how mascara affects contact lenses, your eye balls and what precautions to take to avoid damages to your eye health which often results in chronic dry eyes.  

How fast does mascara get onto your eye balls?

Recent research indicates oarticles from masacara reaches the precorneal tear film within 30 minutes of application.² These particles may also adhere to the corneal epithelium, the conjunctiva, and other ocular surface regions and may result in vision related problems, contact dermatitis, and loss of eye lashes puffy and swollen eye lashes.  This is particularly important in people with Blepharitis  

How does mascara affect your contact lenses?

New research performed in laboratories indicates that mascara deposits on the surface of contact lens materials and affects the lens wettability. 

Clean and new contact lenses were evaluated upon exposure to the following contaminants-

- hand creams
- eye make up removers
- mascara

Measurements were taken before and after the experiments.  The dirty contact lenses under went a 6- hour cleaning cycle using Clear Care.

Results indicate mascara resulted the most damage to pixel brightness ( transparency of the contact lenses) and left the most visible deposits on the lenses.  In addition, non-waterproof mascara resulted in the a lot of damage to transparency, and watery proof mascara particles stayed on the lenses even after 6-hour cleaning.  

Overall, hand creams and eye make up removers had minimum impact on contact lenses- the cleaning system was able to restore the lens condition.  

For people with high propensity of Blepharitis - inflammation of the eye lids,  wearing mascara may bring on the onset of this chronic eye condition resulting in chronic dry eyes.
this blog is a brief summary of a publication from .Ocular Surface New, Jan. 21, 2016

Click here to learn more about Blepharitis.  

Watch a video.about Blepharitis  

 For blepharitis look to TheraLife for help.  Recover quickly with the best eye lid cleanser on the market.  No irritations.  Fight inflammation and restore your own tears.  No more drops, no oitment,   All natural, 100% guaranteed.  

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1. Tlachac CA. Cosmetics and contact lenses. Optom Clin. 1994;4(1):35-45.
2. Goto T, Zheng X, Gibbon L, Ohashi Y. Cosmetic product migration onto the ocular surface: Exacerbation of migration after eyedrop instillation. Cornea. 2010;29(4):400-403.
3. Srinivasan S, Otchere H, Yu M, Yang J, Luensmann D, Jones L. Impact of Cosmetics on the Surface Properties of Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses. Eye Contact Lens. Jul 2015;41(4):228-235.