Many of us love making our lashes look gorgeous with mascara, but are we cleaning our eye makeup off properly?
Your eyes are incredibly precious organs, so it’s important to take extra care when removing your eye makeup at the end of the day. Otherwise, you could run the risk of serious health issues from residual makeup!
Unfortunately, one woman learned it the hard way.
In 2018, an article by the American Academy of Ophthalmology shared that a woman was discovered to have leftover mascara under her eyelids.
She had worn heavy mascara for more than 25 years without removing it properly, resulting in the mascara accumulating and hardening under her eyelids!
What Happens if You Don’t Remove Your Mascara?
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In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, the patient shared that she visited a doctor after suffering from eye irritation, discharge, and an uncomfortable sensation beneath her eyelids.
To her horror, they found that she had hard calcified bumps, known as concretions, under her eyelids.
These spots were formed by her mascara residue and were linked to follicular conjunctivitis, a type of eye infection.
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These bumps are constantly irritating to the eyes, and the sensation has been compared to sandpaper scratching your eye.
Every time the patient blinked, these bumps would scratch her eyeball and cornea, posing a serious risk to her vision. After all, if a scratch got infected, it could potentially blind her!
Dr. Dana Robaei, the ophthalmologist who treated this case, said that the bumps required a 90-minute surgical procedure to remove.
Although the patient’s vision remains mostly intact, she has suffered permanent scarring to her eyelid and the surface of her cornea.
How to Properly Care for Your Eyes?
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To avoid such an experience, start caring for your eyes diligently with these useful tips:
- Never share your eye makeup with others. If you accidentally get exposed to a virus after sharing eye makeup, it can lead to a very uncomfortable and potentially dangerous infection!
- Remember to wash your makeup brushes regularly. This applies to all your makeup brushes, including eyeshadow brushes, to reduce the risk of an eye infection.
- Replace eye makeup regularly and pay attention to expiration dates, to prevent the growth of bacteria and viruses. In particular, mascara should be replaced every three months. If you’re recovering from an eye infection, don’t try to salvage your eye makeup! They will already be contaminated, so replace them immediately.
- If mascara or other eye makeup gets in your eye, be careful not to rub the eye! This can easily scratch and damage your cornea, causing irritation and posing a significant risk to your eye health.
Featured image credits: @shereeneidriss/Instagram, Caters News Agency.
