Why Eye Makeup and Bedtime Don’t Mix

While there are lots of tricks to make those beautiful eyes sparkle and pop, it’s important to keep in mind a few key points about eye hygiene and safety when wearing eye makeup.

After a long day, it’s easy to consider just heading to bed without properly washing our faces or removing eye makeup, “just this one time.” Hang around a corneal specialist’s office long enough though, and you’ll soon be lecturing all the makeup wearers in your life not to skip this critical step.

Effects of Wearing Eye Makeup to Bed

Going to bed with eye makeup on, or not completely and properly washed off, can lead to makeup remnants getting into your eyes and disrupting your tear film, leading to irritation and dry eye disease. Dryness can also occur when makeup clogs up the Meibomian glands on the inner edges of the eyelids. When this occurs, oils responsible for holding in our tears are not able to be excreted from these glands, leading to faster evaporation of tears, as well as possible styes on the eyelids that can be painful and unsightly.

Makeup rubbing off onto your pillowcase also creates a great opportunity for bacteria to grow and build up over time. This can lead to acne breakouts or possible eye infections.

Keep Your Makeup Tools Clean

It’s also important to remember to clean your makeup tools and replace old makeup regularly. Just like your pillowcase, makeup can start to harbour bacteria over time, which can lead to serious problems under certain conditions. A scratch to the cornea with a contaminated mascara brush can lead to problems ranging from pink eye to more serious, vision-threatening and painful infections. This is one of those times where the old adage “pain is beauty” should not apply!

So even when it seems like way too much effort, be sure to take those few extra minutes at bedtime to completely remove your eye makeup. Your linens, skin, and eyes will thank you for it!