The Atypical Culprit - 10 Toxic Skin Care Ingredients

Have you considered what you are putting on your skin can be causing changes to your eyes? We often purchase products if it is recommended by an ad on social media or if the brand is familiar to us, but we never check the ingredients. There has been a lot of trust put into the media to direct us to make-up, skin care and cleansers.

More and more patients are beginning to show signs of dryness and inflammatory conditions around or on their eyes before they feel the symptoms. Although dry eye disease is mult-factorial, we cannot rule out the products we use on our skin. Research is being done on the ingredients and the usual components can be doing more harm than good. For this reason, new products are being developed under extensive research to ensure they keep every ingredient clean to the skin. The ten ingredients to look out for include:

1. Alcohol
2. Formaldehydes
3. Parabens
4. Tea tree oil
5. Retin-A
6. Benzalkonium chloride (BAK)
7. Chlorphenesin
8. Argireline
9. Phenoxyethanol
10. Isopropyl Cloprostenate

The brands of skin care, make-up and cleansers recommended are created by optometrist and ophthalmologist to rule-out any of the culprits of eye irritants. Brands such as Eyes Are The Story and Twenty/Twenty Beauty give great results while keeping your eyes feeling good and looking healthy.

Not only do the products matter, but placement is critical. Tightlining or applying eyeliner to the inner waterline of your eyelid, is harmful to the glands that produce the oil component of the tears. When these glands are obstructed, the oil within the glands are unable to properly lubricate the eyes but there will also be a fair amount of makeup product on the ocular surface. This all can lead to ocular surface disease which means vision fluctuation and increased sensitivity to light. Patients who wear contact lenses will also experience an intolerance to contact lenses.

Combining this application technique with the poor-quality ingredients in makeup products can be a recipe for disaster. Taking preventative measures can reduce the risk of eye irritation, infection, and styes from developing.

We're happy to see patients for evaluation and treatment options such as BlephEx or ZEST. Some advanced patients may even benefit from OptiLight IPL and thermal pulsation (ie ILux, Lipiflow, or TearCare).