Contact Lenses and Make-Up: A Few Tips to Prevent Irritation

Contact lenses are not the only way to enhance eye appearance. More often than not, people who wear contact lenses also opt to wear eye make-up. Scenarios like these are inevitable. After all, why not go all the way and use both contact lenses and eye make-up to achieve the look you’ve been aiming to have?

There are a lot of issues involved with using both contact lenses and eye make-up though. Contact lens wearers who are not careful with the type of eye make-up products they are using often run into trouble with the combination of chemicals and contact lenses worn in their eyes. Troubles range from mild eye irritation to full blown eye infections that call for medical help. To avoid mishaps like these from happening, it is better to be careful and to always err on the side of caution when using eye make-up while wearing contact lenses.

The first thing that one should address is the sequence. Should the contact lenses be worn first? Should the eye make-up products be applied first? Ideally, contact lenses should be worn after the application of eye make-up. This way, the contact lenses are kept clean and fresh. Disposable contact lenses are only good for a number of hours which means one would dramatically reduce the number of hours if they’re worn while eye make-up is being applied. Applying eye make-up can take minutes or even hours if one is planning to go for complicated color palettes! For contact lens wearers who depend on their lenses to see clearly though, it is much better to wear the lenses before applying eye make-up. That is, unless you don’t mind not being able to see clearly and thereby ruining your eye make-up. This is also true for first time or novice contact lens wearers. It might be difficult for new contact lens wearers to wear the lenses when they already have their eye make-up on. There is high possibility that new contact lens wearers smudge or ruin their eye make-up in the process of trying to wear the contact lenses. Worse, there is even the possibility of getting minute particles of the eye make-up products into the lenses causing irritation.

Another thing that should be addressed is the type of eye make-up product being used. It is highly advisable to stay away from powder-based products as these products are prone to being sloughed off. Mascaras should also ideally be free from fibres if one is intending to use them with contact lenses. Like powder-based products, fibres will flake off and get into your eyes causing irritation.

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