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Jessica Caswell, 13 Oct 2015

Makeup Tips For People Who Wear Contact Lenses

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Contact lenses can help you see more clearly, but if you wear them, you do have to be a little more careful about your makeup routine. Here’s what you should know about protecting your eyes while having fun with your makeup

Choosing The Right Makeup

If you wear contact lenses, you will need to choose your makeup carefully. Using the wrong makeup could result in eye irritation, damaged contact lenses, or eye infections.

Look for oil-free makeup. Makeup with oil could spread around your face and you could end up with oily makeup in your eyes and blurring your contact lenses.

Use liquid eyeliner. It takes a little more skill to apply liquid liner, but it is much safer. Using a pencil liner means you are putting pressure on your eye with a sharp, pointy, hard object. This is risky in any situation, but even worse if you’re wearing contacts. Liquid liner can be applied with a soft brush, so you don’t have to put pressure on your eyes.

Choose the right mascara. There are countless types of mascara to choose from, but look for mascara that doesn’t clump orflake since flakes could come off and irritate your eyes and cause problems with your lenses.

Use creams or pressed powder. Loose powder makeup can easily get into your eyes, which can cause irritation, damage to your lens, and, in some cases, infections. In most cases, creams are best, but if you don’t use them, you should at least use a pressed powder that is less likely to get into your eyes. You should specifically choose creams when you are looking for eyeliner and concealer, since those go right next to your eyes, but it is also smart to choose creams for blush and foundation since powdered blush could still get into your eyes when you are applying it.

Applying Your Makeup

It is always important to be careful when applying makeup near your eyes, but if you wear contact lenses, you need to take a few extra precautions to protect your eyes.

First, you should always put your contact lenses in before you start applying your makeup. Putting the lenses in after you’ve applied makeup makes it easier for your lenses to get dirty and damaged and it is easier for makeup to get trapped in your eye.

After you’ve put your contact lenses in, you can start applying makeup, but keep the following tips in mind:

Using brushes to apply makeup instead of your fingers will put less pressure on the sensitive skin around the eyes, and since brushes can be very small, you’ll have more control and be less likely to get makeup in the wrong spot.

Never put eyeliner inside your eyes. Putting liner on the water line makes it very easy for makeup to spread into your eye and get trapped by your lenses. This can cause irritation and infection. If you use eyeliner, only apply it to the outside of the eyes.

Using eyelid primer before applying eye shadow can keep the makeup in place and prevent it from spreading into your eyes.

Removing Your Makeup

You also need to be careful when taking your makeup off at the end of the day. Removing your makeup before going to bed is important because it keeps your face clean and prevents makeup from getting into your eyes and causing infections.

Remember to remove your contact lenses before removing your makeup. Wiping makeup off of your face before taking out the contacts could easily get makeup in your eyes and damage your lenses.

It may be wise to use a wipe designed specifically for removing eye makeup since in general, eye makeup can be the most difficult to remove. Instead of scrubbing your face and irritating your eyes, use a wipe to gently, but effectively remove the makeup.

If you have more questions about using makeup and contact lenses, your eye doctor can give you more advice. To learn more about protecting your vision, visit VSP Direct for tips and insights.