Is Your Beauty Routine Ruining Your Eyesight? Spoiler: You're Not Going to Like the Answer...

Eyes are the first thing you notice when you meet someone. So, it makes sense that we spend a considerable amount of time and money making them look their best. We invest in a good eye cream to soften fine lines or reduce the appearance of dark circles. We buy a lash-lengthening mascara and brightening concealer to look slightly more awake. But recently, I've started wondering whether we've become so preoccupied with how our eyes look that we've forgotten about how well they actually work.

It all started when I started experiencing exceptionally dry eyes after my regular Botox top-up. Having never had any eye-related issues before, I suddenly found myself constantly blinking and squinting at my laptop, rubbing my eyes and struggling to focus. The irony wasn't lost on me: I was investing in treatments designed to make my eyes look younger, yet I ended up squinting and acting like someone who desperately needed to see an optician.

But according to the experts, some of the products and treatments we're using in the pursuit of better-looking eyes could be contributing to the problem. "The makeup, skincare and treatments we're using are contributing hugely to the rise in dry eye and ocular allergies and sensitivities that we are seeing," says Nicola Alexander-Cross, optometrist and co-founder of Peep Club.

Perhaps most surprisingly, however, it's not necessarily the invasive treatments you'd expect that deserve our attention. Some of the potential offenders are the simple, everyday products sitting innocently in our bathroom cabinets—and being used every single day.

First, Let's Talk About Meibomian Glands

I'll admit, I'd never heard of a meibomian gland until I sat down with Dr Elizabeth Hawkes, Consultant Ophthalmic and Oculoplastic Surgeon, but it turns out they're rather important when it comes to eye health.

Sitting within the eyelids, close to the lashes, these tiny glands secrete the oily component of our tear film. As Dr Hawkes explains, that oil acts as a protective layer over the ocular surface. If the glands become blocked or their function is disrupted, it can contribute to conditions including blepharitis (chronic inflammation of the eyelids) and dry eye.

Dr Hawkes explains that many eye makeup products, removers and surfactants can disrupt that oily tear-film layer. Even something that sounds reassuringly 'natural' isn't automatically innocuous. Coconut oil, for example, doesn't contain preservatives but any oily product could potentially block the glands.

Dry eye might not sound particularly serious, but anyone who has experienced it will know how disruptive it can be. "You can have a red eye, a gritty eye, foreign-body sensation, and it can make wearing makeup feel uncomfortable," says Dr Hawkes.

Your Eye Makeup Remover Could Matter More Than You Think

"The products that are going to do the most damage are the ones that touch your eye itself or lash line, and the ones you use most often," says Alexander-Cross.

It's why she singles out everyday habits such as wearing eyeliner and removing eye makeup. A product you use directly around your eyes once in a while is one thing; a formula containing potential irritants that you massage over them 365 nights a year is another.

Preservatives are Alexander-Cross's "number one offender" when it comes to eye health, particularly in eye makeup removers, lash-growth serums and whitening drops because of their proximity to the lids and ocular surface. Dr Hawkes agrees that preservatives are something worth paying attention to, and there's one in particular she wants people to know about: Benzalkonium chloride, commonly shortened to BAK. It helps keep certain formulations sterile and prevents them from going off. But Dr Hawkes explains that BAK can also be toxic to the cornea, which is especially alarming seeing as BAK can be found in some eye drops—the very products we might reach for when our eyes are uncomfortable.

None of this means every mascara or preserved eye product needs to go immediately in the bin. But if your eyes are persistently dry, red, itchy or uncomfortable, it's worth looking not only at what you're putting in them, but what you're putting around them every day.

When it comes to eye makeup removers, Dr Hawkes points me towards Optase, which makes a preservative-free eye makeup remover designed for sensitive eyes. She also highlights preservative-free lubricating drops, like Hycosan, for people experiencing dryness.

It Might Be Time to Re-Think Retinol Eye Creams

Retinoids are among the best-evidenced ingredients we have for tackling visible signs of skin ageing, so it makes sense that we'd want those benefits around the very area where fine lines often appear first. But both experts urge some caution around repeated application close to the eye.

Alexander-Cross says retinoids can affect the delicate meibomian glands, while Dr Hawkes tells me that for patients with a history of dry or sensitive eyes, she may favour eye products containing ingredients such as peptides or hyaluronic acid rather than retinol.

That doesn't mean retinol is inherently "bad for your eyes", nor that everyone needs to stop using a retinoid eye cream. It's more about recognising that the ocular surface and the skin surrounding it aren't entirely separate ecosystems.

It's also one of the reasons Dr Hawkes believes there's a case for using products specifically formulated for the eye area rather than automatically extending every face product right up towards your lashes.

"The cream that you need for your face compared to what you need around your eye is different," she explains. "Eyelid skin itself is different—and, importantly, it's skin with an eyeball in the middle of it."

Dr Hawkes would also like to see more eye creams ophthalmologist-tested (which isn't the same as dermatologically tested, by the way). When products undergo appropriate ophthalmic testing, she explains, the ocular surface can be examined for signs that the formula is having an adverse effect.

Lash Serums Deserve Some Scrutiny, Too

Few products illustrate the crossover between beauty and eye health quite as neatly as lash serums. We apply them millimetres from our eyeballs, often every night for months at a time, in pursuit of longer, thicker-looking lashes.

Alexander-Cross particularly flags prostaglandin analogues, which are found in some lash-growth serums. She says they have been associated with changes including pigmentation and periorbital fat loss. But again, frequency and placement matter. Alexander-Cross's general rule is that the products most likely to affect the eyes are those used most frequently and closest to the ocular surface.

That includes the popular makeup technique 'tightlining'— applying eyeliner directly to the waterline, which places cosmetic ingredients right next to the openings of the meibomian glands.

Alexander-Cross isn't suggesting these beauty habits need to disappear altogether. Her advice is more pragmatic: lash-growth serums, tightlining and whitening eye drops may be fine occasionally, but she wouldn't recommend using them regularly.

What About Professional Tweakments?

Of course, many people have taken their eye beauty routines into the realms of clinical tweakments. "There is absolutely a spectrum when it comes to aesthetic treatments and the potential risk on eyes," says Alexander-Cross.

At the lower-risk end, she places permanent eyeliner and cosmetic tattooing, lash lifts and tints, lash extensions and some IPL and radiofrequency treatments. The main risks here include allergy, ocular-surface irritation, scratching and infection. These can still be severe, she stresses, but are generally reversible.

At the more serious end of the spectrum are Botox around the eyes, aggressive lasers such as CO2 and, in particular, tear-trough or dermal filler around the eyes. While the likelihood of a serious complication is low, if something does go wrong, the consequences can be severe and potentially irreversible.

The one procedure both experts would categorically advise against is an aesthetic intervention that surgically changes the colour of the iris. "This is simply not worth the risk," Dr Hawkes says.

For invasive procedures around the eyes, Alexander-Cross says the person performing them is one of the biggest risk factors. The anatomy surrounding the eye is extremely complex, so she advises seeking an appropriately qualified medical professional with specialist expertise in the area.

She also recommends stretching out the time between procedures as much as possible to allow the eyes to recover and taking particularly good care of the ocular surface between treatments.

But Can Any of This Actually Affect Our Eyesight?

This was the question I really wanted answered. Irritated eyes are one thing, but could something as seemingly benign as dry eye actually affect your vision?

"Yes," says Dr Hawkes.

For us to see clearly, light has to pass through the cornea, the transparent surface at the front of the eye. If that surface is disrupted, Dr Hawkes explains, vision can become blurred or misty. It's why someone with dry eye may find themselves blinking repeatedly and briefly seeing more clearly afterwards: blinking has redistributed the tear film over the corneal surface.

More surprisingly still, Dr Hawkes says significant dry eye can even affect an eye-test prescription. "If you've got really dry eye, it will affect your prescription," she says. Someone struggling to read a line on an eye chart may find it becomes clearer after using lubricating drops.

Importantly, we're not talking about your eye cream slowly making you blind. Dr Hawkes describes the visual changes caused by dry eye as typically misty or blurred rather than serious and permanent.

But there is something rather ironic about spending hundreds of pounds trying to make our eyes look better while potentially overlooking everyday habits that can affect how comfortably and clearly we see.

The Eye-Friendly Edit