This Eyeliner Habit Could Be Harming Your Vision

There are always ways that you could be better at makeup application and storage, sure. But you may want to give this one some extra thought, because according to Cosmo, this common eyeliner technique can hurt your eyes and affect your vision if carried out too frequently. Feeling sexy should not have to come at the price of your eyesight.

A frequent perpetrator of eye infections is simply keeping your tube of liner or mascara around long after its 6 month shelf life (possibly longer if used infrequently). But how you apply your makeup may also be harming your eyes. In a new study published by Eye and Contact Lens, researchers found that the difference between applying eyeliner inside or outside of the lash line can affect whether your makeup is migrating directly into your eye.

Researchers gave participants an Avon "Glimmerstick" in Graphite and assigned them either to apply the liner either inside or outside the lash line on two different days. What they found was that when applied inside the lash line, glitter particles moves directly to the tear film in your eye 5 to 10 minutes after application. However when applied outside of the lash line, glitter particles reached the tear film at a much, much slower rate.So what does this mean? “Pencil eyeliner migrates most readily and maximally contaminates the tear film when applied posterior to the lash line,” says the study, which basically means the contamination of the eye is most frequent when you’re inside your eye’s safe zone (i.e. interior lash line). “This has implications for contact lens wearers and patients with dry eye syndrome or sensitive eyes. Eye cosmetic usage for participants involved in anterior eye and contact lens research should be carefully considered in the design of studies.”

Eesh. RIP tightlining.

Image: Szerdahelyi Adam/Fotolia