wearing makeup with blepharitis, dry eye, and MGD

Sharing how I got back to wearing makeup after being diagnosed with dry eye, blepharitis and MGD, as well as my favorite brands. This is not medical advice; I’m just sharing my experience!

Hi friends! How are you? I hope you’re having a wonderful morning! We’re finishing up Rodeo break (wah) so the kids are back to school and it’s back to the swing of things around here. I hope you have a great day!

For today’s post, I wanted to do a reader’s request after a comment I received last week. Ever since I posted about my eye issues, I’ve been overwhelmed by amazing messages and comments, but also saddened to hear that so many of you have found yourselves in a similar boat with sudden flares, autoimmune issues, and painful, red eyes. While I was in the depths of all of this last year, I was so frustrated and sad. I couldn’t see myself ever wearing contacts or eye makeup again. (I have no foresight whatsoever, so in my mind, what is happening now means it will be happening forever.)

I couldn’t wear makeup for many months and slowly made my way back to contacts and eye makeup. It’s taken a lot of work and healing – I’ll share more on my healing journey and everything I’ve done to decrease my histamine responses and inflammation in an upcoming post – but *knock on wood* I can finally make it through the day without constantly thinking about my eyes. Just putting that hope out there for my dry eye friends — it can and will get better. This won’t be forever. Hang in there, friends.

Please remember that I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice. At the same time, many traditional eye doctors were mystified by my situation and didn’t know how to help me. I was determined to get to the root cause and improve the issue, and have done a lot of research and experiments on myself along the way. Shout out to my beloved dry eye specialist who gave me some answers and guidance! Also shout out to the beauty of functional testing, because I learned so much about how stress was affecting me, my gut imbalances, toxicities, and deficiencies.

wearing makeup with blepharitis, dry eye, and MGD

Here’s the comment I received:

I was recently diagnosed with Dry Eye, MGD and Blepharitis and found your post so incredibly helpful! I am using a heat mask twice daily, the wipes and spray you have recommended (a variety of different kinds of wipes) and have ordered the disposable masks you use as well. I also use Optase drops several times a day and before bed as well. Questions for you – do you wear any eye makeup at all? If so, what kind? (I have refrained and am trying not to put anything else on or around my eyes or on my lids such as pressed powder or bronzer.) My other question is under eye cream for wrinkles, circles and puffiness…is there anything you use that you would recommend? At this point, I have stopped using that as well in an effort to put the least amount of anything on or around my eyes not associated with the treatment, but my eyes looks so worn and tired and I really don’t want to stop using my eye cream, at least under my eyes. Any suggestions or products you might recommend? Thanks so much!

Can you wear eye makeup with blepharitis?

Soooo here’s the deal: you can’t wear eye makeup when your eyes are flaring and when you have active blepharitis. (I learned this the hard and expensive way lol.) Blepharitis is an overgrowth of bacteria on the eyelids and in the eyelashes, so you’re contaminating your brushes, eyeliner, face cream, and makeup if you try to wear wear makeup during this time. The first step is to get the blepharitis OUT OF THERE and under control! I did ZocuZest cleaning at the dry eye specialist and this made a huge difference. Every day, I also clean my eyelids in the morning and before bed to make sure they stay clean and healthy. My go-to eyelid cleaning products are in this post.

Once I had my blepharitis under control and was given permission to wear contacts again, I waited many weeks to make sure I wasn’t having flares. (I still had eye flares from histamine response, which wasn’t related to this. It made it super confusing and a pain! It was a huge lightbulb moment when I decreased my histamine response.) I made sure my eyes were clear and not dry or itching all day when I harnessed the bravery to add makeup back into my life.

Here’s my makeup strategy:

– Make sure eyelids are clean before starting. (I love Cliradex. It burns a little, especially at first, but it works the best.) I’ll wait about 15 minutes and the pop in my contacts (contacts in before makeup).

– Use an eyeshadow primer. Thrive Causmetics is my favorite. You want the eyeshadow to stick on the primer so it’s less likely to fall into the eye, get trapped, and cause inflammation.

– Use gentle eyeshadows. Tarte has been always the best for my sensitive eyes. (These are two palettes I use daily and it’s $40 for both!) I don’t use a ton of the glittery shadows as the glitter can get in your eyes, but the shimmery neutrals are all perfect.

– Tarte pencil eyeliner. The liquid started making my eyes itch after using it for years! It’s a double-sided eyeliner, so I only use the pencil side

– Tarte mascara primer and mascara, only on special occasions, only on the edges.

– No more eyelash glue. When I have to take blog photos, I attach eyelash clusters on the outer portion of my eyes using the adhesive that’s already on them. They don’t last super long, but it’s better than trying to get glue out of my eyelashes later, or flaring from the ingredients.

– At the end of the night, I use a makeup eraser towel, clean my face and eyes with Fresh cleanser, and then use Oasis Lid and Lash cleaner to remove the remaining makeup. It’s wild to see how much the Lid and Lash cleanser will remove, especially when you think you got it all. I basically went 37 years without properly removing every bit of makeup from my eyes. Yikes. Sanitize brushes often, too.

* Makeup and contact breaks: I don’t wear eye makeup everyday anymore. I’m usually wearing sunglasses at school pickup, so I only wear makeup on the nights we have something going on, I’m filming blog content, or I’ll be out in public for an extended amount of time. During the day, I wear glasses while I’m working at the computer and put my contacts in around noon. I have at least 1-2 days each week that I solely wear glasses now.

Skincare with blepharitis and dry eye

I’ve simplified my skincare routine because I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t contributing to my allergy responses. I used the Glow Blueberry Bounce cleanser – a new bottle and one of my old favorites – and both eyes swelled almost completely shut. I contacted the company and they couldn’t tell me what changed with the formula, so no more Glow products for me.

Right now, here’s what works on a daily basis:

– Fresh cleanser

– NOW serum (use FITNESSISTA)

– NOW eye cream (use FITNESSISTA)

– Beautycounter Supreme Cream

Occasionally:

All Bright C serum or overnight peel

Masks:

Eminence turmeric mask

AHA mask or Charcoal mask

Red light face mask (use FITNESSISTA15). There are promising studies coming out about the benefits of red light for dry eyes, but I still wear eye protection when I use this mask.

I think that’s it! If you have any questions, or anything I can share in my upcoming post, please let me know. If you’re going through this, pleeeeease don’t take “I don’t know, here’s your steroid drop” as an answer. Find another doctor, seek alternate opinions, look for a dry eye specialist in your area with good reviews. If you can swing it budget-wise, functional testing can give amazing perspective on what’s going on in your unique body, too. I’m always happy to help with the testing side of things – just send me an email gina@fitnessista.com subject TESTING.

Hope you have an amazing day and I’ll see ya soon!
xoxo

Gina

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