Abstract
Purpose: :
Eye make-up such as eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara has gained in popularity over recent years. Besides the oil-containing ingredients of these products, products used to cleanse the eye make-up are often oil-based. In this study, we investigated if these cosmetic and cleansing products had any effect on soft contact lenses (SCLs).
Methods: :
Subjects were 100 women (mean age, 22.8±7.4 years). Subjects were first questioned about if they had their SCLs on when they removed eye make-up. To determine the level of contamination by cosmetic or cleansing products that accidentally fell into the conjunctival sac by various cleansing methods (direct application on the eyelids or with a cotton pad), we then asked some women to actually cleanse their eye make-up with a cleansing products containing fluorecein and the result was later examined by slit lamp microscope. Finally, we directly applied cosmetics (eye shadow liquid and pencil eyeliners, mascara) and cleansing oil together and separately on the SCLs to assess the impact of the chemicals on the lenses.
Results: :
Among the 100 subjects, 22% always had their SCLs on and 18% occasionally had their SCLs on when they removed eye make-up. The cleansing method by directly applying cleansing products on the eyelids showed the worst contamination and the method using a cotton pad showed less serious contamination in the conjunctival sac. Deformation and swell of silicone hydrogel soft contact lenses (SHSCLs) without plasma polymelization coating was observed when the cosmetics and cleansing oil together, and cleansing oil alone were directly applied on the lenses.
Conclusions: :
When prescribing SCL for cosmetics users, warning regarding possible contamination and deformation of the lens due to cosmetic and cleansing products for the eyes should be included.
Keywords: contact lens • cornea: clinical science • conjunctiva