We really don’t mean to pile on with one more thing you (especially you women) need to do to keep your skin healthy and happy, but we’re serious when we say that unclean eyelids could become unhappy eyelids. Poor eyelid hygiene could lead to the development of blepharitis, a condition that results in sore, red, crusty eyelids. (Do you want this? No, you do not, so probably you should keep reading.)
The good news is that good eyelid hygiene is really just basic clean skin stuff. It doesn’t involve jade rollers or fancy moisturizers or serums. Here’s what you do:
- Start with clean hands. You don’t want to introduce any additional germs into the eye area.
- Use a clean washcloth or cotton swab or gauze pad. The big thing is that it’s clean because, see above.
- Gently wipe your eyelashes and lid margin (for your makeup experts, they also call this the waterline).
- Rinse with warm water.
- Repeat on the other eye with a different clean cloth, swab or pad.
For those of you who wear eye-makeup, it’s important to make sure it’s all washed off at the end of the day, and if your eyelids or margins are feeling irritated or looking swollen, you may want to skip the liner, shadow and mascara for a few days. (We know – you will look tired. It’s better to look tired than have blepharitis, trust us.)
If you do happen to develop blepharitis, give us a call. We’ll take a look to confirm that’s what’s bothering you, and we can give you some tips for reducing inflammation and making your lids happy and healthy again.