Keeping Your Eyes Safe This Halloween

With Halloween around the corner, you or your children might be busy planning your costume and preparing final touches, but do you know how scary some Halloween costume makeup can be for your eyes?

In this blog we’re going to go over advice for keeping you and your child’s eyes safe this Halloween.

Halloween Contact Lenses 

Halloween coloured contact lenses are especially scary to us as opticians. Whilst they may appear to you as the perfect finishing touch to a good costume, coloured or uniquely shaped contact lenses can lead to a whole load of issues for your eyes.

Poorly fitting and poorly cleaned contact lenses can cause damage to the eye or your vision. This can lead to a lack of air flow/oxygen getting to your eyes, or a build-up of bacteria. Other issues can include:

• Friction from the lens material
• Cuts and scratches to the cornea
• Eye infections
• Corneal ulcers
• Allergic reactions
• Irreversible decrease or loss of vision.

Only purchase contact lenses from retailers that are authorised to dispense contact lenses or licensed opticians.

Halloween Makeup

You might go for makeup as a quick last minute costume solution, however makeup that is produced for Halloween and sold in costume stores can contain some scary ingredients for your eyes and skin. It’s important you take care when using cosmetics on your face and around your eyes.

Here are some best practices:

• Check the ingredient list of the products that you use: Certain fragrances, preservatives (like parabens and benzalkonium chloride), metallic pigments, and colour additives may cause irritation to your eyes or skin. It is a good idea to patch test your product before they are used all over your face.
• Don’t share makeup: This can lead to higher chances of infection.
• Don’t apply product to your eyelash line: Results show this causes increased eye irritation and dry eyes.
• Throw away old and expired makeup: It is not worth the risk to your eyes or your skin health.
• Be careful with false eyelashes: For eyelash extensions, go to an experienced aesthetician. For false eyelashes, make sure proper hygiene is practised and test your lash-glue for allergic reactions.
• Don’t use glitter: Plastic particles and dyes in cosmetic glitter are non-toxic but can end up on the eye surface if applied near the eyes. Craft glitter should never be used for makeup purposes due to containing metal or glass particles and harmful dyes.

Halloween Masks

Finally, be careful with masks made for Halloween. Always wear a well fitted mask when out partying or trick-or-treating. A poor fitting mask will block vision in your eyes leading to disorientation, and loss of depth perception, potentially leading to injury.

If you’re worried about your eyesight, book in for an appointment with Opticare Opticians today.