Eyelid Hygiene is a Thing
In a world where extreme beauty and wellness trends are pretty much the norm (try finding a head of organic celery at your local grocery these days—it’s impossible) you’d think we’d have heard of everything. So imagine our surprise when, through an introduction to Dr. Elise Brisco, OD, FAAO, CCH, FCOVD, an LA-based integrative optometrist, we discovered the concept of eyelid hygiene. Yes, beyond your standard beauty regimen (however many steps it may entail), you may be missing something essential in the maintenance of a healthy, youthful appearance: lid care.
As we prepped for our Vis Clair Suprême launch, we tapped Dr. Brisco—who is a wealth of information, by the way—to discuss what eyelid hygiene is, why we need it and how to do it correctly. (We’ll be sharing more on Dr. Brisco soon, so keep your...eyes peeled.)
According to Dr. Brisco, the eye is a wet, exposed organ. All of the allergens in the air—pollutants, pollens, dander, whatever you’re allergic to—love that nice, wet, warm surface and stick right to it. You’ve got oil along the edge of the lid—an oily tear layer—that’s like fly paper, and then you have hair follicles for the lashes. Think of your lashes as lint traps. We put makeup on our lashes, and some people don’t remove it completely. It’s warm, it’s dark and it’s wet, and bacteria loves it. They live in the hair follicles and oily tear glands—the sebaceous glands—that’s why a lot of people, as they get older, have crusty lids, or their lids look a little thick and heavy, their eyes look tired, red, dry, and uncomfortable.
Every time you blink, you spread tears that are deposited along the edge of the lid over the eyes. Those oily tears moisturize, lubricate, nourish the eyes, keep them white, keep your vision sharp and your eyes bright and shiny—I mean, literally everything you need. But when you’re not blinking enough, those oily tears hang out at the edge of the lids and end up thickening. So you have the oily tears that aren’t blinked away with bacteria and dirt and makeup, and it ends up clogging deeper and deeper into the oily tear glands.
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First and foremost, keep your lids clean every day. Make sure you remove your makeup completely. (She likes these wipes.)
2
If you’re working at a computer a lot (did you know that working at a computer can slow your blink rate by 67%?), a heated eye compress can melt any oily tear glands that are clogged because you haven’t been blinking enough. (This one plugs into a USB—hello air travel.)
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If you need a drop, try Natural Ophthalmics Forte Tear Stimulation Eye Drops which send a message to your brain to release more tears.
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Complete the routine with Vis Clair Suprême to protect the delicate skin around the eyes.
Learn more at Hollywood Vision.
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