I woke up with a stabbing in my eye early one morning last summer. I conflated the pain with getting hammered at a wedding barbecue and assumed it would go away. After a few months of eye weirdness I got the diagnosis: blepharitis. If you’re here, you probably have it, and while it’s really fun to make it your identity and sole topic of conversation at parties, at some point you’re going to want to start wearing make up again and get back to living your god dang life! I tried everything including throwing out ALL my make up, and these are the best products that I’ve found to help me manage my blepharitis. It’s one year later and I’m largely symptom free!

Eye Care

The bleph, as I affectionately refer to my condition, comes from your eyes being dry and crusty. I believe this is the medical terminology. You’re gonna need to clean your eyes with lid scrub, and generic is totally fine. But Ocusoft is the gold standard, and it’s not much more. You’ll also need to hydrate your eyes. I use Systane single serving eye drops, these are not envionromental, unfortch, but keep them and melt them down into a Christmas craft. The single use ones ARE better, because they don’t contain preservatives.

Make Up Removal

You’re gonna wanna go on a full make up detox for a while, which is a nightmare if you’re a woman who wants to look not tired. I work in nightlife and it was awkward feeling like a 12 year old for 6 months, but A good opportunity to wear statement glasses and get extra facials.

One you go back to make up, I’d recommend sticking to only “clean products” or you know, the less toxic stuff.

For god’s sakes remove it! Don’t let your crusty big lashes give you a flare up , because you’ll be right back where you started. I used Almay’s cleaning pads. They’re cheap, they’re gentle and they’re biodegradable (supposedly.)

Make Up Pics

• Sephora Clean Palette – Gorgeous, hypoallergenic, and there’s enough to work with here to use daily.
• Milk Eye Primer – This is great for the bleph, because it creates a layer between your eyelid and the powder which can irritate.
• Milk Blush – Draw the gaze away from your naked eyes with a pop of cream blush!
• Ilia Eye Liner – Smooth, dark, goes on easy and comes off clean.

Diet

I’ve speculated that my particular case of bleph is caused by hormonal birth control which caused a lot of other weird side effects in my life. I’m not a doctor, but I do read a lot of articles on the internet. If you’ve got chronic bleph, and you’re on a combination pill, do yourself a favor and start taking Cuturelle, it’s a probiotic, and it’s worth every penny. It’s also shelf stable so you can order it online. It changed my life! And I credit it with totally curing my blepharitis. I haven’t had a flare up in 6 months, and god willing I’ll soon be able to wear mascara again.

To hear more about my ongoing battle with blepharitis check out my podcast Lady Journey, on our youtube and itunes!

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