Most often, sensitive eyes are not sensitive at all; rather, poor makeup hygiene is to blame. Here are some tips to help with this problem a lot of us suffer from…

• Throw out mascara after 2-3 months.
• Use disposable mascara wands to avoid contaminating the tube.
• Use plastic makeup scrapers or the back of a clean brush to pick up any products that are in a pot.
• Sharpen eye pencils before each use to remove any remnants of contaminants from the previous use.
• When using twist eyeliners, roll the eyeliner on clean tissue paper several times to remove that outer layer before and after each use.
• Talk to your ophthalmologist to see if you have a specific allergy.
• Don’t apply moisturizers to close to the eye. The skin will absorb eye creams and moisturizers into a larger surface area than originally applied, so they may bleed into the eyes if applied too close.
• Avoid glitter and flaky mascaras that can fall into the eyes and irritate them further.
• Avoid hard eyeliner; all liners should glide on gently. Hard eyeliners is probably made of an inexpensive wax that is not good for the eyes. Splurge a little for products around the eyes.
• If you tend to get a lot of shadow in your eye, try a cream-to-powder eyeshadow.
• Look for hypoallergenic makeup, which is ophthalmologist tested for sensitive eyes.
• If your eyes tend to tear, use waterproof gel eyeliners and mascaras. They don’t move, so they will not smudge into the eyes.