I have found that my eyes aren't as dry or irritated if I keep the eye makeup to the bare minimum of just eyeliner. I would love to be able to wear eyeshadow because, call me vain but, now that my eyes aren't hidden behind glasses, it would be nice to show them off a little more than eyeliner can do. Anyway, have any of you ladies who have had Lasik had the same experience and found a brand of eyeshadow that is more gentle on the eyes? I have a problem with exyma(sp). Right now I am using Physician's Formula but, even that irritates them ever so slightly. I do know that anything hypo-allergenic is best. But, is there a line that is better than others? I would appreciate any help anyone can give me. If I have to, I will just use eyeshadow for special occassions but, it would be so wonderful if I could look my best at work as well. I only figured out that my eyeshadow was causing me more dryness when I started noticing a difference in the way my eyes felt during the weekends when my makeup use is less and frequently none at all.

Thank you in advance for any help!

I have never had a problem with eyeshadow bothering my eyes, but mascara does. Lancome is hypoallergenic and has some beautiful shades. They also have excellent mascara! I use the new one called HypNoise or something like that! It doesn't smudge, even when you cry and makes your eyelashes beautiful and thick.

:)

GreenEyes,
Thank you for the help. I will give it a shot. I don't know if the issues I have had with eyeshadow are related to the brand or just due to the current healing rate of my eyes. I am hoping to find that it is due to my healing and not that I just can't wear any eyeshadow again. I have a brand of mascara that isn't bad on my eyes but, I don't like how it goes on. So, maybe I will try Lancome's stuff.
Thank you again for your help!

No problem. Good luck! I couldn't wear eyeshadow for a while after I had a belpharoplasty on the upper lids and I was miserable. I love my eye make-up!

I didn't really notice a problem with wearing makeup following my procedure, although I did go through a period where I had some (not major) dryness and my eye doctor said that he could see a bit of the shimmer (presumably from shimmery eye shadow) in my tear film. He advised me that laying off of the eye makeup for awhile might help my eyes feel less irritated. I took that under advisement and decided I could handle the mild irritation :), but did make some adjustments. I just made sure that liner and mascara were not applied underneath my lash line, and I avoided loose powder shadows, and tried to keep the application sheer. If you have sensitive skin, you might try Almay or Neutrogena cosmetics. I'm not really sure which others are for sensitive skin. Revlon and several other brands make some creme shadows which might be an idea too, since they should have better staying power and there would be no powder residue to make its way into your tear film. Just a few ideas.. good luck!

Madera,
Thank you for your help. I never even considered cream shadows but, that makes sense. It is the powdery substances that seem to do me in. I can use powder makeup on my face right now because it gets into my eyes during application...even if I shut them. It gets into my tear ducts and on my eyelashes. The only problem I have with the cream shadows is that it tends to crease but, it could be worth it just to have some color back on my eyelids. Sheesh...I look so ghostly without the eyeshadow. Hehehe! I'll give it a shot. Guys are so lucky. They just have to get rid of the glasses once they have the surgery. We ladies have to get rid of the glasses and start looking around to enhance what was hidden! Hehehe!

Thanks again for the help!

I think she is talking about the powder cream shadows. Revlon makes some really good ones that do seem to last longer than powder eyeshadows, but I think by day's end they all eventually crease due to oil on the eyelid.

I use a Vincent Longo shade in brown (which is a dark, reddish brown) and it seems to last a long time for me. It looks good with my green eyes!

GreenEyes,
I bought some of the new Revlon eyeshadow. It has such beautiful colors and they come in a black pallett(sp) of 4 shades. The problem is that the colors, and more specifically, the one color I like best is a shade that must use blue (even thought it is this bright shade of pink) and I am allergic (exyma). So, on top of the powder that gives me issues, once the exyma kicks in, there is no end of grief because the exyma actually gets into my eyes a little too. I really hate it because, I am 32 and it has taken me all of my makeup wearing life to find the perfect shade/color and I can't use it! How sad is that? I am really hoping to find something in that same shade/color that is not at all a mess in or on my eyes. I think I am just going to have to go shopping one day with the pallett in my hands and see if I can match it with something close that is hypoallergenic and doesn't have any blue in its list of contents. When I bought the Revlon stuff, I saw that there was blue in its content list but, since there are 2 shades of purple in the pallett, I figured that that was where the blue was used. Guess I was wrong huh? Hehehe! Oh well! Thank you again for all of your help! Wish me luck that I can make my eyes sparkle again now that they are not hidden behind lenses and frames!

..........

texasfirewheel,
I thought about the fact that I work my sight harder during the week than the weekends. It may be the fact that I use the computer roughly 60% of my days during the week. I know that using the computer tends to dry ones eyes out more because we actually forget to blink as much as we are supposed to to relubricate out eyes. But, I also know that part of my dryness during the week is due to the AC at the office. The vent is behind and to the left of my shoulder so, it is nearly on top of me. And, my boss just changed the filters yesterday after well over a year's worth of filter funk. It helped some but, it is allergy season now so, it can only go so far. One thing that I have at home is 2 humidifiers which also help enormously.
I did find something to use as an eyeshadow on my eyes. It is actually my liquid blush (Almay). It is very close to the color that I liked in the Revlon line but, first of all, since it isn't a powder, it doesn't get into my eyes as much if at all. It works out well because I will be saving about $6.00 too by not having to buy eyeshadow! Hehehe!

Thank you all for all your advice!

I'm glad that you found something that you like!! I was going to suggest that you try a non-drugstore type of eyeshadow. I feel like the cheaper drugstore brands (covergirl, maybelline etc.) are more "flaky" and will rub off easier. And while I dont really have trouble with my eyes now (almost exactly three months since my surgery and the only problem is when I am sleeping I will wake up feeling like somone poured glue in my eyes!) but I will notice if I am wearing my cheaper eyeshadow it will get in my eyes and sting. I also think the suggestion of the creme shaddow is great and the solution of using creme blush is brilliant!!

dreeeemer,
Thank you for the suggestion. I think you are right about the cheaper brands. My only fear would be wether I could return a more expensive brand if I found that it brought on the exyma. I don't know their protocal. That is one thing I like about the cheaper drug store brands like Revlon. If it doesn't work out, you take it back and get your mula back! Heheh! Thank you for the compliment on my cream blush idea. I kind of figured that if it didn't cause and exyma problem with my cheeks than it probably wouldn't on my eyelids. Although, I would imagine that there is somewhat of a slightly different ph balance in the eyelids compared to the cheeks so, who the heck knows. I am just glad that it works and that I have the color that I like for my eyes. I can't use darker colors like browns and golds or even purples because they are all too dark for my complexion. They always make me look to severe. And, as much as I love those colors, I know I have to just stay away from them. So, I was really bummed when I wasn't finding anything in the shade of pink that I liked that wouldn't either cause my eyes to get dry, itchy and fussy or my eyelids to break out into a worse situation with the exyma. Trust me, you don't want to get it into your eyes. I find that when that happens, it takes about 2 weeks for my eyes to recover while it only takes my lids one day if I catch it soon enough. Weird huh?

Anyway, thank you for your help!

Hi,

I actually found out that I am allergic to the red dye they put in ceratin eyeshadows. It was definintely strange, but made sense when I figured that brown shades didn't bother me, but dark reds and purples make my eyes bloodshot and itchy in about an hour. Now I usually just wear eyeliner and some sort of light shade eyeshadow. Someone told me that my eyes may be more sensitive to those types of things because my eyes are very light blue -- but who knows!

ZIPADEEDOODAH,
Love your name! Very Cute!
Aren't makeup allergies the pits? Mine is Lake Blue I think #3 or #5 or something like that. If that color is among the ingredients anywhere in eyeshadow, I can forget using it. I get itchy bumps which are either seriosis (sp) or exyma (sp). My Mom used to have the same allergy. She recently noticed that she must have grown out of it because she said she can wear anything now. Must be nice. Who new that pink has blue in it? I can wear brown...I think. Although, my allergy to anything with blue in it just hit me around the middle to the end of this past year and I haven't even tried browns since it started happening so, I can't say for sure if browns bother me or not. It was never as uncomfortalbe once it got inside my eye until after my surgery though. Ugh! I just hope that I didn't do any harm to my healing corneas because I had a couple of break outs post-op. Not for over a month but, I did have some because some of the shadow that I was using before my surgery only started bothering me after my surgery. Weird huh? Anyway, I learned my lesson. I guess I will have to wait until I am in my 60's like my mom to be able to wear those pretty pink eyeshadows again. Hehehe!
I don't know if the color of you eyes has something to do with it or not. I have kind of an olive green color eyes. Who knows? But, thank you for the food for thought!

I have trouble even with Clinique which is supposed to be the premier non-allergenic line. And Lancome blush or shadow in any shade of pink, red or lavender will break me out in 10 minutes or less as will the Clinique. The only line that I have been able to wear ALL products in is Prescriptives. SO I just don't try any of the others...with the exception of a couple of items I already knew I could use. In Lancome, the Renergie line is OK on me for creams and I wear the Maybelline mascara that comes in the pink and green tube. Out side of that, nothing else touches my face in the makeup line...just too risky!