‘Friends thought I had been punched after makeup item eye flare’

When using new makeup products, our skin is more sensitive to some than others. However, Louise Smith, 36, had a very “sensitive” skin.

Smith, who is a receptionist from Leicestershire, spoke to the Express about her skin flare-up and how “horrendous” it got.

The mum-of-two said: “I’ve always had quite sensitive skin and had small patches of eczema here and there as a child and I occasionally would get a patch on my face in the hotter weather.

“However, as I got older my childhood eczema stayed pretty much under control as an adult until this year for a Valentine’s dinner with my fiancé I used a new eye makeup concealer which caused a chain reaction that ended up triggering the most horrendous flare of eye eczema I’ve ever experienced.”

Smith admitted she is usually “careful” with which makeup products she uses and tends to stick to “plain mineral-based products”.

“I’ve even been able to have lash extensions over the last few years without any adverse reactions,” she added.

The receptionist explained: “As my skin had been so well-behaved I was tempted by a new shimmery under-eye concealer and figured that my skin had settled down enough to get away with it.

“How wrong I was. I loved the look of the under-eye concealer as it brightened up my under-eye area but within half an hour of putting the concealer on I knew I’d made a mistake.

“My eye area started to tingle. I just tried to ignore it but as the evening went on, I could feel my eye area become hotter and hotter and my right eye started to swell.

“My fiancé said that my eye looked weird and he thought I’d been bitten by an insect but I knew the cause of the problem was the concealer I’d used.”

Smith said she tried to wash off the concealer as soon as she could but by then both of her eyes were “red and swollen”.

She continued: “I cleaned all the concealer off but my eyes continued to swell and burn. By the next morning, I could hardly see out of my right eye. I applied the water-based creams that I used on my skin when it got sensitive but everything I put on my eyes just made them worse and so in the end I went to an emergency appointment at my doctor.”

Smith was prescribed an anti-histamine cream but the cream didn’t work at all and made her eyes “worse” so she “stopped using it”. This initial reaction then led to Smith having “months of agony”.

She explained: “The swelling and redness around my eyes simply didn’t go. It would sometimes start to go down a bit and I would think finally this is going to be over, but then a few days later it would be back.

“Almost everything I put on my skin around my eyes triggered another reaction. Even when shampoo got on the skin around my eyes when washing my hair would trigger it again.

“My eyes were so itchy and irritated. They would cycle between red swollen and hot to flaky dry and itchy. I had to have my lash extensions removed as they were irritating my skin too.

“I’ve used steroid creams on other small patches of eczema in the past but the doctor told me these were not safe for use around the eye area.”

This extent led to Smith only leaving the house in sunglasses for the next two months which she claimed “looked ridiculous as the weather was mostly overcast and raining but I felt too self-conscious to let people see my eyes”.

She said: “I couldn’t really wear any make-up around my eyes for ages so there was absolutely no hiding the extent of the problem with any camouflage.

“Sometimes I’d risk wearing a bit of make-up to cover my red eyes if I had to go out in the evening when I couldn’t wear sunglasses, but I’d pay for it the next day as my eyes would be swollen and itching like crazy.

“When people did see my eyes I was asked so many times who had upset me. I even had people asking if everything was OK at home with my fiancé as I looked like I’d been crying my eyes out. At one stage a friend asked me if I’d been hit as my right eye looked like a boxer’s swollen red eye from a punch.”

After visiting her GP multiple times she began a desperate search on the internet for anything that could be used on eye eczema that wasn’t steroids.

She said: “After weeks of research I finally came across Hydrosil Dry Eye Gel which claimed to contain a plant equivalent to steroids that was safe to use around the eye area. I also saw that it was made in the UK which gave me a bit more confidence in it.

“The main thing that convinced me to use it was the number of reviews and accounts, many with photos, from women with eye eczema that looked just like mine and who had tried most of the same things I had from their doctors who said the eye gel was the only thing that had worked to help get their eyes back to normal.

“I ordered some immediately in May this year and thank goodness I did. The first thing I noticed about the eye gel was that it didn’t sting or burn when I put it on which was a huge relief as by this stage everything that I put on my eyes stung, even water sometimes. It also calmed the itching immediately.

“Within 24 hours the swelling on my eyelids and under my right eye started to subside. Within 2-3 days the redness also began to reduce. Within about a week my eyes were massively improved. I had noticed when I bought the eye gel they also did an under-eye brightening concealer with the same ingredients in it so I ordered some of that too.

Smith said within two weeks it was hard to notice that she had eye eczema when she used the Hydrosil concealer too.

“My eyes were still a bit red and dry but were about 80 percent improved and when I used the concealer too, you couldn’t see there was even an issue”, she said.

Smith added: “Now, two months on my eyes are more or less back to normal. I use the eye gel every day and the concealer and don’t put any other products around my eye except for a bit of eyeshadow applied over the eye gel and concealer that I use all around my eyes. I’ve even been able to have my lash extensions done again without any issues.

“I’m beyond delighted with the results. It’s honestly been literally a life-saver. I will be wearing it every day, forever.”