When Beauty’s a Beast: Harmful Makeup Habits to Avoid

Many women wear makeup every day. With all the options, colors, textures, and shades, makeup comes in many forms and performs many functions.

Many ladies, however, may not know that makeup can do some serious harm to your eyes.

Here are the top habits to be aware of when using makeup:

1. Check the Expiration Date

Wait, there are expiration dates for makeup? Yes, there are and they are very important to follow. If your makeup doesn’t show a date on them, you can follow these general rules to replace them. You might even be able to look up their expiration dates online. Once your makeup is past that date, stop using it and throw it away.

2. Wash Your Hands Before Applying Makeup

Think about all the things you touch in a day. Now, think about touching them with your face, which is essentially what you’re doing if you don’t wash up before applying makeup. Some germs can even cause an infection when they come in contact with your eyes.

3. Wash Your Makeup Brushes

It’s not just your hands that touch your face when you apply makeup. Your makeup brushes collect dirt and bacteria after some time. Washing your makeup brushes regularly will also prevent infections and keep your skin clear. To keep your skin and eyes healthy, use a makeup cleaner.

4. Don’t Share

Forget what your mother told you. Your friend may have a great eyeliner or mascara and you may be tempted to try, but don’t. It might seem like an easy way to try a new product, but it’s also an easy way to get an eye infection.

5. Don’t Apply Makeup When You’re Driving

We get it; You’re busy, running late to work. First, you will want to focus all of your attention on driving. Second, if your car hits a bump while trying to apply your makeup, you can miss and poke your eye. This will not only cause you some pain but can be detrimental to your eye and possibly even your vision. Soon, you’ll be trading your mascara for an eye patch. A general rule of thumb: don’t put sharp things near your face or eyes while in motion. It’s just not a good idea.

6. Remove Your Makeup Every Night

To keep your eyes healthy, you should properly remove your makeup every night - especially your eye makeup. As Dr. Hilary Beaver from the University of Iowa writes, “If eye makeup is not removed daily there is an increased possibility of an allergic reaction or contact irritation.” So unless you want itchy, red eyes, clean up before bedtime.

7. Tightlining

Tightlining is a technique in which you add eyeliner to the upper waterline of your eye lashes to define and thicken your lashes. It’s popular among makeup bloggers and beauty enthusiasts, but overapplication can cause problems. “The problem, I feel,” says Infinite Eye Care’s Dr. Tom, “is that the pasty substance of the eyeliner may plug the oil glands that secrete in that area. Over application can cause blockage of those oil glands and inadvertently cause styes. I think it looks nice, but I encourage people to not do it in order to avoid complications of the oil glands on the eyelids.”



Use these tips to keep your eyes healthy and your makeup on point. If you do start to feel pain or irritation in your eyes, please contact Infinite Eye Care.

How to Protect Your Eyes In Winter

All Minnesotans know that winter can put the body under stress, but have you ever thought about winter’s effects on your eyes?


Eyes can be easily irritated by the fluctuation between brutally cold winter winds outside and the dry heat indoors. These irritations can be broken down into four conditions that are experienced during the winter season:

1. Runny, Wet Eyes

When your eyes attempt to compensate for the dry winds and heat, often they overcompensate and you get watery eyes that produce excessive tears.

To combat this, wearing sunglasses outdoors can protect your eyes from the wind. In addition, be aware of how you are wiping tears from your eyes. You may be irritating your eyes more if you are wiping them with unclean hands or rubbing your eyes vigorously.

2. Dry Eyes

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if your eyes do not produce enough tears, they are dried out by the winds and dry air.

What can you do to help? Here are a few options:

• Give Dr. Tom a ring to chat about the use of prescription eye drops
• Sunglasses will once again help your eyes fight the dryness
• Buy a humidifier for your home or office to add moisture to the air that typically dries out your eyes
• Take Omega-3 supplements to increase tear production
• Drink plenty of water
• Track your medications as some may restrict your ability to create tears. These include antihistamines, sleeping pills, pain relievers, and others.

3. Swollen Eyes

Red, swollen eyes can be caused by compression of the blood vessels in tissues around the eyes. This condition can cause overproduction of tears, blurry vision, and eyelid spasms.

Sunglasses can once again reduce this issue. The UV light reflected on the snow can increase inflammation of the cornea; sunglasses will reduce the UV light’s effects.

4. Burning Eyes

Not only can the cornea become inflamed by winter winds; it can also freeze. Do not force your eyes to open in the wind or cold as these conditions can have damaging effects to your cornea.

If you are experiencing this condition, please call Dr. Tom. He can help find a solution to your eye pain and burning. A temporary fix in the meantime is once again to put on those sunglasses. They will protect your eyes from some of these wind chill effects.

You may have noticed a trend in this article – sunglasses aren’t just for the summer! If you were planning on waiting to get a new pair prescription sunglasses, you might want to rethink that decision. We have many stylish options available at Infinite Eye Care.

Whatever your eye troubles, give Dr. Tom and our team at Infinite Eye Care a call. We can set you up so you’re not suffering through the winter season.

No More Tears: Easy Tips to Prevent Pink Eye

School is right around the corner, and so are the germs and sicknesses that come with it. Of them all, conjunctivitis - or pink eye - can be the most irritating and hard to diagnose. It’s also one of the most common infectious diseases in school-age children. To make it easier on you this school year, here are a few tips to teach your kids to keep this itchy infection out of your home:

Stay Clean

The first rule of preventing sickness is to teach your children the importance of staying clean – especially their hands and eyes. Teach them to cover their mouth when they sneeze or cough and to avoid touching their eyes afterward. Another thing to help with the prevention of pink eye is changing pillowcases. Pillowcases can carry infectious germs that have easy access to your children’s eyes as they sleep. Keeping a clean and sanitary environment not only helps health overall but also is a big attribute to preventing pink eye.

Be Selfish

It may be hard to hush your inner Minnesota nice, but it’s a necessity when preventing pink eye. Sharing things such as wash clothes, linens, eye makeup, and tissues can cause pink eye and other infections in the eyes. Encourage your children to keep these types of items to themselves and not to accept them from other children.

The number one thing to never share on any occasion is contact lenses or the accessories that go with them. They can carry contagious infections and cause irritating symptoms.

Be a Homebody

This tip is only necessary if you, your child, or someone close to you has pink eye. A crucial thing in preventing it from spreading to others is to stay home during the contagious stage. Pink eye is easily contracted with close contact, which is why it’s so prevalent in teachers and students who are consistently in close contact with others. One should wait until the discharge and redness is gone from the eye before going back to work/school/daily life routine.


Pink eye can be irritating, disgusting, and even unbearable for some. Hopefully, these tips will provide you and your family with the necessary knowledge you need to prevent pink eye – or if you already have contracted it, the knowledge to not spread it. If you think you have pink eye, the most important step to take is to visit the eye doctor and get diagnosed. Catching pink eye soon after you are infected and starting the medicine you will need to get rid of it will drastically lessen your symptoms and shorten your recovery time. Infinite Eye Care offers an urgent care and pink eye service just for that reason.

Visit our website to learn more.

Amazing Eyes of the Animal Kingdom

Think human eyes are amazing? What if you could see at a 330-degree angle instead of an 185-degree angle? Or what if you had hundreds of microscopic six-sided lenses to see in all directions simultaneously? Animal eyes are amazing and full of wonder. From barnyard animals to extraordinary reptiles, there are many interesting eyes to explore. Here are just a few to spark your fascination with the animal eyes of our world.

1. Goats

Although they might seem ordinary, goats are actually quite unique. Many notice their eyes upon first glance but there is much more than just the interesting look of them. In fact, their eyes can see at a 330 degree angle which is almost twice as much as a human at 185 degrees. The large size of their pupils also give them fantastic night vision.

2. Mantis Shrimp

This unusual and very tiny sea inhabitant is quite miraculous in the world of vision. Not only can their eyes move independently and rotate at a 70-degree angle, but they also have the most complex eyes in the entire world. While humans only have 3 color receptors, this little crustacean has 12. As well as having a colorful outlook on life, the Mantis Shrimp can also detect ultraviolet, infrared, and polarized light using it’s amazing sense of sight!

3. Hippopotamus

These cows of the sea are actually fascinating in the world of eyesight. When underwater, they have clear vision and need not worry about getting a single piece of floating debris in their eyes. They are equipped with a clear layer of membrane that protects their vision while they prowl the underwater world.

4.Tarsier

Imagine if you had eyes the size of grapefruits! This small primate has eyes that are each approximately the same size as its brain. They have the largest eyes of any mammal relative to its body. Much like owls, they aren’t able to move their eyes at all. To make up for this disadvantage, their heads are able to move 180 degrees in each direction!

5. Butterfly

Seeing the invisible is a cool superhero-like trait that all butterflies have. To find those delicious nectar-filled flowers, butterflies are able to see ultraviolet light which is undetectable by the human eye. Like most insects, butterflies also have compound eyes made up of six-sided lenses making it possible to see in every direction simultaneously.

6. Chameleon

Chameleons have some of the most unique eyes in the entire animal kingdom. Their eyes are so unbelievable that they can move independently, making it possible for the chameleon to have a 360-degree field of vision. Another interesting aspect of the eyes of a chameleon is the eyelids. The eyelids are cone-like and cover every part of the eye except for the pupil.

7. Gharial

Practically a living and breathing fossil and a member of the crocodile family, the Gharial is last on our list of interesting animal eyes. The Gharial has some of the most advanced eyes on the planet. Their head is shaped in the way that they can have almost every inch of their body submerged in water, while their eyes are left out of the water to search for prey. They also have spectacular night vision. Their eyes have a thin, mirror-like structure that helps reflect light not already absorbed by the eye back into it a second time. Not only is this feature cool, it’s also kind of creepy as it gives this crocodile glowing eyes when a light shines on them.



Although these eyes are fascinating and exquisite don’t forget about our own! With two million working parts and the ability to heal itself in 48 hours, the eyes we have are unique and interesting in themselves. So don’t forget to keep your eyes happy and healthy!