I go through eye drops like most of you through chocolate. :D Don’t worry; I don’t drink them. But they are an almost daily part of my nighttime skincare routine, so I should consider buying stocks in 2 fav companies. :P
Let’s begin at the beginning (surprise, surprise). 5 years ago both of my retinas detached. Few laser treatments later, and I had my eyesight without huge black circles in sight, but eyes were dry as Sahara.
So eye drops became my norm. You know me … I bought every eye drop I could find that was without preservatives and used them religiously.
After a few months, my eyes got better, and I started wearing eye makeup again. I was horrified to see how much black was still on a tissue even after removing eye makeup first with remover and then gel.
Since then, I switched over to double cleansing – first with cleansing oil and then gel-based cleanser. But I still find pieces of mascara when I rinse my eyes out with eye drops. :O
I should mention that I do not use waterproof mascaras (I would expect even worse outcomes there), but I have to go for the uncrumbling ones, or my eyes can’t handle them otherwise.
Dr. Ana, my fellow in “flush that leftover makeup out with eye drops,” shared on her IG profile (Stories) that you should stay clear from drops that contain vasoconstrictors, which shrink the blood vessels on the eye to make them less visible, and also stay clear from saline solutions as our eyes need more when you are using them in a way we do … to flush out leftover makeup and any other dirt.
Both of us use only drops without preservatives and even after all this time, I still stand behind that decision. As you can see Vismed Multi (0.18% sodium hyaluronate) and Bepanthol (0,15 % sodium hyaluronate, 2 % dexpanthenol) both have special caps that allow them to be preservative-free. Both cost around 12 EUR in Slovenia.
When I buy single-dose eye drops, I usually go for Artelac UNO (hypromellose) as they are large enough I can wash both eyes out with one dose.