Adding eyeliner to the waterline — located directly under your eye but just above your bottom lashes — can do a number of things for you. Adding dark-coloured liner helps outline your eyes and make them pop, while a white eyeliner can help create the illusion of brighter eyes. While this is a fun makeup technique that can change your look in an instant, it’s something that you shouldn’t do too often.
Why? Well, according to a recent TikTok video from Dr Brittani Carver, an eye doctor from the US, it can wreak havoc with the oil glands in your waterline. As Dr Carver reveals in the video, the oil glands located in the lower eyelid are important in the health of your tear film, which according to a study from 2014, is “a unique thin fluid layer that covers the outer mucosal surfaces of the eye. As such it is the interface of the ocular surface with the environment.”
“Do you ever wonder why eye doctors don’t recommend wearing anything on your waterline?” Dr Carver asks in the video. “The waterline is actually where oil is secreted for the eye. If the glands are obstructed or blocked, they will atrophy and die out. This can lead to extreme dry eye.”
Blocking these glands with eyeliner can result in permanent damage to your oil glands and a lifelong condition of dry eye. If you’re already prone to extremely dry eyes, you know how uncomfortable and irritating this can be. While this is definitely a worst-case scenario, Dr Carver’s advice is a good reminder to reduce the amount of eyeliner you use on your waterline.
Instead of applying product to this area every day, save eyeliner for special occasions. This way you’re less likely to damage your waterline while also still being able to enjoy the way eyeliner looks on your eye. Another good option is to simply change the way you use eyeliner and opt for a cat-eye that is applied onto the skin of your eye as opposed to the waterline. The more you know!
