Most recently updated 1/12/21

When you swipe your eye makeup on, you might be more focused on finessing the perfect lash separation or dash of eyeliner than on the healthfulness of the ingredients. 

And even if you’re into clean makeup, using clean eye makeup might seem less important than, say, foundation. After all, eyeliner and eyeshadow cover a small skin surface area. And mascara gets applied to your lashes rather than to your skin.

But get this: new research shows wearing clean eye makeup could be a really important way to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals in our bodies. 

It turns out that our eye area can absorb what we put on it (including mascara) and wearing traditional eye makeup puts us at a higher risk of having nasty chemicals in our system. These chemicals are linked to health issues like endocrine disruption, cancer, and neurobehavioral problems. 

Here’s the good news, though – the research also found that when we switch to clean makeup, levels of certain unhealthy chemicals in our bodies go down significantly in just a few short days!

NakedPoppy was lucky enough to sit down with a leading researcher in this area, UC Berkeley professor Dr. Kim Harley, who recently published groundbreaking findings about cosmetics use.

Below, you’ll find what you need to know about how the chemicals in eye makeup affect our health and what to do about it.

First, here’s why we tapped Dr. Kim Harley for info

Dr. Harley – associate director of the UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health and PhD in Epidemiology – is a leading researcher who’s been studying how unhealthy chemicals affect human health for decades. She’s especially focused on endocrine disruptors, or chemicals that affect how our endocrine system works and can contribute to issues like cancer, modified birth outcomes, and reproductive issues. She’s also published key research shedding light on how using traditional personal care products affects levels of endocrine disruptors like parabens and phthalates in our bodies. 

Let’s just say she knows her stuff when it comes to chemicals and health.

So, what exactly do we know about how traditional eye makeup influences our health?

Dr. Harley’s research suggests that our eye area may absorb the makeup we apply to it – and when we use makeup with potential endocrine disruptors, those ingredients can may enter our bodies. This is obviously a problem if you want to reduce your exposure to unhealthy chemicals that pose risks to our health over time.

Interestingly, Dr. Harley’s research shows that out of different types of makeup, traditional mascara especially contributes to having high levels of certain parabens and phthalates in our systems. “This discovery made us realize the eyes are an important place to be thinking about for exposure,” she says.

How did this all get discovered?

The research is pretty amazing, actually. 

For the past several years, Dr. Harley and her research team have been working with a group of teenage girls looking at how endocrine-disrupting chemicals affect the girls’ health. This year, they published a new study sharing the findings – among other things – about how different types of makeup products affect our levels of harmful chemicals. 

The study followed 100 girls, who each described their makeup and personal care product habits. The researchers then measured the levels of harmful chemicals like parabens and phthalates in their urine. The girls switched to clean personal care products for three days, and their urine was measured just three days later. 

The results? The levels of most of the chemicals decreased by 25-45%! “We know that makeup is a major source of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” Harley notes. “We’ve seen there’s an association between higher use of mascara and levels of parabens.”

Should all eye makeup be clean? Or are some kinds of eye makeup less harmful than others?

Yes, eye makeup in general is an issue, because it can get absorbed into our bodies. But Dr. Harley’s research found mascara to be a particular problem. Luckily, clean mascaras like the Lily Lolo Natural Vegan Mascara give you full lashes without harmful chemicals.

Why might the eye area play an extra important role in exposing us to harmful chemicals?

It may be because there’s what’s called a mucous membrane in the eye area.

The mucous membrane lines the eyelid and part of the eye. And some scientists suspect it plays a role because one of its jobs is to absorb nutrients – in this case, that means the harmful chemical compounds (yikes). Those chemicals then go directly into our bodies. This is a new area of research, however, and studies take time.

The NakedPoppy bottom line

We wear clean eye makeup and want to make it easy for you to do the same. That’s why all the makeup on NakedPoppy is free of nasty chemicals, as always!

We’re also elated to share that we created a brand new clean, luxe, non-toxic eyeliner of our own. Introducing NakedPoppy’s Clean Liquid Eyeliner, created with input from so many of you! 

Thank you to everyone who shared their desires for the ideal clean eyeliner with us. And thank you to our eyeliner test panel who provided feedback on the formula and brush choices.

Have any questions about eye makeup and your health? Leave it below and we’ll get you answers.

Get “shockingly accurate” clean beauty picks. Take your beauty assessment.

This post has been reviewed by Ilene Ruhoy, M.D., neurologist, and PhD in Environmental Toxicology.

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