Mascara for Contact Lens Wearers and Other Makeup Tips (2024)

Have you seen those pictures of crying girls with mascara running down their cheeks? Now imagine if that happened to you, all the time, and you weren't even sad!

That can sometimes be the sorry state of wearing mascara for contact lens wearers. But, fear not my watery-eyed sisters and brothers!

We will teach you all the tips and tricks to keep your mascara and eye makeup on point without affecting your contact lenses.

Ready to rock the eye makeup you've been dreaming of? Here are our best tips on contacts and makeup.

1. Eye Makeup and Contacts: Less Is More

Make sure you keep eye makeup to a minimum while you are wearing contacts.

This doesn’t mean you can’t rock sexy cat eyes or smokey eyes. However, leaving the inner corner and tear ducts free of makeup will make everything much easier.

Avoid using too much under eye makeup. Better yet, don’t use any at all! Bottom lash mascara will run, and liner will smudge throughout the day. Focus on your upper eyelids.

Put In Your Lenses As Soon As You Wake Up

If you use daily contact lenses, you should be putting them in as soon as you wake up in the morning. Same goes for when you're replacing longer wear lenses.

Make this the very first step of your morning routine. This gives your eyes some time to relax after the initial lens insertion before coming at them with a mascara wand.

Use Brushes To Apply Your Makeup

The trick to wearing makeup with contacts is precision. You’re not going to get precision from your finger or a cotton swab.

Invest in some nice precision-makeup brushes. These are made for eye makeup and will make your life much easier. These brushes are designed to fit well with the different parts of your eye.

You will get an even application with less fallout and less risk of disturbing your lenses.

What Mascara To Use And How To Apply it

Quality waterproof mascara is going to be your best bet with contacts. This type of mascara will keep the pigment on your lashes and out of your eyes when they tear-up because of the lenses.

Try your best not to cake it on. Use light, even strokes while applying the mascara. Instead of going over your lashes a lot of times in the same way, you can try layering.

Apply one layer, let it dry, and then go in for a second layer. This provides less chance for you to get mascara in your eye or irritate the lens.

Skip the bottom lashes. Your eyes can tear up much more often when wearing contacts. Avoiding the bottom mascara skips a lot of streaky drama later in the day.

2. How to Moisturize Without Ruining Your Makeup

At the end of the day, the best eye makeup for contact lens wearers is the one that stays put, despite using eye drops. Contact lens wearers have notoriously dry eyes and have to use eye drops to keep them moisturized. So, how do you do that while keeping those peepers well painted?

First of all, make sure you are doing a correct application of your eye drops.

Proper Eye Drops Application

The best way to make sure most of the drops stay in your eyes is to lie down face up to apply. If that's not possible lean your head back and keep it as level as possible.

Pull the lower lid down to give yourself a larger surface area to work with. Bring your eyedropper bottle about an inch above your eye.

Now pinch one drop. You heard me right, only one drop into your eye. Don't blink! Your immediate response will be to blink rapidly and move your eye around to absorb the drop.

What you should do is apply the drop and then close your eye slowly, once. Keep it closed and block the inner corner tear duct with your finger by pressing on it gently.

Hold your position for a full 1-2 minutes. When you open your eye, it should be well moisturized, and your eye will not tear up or drip the excess onto your makeup.

This will avoid the main problem with eye makeup for contact lenses: watery eyes.

Extended Wear Contacts Are Your Best Bet

If you apply daily makeup, contact lenses that you can wear for longer periods of time will be your best friend. If monthly wear worries you, consider weekly wear lenses.

Lenses you have to change daily pose the smearing and tearing threat of ruining your makeup every morning.

Putting on longer wear contacts lets you forget about them for a while and do your makeup worry-free.

Bye Bye Glasses, Hello Contacts and Gorgeous Eye Makeup

Contact lens wearers need to be more aware of their makeup throughout the day. Make sure to carry some touch-up stock and makeup remover wipes in case of emergency.

We hope our tips on wearing mascara for contact lens wearers have been helpful. Remember to keep your look on point:

• use a waterproof base
• apply in layers, and
• use as little as possible.

Ready to jump all-in and ditch the glasses that block your beautiful upper eye blending? Be courageous and curious! Get yourself a pair of contact lenses to open up your face and gorgeous eyes. You’ll also stop feeling tied down to your glasses. How’s that for an added bonus?