Your eyes and the skin around them are super sensitive. Skin can become reactive, sore, red or flaky. Other people find eyes can become irritated, red or watery.

Both problems are really uncomfortable but quite common – they happen to most of us at some point.  

Tweak your skincare routine to fix these problems and get relief for your sore, sensitive eyes. Try our sensitive eyes fixes.

No. 1 – Irritated skin around the eyes

What’s the best skincare for sensitive eyes? Fragrance free, barrier-repairing products

If the skin around your eyes is reacting, irritated, red or flaky it’s usually due to a compromised skin barrier. This can happen as a result of stress, illness, allergies or because you’re using skincare products that are just wrong for the delicate skin around your eyes.  

Whatever the cause, you need to take a step back and take a two-pronged approach to repairing that skin barrier and getting back to healthy, happy skin:

Stop making the situation worse

• • Take a break from makeup – not forever, but give your skin a week or so without it. All makeup contains ingredients that can irritate your skin once it’s barrier is compromised.  Makeup that’s fine on healthy skin can make compromised skin worse. That doesn’t mean that makeup is bad – just that your skin needs to be free from it for a little while.
    
  • Eliminate fragrance from your skincare. Take a good look at the ingredient listings on all your skincare to cut out essential oils and anything that’s labelled as ‘parfum’ on the ingredients list. Fragrance, whether it’s natural or synthetic can irritate your skin if it’s sensitive or compromised.
    
  • Avoid actives and strong skincare ingredients like retinol, acids, vitamin C and niacinamide. These are all brilliant ingredients but not when your skin is sensitised. Put them away and come back to them once your skin is back in balance.
    
  • Make sure your cleanser is not disrupting your skin barrier – foaming and rinse-off cleansers can unsettle your skin barrier. Super Seed Cleaning Oil is formulated specifically for sensitive skin. Change your cleanser to a VOTARY Cleansing Oil and remove it with the accompanying cloth morning and night. 

Support your skin

• • Strengthen your skin with Super Seed Serum – specifically formulated with peptides to strengthen the skin barrier and support the skin microbiome to restore balance and comfort to your skin. Added hyaluronic acid increases the hydration levels in your skin. Super Seed Serum is completely fragrance free so it won’t cause the irritation that you’re trying to fix.
  • Pat a small amount of Super Seed Serum into the skin around your eyes after cleansing.

Feed your skin with Super Seed Facial Oil

A soothing and fragrance free blend of cold-pressed oils from 21 super seeds including broccoli, chia and pumpkin. Natural plant oils feed your skin and help restore balance.  

• • Take a drop of Super Seed Facial Oil, gently smooth it onto the orbital bone around your eyes. Using a gentle circular motion is both effective and very relaxing.  
  • Don’t worry about using an oil around your eyes – it’s actually less likely to cause irritation in the eye itself than a cream is (you can read about why this is in the section below)

No. 2 :  Red, itchy, weepy or watery eyes

What’s the best eye cream for sensitive eyes?  It’s an oil, NOT a cream!

Signs of irritation

You may find your eyes are itchy and uncomfortable, a bit like having hayfever. Or your vision gets slightly blurry because your eyes are running and often your makeup runs with it. Perhaps this is accompanied by puffiness around the eyes too.  

It’s not a nice feeling – and probably not the look you want either.  

 Try the ideas below to help your sensitive eyes.

• We’ve said it before, but give your eyes a break from makeup for a few days.
• Sunscreen can also irritate eyes. You should never go  in the sun without wearing SPF so stay in the shade until your sensitivity is under control. Once your sensitivity is calmed, try switching your sunscreen for one that is non-irritating. 
• Avoid creams, gels, lotions and balms. If your eyes are sensitive or prone to puffiness, the only products you should be applying to your face are oils.
• Switch to an ALL-oil skincare routine!   
  Here’s why:
  • Creams, gels and lotions are made from a mixture of oils and water. We know that oil and water don’t mix. To make a cream, emulsifiers are added to products to make the oil and water mix. There’s nothing wrong with that EXCEPT when you have sensitive eyes. Skincare products can end up dissolving in the tears in your eyes causing irritation and puffiness.
  • Using natural plant oils (that don’t contain emulsifiers) means the water/tears in your eyes cannot mix. Any oil product that does end up in your eye simply floats on top of the tears in your eyes and gets blinked out of the eye without causing irritation. 
• That’s why VOTARY cleansing oils “magically” don’t sting and irritate your eyes like all other cleansers do! It’s because the pure oils don’t dissolve in your eyes. It might feel like magic but it’s just basic chemistry. Here’s how to choose the best VOTARY cleansing oil for your skin type. 
• And that’s why the only eye product we make at VOTARY is an oil: VOTARY Intense Eye Oil.

The sensitive eye routine

• Use a VOTARY cleansing oil and a facial oil (and use nothing else) for 4-7 days. Take care not to use the facial oil all the way up to the eye edge. Gently massage the oil onto the orbital bone around the eye. Use relaxing, circular motions.
• Because we love plant oils, VOTARY has a range of cleansing oils and facial oils to choose from. Whatever your skin type, there’s a VOTARY for you. Use our Find Your Routine tool or email us any time on [email protected] for a personalized consultation. 
• Don’t apply our serums or creams around your eyes – stick with the oils. Your sensitive eyes will thank you.