It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul; the beauty industry has long treated them as its canvas. But as consumers increasingly enhance, alter, and care for the eye area, a parallel concern is emerging: how to do so without compromising eye health?
The global eye-makeup category is already a multibillion-dollar market, estimated to exceed $26 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2024 to 2030, with North America having a dominating share of 23.9% in 2023.
At the same time, consumers are embracing increasingly intensive ways to enhance the eye area, ranging from lash extensions and serums to permanent eyeliner and, at the most invasive end of the spectrum, blepharoplasty.
The intersection of beauty and eye health, however, can come with a cost. Ophthalmologists are increasingly seeing patients with symptoms including itching, irritation, dryness, redness, and fluctuating vision. Over-the-counter (OTC) products, such as eye drops, can offer instant relief, but historically there have been few products specifically designed to address the effects of beauty routines while allowing consumers to continue wearing makeup.
But that is beginning to change. Beauty brands founded by eye-care professionals have started to bridge the gap between cosmetics and ocular health, creating products designed not only to treat symptoms after they occur, but to incorporate preventative care into consumers’ beauty routines.
“Traditional beauty brands primarily optimize color, wear, and appearance; medical brands are primarily treating symptoms after they develop,” board-certified ophthalmologist Dr. Diane Hilal-Campo, founder of Twenty/Twenty Beauty, an eye makeup and care brand designed for consumers with sensitive or dry eyes, told BeautyMatter. “No one is adequately connecting high-performance beauty with the health of the ocular structures.”
The result is an emerging category of “eye-safe beauty,” which aims to make eye wellness part of the beauty routine.
For Hilal-Campo, the rise of dry eye disease is central to the opportunity. According to the American Journal of Ophthalmology, the condition affects 16.4 million US adults, and disproportionately affects women, who suffer from approximately 68% of all cases. Interest in the condition is also growing, with “dry eyes” generating an average of 12.2 million monthly searches across Google, TikTok, and Instagram combined. More specifically, growing symptom-related searches include “itchy eye,” up 20,000; “tired eyes,” up 14,400; and “styes,” up 7,000, according to Spate data.
Yet, dry eye disease often goes undiagnosed, with an estimated 30 to 50 million Americans experiencing symptoms without proper care, and its affecting consumers of all ages. Furthermore, a recent survey from Alcon, the medical company specializing in eye surgery and vision care, found that although 69% of Gen Z and millennial Americans said they never prioritize their vision, 73% report vision-related annoyances on a recurring basis, many of which can be associated with dry eye disease.
That disconnect is showing up in consumers’ beauty routines. Twenty/Twenty cites a Harris Poll, which found that 24% of people surveyed with dry eyes had either cut back on or stopped wearing makeup to relieve their symptoms.
“[This] is a large, underserved intersection between a common health condition and a very frequent beauty behavior,” Hilal-Campo said. “And women should not accept that.”
The eye is a uniquely delicate, interconnected system. Products applied to the eyelids or lashes can migrate onto the ocular surface, the exposed front of the eye, and interact with the tear film, the thin layer of water, oils, and other substances that protects the eye and helps maintain clear vision.
Unlike a lot of other areas of the skin, the eyelids and surrounding structures are particularly vulnerable to mechanical and chemical irritation. Eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara can migrate onto the ocular surface and, according to Hilal-Campo, contribute to buildup and meibomian gland blockage, potentially affecting the oils that help stabilize the tear film.
“The eye does not recognize a boundary between around the eye and in the eye, and consumers do not understand that,” she said. “Whenever an eye beauty product is applied around the eye, you have to assume that it’s going into the eye and will affect the ocular surface.”
That makes the formulation of an eye product fundamentally different from formulating for other areas of the face.
For emerging eye-safe beauty brands, the distinction between “clean” and “ocularly safe” is becoming an important one.
“Clean is an ingredient filter; ocular safety is the whole product standard,” Hilal-Campo said. “Clean beauty can be a useful starting point, but it’s not a clinical endpoint.”
For products used around the eye, factors such as concentration, pH, particle size, pigment behavior, packaging, and ease of removal can all affect how a formulation interacts with the ocular surface. Developers must consider where a product sits on the eyelid, how close it is to the lid margin, whether it can migrate or flake into the tear film, how it behaves during blinking, and how much rubbing is required to remove it.
For Amy Gallant Sullivan, co-founder of the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society and founder of Eyes Are The Story, an optocosmetics and skincare brand, the product format itself can be part of that equation. The brand intentionally developed a liquid eyeliner rather than a more traditional kohl, which she said can require ingredients that dry the waterline and potentially clog the glands. The same philosophy applies to removal: The chemicals and friction required to take off a product can matter as much as the product itself. Similarly, Twenty/Twenty only offers creamy eyeshadow sticks instead of powders, which cause fallout that can irritate the ocular surface.
“There’s a lot of products on the market that will say ‘safe for sensitive eyes,’ but that does not mean they are formulated for sensitive eyes,” Gallant Sullivan said. “There’s a huge difference there.” A standard cosmetic product can be tested to ensure it doesn't cause irritation for sensitive eyes after it is formulated, while a product specifically formulated for sensitive eyes is developed with those concerns from the outset.
Both Twenty/Twenty and Eyes Are The Story take a strict approach to formulation, maintaining lists of ingredients they avoid, including fragrance and certain preservatives. Eyes Are The Story also identifies 10 ingredients it calls “nasties,” including benzalkonium chloride, formaldehyde-releasing compounds, fragrance, parabens, phenoxyethanol, retinols, salicylic acid, and tea tree oil, which it does not include in its products because they can block oil glands and cause prolonged irritation and inflammation of the ocular surface.
“There’s no such thing as cosmetics without chemicals,” Gallant Sullivan said. “It’s about what we can use but at smaller concentrations or what we do to make them less aggressive on the eyes.”
Makeup isn't the only category getting an eye-safe reinvention. Peep Club, founded by UK-based optometrist Nicola Alexander-Cross in 2020, focuses less on replacing makeup and more on building eye care around existing beauty routines. The brand's products are formulated without preservatives and are designed around irritation prevention, hygiene, and self-care.
Its Soothing Coconut Eye Balm, for example, contains three ingredients: raw virgin coconut oil, chamomile extract, and bilberry extract, and is designed to help consumers gently remove stubborn eye makeup. The brand also sells cleansing wipes, a hypochlorous acid spray, and a handheld heat device intended to support eyelid and gland care.
“I’m meeting the customer where they’re at, making it easier to make eye health part of their daily routine,” Alexander-Cross said.
That philosophy may be particularly relevant as eye-safe beauty is no longer solely about makeup. The goal isn't necessarily to tell consumers to stop wearing mascara, eyeliner, or lashes. It’s to give them products and routines that let beauty and eye health coexist.
Increasingly, eye-safe beauty brands are building distribution through optometrists and at times ophthalmologists. These eye-care professionals are both a retail channel and a source of clinical credibility.
“We treat dry eye and eyelid inflammation, allergic reactions, contact lens intolerance, and complications from some of these lash procedures,” Hilal-Campo said, referring to her work as an ophthalmologist in her private clinic. “Since we treat the complications, we’re in the position to prevent them by discussing with our patients other options.”
Twenty/Twenty, for example, is sold through more than 700 professional offices, while Eyes Are The Story and Peep Club are both also offered at select optical stores, practices, and eye clinics. For consumers, the channel provides valuable information as much as it may provide convenience. After all, eye-safe beauty is still a category that requires education.
“I think we’re at an all-time high saturation of beauty products in retail,” Alexander said. “Even as a highly educated formulator and doctor, it is really hard for me to tell the difference right now between two brands, between two products, that I’ve never heard of. So any way that [eye health professionals] can explain our products better to customers is beneficial, which on a shelf, is somewhat limiting.”
This does not mean that eye-care professionals are the next dermatologists in terms of visibility. Optometrists already operate in a more consumer facing, product-oriented environment, while ophthalmologists have historically been more focused on medical treatment and surgery. That distinction makes optometrists better positioned to become a bridge.
“Ophthalmologists do not typically sell products,” Gallant Sullivan said. “Optometrists and opticians are great at selling products—frames, sunglasses, contacts. They sell. That’s what they do. The real surgeons, the real doctors do not have time to be influencers.”
Their influence may instead happen behind the scenes—from the consultation room, through product recommendations, patient education, or even simply a brochure in their waiting room.
The fact that multiple eye-safe beauty brands are already building distribution and recommendation networks through eye-care professionals suggests that the industry is betting on this new kind of relationship with these professionals. And as consumers are doing more to their eyes, they may increasingly look to those who understand them the best.
