Feedback: Cosmetics interactive

It is good to end 2022 and begin the new year on a positive note. The interactive CPD exercise designed to encourage discussions about the potential impact of eye make-up upon future contact lens wear success seems to have hit a note with readers.

Indeed, the exercise triggered the greatest response out of all of our 2022 interactive exercises. This does suggest that most of you do, indeed, feel that this is an area well worth consideration and agree with the author of the source material, Sarah Farrant, that eye care practitioners should be able to offer appropriate advice about cosmetics to their patients in contact lens practice.

There is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that many of the components of the cosmetic products routinely applied to the periocular skin and lid margins may have a negative impact upon the tears and ocular surface and, in some cases, have been linked with more serious disease. In the recent CPD, 'The impact of cosmetics on the ocular surface',¹ therapeutic optometrist Sarah Farrant explained how her experience, both with patients attending a dedicated dry eye clinic and in more general contact lens practice, supported this view and offered a review of some of the evidence so far published.