A woman who did not wash off her mascara on a regular basis developed serious eye problems that could have blinded her, according to a new report in the journal Ophthalmology.
Theresa Lynch, 50, told researchers that she had heavily used mascara for over 25 years.
"I had fallen into a bad habit of wearing a lot of makeup and not washing it off. I should never have let it get this far," Lynch told the Daily Mail.
The mascara’s pigment created dark lumps inside of her eyelid.
The study reported the dark, pigmented lumps were found under the conjunctiva, which is the transparent membrane that lines the eyelid and white part of the eye.
Lynch's doctor, an ophthalmic surgeon and clinician at The University of Sydney, told the Daily Mail that if the lumps hadn't been removed, they could have become infected and caused Lynch to lose her eyesight.
When it comes to removing mascara, Dr. Dana Robaei warned that people "must be meticulous."
Lynch had the lumps removed but has permanent scarring on her eyelids, Live Science reported.
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