Warning To Make Up Lovers After Adelaide Woman Goes Blind From 20-Year-Old Mascara

Throw it out!


Article heading image for Warning To Make Up Lovers After Adelaide Woman Goes Blind From 20-Year-Old Mascara

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Make-up wearers are being warned to clean out their beauty bags after an Adelaide woman claims an old mascara blinded her. 

Grandmother Shirley Potter told Today Tonight she received an eye infection from using a twenty-year-old mascara.

Tragically, by the time she realised the infection she was declared legally blind and is expected to lose all her sight within three years.

Flinders University ophthalmologist Professor Justine Smith told The West cases such cases were rare – but were an important warning to make-up users to check the expiry dates.

“Bottles of make-up, like bottles of eye drops, have preservatives in them and preservatives there in part to stop bugs like bacteria growing in the bottle once the bottle is open,” she said.

Beauty experts are warning make-up users of the dangers lurking in their cosmetics bags after the shocking case of an Australian grandmother who claims an old mascara blinded her.

Experts say eye make-up can become dangerous just six months after it is opened, even if it still appears fine.

The case follows the case of Adelaide woman Shirley Potter, who used a mascara which had been sitting in a drawer for 20 years before receiving an eye infection.

By the time she realised the infection, she had been declared legally blind and she is expected to lose her sight completely within three years.

Flinders University opthamologist Professor Justine Smith said while cases such cases were rare, they carried an important warning for make-up users, many of whom were unaware their cosmetics had an expiry date.

“Bottles of make-up, like bottles of eye drops, have preservatives in them and preservatives there in part to stop bugs like bacteria growing in the bottle once the bottle is open,” she said.

 “Over time that preservative starts to break down and within a few weeks it won't be so active and then bugs can grow,” she said.

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19 July 2018




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