Last week, those of you following me on Twitter might have come across this status update:
Just mistook nail polish remover for eye makeup remover. Hurts like a mofo! Don't try this at home kids!
— Paris B (@parisbmws) October 19, 2012
Yeah, I know. Ouch!
I’m not quite sure what happened, to be perfectly honest. I was tired, yes but not exceedingly so. It wasn’t terribly late, but I’d had some furniture delivered, and I had been clearing up my spaces. I was about to have my shower, when I realised I still had my makeup on from the day. (For the record, the Kanebo Lunasol Water Gel Foundation is seriously something. So impressed!)
So I reached for the first blue bottle I saw on the counter, picked it up, thought it smelled funny, wet a piece of cotton pad, laid the cotton pad against my eye … and promptly ran screaming for the bathroom. It BURNS!
Even as I ran cold water from the tap over my eyes, I could not help wondering why my regular Lip and Eye makeup remover would suddenly turn on me. I wondered if I had accidentally cut my eye lid.
It was only a few moments later that the strong, unmistakeable smell of nail polish remover cut through the fog in my brain. “I just put nail polish remover on my eye!!” You know when people say “/facepalm” but they just say it? I had a literal /facepalm moment right there.
There doesn’t seem to be any lasting damage, thankfully. I had closed my eyes to remove the eyeshadow and mascara, and had almost immediately rinsed it off my skin. I was almost afraid to open my right eye lest I had gone blind but fortunately, it all seems to be good.
I now keep my nail polish remover in a separate room. Not taking my chances again!
Oh and for the record, nail polish remover sucks at removing eye makeup 😉
What’s the worst/most painful makeup or skincare mistake that has ever happened to you?
On a scale of 1-10, this has had to be a 10 on the scale of pain, stupidity and now that I’d told you about it, acute embarrassment LOL!
Paris B
Megan says
Oh no, I hope no damage is done to your poor eye it must have been so painful as I find nail polish remover so harsh just to get on my skin. I’ve done the typical mistaken conditioner for shampoo before, very easy to do since a lot of companies make the bottles identical but I’ve never done anything as painful as nail polish remover on the eye.
fairytalesandcoffee says
Im sorry this is funny. Skincare misshaps for me are small fry – accidently picking up conditioner squrting my hand to wash my face…accidently using facial cleanser to wash my hair…but not as bad as my problem with trying to put milk in the cupboard and cereal boxes in the frig….
yiv says
I mistook a “Missha: The Style Magic Eye Change” which I usually use it to turn powder pigments into creamy eyeliner … and dripped it into my eye instead of EyeMo Moist … I realized the mistake when my eyelids felt stuck to my eyeballs!
Marla says
Most of my mistakes involve poking my eye with something, either a mascara wand, eye pencil or other makeup product for the eye area.
neegee says
Ouch! What happened to me was:-
1)spilled some anti-acne solution that contain alcohol into my eyes! Loose cap!
2) NEARLY washed my face with hair conditioner
3) most of the time, I nearly brush my teeth with facial cleanser. (it’s like some accident waiting to happen)
Gotta be more aware! LOL. sometimes it’s just habit that you’ll naturally reach out for something at their usual spot. trouble happens when they’re misplaced. :p
Kristine says
This brought me out of lurkerdom…
1) I went a bit (and by a bit I mean a lot) over zealous with a prescription Retinol gel on a honking pimple and gave myself a nasty chemical burn. A chunk of skin literally came off, and it didn’t heal for two weeks, and not without using a burn ointment to protect it.
2) I had just puchased a bottle of Caudalie vinoperfect radiance serum, and, holding the bottle in my left hand, and using my right hand to pipe half a pipette into my left palm (was still holing the open bottle of serum), I tilted the bottle while turning my palm up, and SPILLED HALF THE BOTTLE INTO THE SINK. I hate waste, and considering that was $40 USD that I just spilled into the sink, I freaked out! I decided that it was not a good idea to try to put it back into the bottle, and I put what was left in the sink on my face and on my husband’s face. Gross I know. Needless to say, we broke out in some little zits. It wasn’t a bad breakout, but I don’t know what caused it, the dirty sink stuff that ended up on our faces or the face that stuff is NOT meant to be slathered on like that, or a combination of both. I just hated myself for pouring that much money down the sink like that, that the only thing that would make me feel better is if I at least tried to use it.
3) When I tried lash extensions, I got over zealous (again yes I know) and every time I went back for a touchup, I told the girl to put more and more. By the time the girl was putting three lashes per single lash of mine, my lashes were too heavy to support and started falling off in chunks within days. My eye lashes didn’t grow back and are permanently more sparse than they ever were. And I didn’t have very much to begin with.
Those are the worst ones, but I have more.
Gel says
Same here but a few days later my eye is now swollen. What to do?
Paris B says
Best to see a doctor
Lisa says
Lol I just did this!! Googled to make sure I’m not alone. Didn’t hurt but I smelled the remover and panicked….thank God there’s an online Poison Control tool that said as long as you don’t have severe lasting pain you’re good just rinse your eye out…
It was old remover so I had no symptoms actually.