Sophia’s eyeliner inquiry: How do they get the colors for liquid eyeliner? Are there bacteria in Wet n Wild eyeliner? Are there bacteria in colored eyeliner? What colors would have more bacteria or would it get moldy? Does the sun affect the different colors to have bacteria because of the reflection? Is Wet n Wild the best liquid eyeliner to use?
The Right Brain responds:
Sophia, we’ve never had anyone so curious about eyeliner before! First of all, you might want to go back and read our post on how eyeliner works. That will explain the basics of the formula. Go ahead, read it now. We’ll wait here…
All done? Good! Now, on to your questions….
Color safe
First of all, the colorants used in eyeliner are all approved by the FDA (in the US) for use around the eye. These include chemicals with names names like yellow and blue lakes, carmine (which comes from crushed up dead bugs) and mineral-derived colors like Iron Oxides, Chromium oxide greens, and ultramarines. (By the way, we’ve blogged before about the potential danger of eye products containing a black colorant known as kohl, so be sure to stay away from that!
Buggy bacteria
Second, you seem very concerned about bacteria in Wet n Wild eyeliner - normally this should not be a problem. We looked at the ingredients in Wet n Wild Eyeliner
and found that it’s protected from bacteria by a combination of preservatives including methylparaben, propylparaben and imidazolidinyl urea. So unless the product is very old or it’s somehow been contaminated, it should be bacteria free. If bacteria DID start to grow in the product, they may nor may not be visible to you just from looking at it. Mold would be easy to spot, but bacteria is not so easily seen.
Here comes the sun
We’re not sure we understood your question about sunlight, but while the color of eyeliner may appear a little different under different lighting conditions, sunlight itself has nothing to do with whether or not the product has bacteria or what that bacteria looks like. If you’ve gotten a bad tube of eyeliner and it looks funny, either take it back to the store for a refund or throw it out and by a new one.
Finally, you asked if Wet n Wild Eyeliner is the best liquid eyeliner to use, but we’ll turn that question over to our Beauty Brains community. Can anyone out there recommend any eyeliners for Sophia? Leave a comment and share your eyeliner expertise!