(Gleaming, I tell you!) I knew the true test would be whether it lasted, though - that and whether or not the redness would return worse than before. Sure enough, when I looked in the mirror, my eyes were gleaming. But soon after applying the drops I headed to a meeting where my boss almost instantly commented on how white and bright my eyes looked. 'Most ophthalmologists and optometrists would always want to address the underlying cause of the red-eye, but when no specific underlying cause is found, Lumify may be a good option,' he adds.īecause the redness I struggle with is quite severe, honestly, I didn't really expect it to work. 'It's a selective decongestant that hasn't shown to cause any rebound redness or loss of effect over an eight-hour period,' says Tal Raviv, an ophthalmologist at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai in New York City. The new launch's claim to fame is what got me: Unlike the existing over-the-counter options on the market, its active ingredient (brimonidine tartrate) is not supposed to cause the aforementioned rebound redness. So when Bausch + Lomb's Lumify Redness Reliever Eye Drops landed on my desk, I was initially wary.Īt first, I wondered if I should even bother, but approximately a minute later curiosity got the best of me and I decided to try them, promising myself that if I had any adverse side effect, I'd chuck them immediately. It's a vicious cycle - one I've been trying to break for quite some time. One of the main side effects of over-the-counter drops is rebound redness, meaning that once the effect wears off, the inflammation comes back with a vengeance.

I was using them at least five times a day to look bright and bushy-tailed, as opposed to tired and worn out, but a regimen like that is not sustainable. It's for this reason that I became so reliant on redness-relieving drops like Visine. Much to my dismay, it's a chronic disorder that tends to make me look super tired - or super stoned - both of which are aesthetics I don't typically go for. The obsession started when my eye doctor informed me I have what's known as blepharitis, a condition that sounds rather alarming but really just means my eyes get red and inflamed easily. When I tell you that I haven't gone a day in 10 years without using eye drops (maybe longer) I'm not just being hyperbolic.

Bausch and lomb eye drops