The Surprising Telltale Sign Your Beauty Products Are Irritating Your Skin 

Your skin is a super-smart organ, and it will inform you when it doesn't like a certain formula or skin care habit—with breakouts, flushing, scaling, the works. Sometimes these signs are quick and easy to spot (full-blown irritation is pretty hard to miss), but others can fly a bit more under the radar with time. Is your uptick in dryness an innocent byproduct of the crisper fall weather, or is your skin begging you to forgo a harsh formula? 

Your eyes betray a ton about your skin's status: Lack of sleep, a salt- or sugar-heavy diet, and collagen decline all make their appearance in the eye area, namely because the skin up there is so thin and fragile already. Because of this delicate tissue, we also know contact dermatitis is more prevalent around the eyes—which is why investing in hypoallergenic eye makeup, like mascara, is a must for folks with sensitive skin. 

But allow us to declare: Your peepers can totally be one of the first places to show a reaction to a certain product, even if said product isn't eye-specific.  

Board-certified dermatologist Kavita Mariwalla, M.D., seconds the notion on a recent episode of Clean Beauty School: "[A] telltale sign is if your eyelids get really dry," she says of skin irritation. "Because the eye area is super sensitive, you don't always need to apply things to the eyes for them to react to things you're applying to your face."