We must be doing something right. I don’t know quite what it is, but we must be doing it right. No longer are we just reviewing smartphones, we’re now reviewing eye drops. Yes, eye drops.
Stay with me, because you’re looking at the problem right now.
Screens. We spend an inordinate amount of time looking at them. I stare at two big LED panels at work and get blasted by air-con units all day. Then I’m staring at my phone, or a tablet, or my TV when I get home. Even the thermostat has a screen on it. Combine all this and you can end up with sore, dry eyes. If you add a few beers or a glass of wine into the mix it can make dry eyes even worse, and the grittiness in your eyes leads to you looking permanently tired and worn out.
The people at Bausch + Lomb have developed two new products for providing round-the-clock eye care for this tech-driven problem.
To explain a bit about how it works, we need to look at your tears. They’re tucked under your upper eyelids with ducts which, with a set of glands which I can’t even pronounce (the meibomian glands), will produce the moisture your eyes need on a daily basis. It’s important to have this protection as it’ll get rid of any harmful bacteria, dust, and it also acts as a lubricant.
If you ever have dry eyes, you should check these out.
First, the Artelac Rebalance, in the pink bottle, is designed to provide long-lasting moisturisation for people with recurrent dry, tired and irritated eyes. It’s got hyaluronic acid (I’ve no real idea what this is, but they tell me that this is a hydrating agent which remains in place when your eye is open, just like real tears) and viscoelactor, which will strengthen the film of tears without blurring vision.
You take the pink bottle and, between 3-5 times daily, release a drop into each eye. You can do it more often if your eyes are really dry. I gave these a shot and I’m actually writing this review right now after just putting some in. There’s no sharpness or stinging, and as promised my eyes aren’t blurred. It feels a little like I’m in a wet room, with hydrated eyeballs. That’s a strange description, I know, but let’s go with it.
At night, and if you wake up feeling like you’ve been in a sand-blaster or a desert storm during your sleep, you might need the Artelac Nighttime gel. This, as a the name suggests, is a more jelly-like substance and seals in moisture overnight. It’s got trigylceride lipids, carbomer gel and sterile water in. It’s a combination which covers your tears in a film of high viscosity gel which remains on the eye surface overnight. This will calm and provide relief for that burning feeling you may get if you’ve had a long day sat in front of a screen.
Put one drop in each eye 15 minutes before going to bed. You can also use it in the day but I found it to be a better nighttime product as it was more of a gel than the liquid Rebalance Product.
Overall
I’m writing this in the winter, and the combination of central heating, air conditioning and freezing cold wind on a daily basis is enough to mess my eyes up pretty quickly. These two have quickly sorted out my eyeballs, just as hand moisturizer sorts out your skin.
I should just mention that eye drops are good for short term relief but don’t help to treat the cause, so if you do have continual eye problems you should definitely pay a visit to your local opticians and get your eyes checked along with regular eye tests every 2 years.
How much?
It’s best to go down to your local independent pharmacy for these as I’ve actually seen them priced higher online. Opticians like Specsavers and pharmacies will sell the Artelac Rebalance for £6.95 and the Artelac Nighttime Gel for £4.49