Is Clinique Eye Makeup Safe to Sleep In? I Tested It in 2024

Big win for lazy people (me).

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I've never been particularly good at taking my makeup off before bed. In every other area of my skincare routine I treat my skin like the bb angel she is—avoiding harsh exfoliators, prioritizing my skin barrier, washing my makeup brushes, following a skin cycling routine, the list goes on. But at night, I'm just fricken tired, okay?!? Sometimes, I come home, my roommates in the shower, and I just crawl into bed. Face full of makeup. This is real, this is me. And while I can totally deal with the results of breakouts, uneven skin texture, and dark circles (I have the best concealer for acne in my arsenal), what I cannot handle are swollen, irritated, crusty AF eyes from the remnants of eyeliner and mascara.

But! What if there were sensitive-eye-friendly formulas that wouldn't make me regret my choices to have one more gin and tonic? Ope, there are, and they're from Clinique. I was recently reminded of brand's eye makeup safety promise, which states that all of their mascaras, eyeliners, and eyeshadows are put through hella allergy testing with consumers, dermatologists, and ophthalmologists to make sure the formulas are safe for sensitive eyes and skin, especially contact lens wearers.

Now I've sworn by Clinique's simple-yet-effective products since I was a teenager (their O.G. three-step skincare system got me into skincare, which basically is why I have this job, so like, thanks Clinique?!), but I'll admit that shiny! new! exciting! products have taken over my makeup bag as of late. So decided to swap all of those trendy eye products for Clinique ones and then sleep in my makeup to see if they actually they live up to their gentle claims. Keep scrolling for my full review, plus some notes on what happens to your eyes when you sleep in your makeup.

Yes, sleeping in eye makeup can definitely irritate your eyes, says dermatologist Deanne Mraz, MD. "There are ingredients in makeup that may irritate your eyes when you sleep, even if they don’t cause you irritation during the daytime," she explains. How? Well, "products tend to migrate while we’re sleeping and can end up getting inside our eyes when they otherwise wouldn’t," she says, leading to potential itch, redness, puffiness, and more. (This goes for anyone, not only those who are allergy-prone.) And even though sleeping in your makeup is not great for your eyes, many of us—myself included—are guilty of doing it. According to a survey by Clinique, only 1 in 5 makeup-wearers say that they "remove their eye makeup most of the time before bed."

Typically, after a night out when I come home and ~forget~ to wash my makeup off, I wake up with majorly puffy eyes. Like, no amount of ice-rolling can reverse the damage. Call it allergies, dry eyes, or just a sensitivity to certain ingredients, but leftover mascara and eyeliner tend to wreak serious havoc that can last days. It's honestly gotten to a point where I'll avoid wearing mascara or eyeliner before a long night, knowing that if I don't wash it off completely, I'll wake up with a dire situation under my eyes.

For this test, I swapped my normal going-out eye makeup for these three picks from Clinique to see if they'd actually make a difference in how irritated my eyes were in the morning. Before bed, I took off my face makeup, but left my eyeshadow, mascara, and eyeliner on. You know, for science.

I'm here to report that my eyes looked, well, totally normal the next morning. And my eye makeup still looked shockingly good too. I mean, look at how well this eyeliner wore for hours of deep sleep?! Imagine how it'd fare after a long day at the office or sweating at the clurb. The mascara elongates and volumizes my lashes (although, the next morning, they definitely have lost their curl, but tossing and turning will do that I'm sure). And I love how easy these eyeshadow sticks are to blend on with my finger and go. I plan to travel with these since they take up no space in a bag and only take a few seconds to create a look.

I know I shouldn't sleep in my makeup, but it must be done occasionally (i.e. after a late night at the office, open bar wedding, red-eye flight). In those moments I intend to utilize these products to avoid the dreaded puffy, itchy eyes in the morning I'm used to. The performance alone is enough to encourage me to incorporate into my daily routine, but the fact that they also don't bother the hell outta my sensi eyes when I sleep in them? Even better.

Beth Gillette is the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan with six years of experience researching, writing, and editing skincare and makeup stories that range from no makeup makeup to drugstore mascaras. To write this story, she tested all three Clinique eye makeup products for a full week (including sleeping in them—serious dedication).

Beth Gillette is the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers skincare, makeup, hair, nails, and more across digital and print. She can generally be found in bright eyeshadow furiously typing her latest feature or hemming and hawing about a new product you "have to try." Prior to Cosmopolitan, she wrote and edited beauty content as an Editor at The Everygirl for four years. Follow her on Instagram for makeup selfies and a new hair 'do every few months.

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