Summary:
In my case the puffiness under my right eye was caused by fabric conditioner (fabric softener) on my pillow case. It seems preservatives in them such as methylisothiazolinone, methylchloroisothiazolinone and benzisothiazolinone (isothiazolinones) cause contact dermatitis. As soon as I realized what could have been causing the problem and washed my bed sheets, clothes and pillow cases without fabric conditioner, the puffiness under my eyes is getting better as each day passes. The fact that only one eye was affected is a clue to how it happened. I sleep mainly on my right side, which results in the skin around my right eye being in contact with a pillow case rinsed with fabric softener. I have seen many posts and comments on the Internet concerning people wondering why only one of their two eyes is puffy. As stated here it could well be due to their sleeping position. I suspect that if the cause is unknown and hard to trace, then perhaps the problem is something very commonplace that people would not initially suspect.
Last year a friend took a close up photograph of me. When I was sent a copy I noticed the skin just underneath my eyes looked a little puffy or swollen. The puffiness wasn’t symmetrical – the right eye was much more puffy. I looked in the mirror and couldn’t see anything. I did think that never before in my life had I seen puffy eyes in photographs of myself. I dismissed the photograph as being the “fault” of a high resolution camera.
Several months went by. One evening I fell asleep on the sleeve of a sweater. A day or two later I woke up and noticed swelling underneath my right eye. I had never seen that before in a mirror. As I was having a vacation at the time I was not sleeping in the same bed with the same sheets. The sweater would have been washed at home and taken with my on my vacation.
I returned home and a week or two went by. One morning I looked in the mirror and there was pronounced puffiness under my right eye.My left eye was fine. Days went by and the puffiness did not go away. I had never had a problem with eye puffiness before.
So I went around the shops and over a course of a few weeks purchased a number of puffy eye creams, serums and roll-on solutions. Some of them stung. None of them fixed the problem. They were a complete waste of money. Some of them were cheap and some were very expensive. In retrospect, it is better to fix the real cause of the problem, instead of the symptoms. Unfortunately at this time, I didn’t know what caused the problem.
The skin under my right eye looked like a fluid filled bag springy to touch. It was worrying to say the least.
I eventually decided to see a doctor. The first doctor was no help whatsoever. He seem to want to avoid saying anything at all. A few weeks went by and I saw another doctor. He didn’t come up with a diagnosis and just asked me if I had allergies. I thought both doctors were pretty useless. They didn’t ask me about my history or didn’t pick up on this problem sprung up almost overnight, if you discount the puffiness seen in a close-up high resolution photograph, but not in a mirror. I did see a third doctor and he sent me off for blood tests. Everything was backed up and so the whole process was painfully slow. The results have not come in yet, but now the problem is going away (details later).
So I did what everybody does nowadays. I did a Google search for what causes puffy eyes. Well it can be allergies, stress, dust mites, poor diet etc.
The first thing I did was to throw out the very, very old duvet I was using, all my bed sheets, pillow and pillow cases. I purchased new bed sheets, a new pillow, a new cotton blanket and, of course, dust mite proof zip-up cases for my mattress and pillow. In retrospect, I foolishly washed all the new materials with our usual washing powder and fabric softener.
There was an improvement. I no longer woke up with a runny nose. It stopped the occasional problem I had with itchy eyes. I no longer woke up with aching limbs and feeling stiff. Once I got out of bed, the aching always stopped pretty quickly though.
So changing my pillow, bed sheets and buying dust-mite proof covers helped.
But the skin under my right puffy eye still stayed swollen. Weeks went by and it didn’t go away.
What else could be causing it? Could it be my diet? Well I cleaned up my diet as I heard a diet rich in cheese, meat, rice, wheat, refined foods, pasta, black tea and coffee can make your lymph system acidic and so sluggish in removing the fluid under your eyes. I ate lots of watercress, salads, melon and lemon chunks (dipped in water to avoid getting any residues of acid on my teeth). Lemon is supposed to be strongly alkalizing as your body can easily break down the citric acid into harmless products, leaving just the alkalizing metals such as potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium behind.
Well improving my diet didn’t make my right puffy eye go away. I was getting rather worried about this and it wasn’t a nice feeling at all. It was destroying my looks. The area under my eyes looked aged, swollen and ill. I had changed to sleeping on my left side and this caused the problem to move to the skin under my left eye.
Well a few days ago, almost by chance, I found myself reading a newspaper article on the use of isothiazolinone based preservatives in shampoos, conditioners and soaps. This family of chemicals includes methylisothiazolinone, methylchloroisothiazolinone and benzisothiazolinone. The articles I saw are here, here and here. A Facebook page for these chemicals and the problems they cause can be found here. These chemicals cause contact dermatitis.
I looked on the ingredients of my shampoo and conditioner and sure enough they contained these chemicals. However shampoo and conditioner are wash off substances. I mainly sleep on my right side and so the fact the right eye was puffy – much more so than the left one – is a big clue. I looked on the ingredients of the fabric conditioner (softener) I use and it contains benzisothiazolinone. Fabric conditioner stays on your pillow case and clothes and is either in constant contact with your skin or at least for the eight hours you sleep a night.
I washed my pillow case and some of my clothes without fabric conditioner. Hey presto! The next morning I woke up, my puffiness had decreased. The next morning after that less still. On the third morning I has gone down about 60 – 80%.
If you think it daft to put an isothiazolinone based preservative in shampoo (that you rinse out), then it is hundred times more stupid to put it in fabric conditioner which coats your clothes and bed sheets and stays in long-term contact with your skin.
My problem started occurring in the later part of 2012 (slight) and became very obvious in 2013. In 1989, an article was published in the Lancet concerning the problems of the use of isothiazolinone preservatives in leave-on products. The article calls for its use to be abandoned as it is causing an epidemic of allergic cosmetic dermatitis.
The only question I had in my mind is whether the problem isothiazolinone caused for me is an allergic reaction or just due to the fact that isothiazolinone is a biocide, which unfortunately negatively affects humans along with its intended victims such as bacteria and mould. Wikipedia states that benzisothiazolinone is a irritant for skin, eyes and lung and a human immune system toxicant.
The Shampoo I’m Using Now:
It is quite possible that the isothiazolinones have an additive effect as they can be found in multiple products – shampoo, hair conditioner, face creams, fabric softener etc.
I am now using Dr Bronners’ Magic Soap (the liquid version) as a shampoo. The brand also makes hard bar soaps and I now have one of those as well. For a rinse-out hair conditioner I’m using one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted with a jam-jar’s worth of water. Make sure you are not allergic to apples. Diluted vinegar smooths down your hair’s cuticles. If you look at the ingredients they don’t have a long list of chemical nasties.
You can also use sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda) as a shampoo. I tried it once. Nothing bad happened, although it wasn’t really a good test as my hair wasn’t particularly dirty as I washed it with conventional products they day before.
Post Script
I am not sure how good regular washing is at removing all the fabric conditioner from your clothes, bed sheets and pillow cases. I’ve read on the Internet that soaking overnight in a bowl of water with a cup of bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate) is one way. Some web pages followed that up with another soaking in a bowl of water with a cup of white vinegar added.
If isothiazolinone is causing some allergic or immune reaction, I read that it might take 1 – 2 weeks for the swelling and/or irritation to subside.
One Puffy Eye 