Why Contact Solution Should Be The Newest Staple Piece In Your Makeup Bag

For those of us who wear contact lenses, a bottle of contact solution is probably always in our medicine cabinets and travel bags. After all, you can't clean, preserve, or store your contacts without it. Contact solution is different from simple saline solution, which is essentially just salt water, as contact solution also contains a wetting agent, a cleansing or disinfecting agent, and usually a preservative (via Woodhams Eye Clinic). It's this combination that allows us to cleanse contacts of any debris or germs and preserve their moisture and structural integrity. 

But what if we told you that even if you don't wear contacts, you might benefit from keeping a bottle of contact solution in your medicine cabinet or makeup bag? It's true! Not only does the formula of contact solution make it ideal for cleaning and storing contacts, but it also makes it an ideal and versatile staple for makeup mavens who want to save money, get creative, and try new things! 

Liquid eyeliner is a key tool for creating intense looks from cat eyes to pin-up style glam, but once the liner starts drying out, you might notice you're getting less precise lines, less color payoff, and less staying power. For those of us on a budget, replacing staples like liquid liner can get expensive. Fortunately, there's a way to wake up that dried out liner by simply adding a drop or two of contact solution to either the applicator or directly into the formula itself (via Style Craze). This can extend the life of your liner!

The same goes for dried-out, gloppy mascara. Even if you follow all the beauty rules like never pumping your mascara wand into the tube, your mascara drying out is inevitable. When your mascara reaches this point, you'll notice the formula can become flakey, clumpy, and difficult to apply. While it's important that you replace your mascara every three months or so to keep your eyes healthy, you can extend the life of a dried-out mascara by adding a few drops of contact solution to the tube to hold you over until you can get ahold of a new one. 

And ditto for eyebrow gel! Whether in a tube or a pot, a few drops of contact solution can wake up the formula to help it glide on more smoothly and stay put all day. 

If you like playing with color and creating different eye makeup looks, colorful eyeliners can be a great place to start. But buying a new liner every time you want to try a different color can get prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, unlike liner, eyeshadow is often sold multiple colors at a time in one palette. How does this help? Enter contact solution (via Style Craze)!

Mix a little bit of your favorite eyeshadow in a clean container with a few drops of contact solution, stir it up until it is well-blended and has a creamy, wet consistency, and voila! You've got a colorful liquid liner. All you need is a liner brush and you can create virtually any liner look you want, whether it's a bright green cat eye or a subtle blue line along the water line.

If you've got a few shadow palettes in your makeup bag, then this method means you now have just as many eyeliners as you have shadows. Have fun!   

While mixing powder shadow with contact solution can create a great colorful liner, it can also be used to make a long-lasting cream shadow (via Cafe Mom). While of course you can create all sorts of different looks with powder shadow alone, cream shadow tends to have more intense color payoff and last longer. 

Add one drop of solution at a time and mix before adding another drop to make sure you get the consistency you want. Once you have the color and texture you're looking for, you can apply the mixture to your lids with either your finger or a fluffy shadow brush, depending how intense a look you're going for (via Ipsy). And to make that creamy color last even longer and prevent it from settling into creases or lines, you could apply a primer to your lids before applying your new creamy shadow. This will both keep the shadow where you place it and also help the color pop even more.    

Out of makeup remover? Not to fret. Contact solution makes a great replacement in a pinch (via Musely)! Not only can it be used to remove makeup from your eyes, face, or lips, but it can also be a super helpful tool for cleaning up smudges and helping to create sharper looks while applying your makeup. 

For instance, if you're trying to create a cut crease shadow look or a super sharp cat eye, many makeup experts suggest using a bit of makeup remover on the end of a q-tip to help create the look and clean up any smudges. You can also use contact solution to help wipe away eyeshadow fallout before the next step of your application process. 

Contact solution and a q-tip is also a great way to clean your waterline before applying eyeliner for a tight line liner look. This will help ensure a smooth application process unencumbered by eyeshadow or mascara residue.

When packing a makeup bag for a trip, it's great when you can consolidate by choosing multi-purpose staples. This not only saves space, but makes the packing process much simpler. We've already covered how a bottle of contact solution can be used for multiple makeup application purposes, but did you know it's also a great first aid staple if you find yourself in a bind?

While any serious injuries should always be checked out by a medical professional, if we are talking a scratch or cut that a simple bandaid can handle, then contact solution can be your friend (via Healthfully). As you likely know, when you get a scrape or scratch, before bandaging it, it's essential to make sure the wound is clean. While washing with soap and water and using a disinfectant like peroxide or alcohol is ideal, if you are not in a place where you have access to these things, contact solution is a great backup plan for flushing any debris out of a scrape and helping to disinfect before applying a bandage.