GoodGuide Contact Lens Care Products Ratings

Eye and ear care products generally come in the form of droplets, and generally, they’re not so bad. There’s only one major ingredient with health concerns in most eye care products (eye drops, contact rinse, and contact cleaners) and that’s boric acid. An antimicrobial agent and preservative found more often in eye drops than in contact solutions, boric acid is also an effective pesticide (some swear it’s the only way to kill cockroaches) and prevents wet and dry rot in wood. It’s also been banned entirely in Japan for being unsafe, although if you use eye drops only rarely, the dosage probably isn't enough to be a major health risk. (more)

Earwax removing drops are also low concern, although they can contain the active ingredient perhydrol urea, which has been banned for cosmetics use in Canada.

There are more health concerns around eye makeup remover, which contain long lists of ingredients including DMDM hydantoin (a preservative and immune system toxicant), triethanolamine (a pH balancer and organ system toxicant), and fragrance (a secret combination of chemicals with allergy concerns that often conceals the presence of toxic phthalates).

You can use GoodGuide’s ingredient listings for eye and ear care products to look for those chemicals specifically (fragrance can be hard to avoid), or browse our health and safety data to find products with high ratings made by companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.