There are not lots of silver lining to lose an eyeball, but that makes you make an excellent cloth. I originally lost the vision in November 2022 after A lot of inflammation Cut the blood flow to my optic nerve. The eyeball stubbled several hospitals, opposed two rounds High dose corticosteroidsUtcated 10 days of radiationand spent over a year by going through immunotherapy. As the pulp grew, it began to push the eye about 26 mm out of the face (some days were worse than others). It did not help that the eyelids dropped in a permanent wink and the surrounding skin seemed red and swollen due to lack of proper drainage.
Before my health problems I never left the house without makeup. In College I glued at Ardell Wispies for my lectures at 8:00 and met Pan on my Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Palette (like all others in 2018). It was an outlet; A source of creativity. But when my disability gradually became more visible, my relationship fell with beauty to the road. I looked at tutorials and found myself jealous of undamaged skin and fully functioning eyeballs. I tried to imagine what some makeup trends would look like, but most days, looked in the mirror was enough with a challenge.
In August 2023, I decided on some things. First, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life hiding from my eyeball. And two, I needed to be better at celebrating it. With a prayer and an impressive amount of eyelash glue, I carefully attached cluster of silver rhinestones to the face, creating two glittering tears under my blind eye. I shared A video Document the process and managed to reach over 500,000 people and hundreds of friendly comments.
The more I experimented with makeup, the more I appreciated this new version of myself.
Inspired by the internet’s supportive response, I continued to take advantage of my unique features (including all my extra cover space). I tried everything from rhinestone to Googly eyes (I managed to fit 18 of them on my blind eye, if you were wondering). Eventually I started matching my makeup look to my various eye patches and drew the hearts on my cheeks for a Valentine’s Theme Patch and dip in blue glitter for a Porcelain -inspired look.
When I finally got my eye away in May 2024, the celebration began again. Prosthetics, I learned, didn’t have to be scary or scary. They can be beautiful and other worldly – as portable works of art. I started a series where I matched my makeup to my “funny eyes” (creative prosthetic eyes that are not meant to be realistic). For my “Coraline” button eyes, I turned into a doll. For my blue and pink “galaxy” eye, I used temporary butterflies tattoos To create glittering wings on either side of my face.
The public’s perception of my “funny eyeball” ranges from radical acceptance to relaxed cruelty. I try to set Unwanted medical advice And unpleasant asks on social media, but it’s not always easy. Before I removed the eye, I used to wake up early to put on sparkling eye shadow and heavy concealer. No one can be meant for me if my makeup is fun enough, I thought to myself. Wrong!
“(It is) probably a bacterial infection from the terrible eyelashes,” commented a person a PS video about my mystery disease. . . Potentially lacked the fact that I only wore fringes on my “good” eye. “Dig it out with a spoon, it’s literally unbearable to look at,” Another once wrote on my Tiktok page.
The comments have led to removal after the eyes, but I will not forget them at any time soon. Thankfully, the more I experiment with makeup, the less I care about what someone else has to say. I am proud of how far I have come, and I continue to find beauty in this new version of myself – something I was worried that I could not do. I hope this is the happy end of a very tumultuous story. But if more changes will come my way, I comfort to know that I have the tools to figure it out.
Chandler Plante (She/her) is the assistant health and fitness editor for PS. She has over four years of experience in professional journalism, who previously worked as an editorial assistant for the magazine People and contributes to Ladygunn, Millie and Bustle Digital Group.