To not know how to treat this? Mascara in my eyeball

[OopsAnotherOne]

Posting for traffic, sorry! I'm just (rather embarrassingly) completely unsure of what to do, Google isn't giving any answers and I keep getting cut off from 111 due to horrendous mobile signal. Getting conflicting advice from the people I've asked in "real life" so any advice on what to do from someone with any actual experience/knowledge would be gratefully appreciated!

About an hour ago I rubbed my eye and an eyelash must have come loose as it poked by eyeball at just the right angle that it actually pierced my eyeball. The eyelash had some mascara on it which I can now see is sitting under the "skin/outer layer" of my eyeball. It was immediately incredibly painful, but after 20 minutes or so it just felt like I had grit in my eye and now it doesn't hurt at all, it just feels a bit uncomfortable. There's no bleeding/bruising but my eye is a bit red and watery.

The mascara in my eyeball is very small, as if someone's drawn a dot on my eyeball with a biro or something - just a black grain.

All advice online suggests rinsing/washing the area which I have done but as the mascara is actually in my eyeball, rather than just on it, this isn't moving it. There's no splinter that a doctor could get any grip on to pull the mascara out, so I'm just wondering what I need to do. I have no experience in eye injuries and am not sure if it will just work it's way out like splinters in other parts of the bodies do? I understand the risk of infection as I have a foreign object in my eye that I can't clean out or remove.

Is this the sort of thing that needs immediate treatment? Is it a "wait and see" situation? Would this be something for a GP or an optician? If it does need treating, would minor injuries be the right place to go? I absolutely don't want to waste any NHS time or resources if they're not necessary but I also don't want to ignore/neglect it and then end up with some sort of infection if I can help it, so I'm just trying to establish the appropriate services to contact as this is completely new to me. I don't know if this is something that will get better on it's own. I'm still trying to get through to 111 but a bit of guidance in the meantime would be so helpful! Thank you in advance 🙂

@OopsAnotherOne did the opticians manage to get the mascara out from your eyeball? <shiver>

Sorry for the delayed update - yep, they got it out! It took some numbing spray and a needle but it was much less stressful that I'd imagined and the alternative could have been worse. Once again, thank you for all of the advice. If it wasn't for you lot, I would probably still be sat here now with mascara in my eyeball wondering if it's worth making a fuss about!

Good God a needle?😳
Glad it was sorted, anyway.

Thank you - and that was my reaction to the needle suggestion when he told me!

But I didn't see it and I didn't feel a thing and subsequent research makes me think it's a smaller needle than those used for things in other medical settings. It was just something to I guess break the surface of the eye with, or pick out the bit of mascara. It was too deeply embedded to wipe away with a cotton bud.

Regardless, totally painless, much less "gross" than I was anticipating considering a needle in the vicinity of my eye is something I've spent my entire life up until now avoiding at all costs!