Scratched skin under eyes - help!

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My hayfever has been evil recently, and I've somehow managed to scratch the skin under my eyes - I suspect when cleaning dried-on "sleep" in the mornings. Now my eyes are swollen and sore, my regular Clinique stuff stings like crazy, and so does aloe vera gel (the type you use after threading, so I thought meant for irritated skin around the eyes).

Can anyone suggest a good way to reduce the swelling without the stinging?

I had this last summer it got really bad because every day I just made it worse by rubbing the salty water tears into the damaged skin. Things that helped:

1. Putting a barrier cream around my eyes before bed. A VERY plain cream, I used something called hydromol ointment which is like vaseline.
2. The instant I woke up I wash my eyes with plain cold water and this washes the salty tears away. This really does help.
3. Don't rubs your eyes however tempting, blot them with clean tissue paper.
4. I went cold turkey on moisturiser and make up around my eyes for a week and it really helped the skin heal. Then I continued with 1 & 2 all summer.

If its gets really damaged go and see your doc because there are prescription creams you can get.

Great, thanks for the tips, will try them today.

If you get really itchy hay fever eyes, have you tried anti histamine drops? They are magic in a bottle for ds and me.

Liz Earle's eye bright tonic is fanatically soothing.

valium, which brand/ name would you suggest? At the moment I'm using sodium chromoglicate four times a day and I also take loratadine (which doesn't work as well as certirizine for me, but which doesn't make me sleepy!). Very, very open to recommendations!!!

I have ditched the make-up for 48 hours now (and for the previous 48 I was only managing a bit of mascara) and my eyes are not really any better, so I'm guessing it wasn't that, IYSWIM.

I did the plain water wash as soon as I woke, instead of washing face in bath/ shower after breakfast, and it did help a bit - thanks juju.

I scratched my eyelid and used Moa green balm, worked wonders within about 3 days: here

Foodie, thanks - will see if I can find any locally. Is it OK to use around the eye area, then? The bits I have scratched are literally the place wear you would use an eye cream.

yes, I used it on eye lids, also scratched by accident, you can buy online, a small tub will last ages, think it's a fiver

I use any old make - usually a generic brand, I think I am using Opticrom atm which is good.

Same here valium. Am wondering if I should change to a different type/ active ingredient tbh.

Cold chamomile teabags.

I often suffer with sore, dry, inflamed skin around my eyes. I try to put Vaseline on every night as a barrier, and against all medical advice, I do use a tiny bit of hydrocortisone on the skin to take away the itch.

We must have a bit of vaseline somewhere. We have no chamomile tea in, but will tomorrow.

My eyes are so fussy now that the fumes from the nail polish I've put on to cheer myself up is making them sting. Aaargh pollen!!!

Do you possibly have blepharitis?

What's blepharitis?

OK, Googled it - do you know, I think I might have it. That would explain why my hayfever medication isn't touching it.... Am going to try the hygiene regime recommended on the NHS Choice website to see if that helps. Thanks for the tip, echt.

You need to use baby no tears shampoo with cotton buds in that case!

Got some today valium, have cleaned my eyes twice and left the make up off again and they are calming down a bit.

The horrible thing about blepharitis is once you've had it, you keep getting it. Sorry. My attacks are only once in 2 or 3 years, but they're not very nice.

Echt, do you know what sets yours off each time?

Update. I've ditched the sodium cromoglicate eye drops and replaced them with Optrex ones for dry eyes. I've been doing the warm compresses and baby shampoo cleans morning and night. My eyes look and feel an awful lot better, I can see properly without the horrible blurry film, they don't itch and - most exciting - I can actually wear make up again .

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Great!

YES Moa green balm works brilliantly on eyelids, my daughter uses it whenever she gets eczema/red eyelids...
www.thegreenbalm.com