Some of my favorite products found in the beauty closet are mundane: deodorant (opens in new tab), tweezers, exfoliating buffers. One day in the office not long ago, I happened to notice eye drops: Bausch & Lomb's Lumify Redness Relief Drops (opens in new tab). As I brought the little purple-capped bottle to my desk, beauty editors who had already tried them began waxing poetic about how revolutionary they were. 'It really works!' they enthused. The box said it would erase redness in less than 60 seconds, but I had a hard time believing it. I am an overworked eye and a poor sleeper, and the whites of my eyes are always a little pink. Skeptical, I tossed the eye drops into my purse to try before dinner with friends.

That night, after washing and moisturizing my face, I put one drop in each eye 10 minutes before putting in my contacts. I hurriedly finished the rest of my makeup and asked my then-roommate when I could call an Uber. She looked into my room, answered, and then screamed. Thinking she had found a cockroach or thief on the fire escape, I screamed back: "Makeup, what's wrong?

I looked in the mirror; in ten minutes my face had transformed. My eyes seemed to open an inch wider, my subtle smokey eye became bolder, my mascara more inky. The whites of my eyes had a healthy glow. I looked like an American Girl doll. I handed her the eye drops! At that point I had had two glasses of wine. Sure enough, within a minute, her left eye was significantly brighter than her right. From that night on, we began calling the bottle Dole Eyes, and it became a daily staple in our home.

Since that night, my makeup has not been complete without Lumify. The secret to Lumify's formula is its active ingredient, brimonidine tartrate, which is often used in higher doses in prescription eye drops to lower pressure and treat glaucoma. The only OTC product containing this ingredient is Lumify, which is perfectly safe to use (although if hyperemia is caused by a more serious condition, it is best to follow a doctor's prescription). It is also said to last up to 8 hours, which I can absolutely confirm from experience, and does not cause a "rebound of redness" like other eye drops. So now, whether you have allergies, a hangover, or tears at the current state of democracy, 2 drops a day is absolutely non-negotiable. Doll Eyes, forever.