How to make your eyes red

If you've ever had to pretend to cry for a play or participate in a prank, you probably understand just how challenging it is to make your eyes red at the perfect moment. Making your eyes red isn't a precise science, so it's difficult to achieve the same result every time, even when using the same method. However, with clever and safe strategies to irritate your eyes, tricking yourself into crying, or using makeup effects, you'll generally get good results, although not always as expected.

Peel an onion and rub a small piece beneath your eyes. What’s cheap, easy to find, and can make your eyes tear up or turn red in just minutes? An onion! When you cut an onion, syn-propanethial-S-oxide is released into the air, a chemical that irritates your eyes, causing them to water and redden. Cutting or peeling an onion usually makes you cry, but you’ll need to be exposed to the chemical longer for your eyes to become red. Keep a piece of the onion’s core or a small part and rub it several times underneath your eyes when you want to make them red.

• Don’t use “sweet” onions (like Vidalia) as they don’t cause much irritation or tears. For the best results, use pungent white or yellow onions.
• If you want less sting, wrap some onion pieces in tissue or a handkerchief before applying them under your eyes. The layer of tissue helps protect your eyes from direct contact with the onion, but the irritant will still affect you as long as the onion slices in the cloth aren’t too thick.
• If you want to fake crying more effectively, apply some onion under your nose to trigger a runny nose.
• Be careful not to let the onion come into direct contact with your eyes as it’s very uncomfortable.

Instead of using onions, you can use peppermint essential oil. A similar method to using the evaporating chemical effects of onions involves using products containing peppermint essential oil. Simply follow the same steps: apply a small amount of the oil underneath each eye to create a similar effect to the vapor rising from the onion, irritating the eyes. As mentioned, avoid getting the essential oil directly in your eyes as it can cause prolonged itching and discomfort.

• Peppermint essential oil is available in supermarkets or online. However, if you don’t have it on hand, it’s best to use onions as they are cheaper.

Resist the reflex of blinking. If you need to get red eyes immediately, don't worry—you can achieve this without any special materials. Simply try to keep your eyes open for as long as possible, resisting the reflex to blink until it becomes so uncomfortable that you have no choice but to blink. Blinking is a natural reflex of the body to keep the eyeballs moist, otherwise they can dry out. When this happens, your eyes will become irritated, swollen, red, and often watery. Be aware that this sensation can be quite unpleasant!

• To increase effectiveness, try to focus on bright lights while keeping your eyes open. Do not stare directly at bright lights or the sun, as this can cause permanent damage to your eyes, even leading to blindness.

Gently rub the skin beneath your eyes. A common method used in TV shows and movies to create red eyes is to gently rub the area around your eyes with your hand. This light physical irritation can create a similar effect to the use of onions and other irritating chemicals. If you choose to try this method, be sure to apply gentle pressure. The delicate parts of your eyes, such as the iris and cornea, are very thin, so avoid causing any damage to your vision just to achieve red eyes.

• Additionally, make sure to close your eyes and avoid touching them directly. Touching your eyes with your hands can transfer bacteria (your hands are constantly in contact with germs throughout the day) to your eyeballs, which increases the risk of infection.

Go swimming. Chlorine is a disinfectant for pool water, but it also acts as an eye irritant, although some reports suggest another chemical might be the culprit. It’s clear, however, that when you dive into a pool containing chlorine without wearing goggles, your eyes can become swollen and inflamed (though the damage is usually not severe or long-lasting). The effect intensifies if you try to keep your eyes open underwater for extended periods. Remember not to wear swimming goggles, as they protect the eyes from coming into contact with the water and therefore won’t give you the desired result.

• Saltwater pools can also achieve the desired effect. However, health reports suggest that saltwater is less irritating than chlorine-treated water, so the effect may be milder.

Sleep less. While this isn’t the ideal solution for many people (especially those who need to stay sharp and focused for work the next day), staying up late often results in red eyes and visible bloodshot vessels the following morning. Skipping one night of sleep usually doesn’t have a major impact on your health, as long as you don’t make a habit of it.

• However, frequently skipping sleep is something you should avoid, as it can significantly affect your health, leading to reduced cognitive ability, decreased libido, depression, and an increased risk of serious conditions like strokes and heart disease.
• Remember, never drive when fatigued or not fully alert. Sleep deprivation slows your reflexes and negatively impacts your decision-making abilities in split-second situations, making you a danger on the road. An Australian study showed that people who stayed awake for 24 hours continuously had cognitive impairments equivalent to those of individuals with a blood alcohol level of 0.1% (the legal limit in most countries is 0.08%).

Put yourself in a sad or melancholic mood. Learning to make your eyes red and watery on command for the purpose of "faking tears" is not easy, even for professional actors. While there is no method considered "perfect", psychological tricks can be quite helpful. An effective strategy is to focus on memories or thoughts that make you feel sad, such as the death of a loved one, a shameful event you recently experienced, or a great fear in life. Just like the real emotions you experience in such events, the darker and gloomier your thoughts, the more likely you are to feel like crying.

• Some examples of events you can think about are: a breakup, a recent argument, a work struggle, a time when friends or family betrayed you, people who are no longer a part of your life, and moments where you felt deep anxiety for yourself or your loved ones.
• It’s especially helpful to convince yourself that everyone else is living a "happy life together" except for you. Try to stir up emotions full of hope, only to feel disappointment, and tell yourself, "It’s true, I will never succeed or find happiness." However, be sure not to fall into that mood once you no longer need to fake tears, as real depression is the worst.

Focus on your personal pain. According to an acting instructor at New York University, an actor attempting to fake tears should "make the situation feel very specific and personal to the actor, so that it’s no longer about forcing them to cry, but about a secret, desire, or deep fear within." In other words, the best way to make yourself so sad that you cry is to immerse yourself in thoughts of your deepest, darkest fears. Try to convince yourself that the need to fake tears is entirely related to you, even if it’s not. Prepare to confront and deal with your worst fears.

• Bryan Cranston, a highly acclaimed actor, once revealed in interviews how his hidden, intense fears helped him deliver a very real performance as a character tortured mentally. Regarding a scene in which his character witnesses the death of a young actress, Cranston said, "I imagined she was my daughter, so I became very emotional... She was just a little girl, and she could have been my daughter."

Make yourself angry or upset. Red eyes filled with tears don’t always come from sadness. Sometimes these signs arise alongside intense emotions or frustration, especially when that feeling is caused by a loved one. If you can’t cry just by thinking about sad thoughts, try adding a moderate amount of anger to achieve the desired effect. For example, think about a current challenge in your life that’s causing you frustration, like a loved one engaging in self-destructive behavior but refusing to take your advice.

• Some examples you can think about include: when you were passed over for a promotion, when a competitor succeeded more than you, when you were treated unfairly by a superior, or when you witnessed or experienced injustices in society.

Watch emotionally moving films. The urge to cry doesn’t always come from internal causes; external factors play a huge role as well. This is a strategy many actors use to get into the right emotional state before performing an emotionally charged scene. Movies, music, books, and other forms of art that convey feelings of sadness or frustration can be very effective for this purpose. Here are some ideas for you to try.

• Movies: The Notebook, The Green Mile, Titanic, Come and See (Russian film)
• Books: The Kite Runner, The Giver, Wuthering Heights, later installments of the Harry Potter series, any book adapted into one of the films listed above.
• Music: Sad Love Song (Ngô Thụy Miên), Ten Years Loving You (Trầm Tử Thiêng), Sad Stone Age (Trịnh Công Sơn), etc...

Set realistic expectations. It’s important to remember that the tactics discussed here may not be as effective as other tricks, even if you're someone who tends to cry easily when sad. Getting yourself so sad that you cry is not an easy task, just as it’s hard to make yourself ticklish. Even A-list actors struggle with performing crying scenes, so you should be ready to use other methods if these psychological strategies don’t work for you.

Consider makeup. If you can't naturally make your eyes red, then fake it! With the right tips, you can use makeup techniques to make your eyes appear red and swollen as though you've just been crying, even when you feel perfectly fine. Since these tricks don’t actually irritate the eyes, they are far more comfortable than other methods. For example, try the following makeup technique to create red eyes:

• Use a red eyeliner pencil to dot around your eyes. You can also use eyeshadow or lip liner pencils, but make sure the lip liner is soft enough for use near your eyes. Dot along the entire lower lash line. To enhance the red eye effect, also dot along the upper lash line.
• Smudge the dotted lines with cotton or a blending tool. To create the red-eye effect, you need to create a light red “shadow” around the dots. Blend until the original dots are no longer visible, ensuring the redness appears natural.

Consider using colored contact lenses. Another way to create a "red" eye effect is by wearing contact lenses specifically made with a red tint or featuring blood vessels painted on them. However, you must choose lenses that make the white of the eye red, not the iris (which is usually brown or black). If you wear lenses that turn your iris red, you'll look more like a vampire or demon than someone who’s just been crying.

• Some companies specializing in stage equipment produce special contact lenses for movies and theater productions. You can contact them if you wish to purchase high-quality lenses, but be aware that they’re not cheap—professional lenses can cost over 2 million VND.

Enhance the effect with a "tear stick". If you are faking red eyes for a play or movie, you should combine the above tricks with a few real tears to make it look more authentic. In this case, consider buying a "tear stick," a tool commonly used by actors. It’s actually a gel or wax stick infused with peppermint oil. The stick is typically packaged in an outer casing resembling a lipstick tube, and you use it by applying it under your eyes to release the peppermint vapor, which then stimulates your eyes to produce tears.

• Note that since the "active ingredient" in the tear stick is peppermint oil, this method is similar to applying the oil as mentioned above.

Avoid using strong irritants like pepper, tear gas, etc. Risking your eye health is never a good idea just to fake crying. Never put anything in your eyes that could cause serious irritation, including strong chemicals like "tear gas" and natural substances like chili-based products. With certain amounts, these substances can cause permanent damage or even blindness.

Do not directly irritate the eyeball. If you are using a method that involves rubbing the skin around your eyes to create redness, be sure to avoid touching the eyeball itself. Even if you can avoid injuring the eyeball, contact will transfer bacteria from your hands to the eyeball, increasing the risk of infection (as mentioned earlier). The risk is higher if you've just touched something with a lot of bacteria, like a doorknob.

• Additionally, because the eyeball is very delicate, touching it can sometimes lead to physical injury. Even a small scratch can be quite uncomfortable, and more severe injuries (like retinal irritation) may require medical treatment.

Do not use marijuana to create red eyes. Most of us have heard that marijuana can cause red eyes. This is true, but smoking (or consuming) marijuana is not a good way to create red eyes. If you're trying to create red eyes for performance purposes, the cognitive impairment caused by marijuana use will make it difficult for you to perform your role successfully. Additionally, being high on marijuana is illegal in many areas, with penalties ranging from light to severe depending on the jurisdiction.

• If you're taking a shower, try getting a bit of shampoo in your eyes. Your eyes will turn red, but they'll also become very difficult to open after a while.
• If you want to create red eyes by swimming, try to keep your eyes open underwater for as long as you can.

• Avoid getting irritants in your eyes. Tears are a natural reflex to push irritants out, as they can cause damage to your eyes.
• Do not apply peppermint oil near your eyes, as it can cause swelling of the skin and make your eyes water.