Why is my left eye very itchy near the tear duct?

Whats wrong with my eye? (or tear duct, more accurately)?

• Ill try and keep this as brief but detailed as possible. About 6 weeks ago this started, soreness and watering. The first time this happened I thought it might have been down to me rubbing at my eye too roughly (i was in a bad mood at the time) when I took my makeup off, which is with the same product I've used for years - Simple's makeup remover wipes. From then on my left eye, or more accurately the tear duct area and reaching as faras just under the eyebrow, was sore to the touch like a bad bruise and would water constantly, with the worst cases when I was outside, whether it was windy or not. The discharge was never strange looking/feeling/smelling, just like normal tears. There has never been any crustiness, redness or swelling (that i can detect). In short, nothing to indicate a problem. It lessened gradually over a 4 week period, every week there would be less soreness and less watering until eventually it stopped - this was 2 weeks ago. 2 Nights ago the soreness flared up again with no prompt from me that I know of (I haven't worn makeup for days and haven't had cause to use the Simple wipes again). It sore now and has to be wiped at frequently (but not excessively, it's not a constant stream by any means). There's no cause this time that I can see. All my makeup is fresh and pretty top quality, as are all of my facial products (most of it is Lancome or similar) and I've never had anything like this before and like I say, it's only affected the one eye. Not diabetic, am a smoker, do exercise and eat properly, am office worker (but take regular screen breaks). Like I say, nothing visible and my actually eye seems undamaged - no change to visibility etc. I can go see my GP but it's a hassel to get time of work so if I can avoid it I'd rather. Thanks!

• Answer:

  The causes could be a host of things. You need to go to a medical eye doctor, not a general practitioner. It could be mechanical from rubbing your eye too hard, it could be viral which is why your tears would not be pus like, or it could be an allergy to your medication or your makeup. When you go to the doctor make sure to take your eye makeup with and your wipes. You and the products will need to be tested in a lab to see if you have an allergy or to see if the makeup is contaminated. All it takes to contaminate your new eye makeup is to move the bacteria or virus from you eye into the makeup. This is a lot easier than it sounds.