How to Fake Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye)

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Easy, safe ways to mimic pink eye symptoms to get out of class or work

Co-authored by Dan Hickey

Last Updated: January 26, 2026 Fact Checked

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Making Your Eyes Red

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Making Yourself Tear Up

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Faking Eye Discharge

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Is faking pink eye safe?

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

Whether you want to get out of school for a few days or play a prank on an unsuspecting friend or family member, convincingly faking a case of pink eye is definitely possible—if not a bit uncomfortable for your eye! Faking pink eye involves intentionally irritating your eyes to look red, teary, or crusty. While it’s a doable feat, you may want to think twice about the risks of potential infection or vision damage before getting started. If you do decide to go ahead and fake it, keep scrolling for the most realistic ways to do it!

How do you fake pink eye?

Make your eyes look red with red eyeliner pencil or by drying them out with a fan or gently rubbing around them.
Fake teary eyes by chopping onions, making yourself sneeze, or applying eye drops or a menthol stick under your eyes.
Leave the overnight crust in your eyes and smear a light layer of petroleum jelly under your eye to simulate discharge.
Stop faking pink eye and see a doctor if your methods cause any pain, irritation, or if you notice signs of infection.

Section 1 of 4:

Making Your Eyes Red

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1
Use a red eyeliner pencil to make your eyes look subtly inflamed. Apply a thin, light layer of the pencil below your lower lash line and in the inner corners of your eyes. Blend or smudge the pencil a bit so it doesn’t look too harsh or drawn on to make your eyes look naturally red, irritated, and inflamed.
- This is the easiest way to make your eyes look red without actually irritating them. Try this trick first before attempting anything riskier.
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Dry your eyes out by not blinking. When eyes don’t get enough moisture, they get irritated and red. Try to blink as little as possible for about 30 minutes, and your eyes will start to become irritated because they aren’t being properly lubricated.^{[1]
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Research source} You can expedite the process by sitting in front of a fan and trying not to blink so that they’ll dry out faster.
- But remember, we blink for a reason: to protect our eyes. So if the discomfort becomes too great, begin blinking normally again and consider using eye drops to rehydrate your eyes.
- Warning: Severe or chronically dry eyes can lead to irritation, infection, and even corneal scarring or vision problems.^{[2]
  X
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  Cleveland Clinic
  Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals
  
  Go to source} Rehydrate your eyes right away if you experience pain or excessive discomfort.
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Rub the area around your eyes (not directly over them). Doctors tell us that directly rubbing our eyes isn’t good for them because harmful bacteria can find their way in and cause irritation. You could also damage your cornea, which is the clear protective layer covering the iris.^{[3]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

Go to source} Rubbing your eyes does make them red and a little bloodshot, though, which is the look you're going for. To keep your eyes safe while attempting to make them red, rub the area around your eyes to indirectly stimulate them.
- Warning: Don't rub directly over the eyeballs and eyelids. This will keep you from damaging your cornea or getting bacteria into your eyes, and will create a mild irritation that will cause sufficient redness.
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Open your eyes in a bowl of clean water to irritate them. Fill a bowl with clean, distilled water if you have it. Submerge your face and then open your eyes for a few seconds to let the water into them. Water is a different consistency and has less salt than the liquid in your eyes (which contains oil, mucus, proteins, and other compounds), so it will feel uncomfortable and make your eyes red and watery in response.^{[4]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- Warning: Avoid plain tap water if you can. It contains germs and microbes that are more likely to give you an infection than distilled water.^{[5]
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  American Academy of Opthamologists
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Or, swim in the pool to let the chlorine make your eyes red. Ever go for a swim at the pool and find that your eyes are all red-rimmed and bloodshot? This is a common occurrence caused by irritants in the water. When the cornea comes in contact with water, the protective tear film on our eyes can be washed away, leaving our eyes more vulnerable to irritants.^{[6]
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Research source}
- Warning: Chlorine irritates eyes. It's the chemical in pools that kills bacteria and germs from things like body oil, dirt, and even pee. Chlorine can kill most bacteria, but once the protective tear film in your eye is washed away, bacteria can get into the eyes and cause irritation.^{[7]
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  Cleveland Clinic
  Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals
  
  Go to source}
- There is a risk of getting real pink eye from the pool. Pink eye is caused by harmful bacteria, and it’s a common infection that people can get from swimming. Decide whether or not you want to risk real pink eye for fake pink eye.^{[8]
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  American Academy of Opthamologists
  Professional medical organization focused on advocating for public health and supporting sight-related research
  
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Section 2 of 4:

Making Yourself Tear Up

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1
Chop some onions. Onions are notorious for making people tear up when they’re sliced, which means they’re a quick and easy way for you to start producing tears for the weepy look of the bedeviled pink eye.
- Onions produce a sulfur compound called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. When an onion is cut open, the compound is released into the air. When the chemical reaches your eyes, the lachrymal glands above the eyelids (responsible for the regulation of tears) produce tears to help wash away the irritating chemical.^{[9]
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- Sweet onions produce less syn-propanethial-S-oxide than other onion varieties because the sugar and high water content counteract the irritating enzymes.^{[10]
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  PubMed Central
  Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
  
  Go to source} If you’re really looking to get the tears going, chop the pungent red or white onions instead of the sweet yellow Vidalias.
2
Make yourself sneeze over and over and over. Sneezing makes your eyes and nose run, which will really help sell the fake pink eye. Try tickling the inside of your nose with a cotton swab, sniffing a jar of pepper, rubbing the roof of your mouth with your tongue, massaging the bridge of your nose, or plucking an eyebrow or nose hair to trigger the sneezing reaction.^{[11]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- About 1 in 3 people can also make themselves sneeze by looking at a bright light. Give it a try to see if it works for you.
If you aren't trying to get too creative with your tear production techniques, then get some eye drops from the drugstore or supermarket. Usually, directions on eye drop containers suggest only one or two spurts into the eye. To create the illusion of more tears, put a few extra drops than you normally would into your eyes and let them run down your face. Leave the “tears” on your cheeks so that everyone will assume your eyes are in a constant state of weeping.
Menthol sticks are waxy substances that come in lipstick tubes. To use it, you rub the waxy menthol beneath your eyes and then wait for your eyes to water. These are commonly used in theater productions to create realistic crying scenes.^{[12]
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Research source} If you’re gonna act like you have pink eye, why not really give in to the performance and do as the professionals do?

Section 3 of 4:

Faking Eye Discharge

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If you’ve just woken up, chances are, you have some dirt or “crust” in the corners of your eyes. Because pink eye involves a lot of crusty discharge around the eye, leaving the crust in your eyes from the night before adds to the natural look of infection and ickiness.
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Spread clear gloss or petroleum jelly underneath your eyes. Pink eye can produce different colors and thicknesses of discharge depending on how serious the infection is.^{[13]
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Main public health institute for the US, run by the Dept. of Health and Human Services

Go to source} In most cases, the discharge is thick and clear. Take some clear lip gloss or petroleum jelly and spread it about ½ inch (1.3 cm) underneath the eye to create the illusion that your eyes are weeping thick liquid.
- Make sure that the lip gloss you use has no sparkles in it so that people won’t be able to guess that it’s fake.
- Some people online have suggested applying clear glue to your undereye and eyelid and letting it dry to create a discharge-like effect. While it may look convincing, this creates a real risk of gluing your eyes shut, and the chemicals in the glue can damage your eyes.
- Warning: Make sure not to rub your eyes! If these substances come in contact with your eyes, you can experience great discomfort. Rinse your eyes with clean water right away if anything comes into contact with them.
If you've managed to work up a lot of tears in your quest for the perfectly fake pink eye, they should pool around the rims of your eyes. Depending upon how gullible your audience is, you could convince them that the tears are thin, clear discharge.

Section 4 of 4:

Is it safe to fake pink eye?

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The tactics used to fake pink eye may result in real irritation or infection. While it’s definitely possible to fake pink eye without any complications, it’s not guaranteed. Intentionally exposing your eyes to things like dry air, chlorine, or clear lip gloss carries risks of irritation, infection (pink eye or another type), cornea damage (scarring, abrasions, etc.), vision damage, or eye injury.
- If you’re going to fake pink eye, always try the least abrasive tactics first (things like not blinking, gently rubbing your eyes, or leaving overnight crust in your eyes).
- If you try to fake pink eye and notice real discomfort, irritation, or infection, stop immediately. Consult an eye doctor about any signs of infection or any irritation that does not clear up within a short time.

Community Q&A

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How do I make the eye look pink?

Community Answer

Use special Halloween makeup. You could probably find some kind of special effects makeup at your local drugstore or online. Just be careful that you don't put anything in your eye that isn't designed to be put there.

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How do I make a sleep mask?

Dana alamawi

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Try reading Make Eye Mask in a Few Minutes to know how to make a eye/sleeping mask in a short time.

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How long does this last?

Tom De Backer

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With proper treatment, actual pink eye, which is a viral infection, goes away with no long-term effects after a few weeks. So fake pink eye, I would assume, goes away in that same amount of time or much faster, depending on how you fake it.

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Tips

To add to the illusion of pink eye, squint and blink a lot. The infection makes eyes more sensitive to light, so if you’re going to commit to some good acting, you’ll want to indicate that you’re struggling to keep your lids fully open.^{[14]
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American Optometric Association
Professional medical organization dedicated to supporting optometrists and improving public eye and vision health

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Pink eye often causes blurred or impaired vision, so pretending that you can’t see very well will also convince people that the infection is real.^{[15]
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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

If you tell your parents the night before that your eye hurts or feels weird, it might help your chances of getting to call in sick to school the next day.
If you have mild allergies, just don't take your allergy pills that day. Your allergies will act up pretty quick and naturally redden your eyes.
Tell the person you're trying to fool that your eyes are really itchy. Itchy eyes are one of the top symptoms of pink eye.

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