My right eyelid recently started to itch every now and then. I'm not sure if it's due to allergy but I've never been allergic to anything. I'm 48 years old. What could possibly be the cause?

Thank you so much for your comments.
No, I have not changed my eye/skin care product and I hardly use mascara. I'm afraid it might be allergy as you explained .
It can happen anytime but more so during the day. Yesterday it happened when I was driving (good thing it's not both eyes). The last time it happened at home I looked at the mirror but didn't see anything abnormal, not even redness.

Pamtcs,

Thanks for your question! And welcome to EmpowHer!

One of the truly annoying things about allergies is that you can get them at later times in your life. You don't have to be born with them or develop them as a child.

I used to live in Austin, Texas, where there is a high population of juniper (cedar) trees. People would move there from elsewhere and not be allergic to them at all, but seven years later (it always seemed to be seven), many of them had developed "cedar fever." It would get worse the longer they lived there, for many of them. It was the overexposure to the pollen that caused the allergies.

So it's possible that you've developed an allergy to something, though it's also possible that there's another explanation.

First, the easy questions: Have you changed anything about your eye care or skin care routine that could be affecting that tender eyelid skin? Tried a new mascara? A new soap in the shower? A new bath gel or contact lens solution? Anything like that? If so, it's possible there's a chemical in one of them that is an irritant to your eye.

Assuming that's not the case, do you notice the itching at any particular time of day or with regularity? Is it always when you get up in the morning? (If so, have you switched pillows or laundry detergent or fabric softener?) Or is it when you're outside? Or inside? Or at work? In other words, can you pin it down to any particular place or time or event?

Do you have any redness where the itch is?

And the other possibility is that you're developing a stye in that eye that is irritating you now but will ultimately go away. The fact that you said only one eyelid is itching makes me wonder if this is the case. A stye is a tiny pimple-like bump that develops on the eyelid. Here's a page about styes:

http://vision.about.com/od/sportsvision/p/Stye.htm

Does that sound like what may be going on with you?