Buying eye drops before a trip abroad

Buy them before you leave, and have them shipped to your US address. Quell ships only within the United States, so it can’t follow you to a hotel abroad. Work out how many bottles you need from the label’s directions, Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, and the length of your trip, then add a sealed spare. Check your destination’s official customs site for its rules on medicines.

Why order before you go

Quell is sold on quelldrop.com, and the site ships to US addresses only. Once you’re overseas, there’s no way to have a bottle sent to you, and you may not find the same product in a pharmacy there. The guide on whether Quell ships outside the United States explains the rule. In practice it means everything you’ll use on the trip has to leave home with you.

How many bottles to take on a trip abroad

The label gives the dose as Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. That is six drops a day in total. The arithmetic for your trip is short:

• Count the days from the morning you leave to the evening you get home.
• Multiply by six. A 10-day trip is 60 drops; a three-week trip is 126.
• Compare that with how much is left in your open bottle, and how long a full one usually takes you. The guide to how long a bottle of eye drops lasts helps with that part.
• Add one sealed spare on top, for lost luggage, a knocked-over bottle or a delayed flight home.

Splitting bottles between two bags is a good idea on longer trips. If one bag goes missing, the other still has a bottle in it.

When to order

Orders ship from Brentwood, Tennessee, and the site doesn’t promise a delivery date. Order a few weeks before you leave, not the week of. You’ll get a confirmation email, then a shipping email with tracking when it’s available, and the order tracking page shows where it is. Shipping is $10.00 per order, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free, which often covers a long trip plus a spare.

Send it to the address you’ll be at when it arrives. If you’re leaving from a relative’s house or a work address, use that, and add any suite or apartment number. Checkout works as a guest, and buyers must be 18 or older.

What about the spare you don’t use? Unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery without being sent back. On a long trip that window may close before you’re home, so think of the spare as something you’ll keep, not something you’ll return.

Getting through airport security

Leaving the US, TSA’s rule applies: eye drops are allowed in carry-on bags at 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less, and a bottle of Quell is .33 fl oz (10 mL). On the way home, the airport you depart from sets its own security rules, so look them up before your return flight. Keep the bottle in your carry-on on every leg so it doesn’t sit in a cargo hold or go missing with a checked bag.

Customs at your destination

Every country sets its own rules on bringing in medicines, including over-the-counter ones, and they differ widely. The only reliable source is the destination’s official customs or health ministry website, or its embassy in the US. Look it up before you pack rather than at the arrivals hall.

Whatever the rules say, keep the bottle in its original carton. The carton carries the full Drug Facts panel, with the active ingredients, Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%), and the inactive ingredients listed in English. If anyone asks what it is, you can show them.

Storing eye drops on the trip

Other climates and other kinds of travel bring their own temperature problems: a hot train, a rental car parked in the sun, an unheated guesthouse in winter. Quell’s storage line reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Keep the bottle in a bag you carry, and look at it before using it if it’s been anywhere extreme. The Do not use line reads: If this product changes color.

If you run out while abroad

You can’t order Quell to a foreign address, so a local pharmacist is the person to ask.

Show them the carton or a photo of the Drug Facts panel and ask what they have. Don’t mix in a different drop without asking; the label doesn’t cover using Quell with other eye drops, and a pharmacist or doctor is the right person to ask. Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.