Banishing Undereye Circles and Puffy Eyes

Darkness, puffiness, and redness affects some of us far worse than others. Loss of sleep, a night out at the bar, or a stressful day at work can visibly affect the eye area, while some of us are plagued with dark circles under eyes on a regular basis.

If you’ve got regular raccoon eyes and it’s making you crazy, we have some solutions for you. With baggy, dark-ringed, or puffy eyes, you’ve got to get to the root of the problem. Stress can cause a multitude of skin disruptions—and not just the aesthetic ones, but permanent effects like wrinkles and aging. Relaxing while applying your eye solutions, creams, or masks can doubly help—you will reduce your levels of stress while decreasing the appearance of circles.

Examine your normal facial cleansing regimen. Not cleansing and moisturizing your face properly could be causing problems. Moisturize your undereye area with a cream containing particular ingredients to help solve your problem. Good products are those that contain elastin, collagen, Vitamin E, or Vitamin K.� Some products to try include Lancome’s Blanc Expert Neurowhite or Elizabeth Arden’s Visible Difference Good Morning Eye Treatment.

For those of us who need the strongest treatment cream available—on a budget—try Dermactin-TS Dark Circle Treatment. It contains concentrated lexapeptide complex and is compared to name-brand Hyxelin. It can be used for serious dark circles as well as for puffy eyes.

Besides creams, you can also use topical solutions like natural eye masks. A simple solution can do the trick, so if you haven’t used an eye mask before, it’s certainly time. One remedy that works wonders:� slice off small pieces of raw potato and carrot and wrap them in a small cheesecloth bag or other porous fabric. Put this mixture on your eyes for twenty minutes, and see how darkness around the eyes in reduced! Another tip to try is leaving cucumber slices or warm tea bags on your eyelids while relaxing in a hot bath for a few minutes.

If you’ve tried every product that you can to reduce the appearance of your dark circles, they could perhaps be a hereditary problem. If you have dark circles, does your family have them, too? Sometimes if your eyes are deep-set, your eyes can look shadowed. You’ll need to look into light camouflaging methods like concealers. If you haven’t tried any yet, don’t worry. With a light touch and specially-formulated products, your eyes will appear brighter—with little effort. Menaji’s Skin Care makes a great under eye concealer that’s undetectable and fragrance free.

In darker-skinned people, the exposure to sunlight can cause a higher-than-normal level of skin pigmentation under the eyes. Tanning increases skin pigmentation and draws the pigmentation to the surface. So if you have darker skin and love to tan, avoiding the sun for a while can brighten your eye area very effectively.

Have you been rubbing your eyes, and they seem red or irritated? Hay fever can make your eyes look a bit extra “smudgy” in the height of the the season. If your eyes are feeling dry or scratchy, bring yourself to a doctor to have yourself evaluated and find the cause for your discomfort.

As with any problem, if you struggle to find a solution for your puffy eyes or dark undereye circles and you simply can’t, speak with your dermatologist. There are more aggressive treatments like lightening creams, chemical peels, or laser resurfacing. In addition, non-prescription strength lighteners are available, but can take two to three months for noticeable improvement.