Under eye circles occur when blood pools in the veins of the hollows underneath our eyes. The skin located there is the most delicate on our body simply because it is extremely thin making those blood vessels more visible. This accumulation can cause the capillaries located there to stretch and leak making them even harder to treat.
There are several reasons that under eye circles may be plaguing you. You will find them listed below:
1. The most common is genetics. For those of us born with fair or thinner skin, they are unfortunately going to be more noticeable. While genetics are harder to battle, that does not mean that you can not treat them to a certain extent.
2. Age is another factor. As we get older, the collagen and elastin in our face naturally break down causing our skin to become thinner and to wrinkle.
3. Allergies. Allergies trigger the release of histamines in our body which causes our blood vessels to get larger and hold more blood. As you can imagine, this is clearly going to make them more noticeable underneath the thin skin of our eye.
4. Have you had trouble sleeping lately? This is another factor as it causes slower circulation throughout our body making our blood vessels dilate. Bigger blood vessels means more blood. Are we starting to see a pattern here?
5. Working on our tan breaks down collagen and darkens the melanin in our skin. What does this create? Really tan under eye circles!
Now that we have covered the causes, let's talk about how we can treat them.
1. Eye creams containing caffeine. Caffeine helps to constrict blood vessels making them smaller. Smaller blood vessels = less noticeable under the eye.
2. Eye creams containing Vitamin C. Vitamin C will not only lighten the skin under your eye - it will also thicken it and naturally help to combat UV rays and free radicals.
3. Eye creams containing Retinol, also known as Vitamin K. Retinol helps to lighten your skin by promoting a healthy skin cell turnover. This will result in a newer, brighter completion while promoting the production of more collagen and elastin causing less puffiness and discoloration.
4. Sleep with your head elevated. Stack a couple of pillows on top of each other and snooze away! Keeping your head elevated will keep the blood from pooling underneath your eyes.
5. Eye creams containing Hyaluronic Acid. This helps to moisturize the skin underneath the eye and will "plump it up." This causes the skin to naturally lift away from the blood pooling underneath it making it much less noticeable.
6. Make sure you get your daily dose of vitamins as it will cause a bluish tinge under your eye if you do not!
7. For a quick fix, apply a cold compress to your eyes for about five minutes. This helps to increase the blood circulation combating the amount of blood that will be pooling there.
8. Use tea bags. After making yourself a cup of tea, take two tea bags and pop them in the refrigerator. Wait until they cool down and then pop them underneath your eyes for five to ten minutes. This helps to rejuvenate your skin!
9. Use a concealer. Dryer skin tones will want to use a lighter concealer while oilier skin complexions will want to use something waterproof which typically has a thicker consistency. This helps to make sure that your concealer doesn't "melt" away throughout the day. You'll want to start with your foundation, use a concealer next, and then set with a setting powder.
10. For really tough under eye circles, you can try to use a serum instead of a cream as a serum will penetrate down to the second layer of your skin. This helps to treat the problem from the inside out where as most creams just treat our top layer of skin. Want a double whammy? Use a serum first and then finish with a cream. That way you are treating two layers of your skin.
11. If you must tan, USE AN SPF!!! There are products on the market that are specifically for sun protection for your under eye area. USE THEM! I can not stress this enough. Tanning causes the melanin in our skin to get darker. This will turn the melanin under your eye brown. Its just the way God made us work!
Now that you are armed with this information, hopefully you are on the road to a brighter under eye area. Comment below and let me know what worked for you guys!
Thank you for reading!
XOXO - Megan
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