An Introduction To Eye Creams… wrinkles and dark circles

This area of your lovely face is a lot more sensitive than the skin on the rest of your visage, so it needs to be ‘fed’ moisturiser in a different way. Wacking on your regular moisturiser under your eyes can cause puffiness and irritation. Not a good look.

Eye creams are generally weaker, because the skin is thinner and more sensitive (they contain lower amounts of ‘active ingredients’) than regular facial moisturisers – even though they often cost a lot more!

What kind of eye cream should I use?

There are a ton of different options out there. But as a general rule, we’d suggest something fragrance-free and hypoallergenic (relatively unlikely to cause an allergic reaction).

It really depends on what your main goal is. For this post, we’re going to talk about, the “W” word (urgh) and dark circles.

The “W” word… wrinkles…

Wrinkles, and ‘fine lines’ (there’s nothing ‘fine’ about them in my opinion, but that’s just because I’m grumpy about turning 33 next week), are part of growing older, but you can reduce their appearance and make yourself look healthier and more gorgeous with the right kind of eye creams (you’re gorgeous already darling, don’t worry, but keep reading anyway).

To treat wrinkles, look for a cream that has retinol. This ingredient can boost collagen and increase the rate that new healthy skin cells are produced. Without delving too deep into the science bit, these are both good things.

Be careful though if you have extra-sensitive skin, as this ingredient can cause irritation. If you’re worried, maybe get a sample size first and try a little bit out and see what happens.

Another cool ingredient to look out for if banishing wrinkles is your main goal are peptides. They also promote collagen, which is definitely your skin’s friend. Last but not least, hyaluronic acid (it sounds scary but it’s not, honest), locks in moisture and plumps up skin, smoothing out those creases.

Dark circles

These are really complicated little beasts, and often have a lot to do with genetics rather than anything else. Not getting enough sleep is a big cause of dark circles, so not enough sleep, doesn’t help. But they’re caused because, basically, as your skin is thinner around your eyes, your blood is more visible. So, the skin appears darker.

Here’s some nerdy super-cool science: the skin around your eyelids is called periorbital skin. It’s on average 0.5mm thick. Compared to the rest of the skin on your body (about 2mm thick), so that’s pretty thin!

An eye cream with a massage applicator is a good thing to use here. Also, if a product contains the word ‘brightening’ in the title, it’s probably going to focus on dark circles.

Looking for a quick, cheap, solution? Use some cold tea bags (black tea), as a cold compress. Leave them over your eyes for about 10-20 minutes. You’ll be suprised by the effect!

Other things…

Wear sunglasses! They protect the skin around your eyes from sun damage. I had a boyfriend who wore sunglasses all year around (when it was sunny, anyway). The skin around his eyes were pretty line-free, so maybe it was luck or genes or something, but it’s worth a try anyway eh?

Get enough sleep. We’ve already said it, but it it’s important. 8 hours a night is a good guide. Then you’re not going to wake up with puffy, tired eyes, and your likelihood of dark circles is going to be reduced.

If you’re looking at a computer screen all day, take regular breaks, and make sure you’re screen brightness isn’t causing you to squint.